[DM-MUG] TurboTax 2005 experiences

[kcrouch]

Chris, let me save you some time on your research for TaxCut. It's Windows only. So as soon as you purchase that new Dell... Ha! Ha! Ha! And I know that will never happen.

Kendall


>  -------Original Message-------
>  From: Chris Tyrrell <cdtyrrell at mchsi.com>
>  Subject: [DM-MUG] TurboTax 2005 experiences
>  Sent: 24 Jan '06 04:15
>  
>  Good evening all. I thought I'd share my experiences with this year's
>  TurboTax. I'm curious as to whether others out there have had the same
>  problems.
>  
>  I installed it yesterday on my iMac DV, allowed it to download updates,
>  and all was well. My financial picture is quite simple, so within a
>  couple hours, I was ready to submit my state and federal returns. I ran
>  a final error check, which revealed that I needed one more update
>  before I could file. Ok, I thought I did that, but what the heck, let's
>  try again.'s
>  
>  The update check found that I needed no update, or rather, there were
>  no updates to be had. But...I...
>  
>  Ok. Try again with the final review. Again, I need an update. Again,
>  there is no update. I see where this is going. A quick search of
>  TurboTax support site returns nothing useful.
>  
>  Ah, but look! Live chat with a support rep! Just sign in and wait. And
>  wait. And wait.
>  
>  20 minutes later, I gave up on live chat and sent an email. A few
>  minutes later, I received a reply. It's mostly generic, save for an
>  actual name of a support rep and a URL to a page with the answer.
>  Finally, getting somewhere.
>  
>  Open the suggested URL and find instructions for manually installing
>  TurboTax. Not only do I not have a problem installing, but the
>  instructions are INCORRECT! Nothing in the message from support
>  actually attempted to address my issue, so I don't know if the rep was
>  suggesting that I needed to uninstall and reinstall manually, or
>  perhaps he just pulled out a random URL. I suspect the latter. I
>  imagine his incident resolution stats are quite impressive. He got an
>  answer out the door in minutes and closed the ticket. Ok, I'm just
>  guessing that's how it works.
>  
>  Back to the message. It's from a one-way address. I can't reply to it
>  to have a conversation of sorts with anybody in support.
>  
>  Back to the support site, submit a second message, referencing the
>  incident number issued in the first message, explaining the problem
>  again and why the solution was no help. I further offered an opinion
>  regarding the probable intellectual capacity of the the support rep.
>  
>  A few minutes later, a reply to my second submission is received.
>  Again, very generic, but this time with a different name and a
>  different URL. I was doubtful, but I crossed my fingers and opened the
>  URL. Ah, of course. Instructions for manually installing updates under
>  Windows. <sigh> The second support rep seems to be racing the first to
>  the bottom.
>  
>  Ok, back to the support site. This time, I started with their top
>  issues list. Each of the support articles behind these top issues
>  concludes with a few related links. Following these, I eventually came
>  across one about a Final Review Loop.
>  
>  The eventual answer was found in that article. "We are working on a
>  solution to this."
>  
>  I should add that except for one-time dalliance with Tax Cut, I've used
>  TurboTax every year since '92 (it was MacinTax then) and never had a
>  problem. I'll probably continue to use it every year. But I just might
>  give TaxCut another look first.
>  
>  
>  Cheers,
>  Chris
>  
>  
>  "The opinions expressed in this message are not necessarily a
>  reflection of reality or consciousness."Good evening all. I thought I'd share my experiences with this year's
>  TurboTax. I'm curious as to whether others out there have had the same
>  problems.
>  
>  
>  I installed it yesterday on my iMac DV, allowed it to download
>  updates, and all was well. My financial picture is quite simple, so
>  within a couple hours, I was ready to submit my state and federal
>  returns. I ran a final error check, which revealed that I needed one
>  more update before I could file. Ok, I thought I did that, but what
>  the heck, let's try again.'s
>  
>  
>  The update check found that I needed no update, or rather, there were
>  no updates to be had. But...I...
>  
>  
>  Ok. Try again with the final review. Again, I need an update. Again,
>  there is no update. I see where this is going. A quick search of
>  TurboTax support site returns nothing useful.
>  
>  
>  Ah, but look! Live chat with a support rep! Just sign in and wait. And
>  wait. And wait.
>  
>  
>  20 minutes later, I gave up on live chat and sent an email. A few
>  minutes later, I received a reply. It's mostly generic, save for an
>  actual name of a support rep and a URL to a page with the answer.
>  Finally, getting somewhere.
>  
>  
>  Open the suggested URL and find instructions for manually installing
>  TurboTax. Not only do I not have a problem installing, but the
>  instructions are INCORRECT! Nothing in the message from support
>  actually attempted to address my issue, so I don't know if the rep was
>  suggesting that I needed to uninstall and reinstall manually, or
>  perhaps he just pulled out a random URL. I suspect the latter. I
>  imagine his incident resolution stats are quite impressive. He got an
>  answer out the door in minutes and closed the ticket. Ok, I'm just
>  guessing that's how it works.
>  
>  
>  Back to the message. It's from a one-way address. I can't reply to it
>  to have a conversation of sorts with anybody in support.
>  
>  
>  Back to the support site, submit a second message, referencing the
>  incident number issued in the first message, explaining the problem
>  again and why the solution was no help. I further offered an opinion
>  regarding the probable intellectual capacity of the the support rep.
>  
>  
>  A few minutes later, a reply to my second submission is received.
>  Again, very generic, but this time with a different name and a
>  different URL. I was doubtful, but I crossed my fingers and opened the
>  URL. Ah, of course. Instructions for manually installing updates under
>  Windows. <<sigh> The second support rep seems to be racing the first
>  to the bottom.
>  
>  
>  Ok, back to the support site. This time, I started with their top
>  issues list. Each of the support articles behind these top issues
>  concludes with a few related links. Following these, I eventually came
>  across one about a Final Review Loop.
>  
>  
>  The eventual answer was found in that article.
>  "<fontfamily><param>Arial</param><color><param>3333,3333,3333</param>We
>  are working on a solution to this.</color></fontfamily>"
>  
>  
>  I should add that except for one-time dalliance with Tax Cut, I've
>  used TurboTax every year since '92 (it was MacinTax then) and never
>  had a problem. I'll probably continue to use it every year. But I just
>  might give TaxCut another look first.
>  
>  
>  
>  Cheers,
>  
>  Chris
>  
>  
>  
>  "The opinions expressed in this message are not necessarily a
>  reflection of reality or consciousness."_______________________________________________
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