ComplaintsforSanta Barbara Tax Products Group

• Initial Complaint

  01/01/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I ***** my taxes using Turbotax in Feb. 2021. Turbotax used Santa Barbara Bank and ssid I would receive my refund from them. On Mar.30 2021 The *** site, Turbotax. as well as Santa Barbara Bank showed my refund was accepted and deposited into my bank. I never received it. I have called the bank and received statements. No deposit of my refund from Santa Barbara Bank EVER! I have tried calling never get a live person. Never get a response to emails. I been waiting 10 months and still have never received my money they claim they deposited! I demand answers and my money they have!

  Business response

  01/05/2022

  Dear *******************************,
  
  This letter is in response to a complaint filed against Santa Barbara Tax Products Group (TPG) through the Better Business Bureau on January 2, 2022.
  
  First and foremost, we apologize for any inconvenience you have faced in contacting TPG. We take your complaint seriously. AT TPG we value our customers and make them our number one priority.
  
  You have voiced concerns over TPG releasing funds related to you 2021 Federal Tax Refund and while we understand your frustration, we hope that you can appreciate that TPG did follow policy according to the ** Agreement you electronically agreed to.
  
  According to our records, on March 12, 2021, TPG received your electronic filing record TurboTax.com. This means that you electronically filed your return through a Do-It-Yourself software and elected to utilize a Refund Transfer to pay for your preparation in lieu of paying via credit card at the time of filing. On March 30, 2021, the *** approved your refund and made payment to TPG. On that same date, TPG deducted the fees related to the software and ** processing and deposited the remaining balance to the bank account you designated at the time of filing. You may confirm the account information you submitted on ****************************** your ** Agreement. As of March 30th TPG, has not received a rejected *** from your bank account, therefore, it is suggested that you contact the *** Department at your Bank and provide them the trace number sent to you via email for security purposes, for further details regarding the deposit.
  
  
                Respectfully,
                TPG ********************

• Initial Complaint

  12/28/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I filed my tax return and this company recieved it on 12/7/2021 and a paper check was mail on 12/9/2021 and I am still yet to receive it today is now 12/28/2021. I have had no luck with getting help.

  Business response

  12/30/2021

  Dear *************************,

  TPG attempted to locate your account based on the information submitted and unfortunately could not find a record. A TPG ********************** Rep attempted to call you and was unsuccessful. Please give us a call back to resolve your concerns.

  Best regards,

  TPG Complaint Department

• Initial Complaint

  12/14/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I contracted with Santa Barbara Tax Products Group to use their services as I have done every year since approximately 2005 to collect fees on my behalf. In return, they also received payment. At the conclusion of the 2018 tax filing season I was to be paid over $1,000 and yet inexplicably I was never compensated. I have contacted them multiple times both thru email and phone and have both email and voicemail responses from them. I am seeking my compensation that they collected on my behalf. Attached are just a few emails and responses.

  Business response

  12/18/2021

  Dear Mr. ******
  
  This letter is in response to the complaint filed against Santa Barbara Tax Products Group (TPG) through the Better Business Bureau on December 15, 2021.
  
  First and foremost, we apologize for any inconvenience you have faced getting a call back from TPG Customer Service. AT TPG, our customers are our number one priority.
  
  You have voiced concerns over TPG holding funds related to your tax preparation fees. While we understand your frustration, we hope that you can appreciate TPG was following policy in accordance with the Financial Services Agreement(“FSA”) you electronically agreed to during Enrollment.
  
  According to our records, TPG informed you that your fees were on hold due to an R04 / “Invalid Account Number” on file. Therefore, TPG was unable to deposit your fees to the account you provided on record. TPG made two unsuccessful attempts at contacting you to request that you update your account information to have the hold on your account release. Unfortunately, TPG did not receive the requested items within one year as stated in the FSA. You may reference the following statement in section ‘4.5 Participant Service Fee Payments’ of your FSA for confirmation:
  Frozen, reversed, or debited Participant Service Fees will be released or paid to Participant upon Participant’s completion or satisfaction of compliance requirements or corrective action, or payment to taxpayers, as applicable; provided, however, that after one year frozen, reversed or debited Participant Service Fees retained by Provider shall be forfeited to Provider or posted against losses accrued by Provider through Participant’s office or EFIN.
  
  Respectfully,
  TPG Complaint Department

• Initial Complaint

  11/30/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I processed my taxes through Turbo Tax. I was due a refund from the IRS for $50,900 after I filed my extended 2020 taxes in September 2021. The IRS issued the refund on October 20, 2021 and it was sent to Santa Barbara Tax Products Group, an affiliate partner company of Intuit- Turbo Tax. I received an email from Intuit on the 20th stating my refund will be sent to you shortly from the Tax Products Group. On November 16, 2020 I contacted TPG to find out where my refund was. They said there was unusual activity on my account and that I needed to upload a government issued id. I uploaded my Arizona Drivers License that day. I then contacted them again and they said they never received the id. The process to upload in on their website, so I uploaded it again and got a confirmation that it was loaded. On November 17th they said to check back on status in 3-5 business days. On November 29th I contacted them to find out the status of the refund and did not get an answer. On November 30th I contacted them again for a status update and received no answer. I believe this is a fraudulent claim by them that there is unusual activity about my identity so they can hold onto the funds sent my the IRS. There are numerous complaints online by other tax payers having to deal with the same issue. Both the Tax Products Group and Intuit should be held responsible for the criminal activity. Please help resolve this. ***** *****

