QuickTax is the Intuit Canada program that infuriated me into writing this blog post. I might have written a similar post some time back when Intuit Canada forced me to upgrade my version of Quicken, which I use merely to download my bank records. The upgrade was at full price with no recognition that I was already a customer. The upgrade had several non-intuitive features, which was not helped by an inability to access the online Help. They seemed to imply it was Microsoft’s problem when eventually customer service replied by e-mail after 48 hours and suggested a patch to give access. Life is short and one cannot blog about all egregious examples of poor customer service. .. and Mark Minasi has described well the Nonintuitive Actions from Quicken’s Maker about this Quicken forced upgrade, with many commenters expressing similar frustrations.

Then my bank encouraged me to check out the Intuit Canada QuickTax software for tax returns, with the added advantage of being able to submit returns online.

Perhaps I should have learnt. Leopards rarely change their spots. However the QuickTax offer was enticing. I did twice check with technical support on some questions I had and unfortunately on both occasions was misinformed. Surprisingly I had to call a Montreal number, 514-227-3063, which took some digging to find. From the contacts I made subsequently with this number, I was probably being redirected to India.

As suggested on the website I checked with the Canada Revenue Agency Netfile site to ensure QuickTax was certified and read the following:
*Free offering:
Each QuickTax product must be purchased and can produce a limited number of returns over $25,000. However, you can prepare up to 18 free tax returns for anyone who earns less than $25,000 net individual income per year (line 236 on T1).
This same information can also be found on the Intuit Canada website.

So having done sufficient due diligence, as we thought, we started preparing online returns. Perhaps we should have checked some of those reviews that Intuit Canada featured on the website. Here is what jord of Toronto wrote.

That is not an extreme review since more than 10% of reviewers rated the product even lower. One would have hoped that a company bold enough to call itself Intuit Canada would have produced an intuitive software. Sadly that is not the case. If only I had read what Jonathan Chevreau wrote in the Financial Post on the QuickTax package (neither quick nor painless), I could have avoided all this frustration.

Indeed by reading his article, I could have avoided an additional frustration that Intuit Canada creates. Using the online version of QuickTax, you must pay an additional fee for every tax return created. I believe his account is correct, although it’s somewhat tough to figure it out and technical support in my case gave incorrect information.

The CD versions of Quick-Tax Standard, Platinum or Unincorporated cost $40, $60 and $80, respectively, which permits the preparation of just two returns for gross incomes above $25,000, plus up to 18 Freedom returns for those with gross incomes below the threshold.

Beyond that, you can unlock the ability to process other returns for $10 extra per QuickTax Basic return or $15 extra for the other packages. So, for the 40% of its customers that need to process more than two $25,000-plus returns, it will cost more this year. Single users can pay just $20, $30 or $40, for the three Web applications, but couples will have to pay twice that to process joint Web returns.

Fortunately, you can find cheaper alternatives at Canada Revenue Agency’s NetFiling site (www.netfile.gc.ca). One alternative, UFile.ca, is still available for $16 for the Web version and $30 for the CD.

Intuit Canada may feel they are being reasonable in all this. After all you don’t need to pay if you try the product, find you don’t like it and decide not to use it for your return. Given that you have invested a great deal of time in entering data at that point, that’s a tough decision. In addition they suggest they will probably give you your money back in the very small print.

6. Try QuickTax for 60 days. If you are not 100% satisfied, simply e-mail quicktaxonline@intuit.com within sixty (60) days of purchase to request a full refund of the purchase price. Please provide your order number (see confirmation of purchase screen) and the reason our product did not meet your needs.

If Intuit Canada was at all customer-centric, they would realize what an extremely poor job they’re doing with their QuickTax online software.

Related: QuickTax Disappoints

Posts You May Like From The Archives

• December 31, 2006 -- Send To Mobile
• November 22, 2007 -- Will Open Source Undermine Walled Gardens?
• August 17, 2006 -- Windows Live Search (now inside Windows Live Messenger)

By now most seasoned Internet surfers realize that wherever they go they leave their electronic footprints. They may feel much more comfortable communicating with a close friend via a cell phone. However as John Whitehead points out Big Brother Is Listening to Your Cell Phone Calls. Indeed it would appear that Big Brother would like to listen much more.

