Customer Reviews for TurboTax Premier Federal + State + eFile 2008 [OLD VERSION]

TurboTax Premier Federal + State + eFile 2008 [OLD VERSION]
by Intuit, Inc.

	List Price: ~~$89.95~~ Our Price: $9.78 You Save: $80.17 (89%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Category: Software See more product details and other editions

Software Reviews of TurboTax Premier Federal + State + eFile 2008 [OLD VERSION]

Customer Review: TurboTax is a No-No for Dial-up Internet Users
Summary: 2 Stars

I have used TurboTax Premier for several years and in the beginning was very satisfied with it:
It's easy to use and guides you through your taxes with ease. Pop up help is always available and terms you don't understand are explained.

Before TurboTax, my spouse always did the taxes. It took him a week of headaches and increasing stress because the IRS instructions are incompressible to us (and we are both college graduates). When he'd submit them there were usually mistakes in the calculations, causing more stress and money as well. Our taxes are very complicated because of a wide range of income sources, so I chose TurboTax Premier, and it solved our problems. It handles interest and investment income and expenses with ease. Using that product we had no more mistakes and the work went much faster. It found deductions we never knew about, so we were very satisfied.

But it was too good to last. Every year the program got bigger, "more improved", more expensive, and more difficult to download. Last year it took 4 hours to download on our dial-up Internet service, so this year I got the CD from Amazon.com thinking all I'd have to deal with would be the upgrades Intuit had added after the CD was published. BIG MISTAKE! The first problem came up when I installed TurboTax on the computer and it asked me to register the product. It could not, would not, and absolutely refused to access the Internet via our dial-up system. All I got were error messages saying it could not connect. Instructions indicated that I'd have to turn off the accelerator program we use to make dial-up faster. It still wouldn't connect. Instructions said to disable all security and privacy modes and allow cookies. Still wouldn't connect. Instructions said to disable Windows Firewall. Still wouldn't connect. Instructions said if all these measures fail, go to the TurboTax website and download the updates manually. So I tried that. Download was blocked. I gave up. At midnight when Internet traffic is less, I tried again. This time it started downloading the updates. I was informed it would take 20 HOURS! Ridiculous! So I went to bed let it continue downloading and by 10 a.m. the next morning it was complete. It only took 10 hours instead of 20. Ridiculous!! No program should take that long to download. But worse was yet to come. When I try to install the updates I get an error message informing me it cannot extract the archive. Oh great! I was supposed to block the security modes again. So I did, but it will not install the files. So I cannot install the files I spent 10 hours downloading. Now I have to call them and order a CD with the updates. So why can't the vendor sell me a CD with the updates in the first place? I waited until the last half of March to order it. Now we wait until they mail us the updates before we start our taxes. If we'd waited until the last minute we'd find ourselves up against the April 15 deadline and unable to get them done.

After all that trouble, we tried to get our State Tax Form. --Unable to connect of course. So I went to the TurboTax website to download it manually. First try was refused. Second try the next day it was successfully downloaded. It only took an hour. Ridiculous!

I will not be using TurboTax next year. It is obviously not intended for dial-up customers. Unless you have broadband, don't even consider using it via the Internet! I may use it as if I have no computer, ordering everything on CD, but more likely I will try Tax Cut instead, because TurboTax is getting too expensive. Sure, it's cheaper than paying a CPA, but it's just a mass produced computer program; and it doesn't do what it promises. I did not get the things I paid for in TurboTax Premier this year and undoubtedly if I tried to use the e-file application, it would not be able to make a connection, so we will mail a hard copy. We did that last year because they wanted to charge $15 to e-file. Intuit is greedy, and has no interest in serving the average tax-paying citizen who has no fancy hi-speed Internet connection.

Customer Review: Item is as advertised
Summary: 5 Stars

I was pleasantly surprised that this even includes 5 federal e-files. It seems like the same package you find at any major retailer, only much less expensive.

Customer Review: Turbotax is accurate
Summary: 5 Stars

We've been using Turbotax Premier for several years. For the past 3 years, we've owed a lot of money (likely due to AMT), so I figured I had to be doing something wrong. I took my returns and all supporting documentation for the previous 3 years to a CPA/CFP, recommended by my friend, who is the Corporate Counsel for a Silicon Valley Firm. The accountant had my files for about 4 months, after which he concluded that he couldn't find ANY way we could have saved money. I was disappointed in that outcome, naturally, but at least satisfied that Turbotax was working correctly. The accountant even joked that he was a bad salesman since he had just ensured that it was highly unlikely that I would ever engage his services for future returns. He's right. We used Turbotax again this year.