Paradyme Financial Solutions - Belleville (IL)

1 /5 Alexandra Buisson: I’ve been working with Christina for many years, and up until this year, she has been truly wonderful. When she expanded her business, I was thrilled to see her thriving and continued to trust her with our taxes. Unfortunately, something changed this year, and I’m really sad to be writing this. Our scheduled Zoom meeting in late March was canceled the day of due to major software issues on their end. While we completely understood and were flexible (we agreed to proceed with a pre-recorded option instead to give her more time) that ended up being the last time we heard from Christina or her team. From that point on, we received no responses to our emails, even when we kindly asked whether we should look elsewhere for help filing this year. Phone calls went straight to voicemail, and their client portal mentioned the messaging system was down. We gave it ample time, hoping for an update, but it never came. In the end, we had to file our taxes ourselves at the last minute, still with no word from Christina. After so many years of great service, we’re extremely disappointed in how things were handled this time. The complete lack of communication was unprofessional and left us in a really difficult position. Sadly, we’ll be looking for a new CPA moving forward.

1 /5 Clean Haven Naturals: After trusting Christina for many years with my business, she has created the most stressful and unprofessional situation Ive ever encountered in my 10 years in business. Im writing this to protect anyone else from experiencing this. I could write a 12 paragraph summary of all of the time and money Ive had to spend to get issues resolved from 2022-current day but I dont have the time. Ive lost thousands of dollars in: -work paid that was never completed -work paid for someone else to do the job that was not completed -penalties and interest on returns that were never filed as far back as 2023 and amendments for 2022 -hours of time to deal with issues created from this situation ALL concerns, requests for refund, and resolution has been ignored. For your sanity and the sake of your business - stay far away.

1 /5 Stephanie Jacobowitz: I am so sad to be leaving this review. I was a loyal customer for many years with amazing service. I don’t know what happened this year, but I can’t gloss over it or ignore it. Availability was shown in March of this year. I paid for and reserved an available slot. All of my documents and organizer were in the same day, to the best of my knowledge. I heard from Christina, but not about my documents, only to exchange pleasantries, which I was always happy to do. She is a very nice lady and we talked about our kids. She posted my video meeting and said she only needed my husbands military orders and would be ready to file. I uploaded them twice, once in the documents folder directly, and once through the request she made through the app. I didn’t hear from her. I messaged her via chat four times, Dmed through fb, and even emailed her business email to see if they were received and what the hold up was. Finally said if I didn’t hear from her by the 8th, I would file through another platform. I heard from her the 7th I believe. We received the return to electronically sign and didn’t hear from her again for days. Never heard from the irs. Sent messages again and heard nothing for days. Finally heard there was a problem with my husbands esignature. Resubmitted it within minutes of receiving the email. Again heard nothing until the 15th, tax day. Still had a problem. Submitted again along with a copy of a wet signature to override it. Messaged my concerns and displeasure with lack of communication. All I heard was “that works” for his wet signature. Never a notice it had been filed. Nothing. Messaged asking when it would be filed and if anything else was needed. She’s completely dark. Not wanting to not file any later than necessary, I filed using an online platform the 16th (this morning) to find she already filed. Didn’t let me know, no communication, etc. I am rather hurt by her lack of accountability and communication this year after using her services for so long. I understand it is busy around tax time, but professional accountability should be expected. Her load will be one client lighter next year.

1 /5 Lailaa Turner: I really hate to write this review because this company has been great to me in past years, but my experience this year was incredibly disappointing. Our tax meeting was scheduled for late March, and I completed all of my worksheets well ahead of time. The company never showed up for the meeting and never responded to my follow-up messages asking for an update. As Tax Day approached, I asked whether an extension had been filed, and I was told it had been — so I felt reassured and waited for them to follow up. July came and went, and despite multiple emails and chat messages from me, I heard nothing back. At that point, I went to H&R Block to get my taxes filed — only to find out no extension had ever been filed. Now I owe $500+ in IRS fees, interest, and penalties for failure to file. After years of excellent service, this was a major letdown. It’s unacceptable to leave a loyal customer completely in the dark and facing penalties. And even now, I see that their calendar is still open — which makes me wonder why no one ever followed up. I hope this review helps prevent this from happening to someone else.

1 /5 T Lee: Like many other people, Im having to scramble to get my taxes done when I need to be focusing on my business. I hired Paradyme last year to do my taxes after seeing people rave about her service on her fb page. I had one meeting with Christina in December, I asked her if it was worthwhile to amend my 2022 & 22 taxes. I learned I hadnt done my inventory right & didnt claim my equipment in 2021 when I bought it. In 2022 I was hit with a hefty Cap Gain from selling my rental condo, (so I could afford to move back home) she told me, it would be worth while to amend both years. Ive found out it wont save me very much. Not worth her fees & my previous CPAs fees to take over. They postponed my scheduled appointment that was scheduled in April. They asked me if I minded filing an extension. Due to the amended taxes, I expected I would need to file an extension. I was told they would be in touch in a few days, then I received an message that they would be closed from April 16th thru the end of the month. When I hadnt heard from the person that was supposed to be working on my taxes. She would tell me not to worry, she was working on my stuff and was waiting for Christina to finish up on my amended taxes. I received several similar messages from her via the portal. In June all communications stopped. In August I checked on their FB page & noticed the person that had been working on my taxes was no longer a member of the fb group. I expected she was no longer an employee. So I emailed Christina, she stated she didnt know my stuff fell thru the cracks, since the person working on my taxes was no longer an employee. She did get my 2021 amended taxes done. I paid her, then received a form to sign, but the online verification failed. I reached out to Christina several times. I signed the form manually, and uploaded it to the portal. I have no idea if my taxes actually got filed. I never heard from her again. I had to call the IRS, which took several days to reach an actual live person to verify that they actually filed the extension. I expect Ill have to do that again to find if my 2021 amended taxes actually got filed. Like many others I paid the two charges for my tax prep meeting, that never happened. And also received the email saying she got poision ivy so it would take a little longer..... Maybe if she cant do peoples taxes, send out a group email to let people know shes not going to do their taxes, or they went out of business. Something!!