Is Intuit becoming the “new Microsoft?” Based on my experiences with the company over the past two days regarding QuickBooks Pro, I suspect so, and QB users should be forewarned regarding two issues.

1) QB 2007 Release 1 officially launched around November 1st. As of December 20th, we’re up to Release 4 - if you can successfully download and install it, that is, because the .exe file, which takes a mere hour to download over high-end DSL, has corrupted both times I’ve downloaded it. The good news is that enough installed on the second try that it fixed the original proble - that I couldn’t open the app after installing IE 7. Although tech support said that couldn’t be the issue, sure enough, the Intuit website identifies this as a known issue. Instead of just posting instructions to download (or try to) a newer release when this happens, you’d think they would make some effort to use the e-mail address database they carefully collect for marketing purposes to alert folks to the problem - rather than have us waste half a day tracking it down, while we’re locked out of our accounting software.

2) Immediately prior to this episode, I had experienced problems with payments being recorded as deposits but not properly credited to clients’ accounts. When I called for assistance, I was told that my 30- or 45-day grace period was up, so I’d have to pay to learn how to correct an Intuit problem. Reluctantly, I signed up for an annual service contract rather than pay more than twice what Microsoft charges for correcting its problems. But then things got worse. My first tech support call went off shore (to the Phillipines?)  to be handled by a woman who a) spoke and understood very little English; b) knew almost nothing about the product; and c) had no familiarity with the concept of balancing entries. But the second call went better. The guy, this time in India, understood English. He did have to spell many words, because I couldn’t understand him, but hey, that works. What didn’t work is that he too didn’t know squat about the product nor about balanced entries.

So - I would caution folks as follows:

* Do not sign up for a service contract unless truly desperate (and know that you may become even more desperate after signing up).

* Wait a bit before upgrading to QB 2007. And when you do, buy it online to make sure you get the latest version.

Hopefully, Intuit will face better competition before long.