What's a fair upgrade price for customers who have a previous version of a software product? Intuit has come up with an interesting answer to that question by deciding that the upgrade price for QuickBooks 2006 should be 100 percent of what new customers pay.
A reader was wondering why he was having trouble finding the upgrade price for QuickBooks when on one Intuit webpage he noticed a link saying "What if I'm upgrading?" Clicking on that he discovered that Intuit has eliminated upgrade pricing. "For our 2006 products, upgraders who already have an older version of QuickBooks and new QuickBooks users can purchase at the same low price," Intuit's explanation read.
"How's that for a benefit?" the reader mused. "You should be grateful that you can upgrade your QuickBooks for the same price as buying new! I used to be able to upgrade QuickBooks standard for about $100 per year. Now they insist on feeding you the Pro version -- with features I've never needed -- for $199.95, with no upgrade discount."
Now, you might wonder why the reader simply didn't refuse to upgrade and keep using his older version of QuickBooks, but that would actually cost him more. "What really hacks me off is that Intuit wants $17/month for employee tax table updates," the reader wrote. "I have 10 employees in a state without state income tax. I
need just one tax table update each year. Intuit forces me to either buy a new version of the program (which includes a single tax table update) every year or to subscribe to a full year of tax table updates."
Of course, as we've seen over the years, the tax table trick is just one of many "sunsetting" tactics Intuit has developed in order to make upgrades of its products as close to mandatory as it can. Having many of its customers over the upgrade barrel, it's probably not all that surprising that Intuit has decided to make them pay more. "It's just not a very nice way for them to treat their customers," the reader concludes. But is it fair? You tell me -- post your comments on my website or write me at Foster@gripe2ed.com.
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