OK, so I am a small business owner that uses Intuit Payroll System. If you are a small business owner, maybe you should pay attention to this post as it details the changing of my business work location from the San Francisco area to the Northern Virginia/DC metro area. The fact is that Intuit claims that they “Hard Code” states into the system. It kind of infuriated me enough for me to blog about it.  Special highlights have been emphasized for good measure.

Please wait for a customer support representative. We’ll be with you shortly!
You’re now chatting with ‘Susan’.
Susan: Hello, Vaughn, how may I assist you today?
Vaughn: Yes, I am trying to figure out how to change the primary work location on my setup. It is currently set to San Francisco, but I am trying to change it to Ashburn, VA.
Susan: Unfortunately you are not able to make a state change to the primary address. You would have to create a new payroll account for this.
Susan: I understand how frustrating and tedious this is and I completely understand, but our payroll service is currently not setup to handle primary state changes in an account.
Vaughn: Well, does that mean I have to pay for a new service?
Susan: Cancel the current one after you setup the new account in VA.
Vaughn: mmmm, no. Can’t do.
Susan: Yes. New service.
Vaughn: I need to be able to change the primary address.
Susan: Unfortunately this is the only current workaround to change the primary work location if it’s in a different state from what it is currently set to.
Vaughn: I would like a complete refund.
Susan: Our system is hard coded in where you won’t be able to change from one state to another.
Susan: Are you wanting to discontinue services with us?
Vaughn: Who, in this day and age, hard codes states into a system?
Vaughn: I would like a complete refund.
Vaughn: Then when I get the refund
Vaughn: and only when I get the refund, I may setup a new payroll
Vaughn: Your system just charged me $51 on Saturday.
Susan: Again, I’m sorry about this Vaughn and I can not issue a refund because you are not able to change the primary state on your account without having to open up a new one.
Vaughn: I’ll just get the CC company to back out the charge.
Vaughn: This is total baloney.
Susan: I put in a feature request about being able to change the primary state without having to open a new account, but at this current time, opening up a new one would be the only option.
Susan: You can also provide your feedback at onlinepayrollfeedback@intuit.com.
Vaughn: Hold on, on the phone with bank.
Vaughn: backing out the charge
Susan: Ok. I can hold.
Vaughn: You can transfer me to a manager correct?
Vaughn: while I am waiting
Susan: I can see if my manager is available, yes.

INSERT 5 MINUTE WAIT HERE

Susan: Is this in regards to not being able to get a refund on our end?
Vaughn: of course it is
Susan: One moment Vaughn.
Vaughn: I’ve talked with Visa and my bank
Susan: Vaughn you still there?
Susan: Ok.
Vaughn: They will refund me the money.
Susan: Ok.
Vaughn: I am going through and deleting information from your system.
Vaughn: And putting in false information since your system will not allow me to delete anything,
Vaughn: etc.
Susan: Totally up to you, but if you wish to file your year-end-forms with us it will have the information you have entered.
Vaughn: No need.
Vaughn: I will get a service
Vaughn: that actually cares
Vaughn: about their customers’ needs.
Susan: Sorry to hear about that Vaughn. I can see where you are coming from that why should you have to open a new account just to change a primary state location, but unfortunately our system won’t allow it to change from one state to another.
Vaughn: My question is if you can change my billing address why can’t you change my business address
Vaughn: Even the Visa and my bank reps said that was ‘crazy non-sense’
Vaughn: It is simply a business decision to make money
Susan: And being a customer myself for any other business, I can see what you are saying, but as mentioned, I have sent this over as a feature request to our engineers.
Vaughn: Don’t need feature requests, just need it changed in the database.
Vaughn: Actually, let me talk to a manager
Susan: Sure!
Please wait while I transfer you to ‘Amy’, who will be better able to assist you.

You’re now chatting with ‘Amy’.

Amy: Hello Vaughn. My name is Amy.
Amy: I am a manager here at Intuit.
Vaughn: Do you have any power to change stuff in a database?
Amy: When specifically regarding changing the primary state location, I do not.
Vaughn: How on Earth did your engineers design your system?
Amy: I understand that you are frustrated that our system does not support being able to change your primary state. In order to have the correct state listed, you will need to create a new account to have Virginia as your primary location.
Vaughn: This is bogus. You mean to tell me that your system pulls my primary state and account information from a flat file on some system?
Amy: Yes, that is correct. The information that was provided when you set up your account allows our system to determine what state files to generate when taxes are due.
Vaughn: Are you kidding me?
Amy: Is your business location in San Francisco?
Vaughn: Is the primary state and account information in a flat file or in a database?
Amy: I am actually not provided the information on how the system is coded, so I cannot provide an answer. However, at this time, our system is designed in a way that locks in the state when that information is entered upon setup
Vaughn: Can I speak with your manager or a technical person that knows how the system is coded?
Amy: Customers are typically recommended they do is set up their primary state to the address the IRS has on file for them.
Amy: I can provide a recommendation or a feature request on your behalf to our engineers to solve for your situation in the future, however at this time, the main solution would be for you to create a new account with Virginia as the primary location.
Vaughn: Can I speak with your manager or a technical person that knows how the system is coded, as you yourself stated, do not have the requisite knowledge to solve my problem.
Vaughn: ?
Amy: Within my organization, none of my associates on the management team are aware of coding of the site. You can email onlinepayrollfeedback@intuit.com to have your request for more information forwarded to the department that can answer that question.
Amy: I understand it is not ideal to recreate a new account, however I do show that you signed up as recently as September, so transferring your data will not be too time consuming.
Vaughn: I’m not worried about time consuming.
Vaughn: I am not transferring anything over.
Amy: You mentioned you want to change the account from CA to VA.
Vaughn: That is correct.
Amy: Do you have any employees that live or work in Ca?
Vaughn: Just myself. (I said this because I knew they would try to charge me more or come up with some other weird excuse)
Amy: There is no charge to set up a new account.
Vaughn: Yes there is, there is a hold on CC when you sign up.
Amy: We ask for that information, however billing does not begin until you approve your first check within the new account.
Vaughn: So, you’re going to transfer my $51 in credits to the new account?
Amy: An with Intuit Online Payroll, you actually will receive your first month free, so you will not be billed until your second month.
Amy: Will you be adding new employees at anytime? and if so, what state will they be located in?
Vaughn: Just myself and in Virginia
Amy: Is the filing address for your business with the IRS listed as your California location or in Virginia?
Vaughn: Virginia
Vaughn: 12345 MyStreet
Vaughn: Ashburn, VA 20148
Amy: I see. Thank you for providing this information
Amy: So, as it stands, it would be ideal for you to create a new account with VA as the primary location. When creating a new account, indicate that address above and please reenter your employee and your own information.

I dealt with this for over two hours.  At the end of the exchange with Amy, my chat window magically froze.  So, I go back to the website, re-login and then start a new session with another customer service representative.  She started to make the change and then she said “let me review your previous chat history with Amy” and then suddenly she cannot do it because there’s magically a problem with the “state being hard-coded”  in “our system”.  So, after about 45 minutes additional wrangling with that customer service rep, I think Intuit got the hint that I wasn’t going to back down until they gave me what I wanted-which was a refund.  I think the point here is that a company in this day and age has to be upfront about “dumb” policies.  If your system has a flaw, state it and let the customers decide for themselves whether or not their business should be placed with your company.  Don’t give BS excuses to customers and just expect them to “drink the kool-aid” .  AND, if your system has an obvious flaw like this, get it solved immediately, no excuse, no compromise.  Customers will vote you out of the market.

:V

Tags: business work, payroll system, customer support representative, dc metro area, workaround, good measure