Why Intuit's Quicken is a bug-filled quagmire

I have used Intuit's flagship financial management software, Quicken, for more than a decade. It was a solid piece of software, if somewhat geeky in its earlier versions.

But it worked, and it worked well. And when there was a problem, which was rare, Intuit fixed it with some alacrity.

That was then. This is now. And it shows how software companies that concentrate more on layering on features and trying to continually get users to upgrade eventually end up in their own quagmire.

Quicken is now a bug-filled quagmire. Just check the user forums, which are peppered with issues, not just "how to" questions.

It began a few years ago, with Quicken 12, as I remember, when Intuit decided that you could not do cash flow accounting in your budget (in other words, enter negative and positive amounts to budget lines), but instead had to go to double-entry bookkeeping, with income and outflow lines for each applicable category.  It also complicated matters with a budget screen that, once you got past January, showed "January" of what appeared to be  the following year -- but what really wasn't; if you tried to change that amount you quickly discovered you'd changed the amount for January in the current year.

The forums went nuts. Well, users were told, that might be changed in the next edition, but no changes that year. (Some improvements have been made in later editions.)

Skip forward to Quicken 15. I've discovered at least three bugs, one of them serious and introduced with a recent update (R7), and a fourth that hasn't affected me but is so serious that it's locked people out of their password-protected data files. The bug is so bad that even the update to "fix" it (R8) can't necessarily unlock those corrupted files, according to Inuit's own posting.

NOTE: This patch cannot unlock files that are already locked. This could not be resolved with product update without adversely impacting the data quality any further.

Now, if you are introducing critical flaws with your updates, most of which are applied automatically, you've got a serious, serious issue as a software company.

The three bugs I have found fall into the category of one serious and two convenience.

• With R7, the reconcile function on many registers has stopped working properly. It is failing to always decrement the account totals as you clear individual items. If you do not notice this and click "finish" after clearing all your items, you are likely to get an out of balance warning and Quicken's helpful suggestion to put the excess in a "Misc." category -- which would royally screw things up even more. (The "solution," for now at least, is to click on "finish later" and then go back to reconcile. Usually the amounts have then properly adjusted.) The R8 update did not fix this. And I am far from alone -- there are numerous threads on the customer forums (here's one), but no indication Intuit is paying attention.
• From the beginning, two functions on the calendar have been screwy. These are more convenience issues, but they worked in previous versions and do save time:
• Half the time, if you put in a calendar entry, it does not refresh and show up unless you click to the prior or previous month and then back to the month in which you put the entry.
• If you right (or CTRL-) click on a calendar date and select Add Reminder, a bill reminder comes up automatically with no option to add transfer or income reminders. To get those, you have to go to the "Bill and Income Reminders" tab and then click "Add Reminder." Not a huge deal, but, again, extra clicks and loss of functionality in previous versions.

But my issue goes deeper -- it goes to the core of the way Intuit treats customers when they find these kinds of issues. Does Intuit have a simple bug report form? No.  You can go to the contact page and choose between calling support (I'm now 28 minutes into an estimated one-hour wait) or online chat (which was closed at 3:30 p.m.! -- and which still had a 45-minute wait earlier in the day). I've tried to report one of these through chat before, but what clearly came through was that the person was following a script and really had no clue what I was talking about (basically came down to install and reinstall, which I'd already done).

In other words, there's nothing "quick" about Quicken.

To Intuit's credit, it did respond to my plaintive tweets, initially by sending me to the infernal "contact us" form (that generally tries to shunt you off to the customer forums where the "superusers"  tend to tell you you don't know what you're talking about ). The options there? Phone or chat.

Later, it tweeted a link to an online survey where you have to vote for what feature you'd like to see improved just so you can dump all the issues into an "other" box. It's lame, but I'd encourage every Quicken user with issues to "flood the zone" so to speak till they take it down.

Good software organizations like Mozilla have an easy way to report issues. They get customer service -- and they don't even charge for their software.

