Raven Paul & Co

I’ve been going to Raven Paul since 1993. I used to see Paul. Then I saw some of his associates and Paul would go over everything to make sure it was right. Never once had an issue.
After Paul died, things have changed. A couple of his old associates retired and new people came in that haven’t been the same caliber. Mistakes have taken place over the last few years.
That being said, Raven is taking the bull by the horns and making changes for the better. She is personally big on customer service and goes the extra mile.
I’m sticking with them because I see change for the better taking place.

Have been using Raven Paul for over 20 years. I can say hands down I will never go to anyone else.

RUN, do not walk from this establishment. My husband and I have spent way too much time and energy dealing with them, so I’m not going to detail just how unprofessional this company is. We’ve had to crawl to the end of the limb to get what we’ve needed (and paid for). Take my word, read some other reviews and where you see the lack of communication and response? It’s true…
Here’s a quote that’s a big, fat lie…
«I responded to all of (your husband’s) emails and never received one from you.»
Guess when I forwarded that email I originally sent her, she felt differently. She didn’t respond to all of my husband’s emails either, not true. No need to name her, we had interactions with other staff that made us feel like this place was run by incompetents and not professionals.
If you have time to waste and want your positive energy temporarily stripped, by all means bring your business here…

Unfortunately I had a very underwhelming experience with Raven Paul. I incorporated an S-​Corp with them on the advice of a friend. It was my first time really dealing with an accounting firm so I had no idea where the bar should be set. But after my experience I would say «higher» than this.
My critiques would be:
1. When I said that I wanted to open an S-​Corp there were no questions or explanations. I didn’t think much of this at the time, but in talking to other accountants in the past few years I realized that it made absolutely no-​sense for me. I’m not talking about financial planning, just a 5 minute conversation and a few questions and clarifications. I have since closed the business.
2. It’s expensive.
3. The response time on requests/​emails/​calls is generally VERY slow.

Nothing against Raven, thought she was awesome, but some of her staff seriously lacks any customer service skills. Reading the reviews, it seems we all have the same complaints, no return calls or emails. Family or not, when people are making your business look bad, it’s probably best to move them on. I will never go back to this place based on the exceptionally poor customer service and I would definitely not recommend them to anyone.

My BF and I have been filing our returns with Raven Paul for years now. We have always used Silvia and she has been great for us. We actually almost look forward to going to see her each year! Almost – lol. We make our appointments early, go into the office, and hammer everything out over the course of an hour or two.
Our taxes are relatively uncomplicated (including an LLC I own), but our experiences have always been good. We have struggled a bit at times with getting appointment staff to get back to us promptly, but in general, we plan ahead and have had no issues. Sorry to see so many bad reviews here as that hasnt been our personal experience.

I was helping a friend of mine who was trying to incorporate his business. He came to this joke of a company without reading up on Unilocal first. That’s his first mistake.
Second mistake was paying these jokers before signing any paperwork. So 13 months later, the company still hasn’t rendered services, and my friend is looking to sue them. Maybe that will help put them out of business.
This place is worse than the IRS. They take far more money, and make promises they can’t deliver. At least with the IRS, you know what you’re getting into. And the service is akin to a DMV on crack.

After going to them for years and years, their service just kept getting worse and worse. Raven is very nice but their whole process outside of that is HORRIBLE. Nobody ever calls you back when they promise. You have to keep calling and calling to get someone that actually will do something. Plus the prices I found are higher then they should be.
If you can, go to ANDERSON’S TAX SERVICE in Cerritos.
They are family owned since 1963. Yes all their staff is family owned. See my Unilocal post their.
What took almost 6 weeks just to get my taxes e-​filed here, took Anderson’s 2 days. YES TWO –2−2 – 2-TWO…yes I did say 2 days for them to e-​file my taxes.
Raven your sweet but those people you have working for you just don’t get what «customer service» is.

AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS
Similar horror stories except I got it on my personal taxes and business services.
After giving Bob Router my tax info 3 weeks before April 15^th, he didn’t finish them until a week after the deadline which cost me $ 800 in penalties. During that stressful run-​up to the deadline, and the week after, he neither took nor returned my calls.
Their business legal service — Advanced Legal Documents, run by Maryann — were unable to correct my company’s minutes in a timely fashion, and when I received the amended documents — they were updated incorrectly. I have since left dozens of calls and emails and have yet to hear from them. I was forced to go to another company to make the changes.

I agree with Mark D. Negative stars are a must for this company. I had a similar experience with their customer service or should I say lack of.
After years of going to the same tax prep firm I decided to try Raven Paul recommended by a friend and located much closer to where I live. What a HUGE mistake! The lack of professionalism and client relations is astounding, especially for the large amount of money they charged for preparing my taxes. It took nearly two months and three revisions as the preparer (Bob) kept making mistakes (forgetting W2s… really?) that I would catch and need corrected. On multiple occasions I called to make sure my taxes would be ready by the April 15^th deadline (granted my appointment had been on March 2^nd) and I could never get through to Bob. He never returned my phone calls or emails even though at my initial appointment he assured me he was always available if I needed him. Finally when I did get through to him on April 13^th he screamed at me telling me that he had plenty of other clients taxes that had to be finished as well. When I express how annoyed I was about the prospect of having to file an extension he once again shouted «Fine I’ll just stop everything else I’m doing and do your return» and hung up on me. Raven Paul should not be taking on any new clients if they cannot handle the case load since it seems that wanting your taxes done correctly and efficiently is an inconvenience to Raven Paul.
After sending a scathing letter to Raven (the owner) about how upset I was with their company I got a quick apology phone call telling me that Bob’s actions were inexcusable and grounds for termination. Following that I got a bill charging me for each time they had to reprint my taxes after having corrected their mistakes one at a time after I would repeatedly catch them. This bill was nearly $ 2000! Needless to say I am not paying it. However I advise you to save yourself the money, the time, the aggravation and the possible audit and skip this firm alltogether. I will be going back to my old tax firm next year. It is well worth a longer drive to have competent and considerate people prepare my taxes. You WON’T find that at Raven Paul!

Yikes, how to say this. If only it were possible to give negative stars, because giving one star is far more than they deserve. My story will sound unbelievable, but I have the documentation to back it up. I hired this firm to set up an S-​corp for me. They told me a price which was much more than I could have paid elsewhere, or even if I had done it myself. But the woman who was taking down my information promised me that the reason their fee was so high was because of the «excellent customer service and *personal* attention» (her emphasis) I would receive, so I decided to go ahead.
I drove in to Raven Paul to talk to someone about my situation and my options and to set up the S-​corp. After the woman took down my information she went to go find the person I was supposed to meet with and, no joke, came back and said he was unavailable to meet with me. After I’d driven all the way in to meet this guy! I asked her if she saw the irony of the situation after she had just told me about their excellent customer service. She promised that he’d talk to me later that week and we set up a time for a phone appointment. Guess what? The guy skipped out on the phone appointment too.
And thus began the most breathtakingly awful customer service experience I’ve ever encountered. I asked to speak to someone about a discount since I was supposed to be paying for customer service and clearly wasn’t getting it. No one called me back or responded to a single one of my letters, and I mean no one, for 10 months. When they finally did, it was the wrong person and she swore that someone else would call me back. Well it’s now 1.5 years later and they still haven’t resolved the situation. I cannot believe this company is still in business, and given how unbelievably poorly managed and disorganized they are, I would never trust them to go anywhere near any of my finances again.
Please, a warning to anyone considering Raven Paul. Run. Run far away.