Customer Reviews

TurboTax Deluxe Federal + State + Federal efile 2009 [Download] [Old Version]

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(31)

 

 

I purchased Turbo Tax Deluxe 2009 from Amazon. Turbo Tax informed me that my state was ready. I launched Turbo Tax and my state was sitting there ready to go. It said I get one free state with my purchase, but when I went to "start" the state it took me on-line to purchase it.

I sent e-mail through turbo tax support just as a post on the turbo tax forum said to. I got no response. After a week of patiently waiting, I called up turbo tax (from the number in the program). I was put on hold but was robotically told I would be getting great customer service.

The person on the line worked long and hard with me to figure out why turbo tax was not letting me use my state. Two things came up constantly:
1. Constantly asking me if I bought the version with the state. Yes. I read it to them off the program telling me I get a free state.
2. They said the problem could be with Amazon's download and it may not have included the state (look at this review, it is against turbo tax including state and it verifies I purchased it).

They finally gave me a dumbed down "form only" version of my state. I was told two things in my reaction to this:
1. The online has a step by step approach (she seemed confused, suggesting the online was step by step but download purchase was not - can anyone confirm this?)
2. There is no known problem with Turbo Tax downloading the state (not true, amazon and turbotax forums both include discussion on such a problem) and that is why I will only get this version (implying another fuller version exits, which is contrary to point 1 above).

Clearly intuit/turbotax is having problems here. Support was great until the end (great as in they kept working on it, not that they solved it).

Twenty year customer. Yes, if there was a better or equal product, I would switch at this point. They could have just fixed it by giving me the correct version. Done. Didn't do it.

Intuit has achieved "AT&T" status: If everything works OK then you get a pretty good product. If it does have problems, support is ineffective.

*** Update 2/3/10: I received an e-mail from TT:
"You have been identified as someone that experienced issues with the free state download. You are entitled to one Free State with TurboTax Deluxe or higher, however, TurboTax prompted for payment in error.

We have identified the root cause of the issue and have scheduled a product update for 2/11/2010 that will resolve the issue.

The information provided by you ultimately helped us identify the issue. We appreciate your patience and assistance in resolving this matter.

If you have already paid for your free state, no action is needed on your part. We will identify you as paying for the state with the information provided in the sign up and issue a refund and you should see the refund on your next statement."

My fingers are crossed while I wait another week to finally get a working product.

*** Update 2/16/10: As promised, I got a new automatic download of my state program. This one now works and is not limited to dumb forms. Doing my state taxes with the full version reminded me to declare an education credit that increased my state refund by several hundred dollars. I would have caught it on my own I'm sure, but this is the reason I pay for a program like Turbo Tax to help me keep track of these things. I've updated my rating to 3 stars - as they came through and fixed the problem. Only 3 stars because they've lost my confidence and I still need to finish my taxes and run the full submission process. I'm not confident it will be error free (or if there is a problem, if Intuit will fix it promptly).

While I respect the concern that another reviewer has expressed about having to install Amazon's software downloader in order to buy this software, I would add an assurance to others that the process is straightforward and caused no system problems. Moreover, once the download was complete, there is a link to the uninstaller in the Start menu folder which removes the downloader in under a minute. Perhaps if I had not been a long time Amazon customer, I would have been more suspicious of the process, but there were no problems. Now if Amazon would just pay my taxes ...

I just bought the download of Turbo Tax 2009 and had no problem at all with the download. The entire download including the Amazon software installer and Turbo Tax took only about 2 minutes on my broadband connection. Installation and updating of the Turbo Tax software took about another 15 minutes. My O/S is XP.

I would recommend this product.

What a disappointment!
I've used TurboTax for many years. I've seen it through many changes and I actually LIKED the program this year. I had no problems with the download or install on my two-year-old Windows XP Dell.
I prepare my own return as well as those for my children. I completed the first one only to find out that this program would allow me to PREPARE only one state return. If I wanted to do more, they would be about thirty bucks each!? This is NOT in any of the material I read when I purchased the product. Note that I'm NOT talking about efiling here. I am happy to print out returns and mail them if needed. This program only allows the user to PREPARE ONE state return!

