I encourage you to speak up when you have a concern/issue, especially when you know of instances which are harmful to not only you, but the general public as well. If those of us who have knowledge of wrongdoing don't bring it to the attention of those who can correct it, I believe we are equally guilty.
Spend a few minutes or hours writing letters, making phone calls, but do it to SOMEONE who CAN make a difference. It's great to vent, and we all do it, but next time first try writing/phoning someone who can act for change. It will make you feel a lot better about yourself AND will make our country a better place to live!

The issue which brought this home to me is the FALSE ADVERTISING by large tax chains as CPA's

Don't be fooled!
H&R Block and Jackson Hewitt, Liberty Tax, Citizens, etc are NOT CPA firms!

Many of you may mistakenly think that H&R Block and Jackson Hewitt and such are Certified Public Accountant businesses. Rest assured, a few CPAs MIGHT either own those companies or work in a few of their offices. However, by and large they are staffed by many, many, many workers whose only credentials/training are that they passed a test at the end of a course they paid $250 to take from H&R Block.

H&R Block, Jackson Hewitt, Liberty Tax Services and Citizens are appearing on YellowPages.com, SwitchBoard, Yahoo.com, Google, etc as Featured Advertisers under the category of Certified Public Accountants!
THIS IS COMPLETELY FALSE AND DECEPTIVE ADVERTISING!
Worse, when I Googled CPA Knoxville, TN, I was stunned to see H&R Block as the only business featured!!! No CPAs appeared at all at the top of the Google search.

To my knowledge, these businesses are not licensed or certified in ANY state as Certified Public Accountants.

I informed YellowPages.com, L.M. Berry Co, Google, etc. No one was willing to take any action saying it would be too hard for them to police businesses who fraudulently advertised regardless of what it was, doctor, lawyer, accountant, etc! Yet, the FTC specifically requires online Ad agencies to do just that - exercise due diligence so that the public is not misled.

I wrote to the FTC, and each of my congressmen/senators, emailed each State Board of Accountancy and the state societies of CPAs and the AICPA. Congressman Zack Wamp was the only one who was kind enough to reply. The FTC simply responded with generic form letters. I wanted action, not a form letter.

That was back in February, 2006. I have continued to monitor this and sporadically find that the problem still exists on YellowPages.com and Google, Yahoo.com, Switchboard.com, AOL Yellowpages, etc. If each consumer would write their letter of complaint to the FTC and their representative, I believe this would be corrected.

Small step toward SUCCESS
Jan 8, 2007, almost 11 months after I made my first complaint, TN State Board of Accountancy mailed me copies of letters which they sent to The Berry Company, ad agency for The Real Yellow Pages for BellSouth/New AT&T. These letters advise that civil penalties will be assessed against NON-licensees(HR Block, Jackson Hewitt, etc) who are listed under any section that implies accounting competency.

While this is a start, it will not completely eliminate the problem until more people voice their complaint to the appropriate authorities. I encourage you to file your complaint with the FTC at the link I've provided above. Let them know you want them to EARN their pay provided by YOUR tax dollars by ENFORCING the laws especially as they apply to BIG CORPORATIONS like HRB and JH.