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Ruth of Naples FL (06/30/08)
I upgraded my QuickBooks software to QuickBooks Pro 1008 because if I didn't upgrade, I would no longer be able to send invoices by email. I was quite happy with my previous version and felt very angry when they had me over a barrel to buy their software. Once I did that, the invoices werent getting attached because during installation, the system defaulted to sending my invoices through Outlook.
I had a choice of sending through Outlook or Intuit but did not understand that this could be a problem. Unfortunately and once again, QuidkBooks created an upgrade? that was flawed.
When I tried to get support, I was told that I would have to pay $49 to solve this problem because I was beyond my 30 day purchase period. After being ripped off for $49, and having their tech change that email setting in 30 seconds so I wasnt using Outlook, the problem was solved.
This is outrageous to have to pay for what I consider to be normal customer support. I am a small business and do not send invoices everyday. It took a while before I realized that my customers were not getting their attachments. I feel exploited and ripped off. If I didnt have so much money invested in this software and have to set up my books all over, I would never use QuickBooks again.
$49 charge that I shouldn't have had to pay.
Laurie of Camarillo CA (06/30/08)
I bought upgrade for Quickbooks 2002 to 2005 because I wanted the extra features of online banking. Now 3 years later, I am told that these features are gone unless I spend $150 to buy their latest version. I paid for this, so how can they just say sorry it is gone unless you give us another $150? I don't need a new program. the 2005 version works fine.
Having to pay for a new version that I don't need or want.
C of Orland Park IL (06/15/08)
How can quickbooks eliminate features, that you purchased with a particular program, when they update your software. They take-away features that you orginally purchased the program for- sounds like a bate and switch. NOT VERY NICE Example payroll computations, 941 computations, etc.
For the payroll, it needs to be computated, individually, each person- each week. For the 941's, I now had to purchase another program to complete this process. This was one of the features I purchased the program for.
Robert of Port Jefferson Station NY (05/18/08)
We are EXTREMELY disappointed in Quickbooks. We have a copy of Simple Start and Quickbooks and apparently neither will work since we dont have updates and cant get them without spending more money with you. We are also apparently having much trouble just trying to get either one of the programs to work on just 2 computers networked.
We are totally unable to retrieve many manhours of work and have no access to any of our records entered with this program.
Sherie of Orangevale CA (05/13/08)
We had so many problems with downloading Quickbooks 2006 (never were able to use it) that we decided to give another try with Quickbooks Pro 2008. We have a small home business (roofing). I purchased the online backup for a yr. in Feb. I was relieved that we had it when our computer crashed last week.
Today I called and spoke at length with 3 different indian reps. I felt raped when I was done. Though they charged us for the online backup, and asked frequently if we wanted to back info up online...evidently they never backed it up! Nor would they refund our money (pass the 60 day limit!). And even worse, they wanted to charge us $249 yr/$25 month to reinstall the back up that we have already payed for on the new computer!
We are out $100 and many many hours of input.
Janet of Sheffield VT (04/22/08)
I upgraded my hard drive and all programs transferred properly except QuickBooks. I've requested a new license and product number in order to resolve the issue. I've been on the telephone several times, put on hold even more, and lost hours at work dealing with this. I still have no satisfaction. They tell me, in poor English, that I will receive an email with the necessary information, not! It's too bad NAFTA actually succeeded, I'd like to be able to speak to someone with good enough English to make the conversation understandable. I now intend to call the corporate offices in California to make my problem and extreme dissatisfaction with QuickBooks known.
My QuickBooks program will cease to work in 18 days, I've lost over 2 1/2 hours of work time needing to be on the telephone, and I paid a fee for one month of technical support service, which needless to say has been useless to this point.
Gary of San Bruno CA (04/22/08)
I have run out of the ability to understand why they disallow the transfer of a license. Their site advertises purchasing software, but in actuality they are granting an indivudal,non-transferrable right to use. This has ZERO value as soon as we purchase a new right, we cannot even give the old one to a friend or family member. Please see the emails sent from them to me at www.rippedoffbyintuit.com where they claim they are following federal law.
$400 spent on 2006, purchased 2007, gave 2006 to a friend and Intuit refused to allow me to pay the $25 transfer fee.
