Cetera accounts failing

System

This discussion was created from comments split from:

CC-503 Error Getting Worse, keeps losing access to more accounts

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lemsc4537

I agree with this completely, at this point I have more accounts FAILING to download transactions then I have accounts successfully downloading. The latest one is my Cetera accounts (Cetera Advisor Networks LLC). I use Quicken for Mac and the quality of the software just gets worse and worse everyday (Obviously because they hire cheap labor who don't know how to develop quality software).

Time to look for alternative software after over 30 years as a Quicken customer. I only started using the Mac version recently so might see if the Windows version is any better though I don't want to go back to using Windows).

Quicken Jasmine

Hello @lemsc4537,

Are you receiving any error codes or messages? What exactly is occurring when attempting to download from Cetera Advisor Networks? When did this issue begin to occur?

Let me know!

lemsc4537

@Quicken Jasmine

Here is the error, started happening just this week

Channel: OFX

Days in error: 2

Error Code: -1

Error last seen: 2024-07-18 16:56:56 +0000

Number of updates in error: 13

Server Message: Invalid OFX from your financial institution. Please contact your financial institution and ask them to check their formatting.

Session ID: 792

Type: Direct Connect FI

lemsc4537

Quicken Classic for Business & Personal

Version 7.8.1 (Build 708.53916.100)

macOS 11.7.10

jacobs

I use Quicken for Mac and the quality of the software just gets worse and worse everyday (Obviously because they hire cheap labor who don't know how to develop quality software).

I'd actually say that nothing could be less obvious. You've made the assumption that Quicken's software developers broke the connectivity, while the odds are very strong that the problem is that your financial institution broke the connectivity. the problem just started this week, yet Quicken Mac software was not updated this week. Further, since this is a Direct Connect connection, where all Quicken does is open a connection to the financial institution and allow it to download directly into Quicken; the error message tells you something is malformed in the download coming from the financial institution. So why would you conclude that Quicken hiring "cheap labor" is to blame?

Look, I absolutely understand the frustration with connectivity issues, especially when it's with multiple financial institutions. The real problem is that financial institutions regularly update something in their websites, servers, security protocols, etc. which causes an error with the connectivity scripts run by Intuit to connect and download. Each one must be individually investigated and re-programmed by Intuit or the financial institution or both, and Quicken is at the mercy of these parties to fix each problem. For the IT departments at many financial institutions, Quicken connectivity ranges from a low priority to a pain they wish they didn't need to deal with. But the solution to connectivity problems almost always falls on one of the other parties, not to Quicken's software developers. And most such problems take more than few days to get resolved. From an end-user standpoint, this situation can suck, but Quicken is a tiny, tiny player in the financial services industry, which has never adopted rigid enough standards to make this process as reliable as other types of financial transactions. I'm not waving my hand and absolving Quicken of any responsibility for connectivity issues when this is the business they're in — but I'm trying to understand the reality of the situation and not throw Quicken and its employees under the bus for problems that are quite often outside their control.

lemsc4537

Only started happening this week, been downloading fine since I started using Quicken for Mac ~ 8 months ago. Prior to that I had used Quicken for Windows for ~ 30 years and been downloading from these accounts for last 5+ years.

Quicken Classic Business & Personal

Version 7.8.1 (Build 708.53916.100)

macOS 11.7.10

Channel: OFX

Days in error: 2

Error Code: -1

Error last seen: 2024-07-18 16:56:56 +0000

Number of updates in error: 13

Server Message: Invalid OFX from your financial institution. Please contact your financial institution and ask them to check their formatting.

Session ID: 792

Type: Direct Connect FI

lemsc4537

@jacobs Been a user for 30 years and I can tell you, without a doubt, since the product was sold by Intuit to a venture capital firm, not a technology firm, the quality has gone down tremendously (which makes perfect sense that it would since venture capital firms care only about "capital"). I understand integration issues, been developing software myself for 35+ years, but you are the ones advertising these features and it's the primary reason we pay for subscription (I can manually type in my own transactions without a subscription so the only "value add" to the subscription is the automated downloads). It's on Quicken to make sure the API's to all the institutions you claim to support are well defined and proper change and integration testing is done prior to either party making changes (This is how quality software is developed).

Your excuses are unacceptable and it's not your customers responsibility to be stuck in the middle trying to mitigate software integration issues.

NotACPA

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20445376#Comment_20445376

@jacobs stated the truth. You just don't want to hear it.

jacobs

@lemsc4537 I think you misunderstand that I'm just a Quicken user trying to help fellow Quicken users; I am not a representative of nor do I speak for Quicken.

It's on Quicken to make sure the API's to all the institutions you claim to support are well defined and proper change and integration testing is done prior to either party making changes

Yes, that would be great! But it's completely impossible for Quicken to make that happen. Quicken is a tiny company dealing with thousands of behemoth financial institutions. Quicken doesn't get to create or dictate the APIs. Quicken doesn't have the ability to tell financial institutions not to deploy software changes until Quicken has done proper integration testing. Financial institutions do what they do and Quicken — well, mostly it's Intuit who handles the connectivity — follows along and tries to fix what's broken once they become aware that something's broken. Sure, companies are supposed to notify Intuit in advance if they're moving the URL or a server or make a change in their back-end servers; sometimes they do and sometimes they don't.

I'm just trying to explain the way things actually work, not justify or make excuses for them. I think Quicken is in a tough spot which has only been getting harder because more financial institutions are cutting them off entirely, or reducing their level of access. This is often done due to purported security concerns, but sometimes is just a cover for not wanting to incur the costs and support time required when third party software like Quicken accesses to their systems, and sometime is a way to try to drive their customers to use their own website rather than pulling data into a third-party program like Quicken. In the long run, perhaps the financial services industry will coalesce around better standards to make this easier… or perhaps things will become more walled-off and make it impossible to do what Quicken tries to do. For now, Quicken (Intuit actually) has to be the little Dutch boy plugging holes in the dike as quickly as they can when leaks pop up.

lemsc4537

@jacobs I think I have to admit that you are right :-)