Is this for real?

splasher

Mods, how about an official answer?

Quicken Anja

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20495217#Comment_20495217

@splasher We’ve confirmed with our Marketing team that SMARI is one of our approved research partners, so the email appears to be legitimate.

Thank you!

splasher

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20495221#Comment_20495221

@Quicken Anja Thanks for the response, but it still looks/smells fishy for the reasons pointed out by @jacobs, it just seems very unprofessional.

Quicken Anja

Hello @splasher,

I’ve reached out internally to find out more info and will get back to you once I know more.

Thanks!

Jon

There were a few threads on the forum back in January/February about Smari. No indication at the time that it wasn't legit.

splasher

@Quicken Anja I forgot to mention, it showed up as an email.

jacobs

Assuming it's legit — and I think Quicken has used SMARI in the past — it seems poorly done for a top-tier market research firm. It doesn't even include Quicken's logo. (Of course that could be used in a scam, too, but why not even try to make it look legitimate?) More importantly, referring questions to the general web page for Quicken Support is a major red flag. Would a Quicken Support rep even have information about a market research study being conducted for management? Quicken should have established a web page or email address to confirm that SMARI is conducting an authorized survey for Quicken. Sigh.

Quicken Anja

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20495217#Comment_20495217

@splasher We’ve confirmed with our Marketing team that SMARI is one of our approved research partners, so the email appears to be legitimate.

Thank you!

splasher

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20495221#Comment_20495221

@Quicken Anja Thanks for the response, but it still looks/smells fishy for the reasons pointed out by @jacobs, it just seems very unprofessional.

jacobs

@Quicken Anja Perhaps you can pass on the suggestion to your Marketing department that they create a webpage on the Quicken.com website which SMARI or other market research emails could direct users to, which would vouch for the authenticity of the company and the research study. As it currently looks, I’m certain some users the survey is trying to capture are ignoring it because it looks fishy.

Thanks.

NotACPA

I started the survey. It got TOO personal (and irrelevant) too fast.

I broke off after about 6 questions.

splasher

I decided to skip it when I asked if it was real, but I'm curious, what constituted "TOO personal"?

AndrewQ

I was involved with a similar action from another vendor recently. Besides the ideas that have been floated, Quicken might consider having a pop-up or some other "push" to the Quicken community (upon Quicken start-up?) within the program alerting us to the potential incoming survey. Would save a lot of angst. (OTOH, if the survey is to a small subset of the community, you have to weigh the benefits of such an approach.)

jacobs

@AndrewQ I imagine this survey is going to a small percentage of Quicken users. (I did not receive it.) If they pop up a message to all users about a market research survey, and most people don't ge the survey, then people will complain about why they weren't included.

That's why I think the easy solution is to have a page on their website this says, "If you have received an email from a company called SMARI about a market research survey for Quicken, Quicken can confirms that we have engaged them to conduct this survey on our behalf" — and the link on the SMARI email could point to the URL for that web page instead of telling people to contact Quicken Support. People who don't receive the email to participate will never know, and those who do can find confirmation that this is legitimate.

Jon

I don't know, once that page is there it would be just as easy for scammers to point to it - it only confirms that an email that's actually from SMARI is legit, it doesn't confirm that the email you received is legit.

jacobs

I don't know, once that page is there it would be just as easy for scammers to point to it - it only confirms that an email that's actually from SMARI is legit, it doesn't confirm that the email you received is legit.

Yes, I wasn't suggesting a permanent static page; it would need to be taken down when there is no survey activity taking place, and the URL should change each time (e.g. "quicken.com/support/smari-survey/02-2025" or something like that) … or at least the text would need to specify the time period (June 2025 or June 17-30, 2025) for the testing.

Scooterlam

Just received this email. Had a brief look. Agree with @NotACPA. First questions were demographic in nature, then this one:

In the following set of questions, we aim to gain a deeper understanding of how you prioritize various aspects of your life. We understand that all of these aspects may be important, but everyone allocates their time and focus differently, given their current circumstances. We would like to know where your current focus lies today.

Stopped and deleted the email. Way too personal.

debbeh

I received this email 3 times already and every time I mark it as Junk.

NotACPA

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20495693#Comment_20495693

Thanks for providing that quote. I remembered that something was too personal, but not exactly what.

Too much going on in my life right now to keep track of stuff like that.

Scooterlam

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20495751#Comment_20495751

BTW, here was the multiple choice response to that question I posted above. Overall, sort of odd, especially when it comes from a non-Quicken person and email account.

CaliQkn

This might be of interest to some commenters on this thread. AFAIK, this is only available in CA.