Dear Intuit:
You SUCK!
I own Quickbooks Pro for Mac. I have it installed and working. This, despite the fact that it does not work as documented.
I now own TurboTax Premier, which is advertised as being able to import from Quicken, Quickbooks, and MS Money. It is dual-platform software (installs on both Win and Mac).
At NO POINT does it say “but only on Windows” for the import option. Nor does it say “must have program installed on same computer.” I tried to import my QB file to TT installed on the Windows machine, but it did not work– said I needed to have QuickBooks installed on that machine instead.
I tried to install it on the Mac– it crashed during updates, so I reinstalled and manually updated, then it ran the auto-updater anyway, but at least it got through it this time (perhaps because I upgraded my OS? I don’t know). But when I try to import my Quickbooks file– it’s not an option!
After MUCH digging in the forums, I find a note from “TurboTaxKathy” that says “Importing from Quickbooks is not supported on the Mac at this time.”
WTF?!?!?!? That’s false advertising. I am sick to death of crappy vendors offering non-support to Macintosh users. I want a refund. Actually, what I WANT is for the goddamned software to work AS ADVERTISED. I want to get what I actually PAID FOR.
No love and a lot of pointy things hurled in your general direction,
Me.
beginning wrote:
What’s the CA equivalent of the Office of Consumer Protection?
Posted on 30-Mar-06 at 9:50 am | Permalink
mortaine wrote:
Better Business Bureau?
Posted on 30-Mar-06 at 9:55 am | Permalink
beginning wrote:
No, bigger, governmental. Like…our OCP is part of the AG’s office (I do believe), and if you go through them and they agree with your complaint, the AG will actually sue the company, typically class-action, or otherwise force them to make it up. The BBB will mostly just say “Ooh, bad business, no soup for you.”
Here’s the FTC’s OCP: http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/consumer.htm
I have to think CA has an equivalent. Most states do.
Posted on 30-Mar-06 at 9:59 am | Permalink
beginning wrote:
Here:
http://www.dca.ca.gov/complainthelp/consumer-complaint.htm
Posted on 30-Mar-06 at 10:02 am | Permalink
mortaine wrote:
Thanks. I’m starting by contacting the company to ask them if they will have an update that fixes the problem before April 1, or if they will be refunding the money of all Mac users instead.
Posted on 30-Mar-06 at 10:09 am | Permalink
shaddai wrote:
Did you know Intuit charges financial institutions money to have their (already working and certified) QFX files work for Intuit customers? All the data is there, but it checks the financial institution number to see if it’s an “allowed” one.
Check this link on slashdot.org for more details…
Posted on 30-Mar-06 at 10:23 am | Permalink
wibbble wrote:
I wonder what would happen if you just used something like Little Snitch to stop it calling home? After all, they can’t reasonably expect everyone to be online any time they do their accounts. Not everyone has broadband, or even works at home.
Posted on 30-Mar-06 at 1:55 pm | Permalink
shaddai wrote:
I’ve definetly thought of that. I don’t use Quicken (or other Intuit products, for that matter) so it would be of no value to me.
Posted on 30-Mar-06 at 3:08 pm | Permalink
shaddai wrote:
or something that acts as intuit’s servers… that could work too.
Posted on 30-Mar-06 at 3:09 pm | Permalink
bmeighan wrote:
Mortaine… you have my apology for not disclosing the fact that import from QuickBooks is not supported on the mac. It is always our intention to disclose such differences between Windows and Mac, and it appears that we missed this one. We have an unconditional money back guarantee, so if you are not satisfied, please contact our customer service to request a refund.
Bob Meighan
VP, TurboTax
Posted on 30-Mar-06 at 6:28 pm | Permalink
mortaine wrote:
Hey, Bob, you can’t see it because I’ve posted it protected, but I’ve gone around twice with customer support, in which I’ve asked about a refund or when this will be supported, and received no acceptable answer.
In the latest, your reps didn’t even bother to provide an answer, just sent me the boilerplate, with an empty space for where an answer would be.
I’m furious. Why did I bother spending the extra money for QuickBooks if it wouldn’t work on my taxes? Why did I bother spending any money on TurboTax Premium, if I have to manually enter my tax information anyway? Your software is a glorified calculator/flowchart; the only advantage to using it is to be able to only enter financial data ONCE. I want you to think about this, very carefully, ok? Your company makes Quickbooks, Quicken, and Turbotax. And yet, these programs cannot all talk to each other? There is something tremendously wrong with that, and I don’t mind saying so.
Also, this experience has shown me that your Quickbooks statement of commitment to Mac users is nothing but marketing. There’s no teeth behind it if you can’t even get the most basic functionality to work.
Posted on 30-Mar-06 at 6:38 pm | Permalink
mortaine wrote:
PS: I do, however, want to say thank you for taking the time to at least drop by and make a comment. I may be seeing red over this, but that doesn’t excuse poor manners.
Posted on 30-Mar-06 at 6:40 pm | Permalink
bmeighan wrote:
Mortaine… this has nothing to do with QuickBook’s commitment to the Mac, but rather our (TurboTax’s) ability to incorporate this functionality in the limited time we have in tax season. As much as we would like to have 100% parity between Mac and Windows, the reality is that we have to make trade-offs sometimes, especially when a feature may be used by only a fraction of a percent of our user base. We don’t like to make these trade-offs, but in life the reality is we sometimes have to. And I would not call this “basic functionality.” If it were that, we would have it in the product and every competitor would to.
Your feedback is definitely heard and will be weighed against other priorities as we determine the feature set for next year. Thanks.
Bob Meighan
VP, TurboTax
Posted on 30-Mar-06 at 7:45 pm | Permalink
mortaine wrote:
You have a competitor? Where? I’ve done my research– you have a monopoly on Macintosh tax accounting software for the U.S. market.
I call it basic functionality because I’m a Mac user. Our expectations are higher than Windows users. “It just works” is our slogan. It is intuitive to us that, when a software company offers more than one piece of software, that they will use a file structure that is similar enough to connect to each other and be read by each other. “They’re in different departments” doesn’t work as an excuse for Mac users– if Apple can figure out how to make programs that work together, and Adobe and, and Microsoft can, and the open source movement can, then why can’t Intuit?
By the way, if you disabled the requirement that TurboTax require Quickbooks to actually be installed on the same machine, then at least the small fraction of users who have both would be able to use it. The way it is now, there is no reason to purchase and use Quickbooks or TurboTax for the Mac if you’re a small business owner. Not only doesn’t it talk to TurboTax, it doesn’t even export to your standard file type that TurboTax could read.
the reality is that we have to make trade-offs sometimes, especially when a feature may be used by only a fraction of a percent of our user base.
This is exactly the attitude that shows that the Quickbooks commitment to Mac users is nothing but marketing. If Intuit were truly committed to the Mac, then this would be as unacceptable to you as it is to the Mac users.
Also, I’ll admit that I’m still very angry over the non-response I received yesterday from your support people. If you wish, I’ll forward it to you, because it’s flat-out insulting, and you should know what your customer support people are doing to really enrage your customers.
Posted on 31-Mar-06 at 8:44 am | Permalink
bmeighan wrote:
Thanks for your feedback. There is no need to forward to me the transcript of you support contact as I have access to those. With almost 20,000 contacts each day, I regret that not each contact is great. Nevertheless, your feedback challenges us to do better… and we will.
Bob Meighan
Posted on 31-Mar-06 at 10:03 am | Permalink