I read another reviewer who said this problem had been fixed. As far as I can tell it hasn't. He mentioned spending forever on the phone talking to customer service but I don't think I should have to do that when I bought the same product I usually buy--and when it says "free state," it has always allowed me to prepare as many returns as I would like.

Grrrr......

The product is the typical easy to use TurboTax product. If anything, this product is even easier and improved from years past.

The only thing to be aware of when buying the Federal State and eFile package is that the state eFile is NOT included. In our case, California, it was an additional $19.99.

As a long-time Amazon customer, I was happy to see the Turbotax software available for a reasonable discount. After paying for the software, I was astonished to discover that Amazon REQUIRES that the user download and install a separate piece of software in order to download the purchased software. I've run across similar situations at other software vendors such as Adobe or Microsoft, but in those cases the vendor offers an alternative download process that does not require installation of their proprietary download software. Amazon does not offer any alternative. Either install their download software and take your chances on what it will do to a stable system (and who knows what information it collects and sends to parties unknown) or you don't get the product you purchased.

I reluctantly downloaded and tried to install the Amazon downloader, and it locked up my browser so solidly that I couldn't kill the session at all. Task Manager wouldn't even load. Impossible to restart the machine. I had to manually cycle power to the system.

I would recommend against purchasing any downloaded software from Amazon until they provide an alternative download process that does not require the installation of any proprietary crapware.

Amazon did issue me a credit for the transaction, and I will now purchase the physical product (CD in a box) <http://www.amazon.com/TurboTax-Deluxe-Federal-State-efile/dp/B002RS8F0K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1260356395&sr=8-1>, despite the waste of all the packaging, because it's the only reasonable alternative.

I've used TurboTax every year and I've rarely had any issues. However, this year is a little different. My Federal info went through fine. However, when I went to the State return, all of the information from the Federal return was imported automatically and I couldn't go through the tax interview and edit anything. I click Edit and nothing happens. It just idles. Apparently other users have reported this bug and TurboTax doesn't have a resolution.

[...]

You can go through and do things manually on the forms but what's the point of doing that when TurboTax is supposed to make this easy and painless? It's like taking your car to the shop and the mechanic hands you a manual to fix your car. Hopefully they come up with a resolution soon.

Downloaded the software fine but when it was time to do the state return, there was no state software included. Went to download my FREE state and was taken to a screen where they would be happy to take my credit card information again in order to purchase - for $39.95 - the state software that I supposedly already purchased.

This is the sixth year I've used Turbotax, and have always loved it. I purchased the 2009 Deluxe version early in 2010 via download, which is how I always do it. I know I'll pay a few dollar more getting it early, and realize that it won't be until early February when everything is updated for filing. But, I like to get preliminary numbers of what I'll owe or what will be refunded as soon as possible. All was fine until I tried to get the state upgrade (included in my version) a few days after it's commitment date.

As of now, it has still not downloaded. My software is stuck is some odd loop, "relicensing" my state version in one iteration, and then "downloading" it in another. So far I have been charged an additional $39.95 plus tax directly from Turbotax for the one state which is supposed to be included in the fifty-something I paid for the software. The related refund button on my Turbotax account doesn't work. Their support is unavailable to help.

I've always found Turbotax quick, easy, hassle free and relatively inexpensive. I can tell already that is not going to be the case this year. If this continues to look like it is going to involve continued trouble and the related time, I'll ask for a refund and go to a tax preparation service - which will cost about $100, which is what I'm already out so far.

I don't expect all of the forms to be available and ready early in January; I certainly realize that TurboTax is getting updated info from both the federal and state governments. What I do expect, however, is that when they commit to having my state software available by a certain date, that it is (at least in it's initial format so I can begin to plan financially for the tax season). I expect that when something is supposed to be free, that they not charge me for it. And, if there are problems, that their support is available to rectify them. Those fair expectations have not been met in early 2010 for the '09 tax year.

I was intrepid after reading the problems with XP-Pro installation. However, I've used TurboTax for years, and TaxCut software just didn't fit what we needed for the difference in price. I purchased the downloadable TurboTax software and decided I'd utilize the suggestions already posted by other consumers in their reviews if I had problems.

This software downloaded, installed & updated without a hitch! It's open in the background as I'm writing this & has imported last year's information successfully.

Just thought I'd add my input as I had no problems whatsoever with XP-Pro SP3. :) I'm happy!