🚀 go-pugleaf

On Thu, 13 Feb 2003 23:33:04 GMT, Criswell The Psychic Weatherman
<ssenate@mindless.com> wrote:

>You say Intuit's response is no response, but nothing could be further from the
>truth.  A complete lack of response could show total unawareness, total denial, or
>anything in between.
>
>Intuit has responded, showing at least some cursory awareness of the problem, and
>some cursory intent to correct it.  Is it a good response?  In my opinion, no, it's
>a rather poor one.  But it is a response of some sort, and it tells us a lot more
>than the silent ostrich head in the sand response.

Yes, they have responded but.... No response might simply have
signaled stupidity, but the weak response, filled with false
information, and as yet unfulfilled promises makes them look arrogant.

>
>They chose to saddle themselves with this C-Dilla copy protection scheme, and the
>C-Dilla removal tool shows that they have made at least some minimal headway towards
>fixing it, and at least some minimal acknowledgement that this is a concern and a
>problem to TurboTax users.

The "removal tool" apparently doesn't completely remove it.

>
>If they are giving this C-Dilla problem some serious thought and discussion, or are
>going to leave it at just putting up the uninstaller and then going ostrich, we
>can't know that yet, but we can judge by their past actions.
>
>I don't think any amount of damage control at this point can save TurboTax from the
>C-Dilla poison taint.  But, C-Dilla isn't the only poison that Intuit has to deal
>with.
>
>Yes, Intuit has paid, is paying, and will continue to pay dearly for this C-Dilla
>mistake.  They didn't learn much from MSIE in 2001.  I doubt they'll learn much from
>C-Dilla in 2003.  Unsold boxes on store shelves, boxes returned to stores, boxes
>returned to the factory, how much louder does the message need to be?  Mossberg
>[Mossler?] wrote in the Wall Street Journal practically suggesting a boycott of
>TurboTax because of the C-Dilla.  The topic of this thread is "PC Mag Tax Software
>Review".  If the word were not getting out to Intuit, we would not see a C-Dilla
>remover, in fact we would see no response at all.

But the response, as you indicate, is weak. Moreover, any half wit
should have been able to predict that such a scheme would be rife with
problems. They further aggravated the problem by not seeming to
understand exactly what they bought from Macromedia (do they make
anything that isn't obnoxious?) and not preparing support people to
deal with the obvious issues.

>
>Now that they've truly shot themselves in the foot with C-Dilla, and shot themselves
>in the other foot with the removal tool, what's next?  Will they shoot themselves
>again somewhere else?  Will they just stand there and bleed all over the place?  Or
>will they do the smart thing and work to heal these gaping wounds they've created?
>I'd like to believe otherwise, but Intuit's actions lead me to suspect more
>self-inflicted damge.

They can't repair the damage until they understand what they have
done, technically and in customer support. I haven't seen anything
that indicates that they are doing this.

>
>I haven't used Intuit products since 2001, not even the ProSeries [Generally around
>September, the prior year's version becomes a free demo complete with walkthrough
>sample return guidebooks, and available video and live training.  It also comes with
>someone who will call you and write you and e-mail you weekly ready to take your
>order.  Does it sound like Intuit's arrogance is something new and recent?]  [AFAIK,
>They still do this, and even for free, I wouldn't touch anything Intuit.]  Now that
>everyone requires MSIE, I decided, maybe it was time to bite this bullet and also
>purchase TurboTax.  Once I started hearing about C-Dilla, I knew the response was to
>continue to just say no to Intuit.  I still have very strong doubts about anything
>associated with the names of "TurboTax" and "Intuit".  That also includes their
>ProSeries.