Discussion:ProSeries Support Desk
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| 17 January 2007 | |
| Has anyone had problems with the proseries help desk? I had a question about the software and the first person I talked to did not uderstand English well enough to answer it. The second person simply did not know and the third solved it by putting me on hold for 15 minutes, at which time I simply gave up. An e-mail to Proseries got only a very vague response. Maybe the company has grown to the point where it cares nothing about its customers. And this is what I get after paying
over $ 2,500? | |
| 17 January 2007 | |
| I don't even try anymore with these outsourced call centers. First statement I make after navigating the phone tree is "Put someone on the line thats speaks English" and then I continue until I get one.
Next time tell them to spell every word you can't understand. It really messes up their time allotments. | |
| 17 January 2007 | |
| This is Brian Andrews, VP of Product Management, for Intuit's ProTax division. We care deeply about customers and the experience we give them. I am sorry about the experience you are describing. It is not acceptable and I've escalated to our customer service team to help us continually improve.
For ProSeries and Lacerte, we do not outsource any of our Technical Support off-shore. In Customer Service, we are supplementing our full-time workforce with a new contact center supplier in the Philippines. “Customer Service” includes a variety of topics such as firm name or address changes, licensing, and billing & order status inquiries. We believe this is a more optimal approach when compared to our previous seasonal model, which involved hiring and ramping new local seasonal talent each year. It also enables us to invest more in other areas of our business such as technical support and product development.
As with all call centers, we are monitoring performance closely and taking appropriate corrective action. Bryan Sander, our director of customer service, would be happy to discuss any issues you are having in more detail and help you with any remaining issues. He can be reached at bryan_sander@intuit.com. He also asked me to pass along his phone numbers in case you’d like to speak with him: Office: 540-286-2135; Mobile: 540-729-1851 | |
| January 17, 2007 | |
| Thanks for logging in, Brian. It adds immeasurably to customer service just knowing that you're paying attention... | |
| 17 January 2007 | |
| Thanks for your input, Brian. I will keep those numbers handy and, if I experience any more nonsense, they will be the first to know.
As an aside, I see no problem in using people from the Philippines for such things as address changes, order status, etc, but for technical issues involving how the software is handling complex tax issues, we simply must have people who can speak English. Otherwise, we have nothing but frustration and dissatisfaction with the non answers which we get. | |
| 17 January 2007 | |
| We agree completely. The biggest objective of our support organization is to help our customers solve problems quickly so they can better serve your clients (especially during busy season). If language prohibits us from doing so, then we've obviously missed.
Although we attempt to deliver a great service and support experience, we don't always meet your expectations or ours. We get better because of you, and we will keep improving. I am proud that Intuit's ProTax business was selected as a finalist in 2006 for the Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA) STAR Awards for Best Practices. The STAR Awards for Best Practices recognize companies that have developed, implemented, and benchmarked the most innovative and efficient processes for service and support delivery. Chosen as one of three finalists in the Leveraging Customer Feedback category, we were highlighted as a company that best utilized customer feedback throughout their support and product development processes. Thanks again for your feedback and your business! | |
| 17 January 2007 | |
| JR1,
Go Pack Go... I am a tranplanted Cheesehead living in Cowboy country. | |
| 8 February 2007 | |
| to BAndrews
I have used ProSeries for over 10 years and loved the product until I recently discovered that we don't have the option to electronically download W-2 and 10-99's. I have to ask...why not? TurboTax Deluxe has had this option for some time now! Is the company nickel and dimeing use Pros? $350 just to be able to scan W-2's directly into the program....why can't we have the option Turbo Tax has of getting the W-2 and 1099 from the source. Do you have any idea how helpful and time saving this would be for us....help us, please taxea | |
| 8 February 2007 | |
| I will have one of my product managers post a more complete response soon. Here is my take... with TurboTax, it is the employee/taxpreparer that makes the request directly to the financial institution or employer vs. the pro, so there may be some privacy issues which causes complexity (both with us and the pro getting permission). We do understand that data entry takes a tremendous amount of time and big opportunities exist to greatly streamline the process through automation, which we continue to address on several fronts. More to come on this... | |
| February 8, 2007 | |
| Brian, since we know you're back watching...I wanted to mention a turn I had with Customer Service about two weeks ago, after I'd read this thread. I knew I was chatting with a Filipino (and I know many, and like them, so this isn't a rant against them per se), and it's funny, she was almost sickly sweet and over polite...but took 20 minutes to solve what I thought was a relatively simple problem...and just as she was solving it said those magic words, "I'm being told that we wouldn't normally do this..." And I lost it a bit. I said, "Excuse me, this was YOUR error, and I'm a 20+ year customer. Don't EVER say that you wouldn't normally do this..." And she got real quiet...I know there's language and culture gaps, but am also sure she was repeating what she was told. Intuit messed up my order...and she made me feel privileged that they corrected it! *smiling here* so that you can see that I'm not ranting, just giving some input. Others may not put up with that so well... | |
| 8 February 2007 | |
| Thanks...BAndrews that does make sense however with TurboTax the non paid preparer that does taxes for family and friends has this at their disposal...