Moreover, the FBI and other government agencies are demanding greater legal authority to be able to force companies–especially cell phone companies–to turn over customer information. “They have pushed for an aggressive interpretation of the statute that would allow it to monitor certain Internet content without a warrant and to collect tracking information about the physical locations of cell phone users,” the ACLU reports, “turning cell phones into what, for all practical purposes, are location tracking bugs.”

Now the Bush Administration is prodding Congress to grant retroactive legal immunity to the telecommunications companies that have allowed government agents access to their customers’ private phone call data. If Congress passes such a law, it would put an end to the dozens of lawsuits that have already been filed against phone companies alleged to have violated federal privacy laws by handing over customer data to the government. It would also put an end to any pretense that our government has our best interests at heart.

Some people seem to value their privacy less. Could The Pudding be for you? The Pudding is a cell phone application, which is Internet based. With The Pudding you can make free, unlimited calls to any phone in the U.S. and Canada from your web browser. No downloads are necessary. When talking via The Pudding, voice recognition software will listen to your conversation and display web pages, news, ads and images related to your conversation.

The Pudding is in Beta trials at the moment and seems to be a runaway success. If you wish to do such a trial, you will be informed at sometime down the road when you can be added to the trial. Apparently just getting a free service is enough for some people to accept the loss of privacy. Even more intrusively, the ads they will be shown will be relevant to the topic they are discussing. That’s a somewhat scary notion.

Related: Your Cell Phone Will Be Listening to Your Conversations

Posts You May Like From The Archives

• June 13, 2008 -- Talent Management Losses At Yahoo
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• August 13, 2006 -- See The World Through Your Cell Phone

Most websites need financial support if they are to provide services to website visitors. That is particularly tough for cell phones, which access the mobile web, since small screens do not leave much room for advertising. If you feel that a major slice of mobile Web activity will be via sound technology, then there is an additional challenge. Who wants to wait patiently listening through a sound advertisement until they get to the information they were seeking?

Nevertheless the rewards will be high so it comes down to finding out the best way to make acceptable sound advertisements. Part of that acceptability will come from the desirability of the information being offered. An early contender in the field is 1-800-Flights. According to a NY Daily News item, this Houston, Texas company has developed a service, which will give you specific flight status information. The new service, which officially launched this month, covers 141 domestic and international airlines at all 432 U.S. commercial airports, as well as 173 international airports. Along with flight status, 1-800-Flights provides terminal and gate information.

All you do is call and give the flight number, which is picked up by voice recognition technology. You’ll then hear a short commercial while a computer checks the flight information. “The idea behind 1-800-Flights is to offer U.S. air travelers a simpler, more convenient way to check flight status while offering advertisers a one-to-one opportunity to reach these affluent, educated consumers,” said Sam Stolbun, president of the Houston-based company.

1-800-Flights is the first application of voice-recognition technology to flight information throughout the U.S. market although other Web services, including Orbitz and Google, provide flight information on your computer or as a text message to your cell phone. 1-800-Flights is currently a wholly cell-phone-based service, however clearly it could be easily extended to integrate with Web-based services.

If, as we believe, the sound-based mobile Web will be a major sector, then this type of sound advertising will be a sector to watch.

Related:
How Will Advertising Influence Mobile Web Growth?
That ringing sound is Google on the phone

Other Related Posts

• October 20, 2007 -- How Will Advertising Influence Mobile Web Growth?

Even though dotMobi has now introduced standards for e-mail that doesn’t guarantee that your message will get through. We are not talking about spam filters here which are an additional barrier.

As David Baker points out, there is another Horrible Truth about Mobile Email. The nub of what he is saying runs as follows:

Sixty-four percent of decision makers surveyed by MarketingSherpa in partnership with SurveySampling this year said they “regularly view e-mails using a mobile device.” In other words it’s the BlackBerry crowd and their cohorts.

These VIPs are too busy dashing from meeting to meeting to sit at a desk and receive any of your marketing campaigns. They won’t answer the phone because they’re not in the room. They probably won’t reply to postal direct mail because their gatekeeper sorted it out of the incoming pile for them. And when they hit the trade show floor, it’s on their way to making a speech behind a podium. That said, they do sign up for e-mail when it looks useful.

