Longtime Customer Deeply Disappointed by QuickBooks Pricing and Forced Migration

We had this happen to us last week. Please read the email we are trying to send but cannot seem to find who to send it to.  I want to blast this out to all the longtime QB desktop small business clients like us.

I am writing to formally complain about a deeply frustrating and concerning experience I recently had regarding my QuickBooks Desktop account.
After receiving a fraud alert on my credit card, I updated my payment information with QuickBooks two weeks ago. However, on the morning of June 13, 2025, I received a notification in QB that my account had been suspended for nonpayment. This should not have happened.
When I called customer service, I first spoke with a representative named "Gisele", who asked me to confirm the last four digits of my new card. When I did, she claimed that card was not on file. I told her I had absolutely updated it and asked her to check the call recordings. She dismissed that possibility, asking whether I had a "confirmation number" for the call (I didn't), then told me "Well, you need to keep it," and insisted QuickBooks does not retain those records-which I find extremely difficult to believe.
After that call, I was transferred to someone in the sales department, named "Kent", who informed me that since my account was suspended, I was now under a new license and treated as a new customer. He made multiple attempts to upsell me to a different plan at a higher rate. When I asked to be transferred back to billing or to a supervisor to resolve what was clearly a mistake, I was told that no such transfer was possible. It truly felt like I was being scammed into paying more for a service I had already tried to renew correctly. The call lasted 39 minutes, He kept me on the phone, would not transfer me and made it seem my files would be lost if I did not upgrade, I did not make him aware that my files were backed up.  I hung up on him. 
Thankfully, on a subsequent call, I spoke with a third representative who found my updated card on file immediately and simply processed my renewal at the correct rate. She also gave me a 20% discount for being a longtime customer. Her professionalism stood in sharp contrast to the behavior of the first two individuals.
At this point, I believe there was either a serious mishandling of my account or an intentional attempt to mislead me into a more expensive plan. Either way, this experience has shaken my trust. 

@David Lafferty  

You can switch to old QB Desktop with a non subscription license.

I am exactly in your same position. I have been a loyal customer of QuickBooks desktop since 1999 and now they're treating me like garbage. They have to come not only aggressively greedy but they have become detestable and I will be finding a new software because they're online version stinks, it's subpar and overpriced. I don't know what's wrong with Intuit but I will never use TurboTax or Credit karma again because I just don't trust the company anymore and I wish there was a way to warn everybody who is even considering using QuickBooks online after being gouged since COVID. He used to be 589 every 3 years and now this year for payroll included, I have to pay $5,900. That is greedy and into it has caught the disease of greed and it is a disease and there is no cure and their greed is insatiable and if you're trapped with a company like that, they will rip you off incessantly. All over the QuickBooks community are complaints about how they take their clients funds, who paid through their merchant service, hold it forever and then close their account and they never get their money. I can't tell what difference between that and stealing and this is the new Intuit. I wish the federal government would step in because that is awful. And now it's time to switch to a new software. I am elderly, unable to live on social security, And I have to work and QuickBooks is proud of the fact that they're getting rid of their desktop customers when all their customers prefer the desktop version. Intuit should be ashamed of itself and not arrogant or prideful and rude. Their customer service is rude. It has now become one of the worst companies not in just a country but in the entire world

Intuit just doesn't care. All they care about is money. They just don't care about people or their customers at all. Perhaps they're just jealous of other companies making more money than them, or perhaps they are just so greedy that they can't see beyond that. 

The customer service is rude if you bring up these complaints and they may read your email but they don't care. 

I will no longer buy TurboTax and I've taken all my entire family off Credit karma and have advised all my friends and clients to do the same. QuickBooks is no longer trustworthy, just go on and look at the complaints all over the QuickBooks community about what QuickBooks is doing to their online customers. Clearly, QuickBooks has become a greedy abusive company. And they're online version is not only excessively expensive, but it's a crappy software it's very very bad. It's not like they took the desktop version, which was good, and put it online it's completely different. Also Google about all the losses they have faced, mostly for misappropriating their clients funds. QuickBooks is bad and into it is bad and I don't think they're ever going to change. They are way too greedy

Continuing to use QuickBooks desktop, as long as you don't want to download and And used do it yourself payroll because I would never let QuickBooks do my payroll, I would never let them have that kind of access to any of the information on my computer, but your facing security breaches, look what they're doing to their loyal customers, imagine what they will do to someone who does that. I need the downloading and payroll so I can't continue to use QuickBooks at all but I don't trust them enough, to implement your suggestion although I do understand it. 

I just hope QuickBooks doesn't survive and I hope into it goes under also

now this year for payroll included, I have to pay $5,900.

You can still use QB Desktop, but you'll need to use a third-party payroll app to get your total expenses down to under $4000 next year.

We are moving to Odoo.  It is so much better and they care about their customers unlike QB.

We are also a very small business and have been using QuickBooks for 32 years when it was just Quicken. We provide bookkeeping & payroll services to other small businesses in our area. Here is the pricing nightmare we've experienced in just six year’s time:

2021  $1106  0% increase

2022  $1199  8% increase

2023  $1649  38% increase

2024  $1999  28% increase

2025  $2999  33% increase

2026  $4149  38% increase ARGH!!!

