The most recent QBO CSR I had to consult (I've spoken to many over the past 3 months) suggested that I report my problems with QBO here, but I honestly don't know where to begin.
In 25+ years as a Desktop QuickBooks and Payroll customer, I can remember two or three times that I ever had to talk to customer service. The product worked, it was fast, and it was reliable.
In the 3 months since being forced onto QBO by Intuit sales reps who warned that support for Desktop was going away, I can't even remember how many times I've had to call or chat with customer service.
When I first migrated over, my employee classes didn't transfer and they all had to be set up again. Same with payroll withholding reminders and due dates - all gone, all needing recreated.
Later, I spent 8+ hours on the phone with a CSR while they tried to fix a withholding problem caused by a confusing (to the robot) address. This could have been easily fixed if QBO allowed manual entries like Desktop did, but the designers think the robot knows better than the human so they didn't bother to allow any type of force override - (i.e. "Yes, this employee really does live in that county and really does want tax withheld from there.") Nope, can't do it. While they were trying to fix it, I was told I had to stay on the phone with them and they couldn't call me back once they had found a solution. Many hours later, when it was time for the CSR to go home, suddenly it was ok for them to hang up with me and call me back the next day.
On a separate payroll issue (withholding amounts and pay reminders not showing up) they promised a call back but it never came, so I'm assuming the engineers working my issues never could get it working correctly. In the meantime, however I had researched and realized that, for what they were charging with the new price hike, I could hire a third party service to handle my payroll and be done with everything other than adding up timecards. Goodbye QuickBooks Payroll after 25+ years as a customer!
This week I lost time because products/services and customers pulldowns were inoperable. More lost productivity calling, chatting, screen sharing, etc. etc. etc. Turns out this problem was widespread and lasted for hours. Desktop would have never.
QBO takes way longer than Desktop to save checks or invoices and go to a new one. It won't work if the Internet isn't. Certain reports don't like certain browsers. I've had a day when trying to add a new customer just gave me a spinning wheel.
Should I go on? I could also explain the separate but similar problems I've had with a separate QBO account for a non-profit I do books for. My experience there has been equally frustrating, but at least with that one I had never become a QuickBooks Payroll customer to start with - bullet dodged. I did, however, lose all of my memorized reports in the migration.
I could say "good job" to Intuit for having CSRs so quick at the ready, but the fact that they are needed at all speaks volumes since, again, in 25 years on Desktop I maybe had to call three times.
QBO is an inferior product at a higher price. I've spent some of my long waits with CSRs researching alternatives. I know if you're a long-time QuickBooks Desktop user they're trying to force you to QBO, and they almost hold you hostage, but if you're here starting a new business and digging around here to see if you should try QBO, keep looking.
Ironically, this is the second time I'm typing most of this because the first time I wrote it, I waited to select a discussion topic until the end, and I got an "authentication failed" message which wiped everything. Next three times I tried to post I got various other errors (post flooding? for trying to post ONE message?) At this point I can't be surprised.