One other thing reflects Intuit's "just don't get it" situation. Most times, Quicken will update automatically, if a patch is available, when you start it. (This can be both good and bad -- just ask the users for whom R6 thoroughly corrupted their files. Even the dreaded Microsoft gives you the option of being notified of  updates but not applying them till you say so.) But I've had times when the download does not complete. So just go and do it manually, right, by finding the "software update" button off the menus? Ha! There are updates, but you have to do a "one step update," which also involves updating accounts or portfolios, etc. (at least one of them) so you can get a message when that is complete that there is a software update you can download and apply. How screwy is that? (And god forbid that somehow it doesn't download correctly that time, either. Then it's back to "one step update.") How hard would it be to put a " check for updates" entry in the menu as most decent software companies do?

In short, there was a time I highly recommended Quicken. Not anymore.

Maybe Intuit will get its act back together someday.

Meanwhile, I'm in 47 minutes into holding with the repeated assurance that "your call will be answered shortly."
Update: One hour, 9 minutes and counting.

Update: 1 hour, 32 minutes later. It appears Intuit may have solved the issue with the Mondo patch (which is not noted in the related threads I've been following on the customer forums -- and as noted I already had updated to R8) http://quicken.intuit.com/support/help/patching/quicken-2015-for-windows-release-notes--updates--and-mondo-patch/GEN86565.html
The calendar issues are not fully resolved. I'm seeing fewer needs to refresh but the add reminder issue still is unresolved.

Google taking flak

There was the ouburst of unhappiness last week when it was announced Google Reader was being phased out, and now there are broadsides against the search giant for problems with Google Alerts (which I have to agree has been sucking lately).

Here's the deal, folks. This decade is going to be pay to play. Many of these free services were launched with the idea they could be ad supported. We know where that's gone with the media, so why does anyone think it would be different with anything else?

Sure, some will stay free (there's always the motive to get people in the door or there will be other objectives, such as Google's and Facebooks' massive data-gathering efforts -- if you'e buying FB stock, you're not buying a social media company but a huge database you hope can be monetized). And with churn there will be new free ones popping up.

But if you make them part of your workflow, get ready to pony up. It's going to be a cost of business.

Firefox version whatever

With the announcement that Firefox, now in new version 15, will soon be coming out with version 17 - continuing the annoying march of full version updates that sent websites scrambling to update (while we all get nag notices), here's my take on things:

Thunderbird development stopping

I'm disappointed in the word that Mozilla is stopping development of the Thunderbird e-mail client except for security and stability updates (rough translation - probably not going to see much of that, either).

Yes, it's a Web and cloud-based world, but there's a place for a machine-based client.

The Web interface for my university's email, based as it is on Outlook, is much too clunky and slow. I use the IMAP interface through a client, which just allows me more flexibility in quickly managing my mail or, at times, in downloading things to my machine for when I know I won't have good online access or would have to pay through the nose (like in some airports).

Right now, I use T-bird as backstop. I recommend downloading the SeaMonkey browser package, also from Mozilla. It has integrated e-mail as well as an integrated Web authoring tool. It's the little cousin of Firefox, but I think it should get more attention (although I do wonder sometimes how long Mozilla will keep it going).

Quicken backlash grows

I wrote here a few weeks ago about Intuit's apparent arrogance in redesigning the budget function in its Quicken software.

The threads of discontent on its feedback site continue to grow longer - here and here and here, for instance.

Now there's an online petition.

We'll see if it has the same effect that such other efforts have recently. Intuit says it focus group screens and beta tests this stuff, but somehow it must have missed a large swath of unhappy people.

Blackboard strikes again - RIP dropbox

Ah yes, the Blackboard overlords have struck again adding yet another reason to my list of hating this course management system.

In v9.1, BB has eliminated the dropbox, helpfully suggesting that if you want to exchange files with students, use the "assignment manager."

Only, did anyone think that not every file exchange involves an assignment?

Dropbox, for instance, was perfect for sending a large audio editing review file privately to a student that was too large for email and then deleting it. Since the original story was not a traditional "assignment," it would be cumbersome at best to do it that way.

