Penny Stephen & Partners

Karl Charalambous

27 Jun, 2021

Bournemouth, Dorset

BEWARE! My dealings with Stephen Penny was the most alarming I have had with any company let alone from a chartered accountant. I feel I have had significant monies extorted from me during Stephen Penny & Partners, of 898 Wimborne Road Bournemouth, 2-year tenure. Sadly I was warned by a colleague who had left them but I had already signed the contract and thought he was exaggerating. He was not! Stephen penny provided a quote with a bit more than others (around £800 + vat for ltd non-vat registered company accounts) but seemed more professional. They provided this quote after I provided the information to show how my records are kept. They however charged in the region of £1,800 per company without any warning of the additional charges! I was told it is due to the way my accounts were in the first year despite them having all the information to provide an accurate quote, to begin with. I spoke to Stephen about this and he assured me it would be significantly less in the second year. I left it a second year and still, I received invoices of circa £1500 per company, plus the extras, see below! I was then told it's because I don't use the software they use and I should buy this from them. In ADDITION to this Stephen Penny send out interim invoices with a description of “in connection with your accountancy affairs since the last invoice” for circa £400 for each company. I was confident no work had been completed since the last invoices so I requested an explanation of this 3 times by email and still I have had no explanation. I even phoned Stephen Penny to ask and he just repeated verbatim "It is in connection with your accountancy affairs since the last invoice". It was bizarre. He would not give an explanation & seemed astounded I dare question him. I did pay it as I was busy and didn't want to cause issues and without any other explanation, I guess they rely on. Worst of all, the service you get is appalling. I provided my ltd accounts & self-assessment accounts within around 1 month of the end of the accounting period. They then leave it to the last minute before a deadline to even review the information and start the process of asking for additional information. I do work but was expected to drop everything. My self-assessment was left to the last week of January (days before 31st Jan when it is due. It was only by luck HMRC gave an extension) despite them having the information since May the previous year (8 months!) and despite numerous emailed requests to complete and file them. To cap it off the confirmation statements were not completed & were left overdue with companies house despite several emails from me to Stephen Penny himself requesting they be completed. I had to do them myself, which is astounding! Companies House was threatening to strike the companies off their register! No apology received when I pointed Stephen Penny's incompetence out. Another alarming culture at Stephen Penny is focused on ‘upselling’. They are more interested in getting you to sign up for their expensive insurance policies against HMRC investigations using scare tactics. In fact, they expect you to opt-out of their insurance, which you will receive invoices for despite not agreeing to quotes. If it isn’t insurance they are selling it is software and again you will receive bills to the tune of hundreds of pounds again without quotes. I have now had my accounts prepared by Cater Coley who quoted £650 +vat per company and invoiced me £650 +vat per company, completed the accounts quickly and professionally. They also do not charge additional fees for the CT600 submissions which S Penny did (they charged hundreds of pounds for this in addition to all the other fees). My accounts bill has dropped from circa £6,000 to around £2,000 by changing from Stephen Penny & Partners to another accountant. I wish I had listened to my colleague at the beginning! I hope you do! I feel for Stephen Penny & Partners existing clients who know no better.