TurboTax apology and refund

MichaelB

MichaelB

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TurboTax acknowledges they messed up and will refund $25 to some customers unexpectedly forced to upgrade. Their notice is here https://turbotax.intuit.com/modals/goodwill-letter/

We are giving $25 back if you purchased TurboTax Deluxe desktop software (CD or download) and filed your 2013 tax return and have to upgrade to TurboTax Premier or Home & Business to file your 2014 return. This will help you move to the right desktop product, while reducing the immediate and unexpected financial impact.
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Sincerely,


Sasan Goodarzi and the TurboTax Team
General Manager, Intuit TurboTax
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I read the above name on the letter as "Susan" and thought "If I were her I wouldn't have included my photo with the message..." :nonono:
 
At some level, I give 'em credit for admitting their mistake.
 
ERhoosier said:
At some level, I give 'em credit for admitting their mistake.
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Damage control in its finest form. I'm not so forgiving.

They created a problem in allowing inconsistencies in the online and download/CD versions of their software...
However, as new online and mobile technologies emerged, our products, and the tax scope and features they included, began to differ...
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...then sought to resolve the problem by making their customers pay to upgrade to a more expensive version.

Instead of taking the high road to correct this self-induced problem by adding Schedules C, D, E and F from TurboTax Deluxe to the online version, they chose to remove it from the download/CD version. Not only would this solve the consistency problem, but margins would get a nice boost when more customers moved from Deluxe to Premium.

A very innovative marketing strategy - forcing the customer to pay for their mistake. I would have been far more impressed if they'd apologized with a $30 credit (the actual cost of the upgrade) rather than $25. They are still trying to make the customer pay... :nonono:
 
I'll be asking for my $25. I planned on buying Premier anyway because I have a rental this year, but I might as well get my refund. I way overpaid for Premier anyway after hearing that I could have gotten it for nothing through Vanguard.
 
Typical Intuit. I think their intention was to force customers to upgrade all along. They just tried to "stage" it by changing the online features first.

Although we'll keep using the software as long as our brokerage supports the habit. I really wonder what kind of arrangement Intuit has with Schwab, Vanguard and Fidelity.
 
REWahoo said:
Damage control in its finest form. I'm not so forgiving.

They created a problem in allowing inconsistencies in the online and download/CD versions of their software...
...then sought to resolve the problem by making their customers pay to upgrade to a more expensive version.

Instead of taking the high road to correct this self-induced problem by adding Schedules C, D, E and F from TurboTax Deluxe to the online version, they chose to remove it from the download/CD version. Not only would this solve the consistency problem, but margins would get a nice boost when more customers moved from Deluxe to Premium.

A very innovative marketing strategy - forcing the customer to pay for their mistake. I would have been far more impressed if they'd apologized with a $30 credit (the actual cost of the upgrade) rather than $25. They are still trying to make the customer pay... :nonono:
Click to expand...

+1 have been a loyal customer for many years but this made me :mad:
 
I use Yahoo services a lot -- mail, stock historical data, etc. They need to make some money to compete with the other tech firms. I'm OK with giving them a little and so I cut them some slack.

To me the TurboTax product is a great deal.
 
$25 is nice but there are no instructions for how to claim it.
 
Chuckanut said:
Me thinks they outsmarted themselves. :confused:
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Yes, finally! Maybe they won't be quite so cavalier in their tactics in the future.

I was always mad at them for deciding not to continue developing Quicken on the Mac after 2007. But the actual result have turned out better for me. They've continued to keep the 2007 Quicken limping along, even updating for critical issues. And Mac OS users don't get the forced obselence of Windows users - of having to upgrade every couple of years to keep being able to download transaction data from financial institutions.

Their Mac version of Quicken 2015 is so behind Mac Quicken 2007 in functionality that it's useless to me.

Somehow I keep limping along with 2007.
 
audreyh1 said:
Yes, finally! Maybe they won't be quite so cavalier in their tactics in the future.

I was always mad at them for deciding not to continue developing Quicken on the Mac after 2007. But the actual result have turned out better for me. They've continued to keep the 2007 Quicken limping along, even updating for critical issues. And Mac OS users don't get the forced obselence of Windows users - of having to upgrade every couple of years to keep being able to download transaction data from financial institutions.

Their Mac version of Quicken 2015 is so behind Mac Quicken 2007 in functionality that it's useless to me.

Somehow I keep limping along with 2007.
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You are not missing anything. Their "upgrades" have really just been 3 year licensing fees. Very few changes, especially for desktop users.
 
JoeWras said:
You are not missing anything. Their "upgrades" have really just been 3 year licensing fees. Very few changes, especially for desktop users.
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I didn't care about anything new. I just wanted it to continue to run as is. I've run into file corruption a couple of times, and some other issues. New OS support on MacOS has been the real hurdle at times, but somehow eventually things get running again.