Thomas of Dallas, TX (04/22/08)
After two service requests to Intuit for Quickbooks 2007 someone finally returned the call, but would not put his response in an email as requested. Recent updates for the program (which normal people would assume are bug fixes and upgrades) secretly crippled and disabled features (like payroll) and went so far as ADDING a brand new menu called special offers right next to the help menu.
Their personal product Quicken did the same type of thing, they secretly update your program and hard-code a date that once reached, it actively blocks a user from connecting directly to their bank and downloading transactions. This is in direct violation of the license agreement which clearly defines connections between users and their banks as not involving Intuit. There is a huge difference betwen simply not supporting an older version and secretly hacking the software and breaking it.
What if Microsoft updated everyone's version of Word disabling all the features (spell check, formatting, etc) and then offered a special deal to buy their upgrade ?? If I hack into someone else's computer or plant a virus that damages their computer or data, I get arrested, this is absolutely no different.
Bob of Calgary OTHER (01/31/08)
I am a long time user of Quickbooks and until now, have been a strong supporter of the product. My support has been waning since they changed their payroll support system to a system where you are forced to upgrade the software each year. The latest forced upgrade to QB 2008 resulted in the loss of all memorized reports including all my customized invoices and forms. Intuit is aware of this and plainly informs you that loss of memorized reports is just part of the upgrade process. I am now looking for a replacement for this as well as the Quicken product that I use.
Each year, the unnecessary forced upgrade always takes me a couple of hours by the time I am done. With the loss of these reports, I will have to lose a day while I recreate all of my custom forms and reports I use for my business.
Cherry of Portland OR (01/16/08)
I contacted Quickbooks tech support by phone for support. (Web site indicates support for QB Basic 2004 for a $49.00 resolution fee). Long wait time, and the rep did not speak English well. Promised to help solve the problem, took all info for Visa to get $49.00 fee, tried 3 avenues for resolution of problem and then got to Add/Remove programs which I was uncomfortable with. All of a sudden I was disconnected. Chat was still online, and she advised me that someone would call me back as system had shut down on her end. She advised that she was inbound tech and outbound tech would have to call me, and I would be starting all over...and then chat was disconnected. I waited an extended time and no call back. I called tech support again and was advised (after long wait time) by another non-English speaking person that indeed they did not offer any support for my product and should not have taken my $49.00.
I discovered at that moment that the 1st tech had deleted all of QB out of my computer! I am a small business, and it was gone! I spoke to a supervisor who indicated they indeed would not help with my problem but would help get the software back into the computer and would connect me with customer service to get a refund of the 49.00. I SPENT 4 HOURS AND 50 MIN. ON THIS TECH SUPPORT, CUSTOMER NO-SERVICE CALL TO QB WITH NO RESOLUTION OF MY PROBLEM. I HAVE NOT BEEN REFUNDED AS YET, AS THEY SAY IT WILL TAKE A FEW DAYS. (THEY GOT MY $49.00 IMMEDIATELY AND WOULD NOT EVEN CONTINUE WITH THE CALL UNTIL IT HAD CLEARED.
The call back I was promised came more than 24 hours later! The non English speaking people were awful in that I could understand maybe every 10th word. My husband took the phone and had the same problem. This took almost 5 hours of my time and no support whatsoever. No recourse as I see it, as they have you over a barrel after purchasing the product. The customer service is outrageous, incompetent, rude and incomprehensible. I will never buy another Intuit product. I was also told that my product 2004 is not compatible still with Internet Explorer 7.0, and they are not trying to make it compatible as promised but instead offer you to upgrade for $199.00! Small businesses cannot continue to upgrade and also be treated so badly.
Mark of Westfield NJ (01/11/08)
I signed up with QUICKBOOKS online. They have a 30-day free trial. I applied for a merchant account; they approved and charged me $60. I processed 8 transactions through the VISA processing service. They never credited the money to my account. I contacted them, and they said they have a liability so they will hold the money from 9 months to 2 years. I suggested they send the money back to the customers. They refused.
I am out $3,000 and so are my customers. I now have to supply a product, and I have no guarantee that in 9 months they will pay me. In the meantime I have to buy the service for at least 9 months, another $300.
Jen of Frederick MD (10/05/07)
I purchased Quickbooks Contractor Edition 2007 and have had nothing but issues with it. The most annoying have been the lack of decent customer service representatives (or even ones who understand English), the inability to even record employee time without purchasing the payroll service, and the inability to turn off the annoying sounds.
