Intuit Rage

Over the years, I’ve used QuickBooks for both my farm and for a non-profit where I am business manager. The farm went out of business about five years ago. So, subsequently, I sent Intuit all the tax-exempt information they wanted for the non-profit. And that solved the problem – once.

It seems they keep misplacing or losing the documents. Over the years, I’ve had to resend the information. This crops up two times a year: (1) April when there is the annual payroll subscription that gets charged to a credit card, and (2) December when I order Federal payroll forms from them. Each time I have to call and go through them digging through their records to see if they can find the documents they already have and then not charge sales tax. That’s the big deal: the non-profit is tax-exempt.

Now we get to this year. I got an email from Intuit addressed to my old farm name and showing the payroll subscription and sales tax. I called QuickBooks. They determined that they had two accounts under my name, but that the tax exempt materials had been misfiled under the farm account and not under the non-profit. They said they would rectify that and combine the accounts into a single profile for the non-profit.

Time passed and I did not see a refund of the $37.57 in sales tax. I called again. Nice man told me it would be taken care of. By now, I’m collecting a new reference number each time I call and writing them down.

Two weeks passed since I was told it was going to be taken care of. I called again today. Unfortunately, I had an inept customer service representative who, even though I carefully laid out the entire story, kept asking me when I had sent in the required non-profit, tax-exempt information. We went round and round about this. Finally, I asked for her supervisor.

It was clear from what the supervisor asked me that the customer service person really hadn’t understood the issue even though I had given her the various reference numbers from my previous calls so she could look up the trail on all this. I went through the story all over again with the supervisor.

She told me (1) the customer service rep didn’t look at things carefully enough to see that Intuit did, indeed, have all the proper documentation and it was associated with the non-profit; (2) the refund should have already have been processed and I should have received it by now [I went online with my credit card company and the refund has not appeared in my account yet]; (3) and the two accounts would not be formally combined (even though they have all the documentation now associated with the non-profit) until I make a new order (uh, that’s be December).

She also told me to call my credit card company to see if the Intuit record of the refund was there and was just pending. And she’d call me back in two days once she looked again at her end. If things were not resolved, we’d do a conference call with my credit card company.

Oh, I called the credit card company and they have no record of a refund coming to my account from Intuit.

Now, all of this is to save the non-profit $37.57. It took over an hour of my time and lots of frustration regarding an inept Intuit employee. And lots of frustration that this is the third time I’ve had to deal with this for THIS transaction and countless times in the past. You’d think a company who sells software to keep track of data could/would do better.

Doggone, I'm a Lucky Pup

Minnie, my wonderful pointer/Aussie mix, died last Monday. I have, for years, stopped by the local branch of the Humane Society to look at the purrs and woofs. Not to adopt, just to look and wonder. I guess there was a part of me that wanted to get a cat again and there were/are plenty that look wonderful. I don’t think I ever saw a dog that really caught my fancy.

The morning I moved Minnie from the ER vet hospital to my own vet and knew her fate, I went by the Humane Society on my way home. Just to see, to get some nurturing for myself. To look at animals with time, with a future. And I saw two puppies that were rescue dogs, part Parsons Russell (Jack Russell) terriers. I didn’t linger long, but one of them caught my eye: she had markings very similar to Minnie.

The next day I was back there and played with the pup. I had some conversations with the staff about how she came to them (rescue from a hoarder, or a puppy mill, or some other situation), what age (little over two months), a foster home when very young, etc. Thursday morning I was back and wanted to put a reserve or deposit on the pup. No go. First come, first served. It’s cash-and-carry. Either you want to adopt, are qualified to adopt, and do it, or the animal is still open for adoption with whoever walks in the door. I didn’t want to chance another getting this pup.

Our good friends John and Mary Beth joined me at the shelter after lunch. I filled out all the paperwork, signed all the forms, bought a new dog crate, some chew toys, stopped at Petsmart for good puppy food, and went home.

She’s Sabrina, sort of a combination of the names of two other dogs that have been part of my life. There was Sabra, a pure-blood English pointer, who was born at our old farm in Steelville, MO and who came with us to Chesterfield when we sold the farm and moved the horses here. And there was Minnie, our alpha dog for the last 14 years here. With the pup having similar markings as these two other dog partners of mine, Sabrina seems appropriate. Robin came up with the name. She’s good at that.

It’s a challenge to have a pup after all these years, but one that I’m up for. So, within a week I lost a constant companion and gained a new friend. It’s been an interesting month with ups and downs and ups. The trip to Venice and the wonders there that I shared with our son, Jeff. News about a friend who is not doing well. The ongoing recovery of our niece in California. And always my being surrounded by a loving Marian, our wonderful children and grandchildren.

Every meal in Venice, Stewart Halperin, our leader would propose a toast: “Are we lucky, or what?” And I say it here: Am I lucky, or what?