I believe in sharing warnings and recommendations with my friends, customers, and anyone who might otherwise be deceived by scheisty corporate practices. That being said, if you are a small business owner and are considering purchasing Intuit Quickbooks (small business financial software), please read on.
I’ve been a registered user of Quickbooks since 2003 or so. Just last night I installed my new Quickbooks Pro 2009 software. A red flag went up when I was forced to call Intuit to complete my registration. Miscrosoft doesn’t require me to call them; Adobe doesn’t require me to call them; why does Intuit need me to call them? Was I going to be pitched a Service Plan? I was first told by the Intuit employee that my wife could NOT sit at MY computer and use MY registered copy of Quickbooks to help me with MY bookkeeping. Excuse me? I verified what he told me, and then told him that this was an absolutely absurd policy.
Next came the extended support plan pitch. I was told (and their website confirms) that my first thirty days of registered ownership come with FREE technical support (which I needed immediately due to a configuration problem; Quickbooks was intended for 32-bit systems, not 64-bit), but that in order to get this support I had to sign up for a support plan and give them my credit card number (for which I would be auto-billed after the thirty days had passed; I would need to call and cancel it then if I didn’t want it). I again confirmed that my first thirty days of ownership came with FREE technical support (he agreed), and demanded the support they guaranteed but refused to supply Intuit with my credit card number. I was then told that I would have to pay $79.95 for the technical support call since I was unwilling to subscribe to the service plan I was pitched. EXCUSE ME?
I made sure to verify that the telephone call was being recorded, and then I let him (and Intuit) have it about their absurd “customer service” and sleazy ad practices and tactics. I would have never upgraded to Quickbooks Pro 2009 nor bought Intuit products again had I known that as a paying customer I would be treated this way. Intuit: I do not appreciate being insulted and treated like a fool, and I resent the fact that you’re taking advantage of people who may not be as confrontational as myself.
Dog bless the WWW. I have recourse. My complaint has been filed with the California Better Business Bureau, and I’m making certain that as many people as possible can know about your practices. I’ll be honest: I love your software, but I HATE YOU. Behave like you respect and need your customers (because you do need them). You may get away with bullying some of your customers, but some of them will win.
Screw YOU, Intuit. Never again. I win.
You are visiting the blog of fine art photographer Michael E. Gordon. For additional photos and information, please visit his official website.
MICHAEL E. GORDON PHOTOGRAPHY 