Quicken Home and Business 98 - unable to continue to use software - can't register software after re-installation - can't reinstall software

# 10 for April 17, 2003

Complaints.com received the following on April 16, 2003:

From: Roberta Westwood [Email User]

RE: Quicken Home and Business 98 - unable to continue to use software - can't register software after re-installation - can't reinstall software

Quicken cannot be re-installed when one buys a new computer. I own a legal copy of Quicken Home and Business 98, had used it happily for almost 5 years. I had no need to upgrade the software, as it met my needs. I recently bought a new computer and reinstalled the software. During the installation process, the original license number was reentered. Then, I got a message on startup telling me that I needed to register the software. As I had already entered the license number, I wasn’t sure what they were asking for. I left it for a while, (it kept saying, “You can only open 6 more times, 5 more times, etc.) and, finally, when it was about to expire I decided I had to take the time to figure this out. I thought it would be as easy as talking to a customer service rep. As I had a legal copy, I thought it would be no problem. I called the phone number provided and was told that Quicken 98 was no longer supported and, if I would have to upgrade. I did not want to spend $80 Cdn. more to use software I had already owned; I just could not access it. After some digging I found a customer service number that was answered by a person, not a machine, and explained the problem. Again, I expected it to be a simple issue that could be easily resolved. I got nowhere. The person that I spoke with, “John” told me that they could give me no support because I had Quicken 98. I explained that I was not asking for technical support (in which case I might have accepted being told they could no longer support an old product), but I simply needed whatever code it was to get the software working after a reinstall. I told him that I did not want to upgrade, just needed to be able use my existing software. John told me that it wasn’t the license number that was needed, but my customer number, that this was the access code I needed. I did not know my customer number, in fact I don’t recall ever having received one. He told me if I had originally registered my software, then I would have a customer number. He asked if I registered online or phone and, of course, after 5 years, I certainly didn’t recall that. He told me if I registered by mail that they would have a record. He told me if I registered online that they would have a record and so would I. (I wasn’t sure how someone who registered by mail was supposed to ever know their customer number if these weren’t sent back to the customer, but he had no answer for that). I then asked him to look up my customer number for me. He spent quite some time looking for my number, under my business contact information, and my home contact information, all to no avail. Up to this point, the conversation had been reasonably pleasant, though I was getting a bit frustrated by the experience. He then said they didn’t keep old customer information in their database. At which point I started to get upset. He then said that, just maybe, no promises, he could have someone see if they could find information in their old archives, but when I came back to this later in the conversation, and asked him to do so, he said that wasn’t possible. There was lots of talking in circles. I had no clue how or when they had ever sent me a customer number and they had no way to access it. At that point I got extremely upset, as I did not think this should be required in order to use software I already legally owned. I was also becoming quite anxious, as I believed I was about to lose 5 years of data, something I did not relish at all, and I felt was not my fault. I will confess to becoming quite vocal in expressing my frustration, but I was hitting a really stupid brick wall with this company. In the end, I said, all I could do was print off my data, uninstall the software and buy a competitive product. John then told me to upgrade (which costs $80 Cdn.). Hello? I had told him earlier that I did not want to upgrade at this time. And it was pretty obvious that I was frustrated with Quicken, so telling me to pay more to keep using my product was only going to make me madder, and it did. I finally said that that was it, I was going to give up on the product and go buy something else. I indicated that I was a busy business person and didn’t want to waste more time (I had already spent about an hour on this). That’s when John said, “So am I!” and hung up on me. I was aghast at the way I was treated. I emailed the details of this complaint to Quicken on the same day (March 26, 2003) and as of today’s date (April 16, 2003), I have received no response. I do not, unfortunately, expect any resolution from Quicken, because they have demonstrated no inclination to resolve this problem. And the way I was treated as a customer does not leave me with any inclination to ever want to buy or use any Quicken or Intuit product again. I would, however, like to see what they have to say about this, and to receive an apology. I have ended up buying Microsoft Money for less than $50 Cdn., a product I am happy with. And I was quite pleased that it had a function whereby I could import all my Quicken data (so I didn’t lose my data afterall, thanks to Microsoft, not Quicken). But I never should have had to spend that money in the first place. Roberta Roberta L. Westwood Email Email User