I have had to find a way around many inconveniences of Quickbooks to make it work, and Intuit has the WORST customer service reps I have ever dealt with. Not only do they not understand what they are doing (or what you are saying), they try to sell you more useless products when they can't help you!
I will NEVER again buy an Intuit product, and I would send a note to Intuit, themselves, but there is no where on their website to do so.
Diana of Three Rivers MI (06/07/07)
I was forced to upgrade my software to be able to use their payroll services. The software also expanded my data, caused my computer to slow to a crawl. After two weeks, I was offered via a pop-up an upgrade to speed up my computer. Several things are inherently wrong here. First of all I was completely happy with the product I had. As a small business owner I was thrilled at the time savings of Quick Books. But when I was forced to upgrade. I got angry. I looked into having my payroll done outside of my office and found that prohibitive. When I installed the new version it expanded my files which caused my computer to slow way down, costing me hours of time. Then the offer from QB to upgrade my current version to a version that would make my work quicker, was absolutely absurd. They caused it to slow, then they offer a fix at who knows what cost to speed it up again. Also, I absolutely hate the new version, it is very cumbersome and requires far more clicks to get done what needs to be done. I have never been much of a complainer, but I have never had a software upgrade cause me more work. I work in an industry that requires frequent software upgrades to keep current with customer needs, but this situation is absolutely criminal.
Marie of Independence IA (02/21/07)
I had to upgrade to Quickbooks 2007 because I use your Payroll service and was told you would not support any older version of Quickbooks after May, 2007. It took me 4 hours and 3 technicians to finally get it installed. Two of the technicians spoke reasonably good English, but the other one (from India I think) I had to have him repeat everything at least once(very frustrating - when I had been on the phone off and on for a couple of hours by then). The ONLY good thing about this whole upgrade was that I didn't have to wait long to get a representative on the support phone line.
I have also been receiving my payroll upgrade CD's very late - was ready to do year-end taxes and didn't get the upgrades until about the last minute. Last year I couldn't print my W-2's on the pre-printed forms and then after I had tried to print them on another computer I called and was told there was an error in the program - why wasn't this information sent out by e-mail to all subscribers? I generally like the program, but don't understand why it has to be changed constantly......
Glenn of Brea CA (02/19/07)
Quickbooks 2007 requires loading on our MS 2003 server in order to share our accounting files via the network. The server install fails with an install package cannot be opened error After an hour with technical support the only response I could get was to call Microsoft about my Quickbooks problem. As a software provider, our customers would not accept this failure to provide technical support.
1 hour attempting to install the software. 1 hour with technical support. 2 software packages that were paid for and do not work.
Janice of Northwood NH (01/11/07)
My company has subscribed to Quickbook Payroll services in the past, on an automatic renewal basis, charged to a credit card they have on file. On December 13, 2006, I was contacted (the last of several inquiries) by email to update my credit card information as the expiration date had expired. The email warned "To avoid interruption of your Quickbooks Payroll service,it is essential that you update your account information immediately. "
The email provided two ways to update my information: by phone and in the web. The email also pointed out the dire consequences of failure to maintain the subscription. The company had every intention of discontinuing the service so we did not respond to the email, expecting that the service would lapse- as threatened. On the renewal date, the credit card in question, was charged $199, despite the fact that the information that Quickbooks had on file for that card had never been updated. The representative told me that we would be credited but it would not happen for 24 hours and could not explain how it was that they were able to charge on an expired card.
Advanta, the holder of the card, claims they do not process charges that do not have an accurate expiration date. It is clear that Quicken input a quessed expiration date and fraudulently processed the charge.
Laurie of Dunedin FL (11/13/06)
I am joining a growing list of consumers who are fed up with Intuit over their shameful business tactics concerning Quickbooks products. Mysteriously, I was locked out of my own Quickbooks Pro 2005 immediately following an automatic update from Quickbooks. Upon contacting customer service, it became ridiculously obvious that they had no intention of helping me resolve the problem, but instead began immediately to try to sell me either a technical support package for $300, or the latest version of quickbooks. The rep went into her sales speech without even asking me any questions about the problem I was having.
Not only am I convinced that the automatic update caused my problem, I also now suspect this may even be done very intentionally by the company to force the consumer to spend money with them. I am now force to buy the updated version just so that I can retrieve my up to the minute files or I will have to recreate several days of data which I have not yet backed up. I do know however, that Intuit will never again have access to my computer to update anything again.
