You are right!!! We will have this problem as long as the tax preparation profession doesn't raise their standards. The problem is that not all of us are at the same level academically or ethically. Have you noticed that doctors don't have any problems with prices or situations like this? Do you wonder why? Because they all charge a lot and no one talks bad about other doctors.
Some tax preparers, in order to get more clients, they talk crap about the preparer who is right. Some of them do it because they don't know much and some others do it because they are crooks. When my clients come to my office and start saying things like... the other preparer said... I stop them and I say: If I am going to prepare your taxes, I will do it the right way. If you prefer, you can go back to the other preparer.
I have 5 templates ready to go. New people, I work from those templates and I tell me how much they will owe or get, rather quickly. If they don't like my figures, I give them back their W-2 and they go away. I do that for all new people. In the past, I have worked on a return for a while, when I get the final product, they start saying... "but last year I got more than that"... "the other preparer entered my mileage and now you are saying they are commuting miles", etc. At that point, I would give them their papers and tell them, "in that case, I cannot prepare your taxes". My templates save a me lot of time.