Loyalty

by Owen Wengerd

 

 

Let me tell you a story about loyalty. For many years, I've used a popular and highly regarded tax form preparation software from a well-known company. As a small business owner in the United States, I have to fill out the dreaded Schedule C form.

In the early years I used "interview" mode to guide me through. I'm a hands-on kind of person, so once I gained some experience, I liked that the software gave me the option of filling out the forms manually by entering numbers right on the tax form. Meanwhile, it kept related forms synchronized and reviewed all of them for inconsistencies. I also liked that I could keep everything local, with both application and data stored on my desktop only.

I started getting nervous, however, a few years ago when this company began pressuring me to move to its tax preparation on the cloud. I resisted. I had to dig through near-hidden links on their Web site to find and then purchase the desktop version of their software.

But I persevered. I made sure to decline to participate in their cloud, even though it was getting more difficult -- and more irritating -- to do so, year after year. I remained loyal, reminding myself that they had a nice thing going with me buying the program every year, and they surely wouldn't just leave me out in the cold.

This year, like every year before, I hit the Internet to purchase my usual tax preparation software. Except this year, I found that the heat had been turned up a notch. Not only was it a struggle to find the desktop version of the software, but I discovered that they were going to force me to pay for a more expensive flavor of the software that had features I didn't need or want.

The new twist was the straw that broke the camel's back. I promptly searched for and found a competitor product, discovered that it worked exactly the way I liked, and cost only one fifth as much. I use the new software quite happily, and wonder why I waited so long to switch.

Loyalty, of course.

But this story is not over yet. In early February, I received an email from the first tax software firm with the subject, "Our apologies. We're fixing things." I suspect some of you got the same email, and maybe some of you decided to give them another chance.

"We heard you. It's time we make it right." But it's too late now for us. Our relationship has ended. I've moved on and found someone else. Sorry. You should have listened to me while I was still loyal to you.

This story is about loyalty to tax form preparation software, but the savvy among you might recognize that this story is really about CAD software. You, my dear reader, are headed for a showdown: you are being pushed by large CAD companies to conform with their needs, instead of them conforming to ours. When the time comes, will a mea culpa email be enough to retain our loyalty?

 

Comments

[Rqd]

If only it were that easy. The IRS will accept your 1040, schedule A and Schedule C from almost any source. I don't think the IRS looks for or cares about Trusted1040™.

The emotional/real cost of switching to a new tax preparation software is minor compared to the battle for the hearts, minds and (possibly misplaced) loyalty of CAD users.

You also have to deal with the FUDdiest of FUD heaped upon users. "You dare consider switching away from our empire? Your castles will crumble and your families will be crushed by your foolishness!"

The CAD companies have forced users to conform for decades. Alternatives come and go but "loyalty" and FUD are the main reasons they go.

Maybe we're finally reaching the breaking point.

[Peter from Maryland]

Well, one can hope, of course. However, my suspicion is that 50% of ADSK product users do not have much influence on the software selection - their company makes the buying decision, then their employees routinely waste 10+% of their time working around software flaws.

I've been saying it for over a decade: The only real solution is for individual users to become ADSK owners, which is still permitted in the USA. If one million suffering users were to start a stock-buying organization, set up so that each user buys one share of ADSK stock per pay period (at ~ $40 per), in two years that organization would have controlling interest in ADSK. From there, the organization could STOP the stupid annual release cycle, which would improve the software, the users loyalty, and everyone's workday. Or we can just continue to complain to the ether ...