LIBETY TAX SERVICE
Loss of Private Information

Wayne Law
02-21-2011
297

In April/2010 I took my tax information to the Liberty Tax office at 1 Wexford Road, Unit 11 in Brampton, Ontario, Canada.

I met with Mr. Dave Poole.

He was going to prepare my 2009 tax return.

On May 4th, 2010 he called me saying he needed information regarding the original purchase prices of some stocks.

I brought to him a bound book containing all my purchase history for the stocks, account histories, account numbers, social insurance number and banking information.

He reviewed it and said that was what he needed. Inside this book were the original purchase documents with all my personal information.

I told him very clearly that I needed this back.

Not only did they lose this book, but they never completed my 2009 return and never called back.

I only realized this when I began to receive my 2010 tax information and in going through my records, found that my 2009 information was missing.

I visited Mr. Poole February 16 only to find my uncompleted return filed away in a drawer but missing the book I had brought to him.

Mr. Poole's response without doing a diligent search was that he did not know where it was or what had happened to it.

He suggested that I talk to the owner Mr. Chris Blackmere.

I'm afraid Mr. Blackmere's attitude and opinion before he had even looked to try and find the missing private information were ..."so we can't find it, what do you want me to do? Make it magically appear from thin air? "

No apology or concern for losing it with all the private account information, social security number, banking information inside it. No apology for not completing my return or following up on it.

I am very annoyed that this will incur penalties and costs to me and of course there is the much larger issue of my private information ending up "who knows where" with obviously no controls to protect it on their end.

What is Liberty Tax's policy for this kind of negligence and, obviously, very poor customer relations?

Certainly the loss of this book and the release of the private, personal information contained within it is a great concern to me. Following contact with the Liberty Tax area rep and essentially being called a liar, I have sought help from the Better Business Bureau and Consumer and Corporate Affairs and am awaiting their investigations.