Not so Quicken

Whoo boy! I've been a Quicken and Quicken Bill Pay user for over three decades. Like many, I would update every two or three years. Intuit's annual incremental upgrades were never too dramatic. The accumulation of two or three years of incremental upgrades generally yielded a useful improvement in my user experience.

In April 2016, H.I.G. Capital acquired Quicken from Intuit. The Notorious H.I.G. promptly switched business models from the legacy shrink-wrap physical product in store shelves to a subscription model. In effect, Quicken has always been a subscription product. Typically, connectivity services would go dark after three years. A functionality loss sufficiently aggravating to inspire splurging on the latest Quicken version. Thus restarting the cycle. The Notorious H.I.G. transitioned Quicken to an annual subscription service. Akin to Adobe Creative Cloud, software functionality ceases absent a current subscription.

I had Quicken 2017. The Notorious H.I.G. established end of life at April 30, 2020. I fully intended to milk this version for all it was worth. I'm not one for conspiracy theories, but it was oddly coincidental that, each Quicken 2017 update brought significant technical issues. The most annoying was an issue that prevented entering the password needed to download transactions. A fresh install fixed the issue. But my confidence was shot.

And what should magically appear in my inbox but an offer for a two year Quicken Premier subscription at a 40% discount. Intriguingly, the Quicken Premier subscription includes Quicken Bill Pay. I've been paying forever $9.99 a month for Quicken Bill Pay. Two years of Quicken Bill Pay exceeded the cost of the two year Quicken subscription. Hmm .... that got my attention.

Curious, I contacted Quicken support. If I subscribe to Quicken Premier, will my existing QuickenBillPay account stitch over and the monthly charges stop? Yes, I was assured, they would.

So I took the plunge on June 30, 2018, and ordered up a two-year subscription of Quicken Premier. The download and install of Quicken 2018 happened as one would expect. No surprises. All accounts loaded, banks connected, etc. All seemed OK.

A couple weeks later, a $9.99 charge for Quicken Bill Pay appeared in my bank account. Puzzled, I again contacted Quicken customer support. The perky customer service rep. admonished me, "Oh, no, you must cancel your old Quicken Bill Pay account and create a new Quicken Bill Pay account. And here's a URL pointing to the details you need." Gee, thanks! Would have been great if the customer service dude had shared that keen intel last week.

So, I initiated creation of a new QuickenBillPay account. Entered payment account info and, sat back. A perky email promptly arrived informing me that two micro deposits will appear in the account in approximately 48 hours. Enter those amounts to finalize account registration. Swell!

When the micro deposits failed to appear after a week, I again contacted Quicken customer support. The very helpful individual quickly diagnosed that I made an error when entering the account number. He stepped me through the simple process of establishing another payment source with the correct account information. He promised that he micro deposits needed to confirm the payment source would appear within 48 hours.

Fast forward another week, the micro payments are still M.I.A. I placed another call to Quicken customer support. Now, the Quicken Premier subscription includes "Priority access to customer support." Quicken appears to consider a 25 minute wait time "priority access." Nonetheless, I eventually connected with another perky customer service rep.

She asked: Have you submitted a voided check?

Me: Um, no, I've not been asked to.

She: Well, you need to. Here's how to submit your voided check ...

Me: Oh, OK.
She: We are backlogged and the micro payments won't appear in your account for 12 to 14 days.

Me: Oh, swell. Oh, by the way, two days ago, I was charged for QuickenBillPay. I cancelled that. 

She: Oh, that was your final payment. 

Me: Oh, swell, so far I've been charged about $20 for an account I thought was closed. Quicken has disabled all payment accounts attached to that QuickenBillPay account. At the moment, I have no online payment service active.

She: Would you like me to reactivate your old account?

Me: Um, no. Thanks. 

So, here we are, six weeks after activating my Quicken Premier subscription, still dorking around finalizing configuration of my QuickenBillPay service. To be continued, I'm sure.

Not so Quicken.