H&R Block FTC complaint overview:
- Who: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sent an administrative complaint to H&R Block.
- Why: The FTC says H&R Block deceptively markets its products as free when many customers are not eligible and it creates unnecessary obstacles for customers to downgrade to less costly services.
- Where: The complaint came from the FTC’s Washington, D.C., office.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sent an administrative complaint to H&R Block over the company labeling its products as free when many consumers are not eligible and creating unnecessary obstacles for those looking to downgrade to less costly services.
H&R Block leads customers into higher-cost products than necessary and then makes customers who are looking to downgrade to less costly products contact customer support via chat or phone; all of their information is deleted, and they have to restart the tax-preparation process.
“H&R Block designed its online products to present an obstacle course of tedious challenges to consumers, pressuring them into overpaying for its products,” Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement. “Today’s action demonstrates that companies using coercive techniques that harm consumers can expect to hear from the FTC.”
H&R Block does not explain necessary services at beginning of process, FTC says
The H&R Block website leads customers to purchase more expensive products than they intended when they went to the site for the promised free services, the complaint says.
The FTC says that happens because H&R Block does not properly explain what services are offered or needed for customers at the beginning of the process.
If a customer chooses a more expensive H&R Block product, the data moves seamlessly from one product to another. However, if the customer wants to downgrade, H&R Block allegedly puts obstacles in place to make it difficult for them to use free or less costly services.
H&R Block recently asked a federal court in California to dismiss claims it conspired to share private user data with Meta and Google, saying instead it had a normal business relationship with Google Analytics to measure user experience and used an appropriate disclaimer.
Have you used H&R Block for taxes, believing it was free, then been pushed into paying the company? Let us know in the comments.
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22 thoughts onH&R Block markets products as free then pushes customers to pay, FTC claims
Please Add me. they have done this for years.
Please add me. I last used them in 2022 after having to pay $29.99.
Please add me. I experienced this first hand this year!!! Such BS!!!
Please add me
I have used thr H &R
I have used the H &R Product.
It’s been a few years since I used them, but I stopped because I couldn’t get it to let me file free and ended up paying them.
I have used the free efile with H&R block for a number of years. However, the last 4 years when I went in through the free efile I had to call in after finishing my taxes because it would no longer let me submit my return for free. The first two times that that happened I had to call in for a code to enter which was not stated you had to do. It just took away the choice to file free so I called them and asked what happened and was told I needed a code to file free which I was given and filed. However, in 2022 and 2023 tax filings I had to call in and was told they had to go in and change something in my account that would allow me to file free and a code wasn’t needed. However, in 2022 the choice to file free came up again when I went back into submit my return but was no longer an option when I went to check out and was now saying I had to pay because I used a form. When I called back the hold time was so long, I just paid the $30 something dollars because I couldn’t stay on the phone for an hour again. The same thing happened when I filed for 2023 but this time when I called in I was told they could reset it to free by going into my account and allowing it but if I did that it would wipe out everything, I had already done which was my whole return. It did wipe everything out and I had to do my return all over again only to get ready to submit it and once again the free efile was gone and my only choice was to pay almost $40 dollars which I did.