Turbo Tax to get PRODUCT ACTIVATION this year

[rectifire]

Turbo Tax to get PRODUCT ACTIVATION this year.

Installations will be locked down to one computer only.

Link HERE and HERE.

What do you guys all think? Will you still consider $49 for Turbo Tax a good deal?

Personally, I know of one long time Turbo Tax customer (myself a faithful buyer every year) who won't be buying Turbo Tax this time around. I'm going to try Tax Cut or one of the others.

 

[JJordan]

I wonder if Tax Cut will import my basic info from TurboTax so I do nto have to start ALL OVER again.

 

[rectifire]

JJordan:

Shamelessly Ripped from the Tax Cut web page: 😀

"Import last year's tax information from TaxCut, or TurboTax®, or import your financial data from Microsoft® Money or Quicken® "

 

[jasonja]

Better stuff available for less IMO. I've used TaxAct for 3 years... it's free for the basic print version or you can pay $8 for the full version and get one free E file. It's simple yet covers everything I need tax wise.

 

[cruzer]

I also recommend TaxAct. They only charge like $5 to e-file my state.

 

[rbV5]

What do you guys all think? Will you still consider $49 for Turbo Tax a good deal?

Since the cost of preparing your taxes (including the cost of software) is in itself deductable, its always a good deal. It only makes sense for them to protect their product, and exactly how many personal tax returns does a person have to do a year anyway? I've used Turbo Tax for years, It works well and feel that it is well worth the money.

 

[KeithP]

I have tried Turbo Tax and Tax Cut and much prefer Turbo Tax. Maybe I am missing something but if you purchase the product I don't see how this is a problem.

-Keith

 

[rectifire]

To those of you who don't see the potential problems with this (or have not bothered to read how this product activation is to be implemented), please consider the following:

1. Even if you completely uninstall Turbo Tax from the original computer it was installed in, installation on any other computer is not possible without paying out another $49 to Intuit. Unlike even Microsoft's policy, there is no mercy or grace period for reactivation.

2. The technical aspects of this could be very troublesome. Some possibilities to consider:

What happens if I want to do part of my taxes on my laptop while I'm on the go during the day, and then finish off my taxes at home (on the desktop) at the end of the work day?

God forbid you are distracted and your 6 year old gets ahold of your computer and deletes certain directories.

Let's say your hard drive crashed after you installed Turbo Tax and were doing your taxes (not too uncommon an occurence these days. IBM drives anyone?) Under their product activation scheme, there would be no mercy, and again you would end up paying to use the software you already paid for once.




I find the possibilities of this new scheme to be very disturbing. Under these circumstances, would you still consider Turbo Tax a good deal?

 

[rbV5]

I find the possibilities of this new scheme to be very disturbing. Under these circumstances, would you still consider Turbo Tax a good deal?

Of course it is, I always purchase the online version at a discount anyway..you don't even get the software in that case, doesn't matter if you loose it or not and can access it with any computer you want to. Intuit is obviously trying to cut down on the rampant theft of their product, and it makes sense to me, as a paying customer, for them to do so. The scenarios you present are Disturbing to me, pretty far fetched IMHO, and show a bit of a careless approach to something as important as your taxes if you ask me, and if you allow your children access to your financial records, or the ability to erase your directories, you're just asking for trouble.

 

[rectifire]

rbv5:

With all due respect, I'd just like to point out that you didn't address even one of the scenarios I previously pointed out in this topic. It seems you merely sidestepped them by telling me 1) use an online tax service instead 2) I am careless with my computer and my finances, computer accidents don't happen, and that nothing will ever go wrong with my computer 3.) Suggested that I am a would-be pirate for even daring to think about these "far fetched" situations.

However, I think it's safe to say that many improbable situations happen in todays world..no matter how far fetched they may be. We would be foolhardy to not anticipate as many of them as we can. The "you must be a pirate" story seems to be the common broom used to sweep away any concerns, no matter how valid the question.

Personally, I'm always wondering in the back of my mind if the next piece of hardware I'm gonna switch out will make me have to convince MS to reactivate my xp installation, as I've already did a reinstall of xp this month. I just got a new network card and am debating whether to put it in or not, as it's possible I might not get reactivated until two months from now. Injecting this kind of uncertainty into yet another software product is what concerns me, which is why I will not buy TTax this year. There are too many good alternatives out there.

 

[rbV5]

With all due respect, I'd just like to point out that you didn't address even one of the scenarios I previously pointed out in this topic

What are you talking about? Where did I imply you were pirating your software? What does any of this have to do with Windows XP activation? I merely gave you my opinion, I think its valid, and I'll stick to it. If I was their stockholder, I'd applaud their decision, and like I said, it will not really affect me anyway. Look its your decision to buy it under their terms or not, how it affects your situation is different from mine......so what?