  Customer response

  12/13/2021

  I have read the response from TPG.  They fail to mention that I uploaded by government issued id (drivers license) twice to their website.  Additionally my issue with them is that but form me reaching out to them I would have never been notified by them that there was a hold on my refund.  After I had contacted the IRS asking where the refund was and told that TPG has had the funds for a few weeks, I had to contact them.  Then I followed their prescribe process for verifying my id.  In their response they say that after uploading the id it will take upwards of 7 days to process.  I waited 10 days prior to contacting them, again.  And still did not receive an answer.  All of this is documented in the emails to sent to BBB.  After to I complained to the BBB, they sent a note saying that they could not verify my id.  

   

  They had my uploaded Id (twice) and they never did any follow up to verify.  I was timely on the matter.  I believe once I made the complaint to the BBB they retaliated by simply saying my id couldn't be verified and knew my money would be tied up for upwards of 3 months.  A simple google search will find numerous complaints regarding this exact same process of TPG holding taxpayers funds, claiming a id verification, and not providing a process to follow up.  So the taxpayer is left to either do nothing, or make a complaint.  And the result is the same, TPG holds your funds and or retaliates because you complained.  Besides the fact they have questionable practices on id verification, which likely compromises the tx payers identification.  There doesn;t seem to be any assurance that this company is doing anything to protect the data they recieve.

   

  ***** *****

  Business response

  12/21/2021

  Dear ******** *****,
  
  This letter is in response to your rebuttal complaint filed against Santa Barbara Tax Products Group (TPG) through the Better Business Bureau on December 14, 2021.
  
  You have voiced concerns over TPG holding your refund and not advising you of the hold until you contacted TPG directly. While we understand your frustration, we hope that you can appreciate the notification system TPG has in place. When an account is placed on hold at TPG, Taxpayers are informed when they log into their account at ************* and when they attempt to call the TPG Customer Service number.  In both instances, there are instructions provided to the Taxpayer to have their hold released.
  
  At TPG, we take the security of our Taxpayer data very seriously which is one of the main reasons we have additional measures in place to perform reasonable monitoring procedures to ensure fraud, such as ID theft, has not occurred throughout the business processes. As previously mentioned, if an account is flagged for unusual activity, we are required to perform additional account due diligence in order to authenticate the identity of the taxpayer. Unfortunately, there were certain factors in your ID submission that was not sufficient to authenticate your identity.  Therefore, per company policy TPG was obligated to begin the process to return funds related to your refund back to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) specifically the RICS/IVO division of the IRS in Fresno, CA.
  
  As of December 3, 2021, funds related to your refund were returned to the IRS and you may use the Lead Number provided to you via email to contact the IRS directly at ************ for further information regarding your funds. In addition, as a courtesy, TPG has decided to remit the RT fee, reprocessing fee and IRS return fee amounting to $130 back to the IRS as well.
  
  
  Respectfully,
  TPG Complaint Department
  

  Customer response

  01/03/2022

  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.
  
  Regards,
  
  ***** *****
  
   
  

• Initial Complaint

  11/29/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I filed my federal refund and everything was processed and accepted finallyyy after 9 months. I received confirmation that it was sent to this company here. I called to get an update it says they havent received anything when i know it was sent to them. I just need my refund i gave yall time to take yall funds out now where is my money because this is absolutely ridiculous!

  Business response

  11/30/2021

  Dear ***********************,
  
  This letter is in response to a complaint filed against Santa Barbara Tax Products Group (TPG) through the Better Business Bureau on November 30, 2021.
  
  Please allow me to explain the role of TPG in this matter. TPG, on behalf of ************** ******* offers tax related financial products through a network of tax preparation franchises, independent tax professionals and online tax preparation providers. These products provide the taxpayer a method of having their tax preparation fees deducted from their tax refund without paying any upfront fees. When you prepared your taxes through the software provider,TurboTax.com, you chose a Refund Transfer (**) product. This service is optional. When the taxpayer selects an **, they direct the *** to deposit their tax refund into a temporary non-interest-bearing account at the Bank. When the Bank receives the *** refund, the Bank makes deductions from the refund to pay the tax preparation fees and ** processing fee. The balance of the refund is then disbursed to the taxpayer by way of deposit to an account designated by the taxpayer. You electronically agreed to these conditions through the ** Agreement.
  
  According to our records, TPG received your electronic filing record from TurboTax.com on February 12, 2021. On November 30, 2021, the *** approved your refund and made payment to TPG. On the same date, TPG deducted fees related to your filing and deposited the remaining balance to the account you designated at the time of filing.
  