Hours spent trying to resolve the problem, having to unneccesarily purchase new software and too much time on the phone with Intuit when they had no intention of even trying to unlock my program.
Andrew of Plymouth MI (10/16/06)
Purchased Quickbooks Pro 2007 on 10/11/06. Tried to use Quickbooks Learning Center today -- none of the highlighted tutorials will play. Was on help telephone line (told me 10-min wait) for over 1 hour; no response. Called sales, they told me to go to /callme site for support. This is the site that guarantees users support for 30 days after purchase. That site is ONLY FOR 2006 users! I spent another 3+ hours on the phone with a courteous but useless service rep who promised me a callback 734-667-4188 within 30 minutes from tech support. After 4 hours I called technical support again and waited 45 minutes. They guessed and guessed, couldn't come up with solution to getting the callbacktechnical support.
They told me it was a computer glich on their side, that I was not registered. I then called the Registration dept, who said I was registered. He transferred me to technical support again, and I am now explaining the product for the 4th time today! I will just ask for a refund at this point.
Henry of Riverview FL (09/25/06)
We have been using Quickbooks for three years. Our bookkeeper/Office Assisted setup the password for Quickbooks. The person is no longer working with the company and we ordered an update to continue our bookkeeping and we cannot use the software without the old password. We have made many attempts, including paying $50.00 hrly for some rep in the company to assist us and we still have not resolved the problem and cannot use the new software for this year. We have spent $75.00 with the service rep and after each hour they hand up and the problem is not resolved. We cannot not get the service or answers to resolve this problem.
We are behind on our bookkeeping for this year sent this problem has occurred. We cannot access our previous recordes since this has occurred.
Kenna of Grove, OK (05/19/06)
QuickBooks notified me that my version was being sundowned, and that I had to purchase a new version. The old worked fine for me and I didn't feel the need to upgrade, but they said the payroll part would not work if I did not upgrade. So I purchased the package for 400.00 and they would give me an $80.00 rebate. All I had to do was prove I had previously used Quickbooks. I filled out the rebate and did everything I was suppose to do, but they refused to pay the rebate because I did not send them a copy of the QuickBook Basics, which I had like 15 yrs ago.
You cannot upgrade unless you have the one previous to it. So I have all these versions that I have purchased over the yearsBut QuickBooks says that I can't prove that I have a previous version of QuickBooks.
First of all the 400.00 was a strain because I am self employed running a small business. My family has been hit with cancer, and my spouse is not working, so every penny counts. I was also counting on the rebate check.
Michelle of Payson AZ (05/03/06)
Quickbooks stopped supporting their 2003 version of their software, thats no problem because their support stinks anyway. The problem started when the payroll tax tables disappeared from my system on 4-30-2006. I'd like to know how they intruded into my computer system and did this without my consent or knowledge. I should have been able to continue using the software that I paid for indefinitely. If the payroll tax tables are not up to date then I should be able to correct them myself, but they are hidden and inaccessible? I bought this software and I should be able to use it. There was no agreement that said I was purchasing a program that would only work for a specified time. I should be reimbursed for the cost of the program and for the inconvenience it has cost me.
Payroll software stopped calculating withholding suddenly, didn't notice it until after paychecks were released this week. Will now have to pay the employee portion of MCR and SS taxes. Suddenly I am scrambling to find new, more efficient and less intrusive software to use for payroll. Currently having to calculate each paycheck manually, Time loss has cost me over a Thousand Dollars.
Hilary of Oakland CA (05/01/06)
We were billed for a subscription to online Quickbooks that we had cancelled a year before. I was bounced all over the voicemail, my email was sent back, I spent a long time on hold, and the person I reached was the wrong person to help me so I was put on hold again. I'm still there.
We have a charge on our credit card for a service we don't get, and I have lost a lot of what would have been productive time trying to get it off.
J.s.w. of Morr MN (04/12/06)
Quickbooks forces users to upgrade their program versions every 3 yrs, and if you do not, you lose product support, payroll subscriptions (cannot buy a new subscription)and various program functionality. OK, I can live the fact that they aren't going to update my payroll subscription with current information. What I have a hard time stomaching is the fact that they TAKE AWAY SOME OF THE FUNCTION OF A PROGRAM YOU'VE ALREADY BOUGHT AND PD FOR! Even Microsoft doesn't do this! If you're running Office 97, you're not going to be able to do a lot of things you can do with Office 2000 or Office XP, but Microsoft doesn't come into your home or your business via your PC and TAKE AWAY some of the features/functionality of the Office 97 program you've already bought and pd for, so why does Intuit get by with it??
