Rating: 
Summary: Intuit's new "Rent-a-Use" software
Review: I have been using Intuit's Products for many years now. I have always keep up to latest releases (to a reasonable extent). I use: Quicken, Quickbooks, Personal Lawyer, Business Lawyer and Quickbooks (mostly for Payroll). Several hundred dollars a year.The first grip I have with Intuit's products is everytime I install or upgrade one of their products I have to spend 5 or 10 minutes cleaning their "additional" icons splatted on my desktop. You always get their own Promotional Icons and "Try AOL" icon. You do not have an option to stop this from happening. I hate a cluttered desktop and I hate anyone who presumes to install software on my computer thats is not part of what I am intending to do. Now they are installing Spyware with TurboTax--HOW DARE THEY!!! Now for the reason I called TurboTax "Rent-a-Use" software. I installed TurboTax Deluxe and had to activiate it on this computer. I did not realize that the activation was controlled thru spyware using up my computer resources. You cannot remove the spyware because TurboTax will not work anymore. Not a problem I thought, as soon I finish with TurboTax I will de-install the software and everything will be fine. Ha. I then used the State Download Wizard to get my "free" state version that comes with the Deluxe version. First I had to give them my Credit Card and it was charged [$$] which I have to send in a rebate from and wait 6 weeks to get my money back (assuming it does not get lost). I was concerned that it would not allow be to save the State software to a backup file. I would need it later if I had to re-file, bought a new computer or just de-installed TurboTax. I contacted Customer support and basically I was told if I thought I might need later I should not de-install it. BECAUSE IF I DID I WOULD HAVE TO PAY AGAIN TO RE-ACTIVATE AT THE FULL PURCHASE PRICE. Anger is not the word I would use to describe how I felt. I cannot believe that I can only rent their software. Its obvious I do not own it. How long will it be before all their software is like this? Time to change:
Quicken = Microsoft Money
TurboTax = TaxCut (had a better writeup)
Quickbooks = for payroll only, I still looking--any suggestions? By the way Intuit charges an annual fee for keeping the Payroll taxes up to date ([$$]). My subscription ran out in [date].
No problem, there were not any tax changes to worry about in that time frame, so I decide to wait until there were. Why pay for a subscription when there is any thing to update?. I proceeded to run January's payroll on [date] and Quickbook does more than just warn you that your Tax Tables may be out-of-date--it no longer works correctly and this it does not warn you about. It did not calulate my State Tax as a deduction. I caught it, but I could have faced penalities from the State had I not pay them in time. We have to stop Software manufacturers from doing things like this. They have a right to protect theirselves against pirates, but we have rights too. First we have Microsoft with their "registered computer" Office XP and now we have this incidious spyware "rent-a-use" software from Intuit. Recommendation: Don't buy or upgrade any of Intuit's products.
Spend your money on better software. If Intuit starts to lose money they may start caring about the consumer again, however, after my dealings with customer service I doubt it.
Rating:
Summary: Used to be an OK product...
Review: I've been using TT since early '90s, but now their new secret anti-copying program (which they keep invisible even if you look in the directory) is going to make you jump thru hoops that you never had to jump thru before. Get a new computer? You may have to buy a new license from Intuit--that's what one of their CSRs AND his supervisor said. Get a bigger hard drive? Same answer. What about 2 or 3 years from now if you want to re-install TT to look at an old return OR you need to file an Amended return? Same answer. Intuit spokesman in a public response said: "...Intuit isn't concerned about losing sales due to the activation dispute....".
Unfortunately I had already purchased TT and sent in the rebate, otherwise I would be buying TaxCut, which will be my product next year unless they get stoopid too, in which case there are other very competant programs available to do just as good a job as TT or TaxCut.
BTW - if you burn copies of your CDs for use in your car or Walkman, or just of your favorite songs on one CD, you won't be able to do that if you are running TT, b/c their hidden program disables your CDR/RW drive. Who loves ya?
Rating:
Summary: Don't Know How to treat Loyal Customers
Review: I have been using TurboTax every year since 1995. This year they added an activation process to the program which locked up my system on install then would not activate. They told me sorry you need to buy it again, nothing we can do for you! Well I returned it for a refund to BJ's Wholesale Club and purchased H&R TaxCut Deluxe for less money. It imported my TurboTax data from last year just fine and no silly activation codes.