An interesting technique for me that has worked on corrupted file is to move it to another Mac computer. Download/run whatever. Then move the file back, and somehow it is no longer corrupted. :eek:

This latest - they fixed a bug at the end of 2014 that had stopped me in my tracks in October. Their ability to download transactions was out of date and financial institutions no longer supplied the old format. But, thankfully, Intuit did finally update Mac Quicken 2007. Because no way would I get the Mac version 2015 to run like I'm used to.
 
REWahoo said:
They created a problem in allowing inconsistencies in the online and download/CD versions of their software...
...then sought to resolve the problem by making their customers pay to upgrade to a more expensive version.
Click to expand...

REWahoo said:
Then do it up front and with full disclosure, not by attempting to confuse and mislead.
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I'm not so sure this a problem with consistency and think it was a pricing strategy. Three years ago DD complained she couldn't use free TT online any longer to do her taxes because of schedule D, one small capital gain transaction. Two years ago I sat down with her to do the online version, and sure enough, schedule D online required a different version than the desktop equivalent.

It seems to me they changed (degraded) the functionality of the online version as a market test, to gauge the reaction. There was apparently very little, so they felt this change would meet less resistance.

Just a theory (or WAG), but I fully agree with the need for disclosure.
 
MichaelB said:
I'm not so sure this a problem with consistency and think it was a pricing strategy. Three years ago DD complained she couldn't use free TT online any longer to do her taxes because of schedule D, one small capital gain transaction. Two years ago I sat down with her to do the online version, and sure enough, schedule D online required a different version than the desktop equivalent.

It seems to me they changed (degraded) the functionality of the online version as a market test, to gauge the reaction. There was apparently very little, so they felt this change would meet less resistance.

Just a theory (or WAG), but I fully agree with the need for disclosure.
Click to expand...

They claim that only 20% of their customers are not online. But maybe they don't appreciate WHICH customers those are. We have an aversion to entering ANY of our financial information on-line other than directly to one of our banks or brokerages, or the IRS or US Treasury. So we will NEVER use an on-line product to file our taxes. And maybe many of the folks who needed Schedule D are similar to us. So when they tried to pull the switch on us download version customers, all hell broke loose. Because maybe we are also the types less tolerant of such shenanigans.

I also wonder how many last year (or the year before) simply switched to the download version when they noticed the feature change.
 
audreyh1 said:
They claim that only 20% of their customers are not online. But maybe they don't appreciate WHICH customers those are. We have an aversion to entering ANY of our financial information on-line other than directly to one of our banks or brokerages, or the IRS or US Treasury. So we will NEVER use an on-line product to file our taxes.
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+1

I think you have it all there.
 
My cup runneth over with the current TT shenanigans since it seems I would need Home & business (pesky schedule F not in Premier according to Vanguard) so I downloaded Taxact for a princely $21. I haven't actually used it yet since I don't have 1099's and a whole bunch of other stuff yet. Who knows, maybe I'll go back to TT with my tail between my legs or perhaps not...
 
I wonder if this applies only to those who e-file. I can't efile, so I think I am hosed.
 
They've been subtly doing this for years. I don't buy any of their explanations.

For example, they used to have the employee stock option wizard in Deluxe. Then a few years ago, they promoted that to Premier. You could still do an NQSO entry "by hand", but it just took more hand calculation. I caved and moved to Premier, so I've been there a while.

Pretty soon everything will be in Premier.

Really wondering what they'll eventually do with ACA. People who need ACA help the most are least likely to afford the higher priced versions.
 
I have used TurboTax for better than a decade for both personal and business taxes, but I decided I was done with Intuit when the news of the "you gotta buy Premiere to file Schedule D" hit.

I bought H&R Block online over the Christmas break. Its going to be a bit painful entering all the information from prior years returns by hand rather than importing, but once its done its done and ready for future years.

No more Intuit for me.
 
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FinanceGeek said:
I have used TurboTax for better than a decade for both personal and business taxes, but I decided I was done with Intuit when the news of the "you gotta buy Premiere to file Schedule D" hit.

I bought H&R Block online over the Christmas break. Its going to be a bit painful entering all the information from prior years returns by hand rather than importing, but once its done its done and ready for future years.

No more Intuit for me.
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This is where I'm at. I bought Premier this year, but I also sent H&R Block a request for a free copy of their software. I'll do my taxes in both this year and if I don't run into any issues with H&R, I'll go with them next year. I'd love to also try TaxAct, but they don't have a mac version.

I also gave up on Quicken a couple of years ago. I hated the forced upgrades, not because of the cost, but because something never worked right afterwards. I went to Moneydance which has worked out great. At this point, I think it'd be hard for me to go back to any of Intuit's products.
 
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