Cry For Help from New Zealand !

StratixMan · July 17

I dont know if anyone can provide some info to solve my problem but here goes. I have been a Quicken user since the mid eighties and changed to LInux mid nineties then ran various versions of Quicken on LinuxMint & Codeweavers CrossOver Office.It ran, and runs, perfectly. NZ and Austr had a separate version to cope with SalesTax/GST. Sometime in 2013/14 (?) Intuit sold Quicken and the new owners then sold the NZ/AUS/UK biz to a bunch of Aussie spruikers who relaunched Quicken as Reckon Accounting. Reckon 2015 was based on 2014 Intuit Code so (presume) was a rebadged Quicken Classic 2014 (Aus/NZ). It has run absolutely perfectly for ten years running a trust, a consultancy and my personal affairs. - until 2 days ago - when dialogue boxes appeared on both my desktops - I bought two licences - advising me that I was locked out and needed to reregister. No notice - thats it - boom. Note that the licencing Agreement stipulated they were indefinite lifetime licences. Then the scam started - I rang the help number - its in India of course - long story short - we dont care about your licence if you want to get your data back you have to buy a new subscription version of our very own accounting package which is cloud based - blah blah blah. Sorry for the length of this - now we get to the point.

This of course was an ambush - by not giving me any notice - i was not able to prepare a QIF export file and consider my options and I am locked out of the software so they have essentially hijacked my data - my question is could I use a buy a quicken classic version of 2014 era from here to build a QIF export file ??

The agenda here is simple, these guys bought the business and have spent a fortune building groovy new cloud based apps thinking they would switch all the Quicken legacy users they "purchased" over to their subscription apps - oops that didnt work . ten years down the track their annual report complains that the bulk of their revenue comes still from classic desktop stuff,. and they "must increase their efforts to convert legacy users" … so clearly the gloves have come off and they are trying to force the issue.

Again I apologise for the length of this but if you read this far and have any ideas ? _ much appreciated.

Cheers.

Jim_Harman · July 17

Are you sure your computer was not hijacked by a scammer, someone other than Reckon itself?

I see that Reckon has switched to a subscription pricing model, as Quicken has, but I do not see reports online that they have cut off existing users without warning.

I suggest you go to the Reckon.com website and dial the official support number to see what is going on.

Please let us know what you find.

StratixMan · July 18

Hi Jim,

No my computer was definitely not hacked. I did ring the Official help line which was manned by barely understandable indian contractors and got nowhere, I also rang another official helpline number provided by my accountants and got no further. Their response was simple. (a) Yes we understand you bought an indefinite/ lifetime licence, (b) we dont care, © we have put an end date on the licence and (d) if you want to read/salvage your data you will have to pay for an upgrade to a subscription model.

Their motivation, on researching them is now all too clear. Reckon is an Aussie listed company, their revenue is going nowhere, their profit is pathetic for a software company and both the annual report and a separate CEO briefing point to their trouble in moving the legacy user base they purchased from Quicken onto their own subscription based software, (which they seem to have spent a fortune on) so this move is an endeavour to force people like me to make the shift, and move us away from the Intuit/Quicken legacy code.

I guess they were smart enough to realise that if they gave me notice I would have immediately generated a QIF Format export file and moved the data out of harms way, given there are plenty of other packages that import QIF. Basically this is a Corporate Ransomware fraud.

The problem I have is that because Reckon 2015 is based on Quicken 2014 code CrossOver Office recognises Reckon as Quicken and happily installs it into a windows bottle so I can run it on my Linux Desktop. As I previously said for ten years it has run beautifully in that setup, rock solid and fast, I dont need to change and I doubt that any of Reckon's other software will be recognised or install under CrossOver Office.

I am wondering if I bought a 2014 Quicken Classic DVD off of Ebay and installed it, if it would read my files and generate a QIF Format export file. My problem is that I dont know enough about that formatting process and what it does to the original files.

Any suggestions gratefully appreciated

Cheers

StratixMan · July 18

Hi,

I was convinced in the first ten minutes that this was indeed a scam - but I have two licences on separate computers so fired up the other one and got the same result. I did ring the official support number which is an Indian based contract help desk and my accountants gave me an alternative support number also Indian. Both had the same result ….in short … "yeah you may have an indefinite lifetime licence … too bad …we will not restore access unless you pay to switch to our subscription based product, and, you can ring as many times as you like you wont get a different answer from us". So…its not a scam, but it is corporate blackmail.

I think this is what we might describe as a corporate ransomware attack. I would call it fraudulent. Reckon as a company is not particularly successful, according to their published accounts and statements, they admit they have really struggled to convert their legacy quicken base "voluntarily" to their own software. Looks like this is management's Option B.

My challenge - hence my question here - is to figure out how to access my files with a Quicken package and prepare a QFI format export file so as to rescue my financial records and transfer them to another accounting package. I dont know what impact the formatting to QFI has on the data. Any suggestions gratefully accepted.

UKR · July 18

Just wondering … if you were to

take your computer completely offline (disconnect Ethernet cable, turn off WiFi in Network Settings)
change the system clock to an older date where the Quicken software still worked
now run your Quicken to create the QIF file making sure that really everything has been offloaded
when done, good or bad, don't forget to set your system clock back to today's date and time and reenable your Internet connection

… have you tried that?

Good luck with that and with finding a Quicken US version willing to import your QIF file or simply open your QDF file.
BTW, there's a free version of Quicken 2013 Deluxe available directly from Quicken which you can try. Download from here

q_lurker · July 18

Reckon took over the Australian Quicken package far longer ago than you are recognizing - like early 2000s or before. But I would agree that likely in the 2010's Reckon dropped the Quicken name for their own.

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7918214/relicensing-quicken-2005

As best I know, even those much earlier versions of Reckon's Quicken were never compatible with the US versions. In that regard, it seems you are SOL. I also recall hearing about this 'relicensing' issue for several years. It seems sort of coincidental to something else taking place on the user's computer, rather than a blanket change to 'disable' all such older installations. That's just my observational comment, not something based on known facts.

Cry For Help from New Zealand !

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