We're a very small business and we cannot upgrade to QB Pro 2006 (even if we wanted to, which we do not) because it cannot be installed on a PC running anything other than Windows XP or 2000. An upgrade to QB 2006 would mean not only money spent on the new QB program & payroll subscription, but it would mean changing the op systems on all our workstations! The cost would be detrimental to an operation the size of ours, and we DON'T NEED IT for ANYTHING other than QuickBooks. That means no upgrade of QB for us, which means that, at the end of April, Intuit will TAKE AWAY the expired tax table we've already pd for, leaving us with NO tax table, current, expired or otherwise, they will TAKE AWAY the capability to email invoices, a program function/feature we pd for when we bought the QB program we're using, they will TAKE AWAY the ability to print some (or maybe even all....I'll soon find out) payroll forms, a feature already paid for with the purchase of this verions of QB, etc., etc.
We've used QB since 1992, and, each year, as Intuit/QuickBooks have gotten bigger and bigger, they've gotten less and less concerned w/ their customers and appear to focus solely on making money, at any cost to the small businesses their QuickBooks program is aimed at. BAck to my example of Microsoft. Like MS, Intuit has gotten a big enough market share that they feel they can do what they want and jerk users around at will. However, MS is SO BIG that all eyes are on it, just waiting for one mis-step so some lawyer somewhere can pounce and drag them into court. I think the problem with Intuit is they're big enough that they feel they can act like the Gestapo of accounting software, but they are NOT big enough to come under the same scrutiny that MS must endure. I think it's time to change that, and I wish some class action lawyer would decide to take them on, if only for this one issue.
Wayne of Nantucket MA (03/06/06)
An accountant sent my company information on Quickbooks 2004. I have a 2002 version. I cannot open and view the 2004 file. I called customer service and spent time on hold. The first pre-sales customer service representative confirmed the obvious but transferred me to a tech person. The tech person explained that I couldn't use open the 2004 file with my 2002 version. His best explanation was that's just how it works. I conveyed my disappointment that I would now be forced to upgrade just to view this file one time.
Sue of Richmond Canada (03/06/06)
We used Quickbooks 2002 efficiently for a couple of years before the company offered us a great deal on upgrading to 2005 version - after all, the support for 2002 was running out. Then we made a HUGE mistake subscribing to the payroll feature that now has us bound to them for life. Even though we have paid hundreds of dollars for the software because of the subscription, we must upgrade to 2006 version or it will stop working! As if the constant reminders aren't bad enough, they finally sent me the media to upgrade (first mailing was the version I was already running) but then they didn't send the software key with it.
After trying every possible number on the packing slip to unlock the software install, I decided to phone them. After many menu options later (6 layers of select 1 or select 2) I find that the office is now closed! They are only available between 9 and 5 - how many small business owners do you know that keep bankers hours?
So after spending hundreds of dollars and hundreds of hours on this product, I now have to waste several hours every year to upgrade/activate/register a product that I have already paid for a couple of times over. I am now going to make better use of my time researching other available products on the market.
Steve of Nelson Canada (06/09/05)
When my computer received a virus, I had to reformat my hard drive and then reinstall Quick Books 2001, which I use for accounting purposes. My company data file was created with an updated version of the program, so I cannot load or even see the company data file until I update the program. However, QuickBooks has sunsetted the 2001 version, and no longer supplies updates, so I cannot access my company data unless I buy a new version of QuickBooks. This would not be necessary if the software on the installation CD was capable of loading the data file without being updated. So I feel I have been cheated by Intuit.
I may not be able to finish my taxes properly and on time. I will have to spend $100 to $200 to buy new Intuit software. I have already invested hours on this problem and will have to spend more hours on it.
Marilyn of Lebanon CT (04/13/05)
I sent it an upgrade certificate which was mailed to me unsolicited with a $100 check for Quickbooks 2005 on 12/28/04. The $100.00 check was cashed on 1/14/05 but I never received the upgrade. When I finally realized it never came and was able to call during business hours, I was told it would take at least 3 weeks for the billing department to look up my case.
