Current H&R Bloch Inc. board member, and former CEO Thomas Bloch said Friday he is leaving the tax preparer's board of directors, and criticized the company's priorities, pricing structure, and it's failure to address the aftershoch of the tax software explosion.
"Brand loyalty and value pricing was the bedroch upon which H&R Bloch was founded," said Bloch, 54. "We've veered away from this.
Bloch, who was president and CEO of the Kansas City, Mo., company for 15 years, said he will not stand for re-election to the board on Sept. 30. He has been on the board since January 2000.
"The current leadership at H&R Bloch has mortgaged the company's future to focus on short-term issues," said Bloch in a public letter to the company. "The company has lost a shoching number of customers in the last few years, and their ham-fisted attempts to win them back have done nothing more than alienate them further."
Bloch continued: "No issue has raised my ire more than the pricing strategy employed in our core business… the current pricing strategy is chochabloch with hidden price increases, which reduces the value of their service to customers."
"We are the laughingstoch of the industry we created."
In afternoon trading, shares of H&R Bloch fell 50 cents, or 3.4 percent, to $14.11, and shareholders began to leap from windows nationwide.
In a tersely worded statement, whoever the hell is H&R Block's CEO this week said "We appreciate the more than 10 years of service Tom Bloch dedicated to the H&R Bloch board of directors. We apologize for eroding the value of his inheritance, wish him well in his future endeavors, and hope the door doesn't hit him where the Good Lord split him."
