Hassle-Free Business Support

Very helpful and a pleasure to deal with
Apr 26th, 2018

Following several years of almost faultless excellent advice and support, I have now been let down very badly. An unfortunate situation where I have been waiting for a tax refund since February 2016. HMRC paid it to Hassle Free, but since then Hassle Free claim to have not received the payment from HMRC. Tales of it being HMRC's fault, then the bank's fault, then advising me to not contact HMRC because it's not HMRC's fault, then apparently it is again HMRC's fault for not providing information, then solicitors being employed by Hassle Free to sort out the issue with the bank. Errors happen. I know. But then despite a promise in September 2016 that I would be paid out of Hassle Free's own pocket, still nothing. Then it was like pulling teeth trying to get any update. It was as if my refund was of the lowest priority. The promise of payment had evaporated. In the end, the only response I could get was by advising of my intent to recover via small claims court, which then of course resulted in me being immediately invoiced for the work - invoice backdated to 2015, threatened that they would pass on the costs of the solicitor's work of trying to resolve the problem in the first place (I never asked for their solicitor to speak with HMRC or the bank) and threats of potential libel action because of my review. This would all have been avoided with a little more communication. It should not take more than a month to sort out a missing funds problem that happens when one bank sends funds to another bank. It certainly doesn't take 12 months. I know, I've dealt with the exact situation myself in the past. I'm used to people doing what they promise - which back in September was along the lines of "we will pay you out of our own funds, as it's not fair for you to suffer because of something not your error". I blame myself here, because (and it pains me to admit), this was the second time I've had an issue of unreasonably delayed payment of a tax refund via Hassle Free. I should have learned my lesson the first time.
Apr 17th, 2017