Intuit has had my $100.00 for 3 months and did not send my product.
Connie of Philadelphia (2/14/05):
I paid $300 for yearly payroll that doesn't work; I am paying monthly for telephone support (approx. 25. per month) and nobody ever, ever answers the phone). Right now I have been on hold for 27 minutes and am still holding. I paid $299. for a future seminar which I would like to cancel and hope to get my money back. They have support on the web, but my registration number won't go through correctly so I cannot use that either. They do not have an address where I can send a certified letter to cancel these subscriptions.
My payroll is a mess and I have received no help but they keep deducting money from my checking account. My payroll is in turmoil. For the past 3 weeks the employees have not had any deductions for their city wage tax because the payroll deducted it incorrectly. I guess I will have to pay it.
Pamela of Lincolnton NC (5/2/05):
We ordered Quickbooks Payroll Enhanced 2005. The ordere was placed on 1/17. On 1/24/ when we hadn't received the product we called and found out that the order had not been placed. So it was supposed to be voided and reordered with no shipping cost. Well surprise, surprise when I checked the company bank account today we had been charged twice for the one program that we ordered.
When a call was placed to the sales person she said it was a mistake and sent me to the business deparment for a refund. The person I got had such a heavy accent that I could not understand her. She proceeded to tell me that we had made two purchases. One by Robert (no such person works her) and one by the owner. She could not understand that Intuit had made a mistake and that we wanted a refund. She proceeded to tell us that our order would be confirmed in two days. We were not making another order. When we called back to the sales person we were told that we would have to take care of the problem with our bank and she would send an e-mail saying the second charge was a mistake.
Big deal. We are the ones having to take time out of our day to be on hold forever with Intuit and not getting any results. This is the worst customer service I have ever had to deal with. Not a good business to do business with. I am on hold now for over 30 minutes trying to get someone else to help me. Not much luck here.
Michael of Orlando (6/10/04):
I purchased Quickbooks Pro 2001 edition for my company accounting program after upgrading from the '99 version. The only reason that I upgraded was it was clearly advertised on the software box that "the new feature" was the ability to e-mail estimates and invoices to customers. This upgrade cost $300.00. I was very pleased with the feature until it was "SUNSETTED" in 2004! I received notice from Quickbooks that the '01, and '02 versions were being discontinued, and would not be supported anymore so that the company could more effectively concentrate on their new versions and the customers that choose to upgrade.
I am furious because I now have a version that I was very happy with that doesn't provide the feature that I purchased it for, and it is almost impossible to contact this company unless you want to wait for hours, which I don't have. I feel that users of earlier versions that are perfectly fine are being held hostage to upgrade or loose features that you bought it for in the first place. Talk about 'bait and switch" advertising, this takes the cake.
I have discussed this with other companies that I know are using Quickbooks, who are equally as upset about this, and I hope that Intuit/Quickbooks will hear the message that their arrogance is not healthy, and will understand that many companies that are using their software might not appreciate their position on the upgrades, and sunsetting.
Melody of Las Vegas (3/26/04):
Another upgrade. I have used QB for my business accounting software for six years, upgrading three times at multi-user cost. In 2002 the upgrade was touted as "the best and only accounting software with reliable tax-table updates". The letter I have in hand today, March 25, 2004, states "you must upgrade to Quickbooks 2004" underlined, to recieve the service of tax-table update. But I purchased last year already! This is 100 times worse than Microsoft ever did to my buisness in terms of cost!
James of Greer SC (3/20/04):
The thing that really bothers me is that Intuit has not only removed last year's tax tables but even my original table that came with the software in 2001 has been removed. What is really disturbing is that I continued doing payroll as usual under the assumption that I would at least have my old tax tables in place and since taxes have been cut I knew that the IRS wouldn't complain if they got more from us than necessary.
To my surprise two weeks ago I noticed that no taxes whatsoever were being taken out because they totally removed all tables and even my ability to use any tax tables whatsoever. I would think that the IRS themselves would even want to be involved in a lawsuit against Intuit for sabotaging our personal computers not allowing for payroll tax deductions. I contacted Intuit last year when I got their notices warning of the forced 2004 upgrade and I told them I felt they were very wrong to force us to buy something we did not want and that I refused to be unethically coerced into purchasing a product that I did not want. I think the only way these arrogant people will listen is if enough consumers say "enough is enough" and sue them for their coercive, unethical and illegal tactics.