(For instance, the "assignment" here involves multiple versions of multiple items that are part of a story package - much better done through a server. The problem with returning the audio review file back through the server is the lack of FERPA privacy.)

And if a student needed to quick send me a large file back privately, it was easy enough to run it through Dropbox and then delete it.

(Yes, I can probably set up something through one of the online exchange services; it's just one more site and one more password and one more thing to complicate matters when this was a perfectly elegant solution, elegant being a word you don't hear associated much with BB.)

So instead of improving Dropbox with things like batch download and batch delete - after all, that would be soooooo 2005 - BB just does away with it.

Nice going. Let's see if we can find more to expand the list.

Quicken: A case of software arrogance

There are some parallels to be drawn between Intuit and its Quicken software and the media industry. Both have tended to do things because they can, not because they really understand the needs of their consumers.

 Intuit's Quicken 2012 is a good example. One truly wonders how much usability testing it was put through before release.

If you've used Quicken for years, as I have, its combination of spreadsheet views,when necessary, and database aggregation made it a very powerful tool. But now the developers - or marketers - at Quicken apparently have decided they know best. What has resulted is a piece of bloatware (required 1GB of memory to run) loaded with non-optional graphical interfaces that sometimes are less easy to understand than a simple spreadsheet in colors and that severely restrict the options and functionality.

The best example is the "new" budget. It's a circus of colored bars arrows, drop-down boxes, etc., but with less functionality than the original spreadsheet version. For instance:

• You can't do a specific budget out for more than 12 months from the current month. So if I want to sit down today and do all of a 2012 budget, guess what? I can't do December 2012. December is usually a month of some pretty big inflows and outflows, gifts and travel on one side, and things like capital gains on the other. Yet I have to wait until January to put those in the form? So you've just decreased my efficiency.
• Once a month has passed, you are locked out from making any changes. So let's say I decided to make a big purchase at the end of a month and pay for it with a sizable withdrawal from savings. If I wait a day or two to enter it, the month's end might have passed, and I'm locked out.
• Maybe I make an advance payment on a loan. I have to wait a week or two (even online) to get the statement showing the adjusted principle and interest. If I've passed month's end, I'm locked out.

And on and on. Even generating the budget favors more using averages than specifics.

What's it matter? After all, you still get a general sense of spending, right? Yes, but sometimes - fairly often judging by the complaints on Intuit's third-party complaint forum - a more detailed look is not only appreciated but needed. Being able to generate a year-to-date budget report that is as close to up-to-the-minute as possible can be quite important at times.

In trying to create  "Quicken for Dummies," Intuit has severely limited its product - and the irony is that in in doing this, the bloatware is actually less useful than a slimmer, more elegant version.

That's a lot like the media business was, if you think about it: We'll tell you what features you'll get - and you'll like it. Customer feedback is kind of shunted off to the side.

When options became available, people quickly fled.

For now, there aren't that many options. Microsoft is not developing "Money " anymore, though there is a free, lite version. And Intuit owns "The Mint." But Intiut might take a lesson from the media. In this digital age, nothing is forever, especially when you try to force things down customers' throats.

6 reasons to hate Blackboard

I've been meaning to write this post for several years, but just keep finding more "features" of Blackboard to hate. (I'm not alone. Type "Blackboard sucks" into Google for even more.)

The "resurrection" of some of these fine "features" in the latest iteration, however, has finally reminded me to memorialize some of these:

1) When you need a notice like this on your log-in screen, it's a hint something is badly amiss (January 2014: BB has now supported Chrome, but it still does some weird things with the "hot spot" quiz questions):

2) It's 2011, ever hear of "drag and drop"? The Blackboard interface is hugely clunky. Let's say you wanted to move an item from a folder to a subfolder. You have to click copy and then, if you've asked to remove it, you have to click the idiot warning about removing something. How about just being able to drag items from one place to another? (January 2014: Still waiting.)

