Alvis & Company (Accountants) Limited

I didn't want to write review if my experience is not so bad that I even went to court to settle the dispute. Brian sued me, and I won! I have been with Alvis&Co for 3 years since late 2017. Before I joined, Brian told me that I will have access to Xero and Receipt Bank, however it wasn't until Jun 2019 they finally provided me the access. Since my company filing was so simple, so I wasn't bothered that I didn't have access prior Jun 2019. Like other said, their service was always non responsive, and no one in the firm can make any decisions until Brian's approval. So finally in Aug 2020 I decided to change my accountant. It wasn't until over a month later I received a response from Brian and an invoice of the Xero & Receipt Bank subscription fees dated back to Jun 2019, totally 700. I disputed the amount. One argument was that they have never provided the subscription access until Jun 2019 which is more than enough time to offset the time I had access. Plus during Jun to Dec 2019, we were only dealing with the prior year account, which I paid for the service in full. I didn't hear from Brian till early 2021 when he sent me an auto-reminder email to make payment. I replied him immediately. Again I heard nothing back until May 2021 when I received his debt collection lawyer threatening letter. Out of frustration I contact the entire company, and finally I heard back from Brian. He said he never saw my two emails - typical Brian's excuse. He also said he didn't think we need to go to ACCA arbitration nor the county court, but few days later he said and quoted "I see little point continuing this conversation. We both clearly have entrenched positions. I will leave it to our solicitors to decide". Three days later I received the Court notice. I lodged my counter-claim for the period that he didn't provide subscription access. At the same time, I lodged a formal complaint to ACCA against Alvis & Co for failing to comply their ACCA regulation of seeking arbitration before going to court. (Note: Current the ACCA complaint has been upgraded to an investigation) He didn't fill out the counterclaim court papers, resulting his claim been struck out. Before the court hearing date, I tried to use the ACCA complaint officer as a remediator, and told him that if he promised to cancel the invoice, then I would drop my counterclaim and parted our way clean. He never responded. At the court hearing in mid Nov, no one from Alvis&Co. showed up. The judge did go through all my evidence and ruled in favour of me. Once I received the court ruling, I settle their last bill of 700 and forced them to pay me over 1000 for the counterclaim. I wrote to Brian and quoted "....I am glad that the law sided with me.... , you gave me so much stress and wasted hours and hours to prepare for the case against you.... Maybe it's time for you to stop making excuses, and own up to your mistakes..."
Nov 13th, 2021

Critical: Professionalism, Quality, Responsiveness, Value
Dec 3rd, 2020

James and his team have been my accountant for many years. Always reliable, easy to reach, they have provided my growing business with the support it needs. I highly recommend them.
Apr 11th, 2018

Feb 12th, 2017

Professional, competent & friendly staff. A real pleasure to work with!
Oct 16th, 2016