Rating: 
Summary: Intuit Should Consider
Review: I've used Turbo Tax for over 10 years and I've always installed on both my home and office computer. Why? I like to fill out the forms at home and then bring the completed file to work to print since it takes way too long to print at home. I understand why they are limiting installation to 1 machine, but they should allow a portion of the program to be loaded on multiple CPUs for print only. I've decided to try out TaxCut this year.
Rating:
Summary: Moving to TaxCut...
Review: I echo everybody's comments... Intuit miscalculated... TaxCut is my accountant now!
Rating:
Summary: *** WARNING READ THIS BEFORE INSTALLATION ***
Review: C-Dilla will be installed on your drive WITHOUT you knowing it. Read all about it ...To quote:
"Well wonder no more - product activation has now made its way into one of the most popular software programs ever created, TurboTax. And, as an extra bonus, the latest release of TurboTax comes with Macrovisions's obnoxious C-Dilla malware. C-Dilla prevents you from copying the CD by disabling your CD-RW drive. That means it's monitoring your CD writing activities all the time. As if you needed more processes running on your machine. Early reports from some users indicate that C-Dilla has caused interference with other software and that it is inordinately difficult to get rid of, perhaps requiring a low-level hard disk format. And to make things even dicier, Intuit apparently did not overtly inform purchasers of the new TurboTax that C-Dilla was included and would be installed on their systems. "
Rating:
Summary: My Letter to Intuit
Review: Dear Intuit, I am absolutely appalled by your choice to install the C-Dilla software on my computer. If I would have known about this, I would never have bought your product, and most certainly would not have installed it. There must be other ways (Microsoft does it) to do product activation without leaving a program running on my computer all of the time. You have tampered with my computer and violated my trust...and yet you expect me to trust YOU with all of my tax financial data. Recently, I tried to make an audio CD with my CD burner. The CD was unplayable, even after another attempt at burning. I was very concerned that C-Dilla is the cause. I uninstalled it using the uninstaller recently posted on your website, but I don't really know if it uninstalled everything. I still couldn't make an audio CD. After switching to "Track-At-Once" mode, my audio CD burned properly. Now, did C-Dilla mess me up? I don't know. I never had this problem before, but I do keep my CD burning software up-to-date. So, something could have changed there. The point is, you are causing pain and suffering, whether or not your program is actually doing anything malicious. Think about it----there is an active program that I do not want, and do not know what it does, showing up as running, and using memory, in my computer's task manager! After at least 5 years of using TurboTax, I will not be buying TurboTax ever again, without removal of this malicious code, admission of wrongdoing on your part, and refunds to those customers that you burned before the C-Dilla story broke in the press.
Rating:
Summary: Thanks for the Info
Review: like the rest of the contributors to these reviews I have used Turbo Tax for at least 5 years. It was always dependable and saved me lots of time. However, based upon what I have read here I will never buy it again. I'm glad I read these reviews because I was peparing to buy the program again and the box says nothing about the "spy" programs. I also have to do tax returns for my kids so being abl;e to do only one return makes this software totally unacceptable!!!!! The only question I have is whether this is something new or have they been doing it for years???
Rating:
Summary: Corporate arrogance at is worst.
Review: Microsoft-style authentication is bad enough; at least they do it right. I just migrated all my software to a new hard drive, and all the Microsoft products happily re-registered themselves, without any of them accusing me of attempting to "pirate" their software. Same deal for Norton AntiVirus. The one and only software package that screwed this up was TurboTax, which told me I could only install it on one computer (I guess a new hard drive equals a new computer?!) and prompted me to purchase a new license. I eventually located an 800 number, only to learn that they only take calls during regular business hours, when most of us, myself included, have better things to do. When I finally got ahold of someone a couple of days later, I had to work with two different people and reinstall the software twice before someone finally got it to work. Now I'm worried that if I so much as sneeze on my computer between now and April 15th, TurboTax will define my computer as a "new" computer and disable itself all over again. And don't even get me started on the spyware! If Intuit cares that much about preventing us from using two or more computers to complete a tax return, and that little about giving us a reason to want their product in the first place, then I guess they don't really need our business that badly. Tell these jerks to take a hike; get TaxCut instead.
Rating:
Summary: No, thanks
Review: I'm a 5-year TT user who is switching to H&R Block's tax software this year. If I want product activation, malware, spyware and ... customer service, I'll buy Windows XP, download Gator and BonziBuddy and buy an IBM laptop, thank you very much. It only gets 1 star because I can't go any lower. And as someone who recommends software and hardware purchases for friends and family, I'm going to make sure no one buys TT from now on.
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