One should be able to set up payroll using tax tables provided by the IRS or local states. When I began to use Quickbooks in 1998 or 1999 I was never told that such manipulation would ensue with their products. I personally believe that it is all motivated by greed. Their program is structured in such a way so that one cannot go any further setting up payroll without paying the "forced" additional money for either basic or deluxe payroll and now they are forcing everyone to go to their 2004 upgrade.
Gary of Encinitas CA (4/9/03):
Intuit is hostile to their customers. I make this statement for two reasons. Both involve Intuit-centric logic when implementing their products.
1. QuickBooks Pro installs a program (qdbagent) which continuously checks for updates from the time you boot your system. It also allocates approximately 6MB of RAM that it never releases back to Windows for use by other programs. The result of this is that (a) you always have a program running in background, and checking periodically for software updates via the internet, even if you aren't running QuickBooks, and (b) you have 6MB less memory available for use all the time.
Imagine installing other software that did the same thing - if you installed 20 pieces of software that all allocated 6MB, you would run out of memory on a machine with 128MB of physical memory installed without running a single program! And you'd have 20 programs utilizing internet bandwidth!
2. TurboTax now uses a piracy-protection scheme called Safecast/CDILLA. Part of the CDILLA implementation involves writing a specific sector on your hard disk where CDILLA presumably stores a 'key' used to identify your installation. The problem lies in that (a) the only way to get rid of it is to low-level format your drive; and (b) if you uninstall the Safecast/CDILLA software when uninstalling TurboTax other software that depends on it might break.
These two shining examples of Intuit's respect for their customer base illustrate precisely what's wrong with today's software industry. They are self-centric; they care more about themselves than their customers:
Intuit obviously expects people to rip them off. They are willing to expend money (licensing Safecast/CDILLA) and engineering time to prevent it.
2. Intuit obviously doesn't think that their customers deserve to be told that the software they are installing (1) consumes major system resources even when not being used by the consumer; (2) modifies their hard drive in non-standard ways that can only be corrected via low-level formatting; (3) uses the consumer's internet connection without the knowledge of the user; and (4) threatens the ability of other programs to function properly through unadvertised interactions.
Intuit has lost far more customers due to the negative publicity and bad feelings on the part of consumers generated by this fiasco than they lose to piracy. In addition, the piracy figures published (which indicate how many 'stolen' copies are in use compared to 'legitimate' copies) don't take into account that the majority of 'stolen' copies are what I would call convenience copies; people who install TurboTax on two computers at home to allow them to prepare their taxes in one location, but print in another; people who install QuickBooks at home and at work so they can not go into the office on the weekend. Intuit (and the rest of the software industry) doesn't acknowledge this kind of 'casual piracy' as being a fair and valid use of licensed software, even though it doesn't account for lost revenue to the software companies.
Damages:
Many people had to reregister multiple programs after uninstalling TurboTax. Time is money. Some people reformatted their hard drives to get rid of it completely. Uninformed, but still Intuit's fault. Time is money. Many people right now are operating with 6MB less usable memory because of Intuit's short-sighted implementation of qdbagent. People paid for those resources. Intuit has gained a reputation for disregarding their customers, and has lost marketshare and revenues. Many people are operating with reduced internet bandwidth (imagine if you have a 28.8 modem and qdbagent decides to download a quickbooks update while you're browsing the web)...
Robert of Wrightsville Beach NC (5/31/03):
I have had Quickbooks 4.0 since 1995. I recently went to use it again and the screen said I had to register it. Been using it 8 years and had registered it before. Tried to do the registration on the phone and they said it is too old and they cannot let me use it anymore. Were quick to offer an upgrade for $99. They admitted that I obviously had been registered but they could not find it and therefore I had to pay.
All my books are on Quickbooks, and while they are not complicated, I am being held captive to upgrade to a product I don't need and to pay $99. Nothing in my documentation says I have to go thru this to use the product I paid for in 1995 that is still doing the job.
Maureen of Ajaz, Ontario (3/6/03):
Letter to: QuickBooks: Is your consumer becoming a victim of your success? Are large corporations too big, too busy to care? I have today spent from 1pm to 3:35pm today trying to get help from your customer service and tech support people. The vast majority of this time, I spent on hold, waiting for someone to help me. I actually spoke to 4 people for a total of less than 5 minutes in total during this period.
