My Beef with Intuit

This is not the best way to start a Monday...


I use Quickbooks for the Mac as my accounting program for my small business. Doesn't everyone?

I don't use it for much more than writing invoices and receiving payments. Pretty basic stuff.

The last time I bought a copy of Quickbooks was (apparently) 3 years ago, when I bought Quickbooks Pro 2007 for the Mac.

I bought a new MacBook Pro a couple of months ago, and ever since then, when I launch Quickbooks, it told me that I need to register my product online and until I do, I have 15 times in which I can access my account. Presumably, after I register it, the 15-uses limitation goes away, and I'm free to use the program that I paid for 3 years ago.

Seems simple enough. (Except for the fact that ALL of my other software programs work just fine on my new mac, and I don't need to re-register ANY of it.)

So, this morning, it seems I was down to my last 8 uses or so. When I clicked to register (Which i've done before) it gave me the error that it was unable to launch the registration application (or something along those lines) then it quit out of my app altogether.

Fine. I'll call Intuit Customer Support, and have them register my app so I an use it again. Not a problem, right?

So, the customer service guy tells me that my version of Quickbooks isn't compatible with my new OS. Mind you, it worked fine over the last few weeks after I couldn't register it - it just opened the app and told me I had X amount of times I could still use it without registering.

Customer service outsouced-from-India-Guy tells me that I'm going to have to upgrade to the latest version - Quickbooks 2011 for the Mac.

The price: $229.00.

Um... excuse me?

First of all, that's the upgrade price (turns out there is no upgrade price - you buy the full software each time you need to "upgrade")?! He then offers me a 20% discount plus will throw in one month technical support.

Fine.

In the meantime, I look up Quickbooks on Amazon.com, and find this review:


owned Quickbooks 2007 for Mac and have used it for years. I am a registered user with Intuit. For the past few months, I got a message that I needed to register the product and that it would be good for only 30 days. This made no sense since I was a registered user and the "register online" option did not work. Finally, one day while I was working, I quit the application and tried to relaunch it. The message came up and would not launch. I called Intuit to help with the registration. I got a tech support in India who had passible English. He confirmed that the product was registered. He asked what system I was using. I was up to date with 10.6.4. He said that was the problem since Quickbooks 2007 was not being supported in 10.6, but only with 10.4 and 10.5. and would not work. I told him that it does work in 10.6 and I have been successful with it for months since upgrading to 10.6. He clarified that it would work only 15 times in 10.6 before the registration would not work. I found this to be incredible. This means that Intuit has written script to make the software not work after 15 times with the newer operating system. In some ways this seems illegal to me. It is one thing to say software is not supported with newer systems, it is another to purposefully make it not work when, in fact, it does work. I use Quickbooks basically as an accounting program and not for creating tax returns. As such, I don't need the most recent version. The tech person further stated that I had to buy the 2011 version and that it, too, would not work after 2014. Again, I'm flabbergasted. Intuit is purposefully making their software not work after a specific period of time. I am livid. I bought the newer version since I had to complete records for a number of clients but felt I was being forced to buy something I did not need due to planned obsolescence.

In general, 2011 seems identical to 2007. I don't need the newer features. I did notice that during reconciliation that often the program added incorrectly.


So, according to this review (and I'm experiencing ALL the same problems) Intuit will make my copy of Quickbooks obsolete after 3 years of using it. I don't think it mattered at all that I just updated my OS - this would have happened in 3 years, regardless. (Yes, I did verify that with service rep guy on the phone).

So, now I'm pissed off. However, I have a lot of stuff on my plate at the moment, so I just roll with the stupid, expensive upgrade.

Here's the thing: like the amazon reviewer above, I only use Quickbooks for two simple functions: invoices and receiving payments. I don't *need* to upgrade every 3 years for additional updates, etc., I am not given a choice, though, if I want to continue using it after 3 years.

The kicker: yes, I get one month free technical support, but after the first month, I will be charged $24.95 AUTOMATICALLY to keep that service going, unless I cancel it before. (Which you bet I'll be doing)

Let's recap:

After 3 years of buying/using this product, I can no longer access my files without "upgrading" for $229.95.

I will also be automatically charged $24.95/month unless I put a note in my calendar to cancel it before the first month is through.

Seems like a huge racket to me.

I admit, I'm playing the game, though. I don't have the time to try to figure out another solution at the moment, and just need for my accounting software to work.

At some point, (after my 3-year lease is up next time) maybe I'll explore other options. Maybe I'll go back to writing my invoices manually in MS Word like I did 15 years ago.

I hate crap like this.