We are pros and have confidentiality standards. I just don't understand why payroll clerks have access to verifying social security numbers and non pro preparers have access to W-2 and 1099 info and we don't. Both of these items would make our jobs much less time consuming and be a benefit, not only to us, but to the taxing authorities. taxea | |
| 9 February 2007 | |
| I understand the need you are outlining here and we are looking into it... JR1, thanks for heads up on the customer service... I've forwarded this to our leader of customer service (and I would normally do this!)... This kind of feedback helps us get better and I really appreciate it... don't know if anyone has tried out the new customer forums for the various offerings at http://www.intuitaccountants.com/... it would be great to get your feedback on these forums... in addition to the thousands of pros coming there, we have support staff who are watching and responding to postings... | |
| 9 February 2007 | |
| Overall Brian being a new user(Proseries basic) and first time bus owner the customer service for me has been satisfactory. I kind of feel lucky now ALL of my conversations have been w/people either Arizona or Virginia for both tech and sales support the only thing is if we(tax pros) make a call to resolve something and the customer is sitting in front of us and there is a long wait, one time up to 1 hour, presents a "sticky situation" and at that MOMENT no one understands how we/me(taxpros)feel or sometimes makes us look. It would be nice to have, AS ADDED VALUE, a site like Almanac strictly for professionals/customers of INTUIT to try and keep "free advice" and time consumption, most of all, to a minimum. Brian pls email me I have something to say per one of the sales support individuals Intuit has of which I have his name. Hope to here from you soon. Thank You | |
ProSeries PM (talk|edits) said: | 9 February 2007 |
| It's true TurboTax has an electronic data download capability and ProSeries Professional does not. As BAndrews mentioned, there are different security issues involved in allowing a third party to download financial data, so it's a bit more of a complex issue for ProSeries - but if this is something you're passionate about, and you think it's worth further investigation on our part, I'd love to hear from you. Feel free to email me with your thoughts and opinions on this data download topic. My email address is: tracy_billings@intuit.com. If you respond, I'd appreciate it if you could use the following subject line in your correspondence: Feedback:Electronic Data Download. I don't generally participate in these threads, so I probably won't be responding to further questions in this forum, but feel free to take the discussion to my email address - and thanks for using TaxAlmanac!
--tracy billings, senior product manager, proseries | |
Inagpurwala (talk|edits) said: | 9 February 2007 |
| BAndrews: Your Tech Suppoert in deed is outsourced. Because last year I did talk to one support person who was in Delhi. How do I know that! Because after five minutes of talk while he was helping, we started talking in our language. I knew he was from India, just because of his accient.
