Unshelved by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum
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Monday, February 15, 2016

I just wasted two hours of my life trying to do my taxes through TurboTax

Something I've done for years without any trouble. Next thing I know, it's costing more to do mine because I got an early distribution from my retirement, then it's costing some for doing my state taxes, which is normal, and then there's ANOTHER fee for taking my fee out of my refund. The next thing I know, it's costing $106, when I've never paid more than $35 before. I would do better going to a tax prep service. It wound up being roughly ONE-HALF of my refund. I am not going to write exactly what I am feeling about TurboTax at the moment, but here are some observations:
  • One, the stupid app that they tout crashed my phone, which has plenty of space and memory, so I'm suspecting it's the stupid app.
  • Second, I couldn't remember my password, because it required a special character, and the process was IMMENSELY stupid in trying to recover it, as it asked me a question that I answered, then asked me all sorts of questions that didn't apply to me (no, Intuit, I've never financed a car, ever in my life). Then I put in the answer to the original question one more time and it did, indeed, take it.
  • But it did it all on my browser on my phone, not on the app, which was annoying. So I had to type in my W-2 information, some of which it wouldn't take correctly, like my employer's street address. Any date was incredibly hard to correct if you got it wrong. It was, in short, incredibly difficult and annoying to do anything on TurboTax this year. The reason I didn't use my computer, which I brought to the library to get info from last year if needed, was that I'm on an open connexion here, and at least it should be more secure on my phone network, I assume. But this was the worst tax experience in my life. I'll be going somewhere else, that's for sure. Goodbye after probably a decade, TurboTax--you are too greedy for me.

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