3) It's 2011, ever hear of batch delete? Not in most parts of BB. No, it's click on remove for each individual item, then answer the idiot question, then ... you get the idea. So say you have a class of 20 students and they are submitting labs twice a week to the drop box. Do the math, especially since it often takes at least 30 seconds for BB to execute. That's 20 minutes a week just deleting stuff. (January 2014: BB has improved this in some areas, but still lacks it in some critical areas.)

4) Click, click, click - oops, you forgot a "switch" and so that feature won't operate. Some of the "tools" within BB require multiple "switches" to be thrown in multiple areas before they become available to students. Miss one and ... Compare that to more modern applications - say, about everything else online. If I can set up a blog online with a minimum of intuitive clicks (and those include setting templates, etc., which BB does not allow), why is it so hard for BB to do it? (January 2014: Not really improved. In fact, some of the features are even a bit more inscrutable.)

5) BB quizzes get a special place in Hell. In addition to the drag and drop (not) above, the software has some special "features" that make it difficult if not useless for those of us teaching language-related courses.

- No way to designate capital letters. This is such 1990s technology. Every question should have the option to mark it wrong if the capitalization is not matched. This is a longstanding request that BB seems to be incapable of. (January 2014: Hussah - the latest update now includes this, as well as the ability to use regular expressions for contextual text. But every old pool question has to be updated to this by hand. It should be a master setting that also can be thrown for each pool.)

- No way to expand "fill in blank" boxes to accommodate longer answers, such as retyping short sentences to correct errors. So students are left seeing half (or less) of what they have typed. Not easy to proofread there, bucko. (January 2014: Box has been expanded.)

- Conversion of apostrophes, quotes and ampersands to the "&amp" code. Put a question in with one of those and it will close correctly - the first time. But gawd help you if you reopen it to make any changes. The system automatically changes the symbols to the HTML code - and if you don't remember to re-edit it, your students will all be marked wrong. See this, for example ("World Series of Poker's" helpfully changed by BB):

Click to see detail

(The even cooler thing is that every time you open it, it adds another "&amp" code to the line, so after discovering the error and reopening it to edit, you have at least two to remove.)(January 2014: Has happened occasionally through various upgrades. So far, not on this one. Keeping fingers crossed.)

6) No ability to prevent cutting and pasting of quiz questions (so, for instance, students can't easily pass them on to others). Yes, there is script available out there. And no, it's not perfect, but it helps. So why doesn't BB just license the script and make it an option check box for the quiz? (January 2014: Still not there that I can see.)

And three bonus reasons:
1) The rich text editor interface that is javascript based is abnormally clunky and fails to work across browsers. The RTEs in about any decent online service or content management system these days (say, like the one used to post this) are relatively sleek and easy to use with about any browser. Comparatively, Blackboard's is put together with baling wire and chewing gum. (January 2014: Looks like BB is now using TinyMCE or a derivative that works much better.)

2) Having a "grade center" that cannot be opened in its own browser tab without giving you errors is stupid. It's 2011, tabbed browsing is the norm, and not allowing that means yet more clicks back and forth to get to other things from the control panel. (It's 2014, and it's still a problem.)

3) Update: Why, I almost forgot my most recent vexation - copying a file to another directory and then being unable to set the order of items because the file you copied has become co-joined with some other item (see photo - notice the two 4's) and everything gets screwed up when you try to reorder one of them. (I finally figured a work-around (emphasis on more work) - copy the item a second time. Then delete the original one you copied. Everything snaps back into place.

(This seems to have been fixed.)

I could probably find more, but this is a good start. It's 2011, but Blackboard is so 2001.

The folks at my school are exceedingly helpful. They raise these issues with BB and on user groups as far as I can tell, but the solutions are few and far between.

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January 2014: My major wishes now are
- Still, the drag and drop feature so if you have something in one folder and want to move it to another (for instance if you have weeks of reading set up in the left rail), you can just drag it instead of using that clunky Move or Copy procedure.
- A calendar that lets you enter things like tests and assignments due and generates, if you want, an automatic announcement that you can set for up to five days ahead, just like most of the rest of the world's online calendars do.
- Less inscrutability in formatting a class site. It seems to want to force you into one of the preset formats.