www.blocktax.com/turbotax_2002_boycott-original.htm
Canadian QuickTax last year and to Canadian Quicken this year. On January 10, 2003 PC Magazine wrote 10 Turbo Tax Scheme Irks Users. Extreme Tech wrote 11 TurboTax Customers Strike a Blow Against Intuit and linked 12 C-Dilla user complaints. On January 21 InfoWorld's Foster wrote 13 The Gripe Line has been buzzing with complaints. The Washington Post will soon add a very negative story. Most users will boycott all Intuit products, after wasting up to 8 hours, and want others do so without prompt further changes. A lack of documentation and stealth mode can cause many more system crashes, as more programs write to the sector 32 hard disk area it uses, which should only have format data. I will boycott TurboTax ProSeries ($3,000+ a year) and QB if the gets anything like C-Dilla. He began with a mission to transform how people manage finances by delivering innovative, automated financial solutions. In 1993 all Intuit employees brainstormed about their vision, mission and operating values. Over the next few months teams produced 18 What Matters at Intuit. QB probably moved faster because of the bad QB2000 user reaction. I was one of many who pushed its execs to try to avoid future problems by getting input from an Advisory Council. They now get lots of feedback from us, their 21 Rapid Response Team, QB2002 and 2003 in-program feedback links and 22 web feedback. They also frequently follow up feedback with long surveys and react very much as users wish. TurboTax has 23 web feedback, but apparently has not yet formed its announced advisory council and has no rapid response team. We must now get Intuit to drop C-Dilla before users return many copies of TurboTax and switch to TaxCut. This is very important because user posts show many dropping Turbo Tax also are angrily dropping Quicken for Microsoft Money. Microsoft recently accelerated this by jumping in with an extensive email campaign that offered TaxCut free with Money purchases. It makes no sense because TurboTax sells for as little as $20. Calls for reinstalls probably cost Intuit far more than its TurboTax wholesale price and users of the $3,000 TurboTax ProSeries have no such copy protection. So why should we not immediately extend our a very justified TurboTax 2002 boycott to everything Intuit produces? I respectfully submit that we should not boycott Intuit, except for TurboTax 2002 and 25 Canada's QuickTax, Quicken and QuickBooks, because Intuit products are very valuable to us. We also should not boycott everything Intuit makes because it quickly began correcting its QB2000 and TurboTax 2002 mistakes. Please note that I and almost all clients use TurboTax, TurboTax ProSeries, Quicken, and QB. We have done so for 11+ years and wish to keep doing so. My clients pay my bills, with less than 1% of income from the Intuit Advisory Council and Affiliate program. The Advisory Council would be the least profitable way to spend time, if I did not believe it was the best way to help myself, my clients and (I really believe) my Country. I would not bother with a boycott if I did not think it would help Intuit change, to benefit it and its users. Intuit has long helped countless individuals and small business owners in the United States, Canada and elsewhere. They want to transform the way individuals and small businesses manage their finances, with innovative, automated financial solutions. Now we really need to help Intuit it correct other mistakes, preferably before they happen, so they can better help us. What should Intuit do about unlicensed use of its products? If you are you more qualified to write this (or know who is), would you PLEASE email suggestions or tell me where to find them? Let us begin by admitting Intuit has C-Dilla because there is rampant unlicensed use (stealing) of computer programs. In some places 97% of software is supposedly unlicensed. An early Word Perfect ad said the number of users was many times the number of copies sold. However, when an early copy protection company offered $25,000 to anyone who could crack it, my customer did so in three days. Around then the dominant dBase company bought a prominent copy protection company. It erased hard drives of unlicensed users, until a licensed user sued for $50 million for an erased drive. Improper posts of legal serial numbers and crack efforts are easily found days after programs come out. Stealing hurts computer program publishers and legitimate users. They can give legitimate users better programs, better service and lower prices, with more left for stockholders or employees. That is why we need effective copy protection without C-Dilla. Intuit thought it was the best way to stop illegal copying, but it must honor its continuing obligation to fully inform you. Without that you cannot intelligently agree to its software license agreements. How can you trust Intuit if it bugs your home by hiding a C-Dilla in TurboTax? Once we have a QB serial number it has long been too easy to keep installing it. Without better ways to protect TurboTax, Quicken, QB and other programs then all programs may soon have C-Dilla. I most respectfully submit that Intuit should revolutionize copy protection with a cafeteria plan, disclosing your options and letting you choose what you prefer. As with any cafeteria plan, you should be able to switch protection alternatives as needed . Here are user suggested alternatives: One: Intuit has a better way. QBupdate runs when QuickBooks does, to access Intuit computers when registering or updating. Many advise turning Automatic Update Off, as we do not want an update until time passes without problem reports. This also relates to wanting to know what an update really does. We do not want QBupdate calling intuit each time we open QB, as updates average one a month. However, what if Intuit let legitimate users, with web access, CHOOSE to use QBupdate to avoid the C-Dilla for QuickBooks? What if Intuit used an automatic check to verify it does not have the same registration number running on different systems and let us turn off numbers while uninstalling QB? Intuit should be able to easily and inexpensively adapt QBupdate this way for QB, TurboTax and Quicken and could even sell it to other companies. Two: TurboTax can link to user social security numbers, with up to four returns included in the base TT price. This gives Intuit more money from those who have long violated its license by using regular TT for commercial use. Yes, it means TT will transmit a social security number, with a serial number. It does not need to transmit name, address or other data, so it can do this before or after you enter income and expenses. Intuit already has pay per return options working with its TurboTax ProSeries and LaCerte programs. It also could do this by phone to avoid privacy concerns. Three: The program installation CD could include copy protection technology and only let you run TurboTax when the install CD is in your CD drive. As with the second alternative, this can be effective even if the program only checks it occasionally. Four: Intuit said it gets too many e-filed filed returns for the number of copies of TurboTax. It can monitor this by TurboTax serial number, limit it to one address, or charge a small amount for filings after the first. Should Intuit end our boycott by simply promising something like this for next year? For 11+ years I relied on QB, Quicken and TurboTax and helped my clients with them. For years I was a QB Certified Pro Adviser, top beta tester, visitor to Intuit headquarters, etc. You now have me on an Intuit-paid QB Advisory Council and will soon have a Turbo Tax Advisory Council. That is why I am so sad some Intuit friends made a very bad mistake by bugging your home without adequately telling you. As usual, I never want protests and boycotts to damage Intuit. To the contrary, I use them only to correct mistakes that will otherwise really damage it. Most important, would you please help Intuit with your 28 web feedback.
|
http://csua.com/feed/