The Underscore Archives

<off topic rant follows>

I was just wondering how many of you guys run your accounts on Quickbooks?
I've had the most bizarre experience today with the Intuit support line
(summarised by this thread here:
http://blog.0800handyman.co.uk/2007/05/quickbooks-upgrade-and-sunset-policy.html),
which, to cut a long story is about how the Quickbooks sunset policy on
their software (i.e. beyond 200x the software stops working and is no longer
supported) is offset from their payroll subscription to force customers to
upgrade *all* of their software a year sooner than they have to.

I did a bit of research on the web (after being told I had to pay to replace
all my software, my carpet and my teeth) and found that some chap in London
had gone through the same thing.  Armed and dangerous, I went back to QB
about the fact that someone else had been given the upgrade that I'd been
denied earlier, and I finally was given a renewal.  They asked me about
where I found the post and then muttered something about having it taken
down.

Having just escaped spend another £1k upgrading QB for our entire accounts
department (three licenses), I went back to the blog that helped me out,
only to find within an hour there was a post from another anonymous poster
saying that we were whinging about nothing and that everybody else (Sage,
MYOB) did it too. I wonder who wrote that eh?

</rant over>

Now I only ever take on the establishment once a month but has anyone
encountered this sort of thing with say Sage or MYOB? I'd really like to
know for when the sun sets on our Quickbooks version (April 2008) because
I'm seriously considering switching to a company that treats me more like a
valued customer and less like cattle. Well ok yes, I do run Windows but I
can give it up any time I want. Honest..

As I said this is totally off topic so mail me off-list unless like me, you
feel enough righteous outrage in your veins to go public (you might get
fairgamed) :-).

Jaya