I went with Mazuma because I had cripplingly anxiety about taxes and you know what they did get me over my fear of the HMRC! They just did it by losing me 20k in the pandemic in SEISS grants, incorrect tax, fines, bankrupting my business and ending up on Universal Credit because when I joined they were basically a MLM and no one was an actual accountant. I did not know there was no legal definition in England and Wales for who could call themselves an accountant and a similiar disabled freelancer recommended them. I figured the fact the promised tech was a bit Atari 87 and they spelled all three of my names wrong was just life right? Don't sweat the small stuff with these boss babes. Then the freak combo of a pandemic and me almost dying of a totally unrelated illness. They made a mistake and from there dug in. No surrender like auditioning to join the DUP. I can't really tell you the whole story because my lawyer and the police advised against it or using my real name here after the 14 month long BARRAGE of harassment and bullying when I tried to resolve things. Weird social media follows and brigading, 7 different calls on a day I had been hospitalised by the stress of it until I broke down crying and begging them to stop, birthday cards, over 75 phone calls unrelated, countless emails until they were stopped promising Amazon vouchers if I referred X number people and they posted press about how negative clients are 'oof boarded' to keep their mental health good. They do a very good subject access request under GDPR though. Tip top. I get the feeling not their first time. They knew through out I had a life threatening illness and kept insisting I wanted special treatment. I wanted reasonable adjustments like HMRC disability helpline which is hardly Make-a-Wish. They didn't make me sick but they did nearly make me homeless. I then spent what I wasn't sure where my last months in an alphabet soup where HMRC were so aghast about their behaviour I had to contact CAB, then they had me off to Trading Standards, the ICAEW to see how they could not be overseen by any accountancy body. They refused to engage with my lawyer and basically dragged the complaint out because they figured in their words 'you don't have long'. My lawyer advised I had a great case but honestly he didn't want to take it they were so upsetting to deal with and he feared it would break me. We both walked away from the money for our sanity. Mazuma are like an abusive relationship. So unprofessional that when I had to apply to the DWP I could not believe how kind and efficient they were in comparison. Imagine? Your business makes the Department of Work and Pensions look cuddly? Yikes on a bike. I really wanted to hold them accountable, mistakes happen. Cruelty is a choice though. An apology, some pleasantries. They go a long way. That said their T&Cs do seem to be a reply to every issue I raised and all those orgs that might have been my bucket list. I will live and I decided that better to put my energies into rebuilding my career. When I emailed to end my contract, I got 19 phone calls and emails and each time I saw their name I started crying. 20 hospital admissions in two years and a bunch of Welsh women with poorly written Word documents is what broke me. But I no longer fear the HMRC, my admin skills are now amazing and their nonsense has given me CV skills like no one's business so one extra star for an exposure therapy style so brutal Channel 4 would film it. I feel so incredibly embarrassed to have been sucked in by Mazuma. I thought I could spot MLM huns. I would not be that idiot who bought overprice leggings. I was that idiot who hired them to be my accountant. I felt so stupid I almost didn't tell anyone because who would believe me? Turns out a lot of legal organisations did, but I still don't feel any less ashamed of being so trusting of their sales pitch and discounting the red flags. I wish Ann Robinson still did Watchdog. Bet they'd respond very differently to her than my working class South Asian lawyer from Luton...