Subscription Renewal

spw2023

I received an e-mail indicating my subscription would auto-renew on a specific date - but no amount or what my subscription included. This is an accounting software program - no accountant would pay a bill without a descriptive invoice. The support person indicated "this is the way we do it". I really don't find that a satisfactory answer. If nothing else there should be detailed information on "my account" - again just not the amount. Please fix this issue so your system generates a bill that would pass a basic audit.

jacobs

@Jon I would argue that any auto-renewal system (for any company) should notify the customer of an upcoming auto-renewal, and tell them how much the charge will be. I don't use auto-renew, but from what @spw2023 says, Quicken is doing the former (sending an email) but not the latter (disclosing the renewal price). Since the cost may vary from year to year, the burden should be on the company to tell the user how much they're going to be charged. Companies which don't do this are either being lazy (not coding the dollar amount ito the custom email message) or sketchy (hoping to slide the transaction past the consumer without objection).

I also want companies to provide some sort of purchase receipt or invoice — on their system or via an email — so I can have an actual receipt for me records. It need not be anything as fancy as an invoice, but it should say the company name, the subscriber name, the transaction date, the amount, and ideally the product. Not all software and service companies do this, but many do. (A small percentage of Quicken users who itemize their deductions on their taxes and can deduct the cost of the expenses for managing their investments could actually deduct the cost of Quicken — if they had a receipt.)

jacobs

I had just posted my comment above and checked my email, where I found a subscription renewal email from a different company. The body of the message includes this:

Hi subscriber,

We wanted to thank you for being a subscriber. We couldn’t do our important work without your support.

This is a friendly reminder that your Basic annual subscription will automatically renew on May 4, 2023.

You will be billed $xx plus applicable sales tax and will continue to receive unlimited access to…

That's what Quicken should be doing.

jacobs

@spw2023 This is a Community forum — mostly fellow Quicken users with a handful of Quicken moderators. You're not talking to Quicken management here, and no one here can do anything about internal company practices.

Jon

This isn't accounting software for accountants (ie, Quickbooks), this is personal finance software for consumers. When I log into quicken.com & click on the Subscriptions tab, it tells me what plan I'm on, how much it costs, and when it renews. What more do you need?

jacobs

@Jon I would argue that any auto-renewal system (for any company) should notify the customer of an upcoming auto-renewal, and tell them how much the charge will be. I don't use auto-renew, but from what @spw2023 says, Quicken is doing the former (sending an email) but not the latter (disclosing the renewal price). Since the cost may vary from year to year, the burden should be on the company to tell the user how much they're going to be charged. Companies which don't do this are either being lazy (not coding the dollar amount ito the custom email message) or sketchy (hoping to slide the transaction past the consumer without objection).

I also want companies to provide some sort of purchase receipt or invoice — on their system or via an email — so I can have an actual receipt for me records. It need not be anything as fancy as an invoice, but it should say the company name, the subscriber name, the transaction date, the amount, and ideally the product. Not all software and service companies do this, but many do. (A small percentage of Quicken users who itemize their deductions on their taxes and can deduct the cost of the expenses for managing their investments could actually deduct the cost of Quicken — if they had a receipt.)

jacobs

I had just posted my comment above and checked my email, where I found a subscription renewal email from a different company. The body of the message includes this:

Hi subscriber,

We wanted to thank you for being a subscriber. We couldn’t do our important work without your support.

This is a friendly reminder that your Basic annual subscription will automatically renew on May 4, 2023.

You will be billed $xx plus applicable sales tax and will continue to receive unlimited access to…

That's what Quicken should be doing.