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Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Now I hate Quicken and I hate Intuit. Eat dirt and die!

Long ago, I liked Intuit's money-management software Quicken Basic. It came at a reasonable price and helped me control my peculiar financial situation.

I "upgraded" to Quicken 2005 when I got it practically for free at tax-time and was disappointed: it was buggier than my previous version and bloated with many features I didn't want, while things that had previously worked well worked less well than in the earlier version.

Intuit has a diabolical Planned Obsolescence program for its software: all users of Quicken 2005 are being forced, as of April 30 (today), to "upgrade" to Quicken 2008 if they want to continue using its online features.

Intuit does not allow any penetration of its corporation. Unlike almost any other company, according to gethuman.com) (fabulous website, by the way): Intuit does not support inbound calls. Go to www.quickendirect.com/phone and request a callback. 5 AM to 5 PM PT, M-F only. 800-811-8766.

I did call this number, I wanted to ask: "Isn't there any way I can pay to continue my on-line access per se and not have to "upgrade" to a new version of your product, which, I expect, will be even slower and more bloated than the last?"

I tried twice on two different days. Nobody at Intuit ever called back.

As it turns out, one cannot buy Quicken Basic 2008, because there is no such thing. The cheapest program one can now buy is Quicken Deluxe 2008. This surely must be to justify the gigantic jump in price. (The tag on the box I bought says $64.99. I got it cheaper but not by enough.)

So here it comes in the mail, and it overwhelms me with its excessive packaging (no doubt to justify its huge price and huge shipping/handling fee).

I put a nice little Netflix mailer in the picture for comparison.



The two packages - (1) the Netflix paper mailer and (2) the Quicken box, plastic tray, advertising, huge cardboard box, and huge plastic bag - each contain precisely the same thing: one cd.

Another win to institutional greed in all its glory. Another unnecessary conglomeration of egregious detritus.

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14 Comments:

At 2:50 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!
another rippedoffbyintuit....may i post this at my site? www.rippedoffbyintuit.com? or www.ihateit.com?

 
At 8:24 PM, Blogger melinama said...

Sure, you can post it as long as you include a link back here! Good luck!

 
At 7:16 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I discovered this planned obsolescence thing a few years ago. I had actually upgraded to 2005 or 2006 voluntarily and then took it off my machine because I didn't like all the added bloat and features.

When I was finally forced to upgrade, I refused to buy from intuit. I went to ebay and bought a previous year version that would still qualify for on line access. I realize that they still got some money out of the deal and that I'm tilting at windmills, but it made me feel a little better.

Really enjoy your Jethro tales and pictures.
Bill

 
At 2:05 PM, Blogger Maria said...

Hello, I downloaded some of your free Hannukah songs posted a while ago, December 2005. I would like to use them for a film project I'm doing through my school. Please e-mail me at makssmart@yahoo.com as soon as possible, I'm starting the project in a few days overseas. Ladino songs are scarce, especially instrumental stuff.

Best Wishes,
Marija

 
At 4:03 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Quicken arbitrarily changed banks from CITI to Chase. The info came while I was on vacation so I missed the limited time to download my CITI credit card transactions. They are now lost. Also all credits toward the rewards programs on the CITI card are not transfered. Chase claims no responsibility. Impossible to get any response from Intuit. Does anybody have a replacement service for Quicken? I want to dump them and replace them with a not hyped up and responsive service that does what the original Quicken did.

 
At 5:21 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Add me to the list. I bet Intuit is now run by some jerk with a Harvard MBA that treats their technical people like scum -- just like my "technical" company.

 
At 2:04 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

YES!! Intuit is terrible. Not only is Quicken a mess but so is their Quickbooks family of RIP-OFF's. Now it seems that TurboTax 2008 "DELUXE" has issues as well. My prior experience with their anti-customer service just adds fuel to the fire that the Intuit company and their entire family of misfits should be rounded up and launched into the sun. I hate them.

 
At 3:00 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

God I hate them too. My revenge is
never buying another intuit
product again. Never.

I dont even hate microsoft this much

 
At 9:03 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

I have used Quicken since 1988 and have been ticked-off since 2005 or so. Every forced upgrade has gotten worse with feature bloat and interface confusion. It is the primary cause for losing control of my personnel record keeping because I just didn't have the time to learn how to use new version. The records pile in from my various accounts but its just a huge mess. There is no other software company that is so inconsiderate of it customers in my opininon.

 
At 3:45 PM, Blogger Hyco6 said...

Everyhing that has been said about Intuit Quicken is true. What a piece of manure. Getting help after you have spent $69. and the 2010 does not work that a normal brain can figure out and all the figures are messed up and the computer does not work right after removing 2009 and installing 2010. Here I am with no computer waiting for a call back from Intuit.
hyco

 
At 2:11 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Intuit is surely the most hated software company in the universe. The instant a viable alternative becomes available, Intuit will discover that almost all of their customers HATE Intuit and will never renew a subscription. If I owned stock in Intuit I would be concerned that management has managed to alienate all the customers. Companies like Intuit deserve to die; any foolish enough to invest in the stock deserve to lose their money.

 
At 7:38 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Quicken? Quicken? Oh....I remember them! Those dirty scoundrels had some sort of "partnership" with Bank of AmeriKa (which we the tax payers were forced to bail out). You know what I did? I dumped Quacken, dumped Windows and went with Ubuntu (Linux) and use GnuCash accounting software. I am so glad I did! GnuCash, while not the prettiest money program around, provides an excellent way to keep track of your money.

Dump Quicken. Rip off waste of money.

 
At 9:51 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I wrote to the FTC and complained that Quicken is a monopoly and acts like one. You should write too! We need some competition.

 
At 7:32 AM, Anonymous david said...

yes! i think you article is very useful.
I hate Quicken and I hate Intuit.

 

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