Also on another issue: some tech people just read has been given to them to solve problem. I had printing problem last year. That person told me that "cannot help if you do not have HP printer." I solved the problem by my self after he hung up on me. Since then Epson printer is working fine.Inagpurwala 16:50, 9 February 2007 (CST) | |
| February 9, 2007 | |
| Inagpurwala:
I can't speak for all of Intuit, but I know that the Professional Tax division did have support agents in India for about one tax season (not sure if it was last year or the year before). Based upon feedback from our customers, that was ended. However, keep in mind that Intuit has long believed that a diverse and inclusive workforce makes us stronger. Just because someone had an accent doesn't mean that they were in a foreign country. I'm sorry to hear about your poor experience with support regarding your printer issue. If this ever happens again, I urge you to call back, ask for a manager, and report the problem. - Tim Doyle, TaxAlmanac Moderator - Talk to me 16:58, 9 February 2007 (CST) | |
Bottom Line (talk|edits) said: | 10 February 2007 |
| We understand about diversity but the challenge comes when the accents are SO strong that you can't understand what the person is saying. At least for me, I don't care what country they're in or from as long as they can speak English so that I can understand them. I had a problem yesterday with QuickBooks payroll. ProAdviser line sent me back to general payroll department. We spent the next two hours with them walking me through REPEATEDLY!!! What's your EIN, enter your service key number, go to update payroll, now go to pay employees - IT STILL SAYS INACTIVE. Let me transfer you .... What's your EIN? ..... Really made me look bad when I was there to train the client on how to use the program and then I couldn't get to someone that could fix the problem. | |
| February 12, 2007 | |
| Here we go again, Brian. This morning, I went to reprint an 05 PPR from last year for a client, and it asked me for money again. Calling the Phillipines, very pleasant person, who told me, no, you have to pay again. I said, ok, tax season, no time for training, move me up to a supervisor, nothing personal...she came back to tell me that it was a long queue and wanted to put me on hold. I asked for a call back...it's like there's no concept that this is tax season, and sitting on hold for 20-30 minutes is no big deal, not to mention that this is an awfully simple issue that she didn't know the answer to. . .and I still await, 45 minutes later, kind of suspecting that I'll be the one calling back.... | |
| February 12, 2007 | |
| And then....after waiting over an hour, I do call back, and get Maria, God Bless Her! for she handles it efficiently, less than five minutes....! But don't promote her, I need her to answer the phone more often! | |
Bottom Line (talk|edits) said: | 12 February 2007 |
| But please pay her more so she'll stay! | |
| 12 February 2007 | |
| I was curiuous because I have never had JR's problem. I just printed an indiviual page from a 2005 PPR...no questions asked. | |
Bottom Line (talk|edits) said: | 12 February 2007 |
| I've never had the problem either. I wonder if he got a new computer and the new one doesn't know that this had already been paid for. Several years ago I had a small prepaid balance remaining from the prior year and got a new computer. The remaining balance didn't show up on the new computer. Fortunately kept the old computer and was able to use up the balance. | |
| February 12, 2007 | |
| No, I had this problem last year for prior returns because I did have a new computer, so all the old stuff had to be relicensed. That wasn't the case here, and I've no idea why it happened. Just did. Problem solved tho'... | |
| 20 March 2007 | |
| Now it's my turn to vent. I called this morning regarding a 1065 and related Maryland return. This is a return that has had no changes in partners from last year, but Maryland return did not carry forward information the way Proseries told me I had to enter it last year. I called and spent an HOUR on the phone with someone who couldn't even find the worksheet I was on! After a while of having her put me on hold, come back, put me on hold again she told me she was speaking with someone higher up in tax calculations. I said "Great, let me speak with her myself" and she said "Oh no, she doesnt take calls from outside, she's just here to help me." She couldn't solve the problem and told me I need to email them my file, but first need to sign an authorization document that she will fax me. The fax didnt come in!!! I had to call again and get transferred from person to person and sit on hold another almost an HOUR until someone faxed it to me (she held to make sure I got the fax - bless you Amanda). Now I am waiting for someone to call me back. Think I can bill Proseries for my hours of WASTED time with their incompetent tech support? Pity I filled in the Intuit survey the other day - I sure would have different responses today! | |
