Hate when I am caught off guard

[rfassett]

Just had a call from Thomson Reuter rep stating that they knew I was an ATX user (because I have previously told them) and that they have received a great number of calls from unhappy ATX users. She wanted to know if I was having all the issues they were hearing about and if so, would I be interested in their Ultra Tax product. I said, no I am not having all of the issues that you are hearing about and no I am not interested in Ultra Tax. After hanging up, I wished I would have asked how many of those ATX folks they signed up. I know for a fact there is a huge price difference. I would think that not many ATXers have moved to Ultra Tax.

[RitaB]

I hate any kind of sales call.

[rfassett]

Having done my share of sales, I am compassionate toward sales people, as a rule. But for me, the first rule of sales is to know your audience. And you do not call on restaruants during lunch hour and you do not call on an accounting office during tax season. I have NO compassion for the ones that violate that rule.

[joanmcq]

At least Drake sent an email.

[Catherine]

I called Drake to get info as I have been having some problems. The rep told me they have had 400+ people jump ship from ATX to Drake in the last two weeks. Plus more from TaxWise and whatever other program is also having issues. One would think that, with those kinds of numbers, they don't need to actively solicit.

[JohnH]

Since I spend the other part of my business life as a sales rep, I'm generally interested in the sales & marketing side of any company I do business with. Sales reps tend to exaggerate for a host of reasons. But if those numbers are anywhere near accurate, there could be a "critical mass" issue looming here. Doesn't matter to me personally because I've already made my decision, but I'm certainly going to keep watching - mainly out of curiosity.

[JohnH]

Having done my share of sales, I am compassionate toward sales people, as a rule. But for me, the first rule of sales is to know your audience. And you do not call on restaruants during lunch hour and you do not call on an accounting office during tax season. I have NO compassion for the ones that violate that rule.

Very true.

But if I were a food service equipment salesman who walked into a restaurant and noticed their kitchen was in flames, I would hand them my business card on my way back out the door.

[Guest Taxed]

Drake raked it in because of the failures of ATX, TRX and Taxworks. No doubt the last 3 weeks were a god send for them. BUT have you looked at the Drake program? The database is Access and I believe it is written in Visual Basic or Visual C++. Within the next 2 years they will also have to bite the bullet and revamp. What happens then?

If ATX can survive this retooling and get the kinks out this season, it has a bright future ahead with new customers.

I just hope these software companies do all their revamping during the off season!

[Jack from Ohio]

Not jumping ship!! Does anyone remember 2003? Such short memory spans we have!!

[JohnH]

I just hope these software companies do all their revamping during the off season!

And that is a hard thing for a tax software company to figure out why?

[jaybird]

Drake raked it in because of the failures of ATX, TRX and Taxworks. No doubt the last 3 weeks were a god send for them. BUT have you looked at the Drake program? The database is Access and I believe it is written in Visual Basic or Visual C++. Within the next 2 years they will also have to bite the bullet and revamp. What happens then?

If ATX can survive this retooling and get the kinks out this season, it has a bright future ahead with new customers.

I just hope these software companies do all their revamping during the off season!

Drake has been working on the required revamp for approximately 3 years now, unlike ATX which is performing like it decided just yesterday to rework! I did my research and we chose based on the fact that Drake is waiting until it's product is ready before it launches its new platform. We used ATX for 14 years, if they get their "stuff" together we may be back for next year, but if not, I am confident that Drake has put in enough time beta testing in-house and we won't be stuck testing for them during our busiest time of year!

[JohnH]

Do you think that maybe Drake at least bought a couple of off-the-shelf computers and are testing their new software on them? Sort of the way lots of small practitioners have to operate? Sometimes its really smart to emulate how your customers are actually going to use (and misuse) your product before you take their money.

I suspect Drake is wise enough to do that because I have lots of confidence in their ability to idemtify and service their target market. What a novel concept.

[Richcpaman]

Ron:

Glad you got yours to run. Mine is now.

Trying to figure out the print routines, etc, but I will.

If all Drake picked up was 400 customers in the past month, then ATX isn't doing to bad. If you think about the "gross" number of preparers, which is not increasing that fast... That is a small gain.

I know NOW that I should have loaded that disc that ATX mailed me in November. And got it running, tested, whatever, then. I will do that next year. I usually do not start really doing returns till after the Super Bowl...

Rich

[RitaB]

I know NOW that I should have loaded that disc that ATX mailed me in November. And got it running, tested, whatever, then.

It would not have helped. I did load it in November and there was nothing to see. I assumed because Congress could not get their act together, either.

[joanmcq]

Yup same here. I always load it when I get it, roll over my return and enter what I can. This year couldn't work on it at all, but I did get to play in the program a bit. Every year it's a bit different, and I knew this year was going to be very different since I went to the CCH Small Firms conference and got a chance to take some classes in the new program and see what they were doing. They'd been working on it for two years. And it was running at the conference in October. That said, I had my first crash after 12.7.

[taxxcpa]

When I switched from Intuit to ATX, I bought both programs just in case ATX didn't work. It worked OK back in those days and included entity returns for the same price as Intuit's 1040-only program. I was a satisfied customer of ATX's for several years after that until their customer support began to deteriorate under the new owners.

Those of you who are buying other programs now, may or may not want to switch permanently.

One option would be to get the professional version of TaxAct which is low-cost and use it until ATX gets its act together--which it probably will in a few more weeks.