Keates Andrew & Associates

The director of this company has wasted my time and his conduct was less than professional, to say the least.Following my bad experiences with two previous accountants, Mr Keates made a good first impression and I finally felt reassured. In reply to my initial email, the director told me that he was 'EXTREMELY CONFIDENT' that they could provide me with a service that I was looking for (I now dread to think what sort of service the company provides when they are only 'confident' because in my case they have failed miserably).In further conversation I told him what I needed which should have been trivial for someone who deals with these sort of things on a daily basis. He was given the necessary mandates and was also asked a number of times if he was still interested because at times it was difficult to get an update from him about the progress of the transfer from my previous accountant etc. When I chased him on one occasion he said that he also needed more information from me to be able to form a conclusion.When I provided him with all the documentation, what followed was a long month of silence after which I lost patience. You would expect a professional to at least reassure you that you're being dealt with and to indicate when approximately you'll hear from them again. In this case I was left on my own and would have probably waited forever because Mr Keates must have just decided that there wasn't enough money in it for him and he stopped replying to emails. Or perhaps he just works extremely slow which is just as bad.What I found very unprofessional was the fact that I gave him every opportunity to tell me if, for whatever reason, he didn't want or couldn't deal with my case. Still he insisted that he couldn't give a definite reply without seeing the full picture and when he finally saw it, he stopped replying to my emails and he left me hanging, concerned about my situation, my finances and my future which he was well aware of.You couldn't get a reply off them to say whether they are dealing with my case or not but when emailed to say that I was going to look for another accountant - the reply was almost instantaneous. My comments were 'noted' and he obliged to fully cooperate with my new accountant in transferring the file. This is something he also failed to do.Despite several chasers he never bothered to send anything to my new accountant. Luckily the new accountant managed to deal with my case in a fraction of the time that Mr Keates has wasted. She dealt with it without his cooperation and for a reasonable price, with great customer service... which is probably everything that Mr Keates wasn't able to offer me as a small business.