Parting feedback from a 20year former Quicken customer —> 1. Data Access & 2. sub-tiers

qkn_willm1

Note: In 4 days I will be a former customer as well, having moved to another platform 6 months ago (paying 2 subscriptions—to ensure that I would be able to make an educated decision if I were to jump ship after all of this time. (See also, my now resolved Reddit). Roadmap feature request

As a devoted long time Quicken customer (+20years) with Roadmap request to treat Mobile/Web subscriber data slightly differently using as a recommended "North Star" (golden rule) the following:

Customers should never be prevented from accessing their own financial data provided the data hasn't been deleted (by a mutually applicable Data Retention policy).

Such a rule/policy would help both parties.

Simplify would benefit by:

1. Streamlined marketing/advertising (effort/cost) around customer data access guarantees (i.e. Quicken Data Access Guarantee ). Instead of unsuccessfully trying to educate customers as to which tier of subscriber is entitled to "guaranteed access to their own data, those efforts could be spent on marketing customer value-add features.
2. Improved Customer Loyalty—because undoubtedly loyalty is impacted with complex rules as to which "tier" paying customers desire (guaranteed) access to their OWN data. Besides, for a Mobile/Web costing up to $96/year, access to owns own data should be considered "table stakes" for product teams.
3. Greater focus for Product/Engineering teams incentivized to focus on a common-North Star for their customers, and maintaining 1 set of standards around data policies (data retention, customer access, export policies)

Customers would know that their data is being treated safely, and fairly, and most importantly, is available when they need it (within reason).

Voice Of Customer (use case)—if helpful for product teams/feedback:

• Context: I'm a 20+ year customer of "Quicken tools" *My product journey has been: 1. "*Quicken Desktop" (~2001 for a few years) -> 2. Mint (~decade+ until forced off) -> 3. Simplifi (3 years) -> 4. non-Quicken tool (6 months ago). ("Mint" was/is still my favorite.)
• Situation:
• This week, while working on my Taxes (I needed to find all 2-3 year tax payments from various banks. When I went to retrieve them, I noticed by Simplifi subscription had expired 6 days before.
• At first I thought i should try to do without that data. (Maybe my old bank records from a digital only bank, and another brick-and-mortar could still be found somewhere else I reasoned?)
• The mobile (and web) apps only had "upsell" (resubscribe) option. I could not see my data, I could not do anything in either mobile or web apps.
• Since the bank payment data needed was > 2 years old, I doubted that I could get/find that data from up to 3 brick-mortar & digital-only banks. In the best case, it would be a few hours before I could even determine that answer.
• I looked at my options within the app, including :
  • Read Simplifi fine-print to determine if an elapsed customer could Resubscribe and be eligible for the 30-day refund, or was that only for new subscribers? —> PROBABLY (it seemed, tho couldn't say for sure).
  • If elapsed existing (3y) customers were eligble, would I be able to "self-serve" or have to "request" and wait for answer to access my data? —> REQUEST & APPROVALs seemed to be REQUIRED
  • Checked if at least, to minimize risk/costs/inconvenience, does Simplify at least offer a MONTHLY plan to "lapsed" ANNUAL Subscribers? --> NO, STILL ONLY ANNUAL (@ up to $96/YR)
• After 1 hour trying to figure out my options I was FRUSTRATED, Tired, and decided to start this post (see "ORIGINAL POST" below)

Why am I spending so much time writing this? -> Because after 20 years of being a customer—I am breaking up with you, for the reasons noted above.

My hope is that at least by writing this all down:

1. To make a user experience more TRANSPARENT , that is currently VERY OPAQUE
2. Genuine desire for this 20year customer feedback to find its way Product/Executive leadership.

Best.

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//////////----------- PART 2: ORIGINAL POST --------- //////////

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Refer to:

https://www.reddit.com/r/simplifimoney/comments/1rxdbsv/quicken_simplifi_data_access_guarantee_is_a_false/