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Dear Chris, thanks for your great service. Now, for a little heads up to your community. I am pastor of a very poor parish on the Texas / Mexico border. The parish offer several social services, for which we have been dependent on grants. We chose Quickbooks for the accounting that grant writing requires. And we have been happy with Quickbooks–for six years now. No longer. Last week, when we finally had to upgrade our computer, we inherited XP. With that change, our Quickbooks verson 6 would not work. We called “customer serviceÂ? (which has become an oxymoron like “military intelligenceÂ?, “tax rebateÂ?, “free checkingÂ?) who kindly (and happily) told us that we would have to fork over $160 because (to quote the “service” manager), “that version is too old for us to offer you customer support.Â? I told him that we didnÂ’t want customer support. He replied, “Well, thatÂ’s too bad, but the only way for this program to work on your computer is for you to buy an upgrade to our product.Â? We will get the program in “a week to ten daysÂ? (“QuickÂ? books). We will be out $160, which could have purchased several pairs of shoes for some of the poor kids here in our parish, or bought some medicine for an elderly person who needs more than the three medicines that Medicaid will pay for. I rue the lack of common sense in the software world (is $160 so important to them that they would be willing to lose the good will of a long time customer—and a corporate customer at that (there are 85 parishes here, all of whom will know this story by tomorrow)? But more, it is sad to see the lack of common decency. Thank you for your attention. [Fr. Michael, Brownsville, Texas]

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18 Comments

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I think the makers of Quickbooks will realize soon enough that they have made a very serious and grievous mistake. Thank you for posting this.

I think the makers of Quickbooks will realize soon enough that they have made a very serious and grievous mistake. Thank you for posting this.

Oops. Can you delete one of those and this comment please Chris? Thank you very much.

Now don't take this wrong but does anyone realize how old Quickbooks 6.0 is. It's well over 2 years old for certain, I do believe it was released in the middle 1999. XP wasn't even in existance at that time and for anyone that has done coding they know that yes you can release patches but sometimes the OS changes too drastically and you have to release a whole new version. How does everyone think the software companies make money? Buy selling new versions. Do I think he should have gotten a discount for being a non profit organization… yes! Do I think the company should have been a little more polite… yes! Do I think the company is wrong for needing people to upgrade after this long… No! Not everything can be free, it would be great if software companies would release their software to non-profit organizations for free but we all know that someone somewhere would be inconsiderate and put that on the internet and ruin it for everyone else.

There's always two sides to a story, and from my experience in customer service, when a customer doesn't like what he solution is; it is blamed on rudeness. Now after years of experience, I've learn to diffuse situations with little effort(I get a copy of complain callbacks and no one likes to explain why a customer is complaining), but that’s me. Funny thing is one of my CSR can make a sale out of any call, a customer calls in about not getting last months statement, and ends up opening a second checking account, a new home equity application and an appointment with the investment rep.
Here's a tip, if you call a company, and don't like what your hearing. Say “thank, you” and hang up. Call back a few minutes later and hopefully you'll get someone else. 7 out of 10 times you'll eventually get someone, who can be more open.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAA…

Sometimes They Should Shoot The Messenger…
Having provided services to not-for-profits, I understand their need to be frugal. I also understand how most folks think once they buy hardware or software, it should work for the next decade, period. Both concepts are discussions for another day. But both concepts have a tendency to evoke strong reactions from either side of “their fences.”
Many vendors have programs that allow not-for-profits substantial discounts. Far too many technical customer service types never bother to learn the non-technical side of their product. Yet, they will deliver “a message” as if they did.
Like I said, sometimes…

I would definately suggest him looking into whether they provide a not for profit discount and then not to be afraid to fork out a little bit of money for a program you get a lot of use out of. Especially if you want it around in the future.

Waaaaa, indeed. I'm the president of a non-profit organization and I *always* ask for discounts and upgrades. We owe it to the constituents we serve (abused children, in our case) to do that. But there are times when we have to function like any other business – i.e. paying for items that are basic costs of doing business. Having to do so doesn't necessarily mean anyone has acted without common decency. Methinks there are two sides to this story.

XP includes a program to make older stuff work right. Heck.. Wolfenstine 3D and WarCraft: Orcs and Humans plays great on XP. So me wonders if they tried that?
Also.. when it comes to buying programs (NFP, or not) at what point is it fair? I mean yes, $160 is a hefty fee, but it comes to a point of you (the consumer) has to support your product, and that's by paying the company to keep them in business. Does the pastor have a right to complain about shelling out $160 for a new version? Not really.. I mean he already upgraded his PC system – and Windows 9x still works great. And he never said what he did with his old PC, was it totally trashed? Me thinks their needs to be more said about this story, or else me smells something very fishy.

Gee fellow commentors, cynical much?
How about we find out a way to donate something to this parish to make up for their loss? Hmm?

Donate to a parish I know nothing about, nor how they actually distribute that money? No.. I think not. If their were some way for me to see some form of information on them, then maybe. But I for one do not go around blindly throwing away my money.

To each their own, but I don't think that's the right reason to donate to any charity. ALL non-profits need money. ALL non-profits want to get as much for free as possible. That's the nature of what we do in the non-profit sector. Before I donate to a charity, I examine the nature/merit of the organization's mission, how the organization is being run and how funds are being distributed.

Im going to play switzerland.
The software companies have programs for nonprofts/students/educators/ect. that give cutrate discounts for their software with a few modifications(no free upgrades,no commercial uses,ect)…The companies have these available,just ask!! dont blame “customer service” for this flaw
On behalf of the non profts, Ive volunteered with an organization in the dallas area doing systems repair. One thing these organizations dont have money to waste on is software/hardware…its up to the kindness of the public to donate products(be it a harddrive or OS)to be used by these organizations….these people are in the business of helping others,not being geeks…
If there was better communication between both sides,this would've not happened.
Chris Edison,
Hipster Of Danger

ahhh i see we are all doing the right thing again, cmon have a little trust with the guy. lets try to find an alternative that might work for them. it doesnt have to be money, maybe some advice to find a solution. hell, then we will know if they are sincere or not if they come back and ask for money or just say thank you.

To Father Michael of Brownsville, TX:
I'd be more than happy to contribute the $160 you
need to upgrade to the new version of Quickbooks.
Gretchen Pirillo has my main email address. Please
contact either her or Chris and we can get this done.
I will want to check your story out, but there are ways
to do that.
Mike

When I tried to load my QB 1999 on XP it refused to take the registration number – But it did work in non-registered mode with a warning of 24 attempts left.
This to me sound like a deliberate ploy by Intuit to trash older versions of QB just to force us to upgrade.
I did not even bother calling their pay support service because if the support was any good they would have posted “end of life” notices like any other proper support company. I am just going to keep running Win98 because its not so bad for business use.
Just keep up the bad press about intuit support and maybe they will get wise one day.

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