Intuit Sucks

I’ve been using QuickBooks for over 20 years, and been using Quicken for even longer.

Intuit Sucks - Jackie Chan

Neither was ever cheap, and the user interface and ease of use, well, gently put, left a lot to be desired. There were also technical issues, and were not always trivial to solve or get a solution for (and I’m pretty damn technical).

But, they were pretty much the de facto standard, and if you want overall for connections with other banks etc. to work, they were the gold standard, even if it was fool’s gold.

It was already annoying that they forced you to upgrade, making online sync/bill pay with banks stop after the software version was 2-3 years old. Annoying, but for about $200 cost for a good version with many features, that could be used for unlimited companies, and good for about three years, reasonable.

This year they discontinued the desktop version altogether. You can’t get a desktop version, the desktop version stops working with banks which renders it useless, and the only option they sell is an subscription based online version.

OK, you might say, if it works, that’s where the world is heading, SAAS is being done for many years now. I’d agree. In principal.

Assuming the online version is the best thing since sliced bread (giving them the benefit of the doubt), I wanted to switch and looked online – information was so partial and confusing that I opened a chat. First part seemed to be automated, fine, then I got to chat with a person (not pronounces can be used safely anymore, so assuming it was someone considering themselves (that was a trap right here) to be human, I’ll refer to it (ouch) as a person). That person was all “awesome” and “great” and “gotcha” and “I’ll find the best discount for you”. So, after half an hour of interrogating me of what I needed, which was really the very minimum, their cheapest and most basic version will do more than I need, that person gave me a price, a monthly subscription, for their best discount ever for my first year! Woohoo! How much you ask? Comes out to be $600/year for that super duper discounted first year, and $1,200/year after that.

Let do a quick calculation, ever with my fabulous discount, to compare it with the desktop version I’ve been using for over two decades. For three years my cost of the online version will be $600+$1,200+$1,200 i.e. Total for three years $3,000 before tax. The last desktop version I purchased on May 13 2019 was $166.73 before tax, had way more features, unlimited companies, and lasted 3 years before they stopped my access to online banking which renders it useless.

So, $3,000 compared to $166.73 for a lesser product. That’s 18 times more expensive. You say, sure, adjust for inflation. Ha, OK, let’s, inflation for the last 3 years, cumulative, was 13% (mostly this year, LGB) so $166.73 is $188.40. Happy? That’s 16 times more. And since inflation is now over 8% annually and rising, I’m sure subscription prices will go up too, and the actual factor will will be more like 20 times more.

So, I’m dropping intuit altogether and will find alternatives. Because Intuit sucks.

SIDE NOTES: There are many other things to not like about Quickbooks and Quicken – it is very unintuitive, they intentionally limit abilities like import and export, customer service is really bad, undoing something is really difficult, etc. etc. … People still use them (accountants especially) as they gained market share at the very beginning and held on to it by locking you into using them – like a gym that is very easy to sign up to, but nearly impossible to cancel your membership. Yep, they suck.

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2 thoughts on “Intuit Sucks”

  1. YOU ARE SO…RIGHT!

    Intuit presents this ‘we care about our customers’ in their press interactions and advertising, but the truth of the matter is this:

    Intuit has utilized the vertical market power it possesses to create the world’s largest affiliated Accounting Business and Tax Preparation Business. Intuit created more and more dependence upon their product by small businesses across the world using the same methodology of cigarette manufacturers: massive advertising, easy to use product, that until very recently was the only somewhat ‘low priced software’ that could also deal with complexity as the business grew. The pricing of $250, discounted, to $4,000, for fully integrated systems utilizing barcoding, RFID, and etc…was reasonable.

    However, the big push to SAS and SAAS by the tech world may have benefited some industries but the SAAS product that Intuit has force fed the world absolutely SUCKS in comparison to the desktop we all know and hate 😉 bring back DESKTOP QUICKBOOKS your online version SUCKS ‘hind tits on a boar hog’!

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  2. Intuit is garbage,do not use it as it is a joke.Not simple,not easy.Just a pain in the butt,waste of time.Seriously dont bother,horrible….

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