Intuit Apologizes to Turbo Tax Customers

tstoneman writes "Intuit has issued an apology for aggravating $50-90 million in customers over their product activation code. Let's hope that they have learned their lesson, and that other companies will heed this warning. Nonetheless, I am still seething over their malware that they installed without letting me know, and despite the apology, I will be moving to Taxcut permanently from now on."

Comments

I say support them

[CyberSnyder]

They're showing that companies can actually listen to their customers. Support them and maybe other companies will take notice.

Re:I say support them

[squarooticus]

Or kill them, and no company will ever think of crossing its customers like that.

As as result of the Divx debacle from over 5 years ago, I still won't shop at Circuit Shitty. And I suspect I'm not the only one. I have to imagine that this has had some impact on the rise of Best Buy in the northeast.

Re:I say support them

[Curunir_wolf]

I say don't.

I used turbotax every year for several years (yes, I bought my own copy), but I heard about the DRM in the last version and went with H&R Block's software instead (cheaper anyway, and imported my old turbotax files just fine).

It's nice that they seem to realize they made a mistake, but an apology won't get me back as a customer. They tried this once, and have proven simply that they cannot be trusted. That trust (especially for financial software) is important, and it will take a lot more than some lame apology to rebuid that trust.

Use the web version

[HTMLSpinnr]

Use the web version. One cost, no malware, and usable from anywhere with a browser!

Re:Expenses

[pudding7]

The headline is confusing to $50 - $75 percent of customers.

Double Standards?

[dre80]

Ok, here's what I want to know: Why is it that Intuit got such a backlash from this that they removed the protection scheme and even issued a public apology, but Microsoft gets away with the same thing and even worse yet with their Windows XP product activation? It baffles me how this kind of thing is just ignored when Microsoft does it...

Best Buy?

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean the store chain that has people arrested if they bring a pad and paper and copy down prices to compare? (Washington DC a few years ago).

Or perhaps the Best Buy that advertised that NVidia (I think) video card, then took it back and said the offer was no good, and then called the cops when the one customer came in with the coupon and wanted his video card (That one was on Slashdot).

That must be the "customer friendly" Best Buy you are talking about.

Negative things

[onyxruby]

Too often companies hear only negative things and don't hear from customers when they do the right thing. They boned up, apologized, and have said they won't do it next year. So why not let them know they did the right thing? At the bottom of their page with the activation numbers is a rating and comment box for how effective the solution was.

Oh the irony...

[retro128]

The delicious irony of it all is that Intuit thought they could get more sales by treating their customers like criminals. Now the apology letters are flying and they are trying to get their market share back. I hope the RIAA is watching.

Re:Lesson?

[L-Train8]

There were like 15 million TurboTax returns in 2001 - and 5.5 million copies of TurboTax sold.

This does not mean that there were 10 million pirated copies of TurboTax. This means that people did their own taxes and their mom's taxes and maybe their neighbor's taxes with the software they bought. I don't care what the EULA says, that is not piracy. You don't have to buy a new copy of Microsoft Office each time you write a letter.

It gets into another big argument, but the idea that companies can tell you how you are allowed to use their product after you legally purchase it is pretty flawed. The reason so many average people commit the crime of piracy so often is because the restrictions companies are trying to place on ridiculous. Why would someone think it would be illegal to do their mom's taxes with the software they bought? You don't have to buy another car if you let your friend drive it.

One of the advantages that using software has over using a CPA is that it can be used over again for the same price. Part of Intuit's problem was that what consumers saw as a big advantage in using their product, Intuit saw as a crime. In order to stop this percieved crime, Intuit took away one of the big selling points of their software.

I'm glad they eventually learned their lesson, but I'm with a lot of folks here on /. After being ripped off by Intuit once, why should I go back?

They listen to revenue, not customers

[sacrilicious]

They're showing that companies can actually listen to their customers. Support them and maybe other companies will take notice.

They do not listen to customers, they listen to revenue. They put in DRM believing it would increase their revenue; as the article says, "[Intuit] predicted that revenue would increase, since customers who had previously purchased only one TurboTax program would have to buy a separate copy for each computer in the house". No part of that plan serves the customer. Similarly, the only reason they changed it is because they lost a ton of money.

It just so happened in this case that customers were able to weild enough power to hurt their revenues. Thinking that they "listened to customers" is to miss the fact that they would have continued to screw customers as long as they could have squeezed more revenue out of them by doing so. That they changed course here is not to their credit in any sense other than that they're not pathologically oblivious to the failure of their plan to screw customers.