It's a free service, so I'm sure they'll be hurting from my loss, but...
Next year I will be using a different tax preparation service. I always use the TaxAct online free version. We have very simple taxes; we have one W-2 and a student loan deduction, plus three kids. It took me less than half an hour to do them. I filed last Saturday and it was accepted Monday. I didn't get a message from TaxAct like I have in the past, but I found out on the IRS website's "where's my refund?" section. I told DH, "that felt like it was way too easy. I'm expecting problems."
We checked the IRS's website daily; after a few days it said "return received." OK, now we wait for it to go to "return accepted" and after that is "refund issued." Our return is pretty straightforward, so hey, maybe we'll get it as early as February 12!
It sat at "return received" for a few days, then it started saying that the information we'd entered returned no matching records. It stayed that way for three or four days and we decided we should call the IRS. Today when DH got home from work he called. The guy looked into it and found that there had been an error on our return. One part of it was supposed to be X, but it had been entered as X+$95. The return had been pulled out and was being corrected. OK, fine. It didn't affect the end date we would get the return, it would just be $95 less. The reason I blame TaxAct is that they automatically figured that amount and they figured it wrong. Plus--and this one might be on the IRS--I didn't get a message from them saying that the IRS had had an issue with my return. I've gotten messages like that before using TaxAct. When DH and I were first married I put my married name on the return, but didn't remember I hadn't changed it at the Social Security office. TaxAct sent a message telling me that I needed to fix it, I did, it was fine.
Also, this year I noticed a lot more pushiness on the paid federal filing service and on the paid state return service. State returns cost $15 each to fill out and file, and our refunds are fairly small. We usually have to pay in to one state and get roughly an equal return from the other, and I'm perfectly capable of doing it myself for free. In previous years it would say "do you want to fill out the state returns? This will cost $XX." Then you could say no and it would move on. This year it just started telling me I needed to fill out the state return with no mention of cost and no "skip this return" option, then gave me a bunch of "there are errors in your state return!" messages when I clicked on the federal checks button to skip ahead to the federal filing. I've also received two emails telling me to come finish my state returns, even though I chose the "I do not want to fill out my state return" option.
I've used TaxAct for several years now, but I don't like that they screwed up looking up an amount from a table. Since it's a fully automated process I can't really figure out how they messed it up, but I know I'll be looking for another filing service next year.