So, you’re probably sending them nurturing or educational e-mails to move them down the buying cycle path. Problem is, 64% of them can’t read your e-mail properly on their mobile device?

Even the dotMobi standards may well not help you. The only answer for the moment may be the simplest of text messages.

Related: Better e-mail messages on mobile devices

Tags: PDA, e-mail

Posts You May Like From The Archives

• February 16, 2007 -- Mobile News Review
• October 14, 2006 -- Go Shop And Save
• August 14, 2006 -- Oh For A Mobile Web Initiative

Banking is one of the most essential functions for most of us. We are also increasingly on the move. Clearly the bank that we can contact on the mobile web is more likely to get our business.

In the UK, Barclays is helping customers stay in touch with their money with the launch of a mobile banking service. For now, they can check their account balance and statements but more services are being lined up for the future.

In the USA, the Bank of America is offering Mobile Banking Services. This already includes checking account balances and viewing transactions, paying bills and transferring funds between accounts and locating a nearby ATM or Banking Center along with maps and directions.

Not surprisingly we’re also seeing events like the next MobileMonday Austin, TX event on June 11, which will cover mobile banking and payments. That will cover not only the opportunities and how to benefit from them, but also the threats such as the increased security risks and how to counter them. Nevertheless mobile banking represents an enormous economic potential.

Tags: Mobile, banking

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• January 5, 2008 -- Mobile Devices With Voice Control
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There’s this blog meme that’s going around that has people providing five reasons why they blog and then tagging five others. I was tagged by William Slawski and he like others had some excellent reasons. I guess all our reasons are personal and probably different. If you’ve been blogging for some time, then the reasons must clearly be reasonably powerful to keep the momentum going. I author three blogs and am a co-author on two others. There is a minimal discipline to keep posting say at least every two weeks. However in all cases, I usually find there is something that encourages me to write. Being more specific, here are five reasons why I blog.

1. I like to write about things that intrigue me or amuse me
2. I like to comment on matters where I think there is a different point of view that isn’t being brought out. (I usually do a relevant Google Blogsearch before doing any serious blog post.)
3. I like to explore new topics or items that come up on my news feed radar and often will then blog about the fruits of my exploration.
4. I am always delighted when I get feedback via comments or otherwise where I clearly have opened up aspects of the topic that interest others.
5. I do like to write posts where I think the topic hasn’t been covered yet in sufficient detail and where my words may help others.

I in turn am tagging the following people who from the blog-meme thread at the time of writing have not been tagged yet.

1. Wayne Hurlbert
2. Anita Campbell
3. Ben Yoskovitz
4. Marc Snyder
5. Chris Winfield

The full results of the Blog Meme can be seen at the SoloSEO Blog Meme Tracker.

.. and now back to our regular programming.

Tag: meme

Posts You May Like From The Archives

• August 21, 2006 -- Mobile Gaming and the Internet Open Space
• August 22, 2007 -- Does GOOG411 Lead The Way On The Mobile Web?
• October 22, 2007 -- Mobile Web Sound Ads

Pandia Search Engine News suggested as 2007 opened that this is the year of Social Media Marketing (SMM). Certainly and not unexpectedly everyone seems to be talking about it. In response, the Cre8asite Forums have opened a new Forum on Social Media and Tagging.

The most referenced definition of SMM is perhaps that of Ben Wills as he set out in The Five Pillars of Social Media Marketing. He suggested that Social Media shared one or more of the following five forms of action:

1. Declaration of Identity
2. Identity through Association
3. User-initiated Conversation
4. Provider-initiated Conversation
5. In-Person Interaction

In a way it’s an expansion of the idea implicit in Time’s choice of Person of the Year as YOU.

An equally strong or even stronger tendency is the move to the Mobile Web. Some types of social media such as MySpace are very popular with mobile users. Heather Hopkins points out that these social networks can generate traffic at greater rates than traditional search vehicles do. However WebProNews suggests that the MySpace mobile participants are probably not involved with other types of social media. It may well be that Social Media Marketing (SMM) for the Mobile Web will require a very different approach.

