My week is not starting out well. I’m using QuickBooks 2007 Pro. I have used this essential program for years to run my business, and regularly recommend it to clients. I was recently forced to upgrade to 2007 for $200, because the payroll service is not supported on my current version, QB 2004.

QuickBooks is morphing from year to year into something like a huge advertisement for a bunch of online “value-added services” which cost extra.

I create an invoice, and print the invoice directly. Now I want to print an envelope for the invoice. There is a menu selection for this, and what it does then is make a call to Microsoft Word, and use Word’s envelope printing function. In Word 2007, there is no PostNet bar code included on the envelope.

Questions:
1. If Quickbooks can program umpteen irrelevant options, like “Google Ads” into their 2007 version, why can they spend a few cycles programming a working envelope printing function? An undergraduate student could do this in a day.

2. Why is my “30 day free call-back” service outsourced via an almost un-listenable VoIP service, to an obviously non-native speaker, who blindly follows a lame script, and wants to spend most of their time “verifying my information” even though I just spent five minutes typing it all in on the internet request form not ten minutes before the call?

3. What if I didn’t have Microsoft Word?

This is one of those critical moments. After using a trusted program/service/doctor/consultant/whatever/ for years, and never considering an alternative, never worrying about the cost, there sometimes comes a time when you are brought up short, and think to yourself, “Maybe there is an alternative”. And you start looking. And you never trust your current provider quite as much.

This works both ways, of course. As a technology consultant, I must constantly work to retain the trust of my clients as well. Happily, many have maintained long-term relationships.