  For confirmation you may visit https://www.irs.gov/refunds and utilize the Wheres My Refund tool at the *** or visit www.SBTPG.com to see when the *** approved your refund and when TPG made the deposit to your account. If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact TPG directly at **************, Monday through Friday, 7:00 am to 4:00 pm.
  
  
  Respectfully,
  TPG ********************

• Initial Complaint

  11/01/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  ok my income taxes were do through turbo tax. my refund was delayed 5 months by this time the bank account i had the refund going into closed. so Stpg sent me a transfer check wich upon me trying to mobile drposit im my new account i couldnt and the check became void. so after requesting a new check i was told i had to fill out a request form send picture of ID, void on check, pic of w2 and a receipt primt out from social security, and pic of my ID wich i did plus to make it better i even through in a pic of my birth cirtificate now they are still refusing to send me a new check or in other words they are stealing my money

  Business response

  11/03/2021

  See attached.

• Initial Complaint

  10/27/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  My refund for 2021 was sent to them to the and they sent it to the wrong address on file so once I found this out because I had to move ****************************************************************************************************************************************************************** no basically I have to wait for the check to be delivered to address that I no longer live at I have to wait for the check to be returned to them because they don't cancel checks even though they are Bank. To make matters even more worse when I ask could they send the money back to the *** which is electronic it takes a push of a button they told me that it would take 10 to 12 weeks for them to send the money back to the *** and then I will have to wait another 10 to 12 weeks for the *** to send it out well that's next income tax season so now I'm into next year about February or March before I'll get my income taxes for this year which they have the money and I really need my money because I'm currently living in a shelter with my children but they refuse to accommodate I've never met a bank that can't send something by direct deposit I've never met a bank that cannot change an address I tried to change my address with TurboTax they wouldn't do it so at this point the book is just being passed around and I'm considering seeking legal counsel all I want is my money because it shouldn't be this serious over ******************************************************************************************** well you need to go to the *********** where we're sending the check I live **** miles away so you want me to catch a plane all the way back over the only thing that I really asked was that they can send the check to my current address which they claim that they are not capable of changing addresses I do not recommend this bank to anyone and I will never go through TurboTax to file ever again because TurboTax and Santa Barbara Bank work hand in hand I need my money it's mine

  Business response

  11/02/2021

  See attached.

• Initial Complaint

  10/24/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I filed my taxes online using TurboTax and thought everything was fine I am on my moms family account and called to make sure my federal return would be accepted before using her primary account on her debit card! Well **** bank told me that my bank rejected my deposit and they would mail me a paper check I told them I was in the process of moving when I filed and thats why I was having it deposited into that family account they told me they couldnt update my address all they could do was wait for the check to return to them. I called them back like being told to do and was told I would need to have them file some form to change my information but when I called back and got the run around they hung up on me and then when I used their automated system to check my refund status it told me due to fraudulent activity they sent my refund back to the *** this was back in April 2021. The *** has no idea what they are talking about and still says my refund was sent to my bank on April 14th of course I know that means it was sent to **** for them to take filing fees out and then send it to my account! TurboTax after several phone calls offered no help or solution and I cant even get a person from **** bank on the phone! *** is still saying 6 months later that my refund was sent to the **** bank account. How do I get my refund and how would I go about taking legal action against TurboTax and ****?

  Business response

  10/26/2021

  See attached.

  Customer response

  10/27/2021

  the *** has not received my funds and they say contact the preparer who then said to contact your company. The account it was due to go in cant be unable to find I still get deposits into that account. 

  Business response

  10/28/2021

  Dear *****************************,
  
  This letter is in response to a rebuttal filed against Santa Barbara Tax Products Group (TPG) through the Better Business Bureau on October 28, 2021.
  
  You have voiced concerns over the *** not having funds related to your 2020 Federal Tax Refund that was returned by TPG. However, as mentioned previously, after two unsuccessful attempts to disburse your refund TPG began the process to have those funds returned to the ***. On May 13, 2021, TPG returned those funds back to the ***. For further details regarding your refund, you may contact the *** directly at ************ and provide them the Bank Trace number emailed to you. Unfortunately, TPG no longer has visibility into your refund since the funds are no longer here.
  
  
  Respectfully,
  TPG ********************

• Initial Complaint

  10/21/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  ***************** of ****** filed my tax return **** SR that I filled out online with them and the return was accepted by the *** 05/23/2021. Santa Barbara Tax Products Group (SBTPG), a ******** of *************** handled my tax refund for Turbotax. As of today, 10/14/2021, I have yet to receive my tax refund of $67,289 in my individual checking account that I designated. Individuals inside Santa Barbara Tax PG, or with online access to my Turbotax information have contacted me by email about my refunds on 05/13/21 and 06/30/21 promising me the refund. The email from them on 6/30/21 stated that my refund would be deposited in my personal bank account listed on my return. A trace at the *** revealed that my refund is still with ************** as of 10/14/2021 and provided me their phone number. Both SBTPG and ************** have not been truthful about where my money is and when it will be refunded to me, compared with the *** trace of my funds

  Business response

  10/25/2021

  See attached.

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