Related: Social Media Marketing (SMM) - the latest Buzz

Tags: SMM, social media, mobile

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• February 5, 2008 -- My Other Wordpress Blog Was Hacked Too
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• November 22, 2007 -- Will Open Source Undermine Walled Gardens?

We recently announced that AnswerTips Comes To BPWrap, our associated blog. We’ve been so pleased at how well AnswerTips performs that we’ve added it here too (top right) and on the other SMM properties. We think it’s a very neat gizmo and all credit is due to Answer.com .. oops that should read Answers.com. The gizmo has since then been removed in an upgrade of the websites.

You see in telling the world we did say Courtesy of Answer.com. Our error was quickly pointed out to us by Marjolein Hoekstra of the CleverClogs Blog and by Gina Larson of Answers.com. The CleverClogs Blog was one of the beta testing websites for the AnswerTips gizmo. Within minutes the correction was made and the news feed aggregators repinged. However for a short time Google and others were working with that Answer.com version of the title.

Perhaps the mistake was a natural one. I decided to do some exploring. It reminds me of a related domain. Some were concerned as Ask Jeeves sacked Jeeves and became the simple Ask.com. What a great domain name that is. I for one always felt that it was almost a no-brainer to go with simplicity. Of course you should Ask your questions. As far as one can tell it has been a very positive move. An alternative way of responding to questions is to give an Answer. So Answer.com would seem to be an ideal domain to do this. Surprisingly typing in www.answer.com currently gives a Server Not Found message. The domain does exist as a Internic WhoIs search will confirm with the following information:

Domain Name: ANSWER.COM
Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, LLC.
Whois Server: whois.networksolutions.com
Referral URL: http://www.networksolutions.com
Name Server: GATEWAY1.PLATINUM.COM
Name Server: GATEWAY2.PLATINUM.COM
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Updated Date: 26-jun-2006
Creation Date: 27-feb-1992
Expiration Date: 28-feb-2008

Why would someone sit on such a fine domain name?

Doing a Google search for “answer.com” gives over 90,000 web pages. Some of these are composite domain names that include answer.com. However many show that precise domain name, answer.com. Even if there is no active website at that domain, many mistakenly think so. Perhaps it’s only a small surprise to find that the #1 item in this search is the Answers.com website. There is no mention of ‘answer.com’ on the answers.com website but the Google cache shows that it appears in links to the website. Try the same search in Yahoo!, MSN/Live or Ask and you’ll get the same answer. Perhaps in our confusion I and many others have helped spread the illusion that, if you type answer.com, you really intended to find the answers.com website.

People now a days don’t often type in a domain in the address bar. They more often type the name in the Google search field. Or they click on a favourite link. This tendency will be even stronger as people use their cell phones to surf the mobile Web.

Does this mean the value of these shorter domains will be reduced? They really will not bring the traffic they used to. At this time, the keyword “answer.com” would seem to be the property of Answers.com, at least in the eyes of the major search engines. Given my satisfaction with Answers.com for their AnswerTips, I think they’ve earned that answer.com visibility.

Related:
Should Your Domain Name Be Monday?
SWOT That Company Name

Posts You May Like From The Archives

• February 16, 2007 -- Mobile News Review
• August 20, 2006 -- Beautiful Cellphones
• October 20, 2007 -- Microsoft Outdoes Google In Voice Mobile Search

mobileYouth Trends Summit is taking place today in London, UK. It’s organized by the Wireless World Forum. It’s intended as a platform for decision makers and decision implementers to discuss the industry challenges, jointly arrive at conclusions and to network with each other for doing business. It seems to attract some industry movers and shakers.

Graham Brown of the Wireless World Forum in his introduction had some provocative comments. For example he said, “Lifetime value of a young mobile customer in the UK is $20,000. This decreases as they get older. We need to connect with them earlier because this is when they build up their brand associations (catch ‘em whilst they’re young!).”

Podcasts of the Summit are available.

Tip of the hat to Tom Hume

Tags: Mobile, youth

Posts You May Like From The Archives

• December 31, 2006 -- Send To Mobile
• January 5, 2008 -- Mobile Devices With Voice Control
• August 10, 2006 -- Mobile Web 2.0

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Posts You May Like From The Archives

• April 9, 2007 -- Does Google’s Mobile Adaptation Satisfy?
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