I tried unsuccessfully to get assistance with my QuickBooks 2002 Release R5 Installed January 2003. Problem: My QuickBooks does not total properly. Today I had a reconciled balance of $30,000. I wrote 3 cheques totaling $20,700.00 after printing the cheques, the register showed a negative balance of $ - 649 During my call to tech support, the person asked me to press the F2 key in order to find out what version I have. When I did this and returned to my register, it now showed a correct balance.
In January, I printed a cheque and then later, when I downloaded the transactions to reconcile my account… there was no record of that cheque ever being printed. The entire record of that transaction had vanished completely. I had to re-enter the information from my cheque stub manually into the register. I can not use this software for my business account if it is so unreliable.
I ask you… Who needs an accounting program that can't add or record entries?
Since Tech support on 2 separate occasions refused to assist in any manner. Both Jason and Brett in customer service suggested I send the product back and get a refund. I will not pay for tech support for a product that is defective. I am not a novice, I've used Quicken since 1990 without any problems.
Deborah of Plainville CT (1/27/03):
My company has Intuit/Quickbooks Payroll service. W we pay $169.00 a year for the service. In January, the first week of 2003, Quicksbooks stopped calculating the taxes for payroll. I have been calling Intuit EVERY day since then trying to get this resolved.
The first day I called I spent without exageration, 6 hours on the phone, holding and being bounced around to 7 different customer reps/support reps that couldn't help me and connected me to another area/department. Finally, I was able to get one Reps name, whom I talked to extensivly about the problem and she issued me a case number and had me upload my company file to a web link. That was now 4 days ago and I have called her everday-3-4 times a day leaving messages to please call, return my call and let me know what is going on and if the problem has been fixed.
We can not input any company data until Intuit fixes the problem. Why are they not responding to my company's phone calls. Our data is crucial and payroll taxes need to be accurate, this is a service we pay Intuit for.
Paula of Irving TX (6/18/00):
For about 15 years I have used Intuit products for payroll and other small business related bookkeeping services, including payroll. Over the years, I have updated products. At this time I have QUICKBOOKS 99, and have been using it since it was purchased for payroll. All these years, I would receive some information that basically said, "your payroll tax tables may be out of date and should be updated." I live in a State with no income tax and I am well aware of the changes in the tax tables which affect me and my business.
Often, I would elect to forgo the update at $59 or $69 a year since it did not apply to me. This year, in January I received the same message and ignored it as always. In April, when I went to do my quarterly tax return, I learned for the first time that for several months I had been taking no taxes from my employees paychecks. INTUIT had REMOVED the tax tables from my computer during a routine program update. I was not told. My Quickbooks 99 reference book specifically states that it is my responsibility to keep the tax tables current. Intuit sold me a product and then stole part of it. What is worse is that they did not notify me.
I called Intuit. Their attitude is "Too bad. We're watching out for ourselves." I think they are watching out for an additional annual fee of $69.00!! I HAD TO PAY ALL THE EMPLOYEE TAXES WHICH WERE DUE, even though I had not collected them. I was absolutely furious. I would not hold Intuit responsible for incorrect tax tables if I do not purchase the update, but I do hold them responsible for stealing my tax tables and then not telling me about it. This has to have happened to many small business owners.
Mike of San Leandro CA (4/2/00):
Tax tables used to be an included or free services every year. Now, the Quickbook Pro 2000 needs a minimum $6/month subscription. This is also a misrepresentation. Advertising materials did not clearly describe this monthly subscription is required for proper payroll tax calaculation.
Damage Resulting: Cannot use software immediately. Cannot use all listed features without additional expenses.
Don of Canyon Lake CA (6/20/03):
Quicken's Web Site Solutions cancellation process denied access to my web page and e-mail for a total of 144 hours. Their methodology of combining the DNS and HOSTING service is extortionist in nature. You CANNOT edit the DNS record BEFORE the HOSTING is terminated. Therefore ANYONE that has EVER had this service is subject to 144 hours of outage in regards to their WEB Page and their E-Mail. According to STACIE001 there is no way around their process.
The economic consequences are HUGE! All of my e-mails are bouncing back to my clients that attempt to contact me and new clients cannot see my web page!
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