All I know is that right around tax time at my office, turbo tax gets passed around like freeware.........apparently Intuit knows it as well. My opinion is that software publishers deserve to get paid for their hard work, just like I do. I happen to think the software is a great bargain, and your whining about them wanting to protect their wares isn't going to change that.

There are alternatives, you don't have to buy their product.

Personally, I'm always wondering in the back of my mind if the next piece of hardware I'm gonna switch out will make me have to convince MS to reactivate my xp installation,

So, don't use XP

. Funny, I've had to call MS exactly 3 times in a year and plenty of hardware changes...never had to convince them anything, it was a simple non-event IMHO...big deal.

 

[KeithP]

What happens if I want to do part of my taxes on my laptop while I'm on the go during the day, and then finish off my taxes at home (on the desktop) at the end of the work day?

From the Customer Service Link regarding product activation on Intuit's site that you provided in the first post of this thread...

TurboTax customers can prepare their return from more than one computer but will only be able to activate, print or e-file their tax return from a single PC.

So at least for that one item, there should be no problem.

I grant you that having product activation could potentially cause an inconvenience for those that have purchased the product. Even still, I find their anti-piracy scheme reasonible and I will continue to purchase and use their product. Apparently you will not. To each, his own.

-KeithP

 

[apoppin]

The only thing I see as "far-fetched" is that you pay $49 for your Turbo Tax.

If you check out Hot Deals, it can frequently be had for Free after MIR (in combination with many software deals).

And, NO - I won't be using TT next year. Just as a "protest".

 

[LiLithTecH]

Product Activation is being introduced daily into software products.
Microsoft, Siebel, Novell etc., just to name a few.

In the past, copy protection proved to be nothing more than a nusiance
to the legitmate user. It neither deterred nor help stop software piracy.

Product activation will follow the same route. But in the interim, it will
allow Companies to evade the impending privacy issues.

Do you realize that when you activate WinXP, it sends everything about your
hardware, software to MS. It is how they track your key and why hardware
changes require reactivation. What would stop them from activating
keylogging and tracking in future Updates without your knowledge.

Now take it from a consulting point of view, if I am working on a Clients PC,
and the Servers/network providing the activation key database is down, and I am
not able to complete the task that I am being paid to do, who looks like and idiot?
Explaining the software companies toltarian activation sequence to the Client will
not get you paid. Who suffers? Certianly not the Software Companies.

A Prime Example would be Microsoft.
Is it really possible that Microsoft's activation servers will be up and running
24/7/365, with no down time? Not likely. Even if product activation works flawlessly
98% of the time, that still results in problems for hundreds of thousands of users.

There is no guarantee that Companies will continue to issue activation keys in the
future. If, 3-4 years from now, you replace your existing computer, will the Company
still be willing to issue a new activation key?

How long do you think it will be before Trojans disabling Product activation come
into play? Even a mild infection of several thousand of a Product would cause Companies
Activation Services to be overwhelmed.

The only thing that Product Activation does is allow for the Software Companies to
gouge its honest Customers.

 

[tritium4ever]

Activation for Turbo Tax shouldn't be a surprise. After all, the Canadian version of Turbo Tax (called QuickTax) had activation for the 2001 tax year. Personally, I didn't encounter any problems with it, though I am miffed that I cannot install and use QuickTax on my other computer. Also, I've changed a lot of components since I installed QuickTax...if I ever need to retrieve data for some reason, I might be screwed. As a general rule, I am against activation...it always seems like they punish exactly those who legitimately paid for the product.

I don't know about the States, but here in Canada there are quite a few quality competitors to QuickTax, so I might switch for the 2002 tax year.

 

[KeithP]

LiLithTecH you might want to learn more about product activation in regards to XP. Here is an some information from MS's site:

Microsoft Product Activation is completely anonymous, and no personally identifiable information is collected. Activation is different from product registration. If they wish, customers may voluntarily register their product by providing their name and contact information. Registration is for those customers who want to receive future communications on product updates, service releases and other special offers. Any information provided to Microsoft remains secure and private and is used only for the purposes specified by the customer. Further, the hardware hash used during activation is a combination of hash values of various PC components and cannot be used to determine the make or model of the PC, nor can it be backward-calculated to determine the raw PC information.

As far as your other scenarios go, yes I suppose it is possible some of those things might happen. They won't of course, but it is possible.

In the past, copy protection proved to be nothing more than a nusiance

I do agree with you on this. However, I think product activation is much less a nusiance to the end user while being a much more effective anti-piracy measure than was ever used before. It certainly isn't perfect but what is?

rectifire, I apologize for being part in taking this thread off topic. It is not my normal style. I won't do it anymore.

Cheers,
KeithP