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Intuit pulling a fast one?
I thought this was a combination of interesting + sleazy + slimy. Always a good combo.
Like many of you, we use Quickbooks for most things financial… accounting, payroll, taxes, invoicing, everything. Have for years and years.
When we send an invoice via email with Quickbooks/Inuit, apparently there is a link on the bottom of the invoice where the recipient can click and pay online (I personally have never seen this, I leave all things financial to my general manager). He usually deletes this off the outgoing invoice, but doesn’t always remember or bother to do so. At any rate, no client has ever used this feature before.
Until now.
Couple of weeks ago we produced a quickie relatively inexpensive political spot for a candidate in another part of the state.
It was done, they loved it, and our GM sent an invoice. He was pleased to get an immediate reply that the client paid the invoice as soon as he got it (love those political clients, they always pay super fast).
Except… the money doesn’t show up in our account immediately. Or later that day. Or the next day. Our GM inquired of Intuit… and was informed that the payment was being “investigated” to ensure that it was a legitimate transaction. And that they should have an answer to that in about seven business days. And that, if determining the transaction is legit, the funds would be released within another one to two business days.
WTF??
I’ve personally had credit card transactions investigated for fraud, and clearing those up never took more than a quick phone call from the credit card company. And there is nothing even remotely suspicious about this transaction.
I personally think Inuit is just thinking “Hey, why don’t I just sit on this $9K for a week and a half and make a li’l interest off of it.”
The time is now almost up, so I’m not really looking to do anything about it (I just learned of all this today), and frankly we’ll still get the money a lot faster than the net/30 we usually do. I just thought it was a little sleazy.
Anyone else run across this?
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
replied 11 years, 9 months ago 4 Members · 6 Replies
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6 Replies
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Not that specifically Todd, but it doesn’t surprise me that many of these “features” are turned on automatically and you have to be very observant to turn them off. QB customer support is lacking and “fast ones” come more frequently. We switched to QB Online a few months ago – horrendous. They have miss-billed us for for the service and payroll fees nearly every month. They have corrected the errors, but each time it takes my office person an hour on hold to have it corrected. We’re trying to download our file and go back to the desktop version but have yet to receive a file – probably so they can bill me another $45 for the online service, which will require another hour on the phone to get a credit. Sad.
Steve
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Hey Todd,
In a previous life where I used Quickbooks and on the rare occasion where there would be a problem, I tended to shout at management loud enough for them to fix the problem.
My suggestion would be for you to issue an invoice to Intuit for lost interest, hours spend on investigating the problem and don’t forget to add call charges too. Once you send them an invoice FAO CEO, you have turned the issue into a legal one about costs, rather than one where Intuit doesn’t seem to show a care for your cash-flow – which is the business they claim to help you manage.
Bottom line is that any “feature” that they choose to include uninvited is theirs to pay for if it doesn’t work.
All the Best
Mads@madsvid, London, UK
Check out my other hangouts:
Twitter: @madsvid
https://mads-thinkingoutloud.blogspot.co.uk -
[Mads Nybo Jørgensen] “Once you send them an invoice FAO CEO, you have turned the issue into a legal one about costs, rather than one where Intuit doesn’t seem to show a care for your cash-flow – which is the business they claim to help you manage.”
That’s pretty clever. I wonder what a small claims court in the US would rule?
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[Richard Herd] “That’s pretty clever. I wonder what a small claims court in the US would rule?”
Only time will tell, but my guess is that said company will not let this issue go to court with all the associated publicity that follows – not to forget that there in the US is legal firms making a living out of picking up “no cost” class actions…
All the Best
Mads@madsvid, London, UK
Check out my other hangouts:
Twitter: @madsvid
https://mads-thinkingoutloud.blogspot.co.uk -
Well they are, obviously, counting on no one challenging them on it as the amounts would rarely be worth anyone’s time.
For the customer, like me, the eight or nine days’ interest on $9,000 would not be worth pursuing… it would only be a few dollars. For Intuit, it’s a different story… multiply that times millions of customers and it’s a big chunk of change they are pocketing.
If you’ll remember way back, the early days of PayPal were totally free, that now-present 3% fee was non-existent. PayPal made its profit by holding on to money for 12 hours between payment and releasing it. Only TWELVE HOURS!… which seems like nothing, but was enough to make them bazillions of dollars.
As I said the damages are so small no one individual would tackle Intuit over it. But a class action suit might…..
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Hey Todd,
With all due respect, allow me to disagree:
There are this thing called Opportunity Costs, which they owe. Setting aside the meager interest that could have been earned, this is actual money lost to the customer:
1) Time it takes to track down the payment, and why it has not been paid.
2) Embarrassment and negative impact on future business of having to question the person that made an early payment, if they are sure that they have made that payment.
3) Not being able to clear your own debts early, which may, or may not be on a high interest payment plan.
4) Not being able to invest the money, which may or may not in that time got you a sizable return.
5) Not forgetting the psychological damage and anguish of you not knowing if you will ever get your money.
6) The Sarbanes Oxley Act is about that a listed company at all times have to account for their customers money, as if not doing so can have an adverse effect on investors money. If they have a practice where they may or may not be doing so openly, and is making bank like transactions to add to that, then they could be in real trouble…Get my drift…
All the Best
Mads@madsvid, London, UK
Check out my other hangouts:
Twitter: @madsvid
https://mads-thinkingoutloud.blogspot.co.uk
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