This pricing is no longer affordable for us so we will be looking for an alternative small business bookkeeping & payroll software.  ARGH!!!

Has anyone else found an alternative to QB desktop as we will never want to use QB Online. No one we know has been happy with it and some have even gone back to the desktop version they still had on their computer!

Intuit has been mostly a marketing machine for at least two decades and we are very small potatoes basically just a French fryto them. And they no longer care about us unless maybe if we go to their online version

@boo24 

What version of QB Desktop are you using? How many user licenses do you have? What is your budget?

Do you use QB only for your company or do you also support your clients using QBA files?

Amen!

AI cannot move fast enough that we will no longer need this company's terrible software!  I give it one more year where AI will be used to create polished programs (they are not polished ATM) and if you don't know how to do it people will publish the code freely.

Same goes with accountants, we will be able to just drop all our info into AI and it will do all your taxes (and AI will know EVERY line of the tax code instantly.

Thank you for putting this together.  I have seen my prices go up, up, up and just had not taken the time to put the number together.  I have been so disappointed the past 6 months with Intuit.

I used to love the online version, now it is getting worse, and harder to use, or find what I need.  I also have desktop versions for 30+ years and with it going away I am not sure what to do with the clients that need to  stay on it.  They are small businesses and conservator ships that really do not need an online presence or the price.

@noiseacct 

Advise your clients to switch to the older version of QB Desktop with a non-subscription license. If they need to run payroll, they can use a third-party payroll app at a competitive price.

They don't let you import bank and credit card statements into older QB, has to been less than 3 years old.  And I'm not just taking about bank feeds, I mean manually downloading the statement and importing them.

@dz46 

You can use a 3rd party importer tool (one time $199) as a workaround. If your company is located in US, you can get a license for free from a partner.

https://get.transactionpro.com/qbd

Another option, you can use the trial version of QB Desktop 2024 Enterprise to import statements directly.

HI, I am also a very small business, and I'm down to just me. I am 70 years old and want to retire but can't afford to because Social Security is a Ponzi scam and Medicare is a joke.  I have been using QuickBooks Desktop since 1999 and I am shocked over the decisions they have made and how this once "leader of their industry" is now abusive and ripping off their very own customers, and how they truly are now at the very bottom of their industry.  There are so many complaints, in this platform, from businesses who used QuickBooks Desktop for their credit card merchant  company and QuickBooks Desktop NEVER gave these loyal customers their money. QuickBooks desktop job was to run the charge through, give the funds to the rightful business and keep their BankCard Merchant Fee.  They have become to incredibly and shockingly corrupt and greedy that QuickBooks Desktop stole their money, closed those customers accounts, deleted their books and left them broke and scrambling.  They need to get together and do a Class Action Suit, before QuickBooks desktop totally disappears.  I wonder, are they trashing QB Desktop because they fear their criminal and immoral actions will catch up with them?

Intuit is not confused over right and wrong nor are they confused about what money they are entitled too and when they are simply stealing from their very own customers. Do a Google search: "Complaints about QuickBooks Desktop keeping revenue, paid by credit card, using QB as their Credit Card Merchant Company and never giving it to the business to whom it belongs, NEVER!  Intuit LIED so very much about TurboTax, so very very much, that the federal government and the FTC have sued them a lot.  They have paid millions in fines and now have completely lost their moral compass.  They are resting on the laurels and abandoning their morals.  There behavior is not just naughty or wrong, it is criminal. 

AND after watching them pull all these stunts, stealing, lying, raising the price of their software from $650 every three years to thousands every year... who would stay with them now?  PLUS, their online version is terrible and if it weren't, the desktop folks would have switched over.  It's not like they took their QuickBooks Desktop and made an online version.  QuickBooks online it awful and absolutely nothing like the accounting of QuickBooks Desktop.  It should not be used for any real business,  AND most definitely not be used by accountants. Intuit is so so so very very stupid, they really believe their desktop customers are going to stay with QuickBooks and move their company to the Online version and their online version is so pathetic and useless that it can't even stand up to Quicken.  I refused to take any clients who wanted me to use QuickBooks online, so they all went to Desktop and now have to say Bye Bye to the software they used, happily for so long.  AND all this is Intuit's own fault, lying and stealing all the time, worshipping money so much that they gladly stoop to such low levels to steal and lie.  Bottom Line:  QB Desktop customers are paying the fines of Intuits deplorable and egregious behavior with TurboTax. Also, the online version will end up being so expensive and it stinks.....  

@PASC 

I completely understand your frustration, and you expressed the same sentiment in December. Why don't you continue using QB Desktop + a 3rd party merchant service? When is your QB Desktop renewal date? Perhaps I can share another option to lower your costs.

Me too. QB Desktop charge me $5900. for one year. YEP. $5900 for one year and they downgraded me.

I was using QuickBooks Desktop for Accountants, and they downgraded me to ProAdvisor, which I would never become or do and I never really knew why; I just knew I wanted to keep that distance from them since 1999, but I did and now I'm glad I did.  Intuit has become so egregiously and overwhelmingly greedy and corrupt AND they are stealing from their own customers, so they have gone criminal.  There are hundreds & hundreds of complaints, on this forum, from QB customers who used QB for the Credit Card Merchant Company, AND QB NEVER EVER GAVE THEM THEIR MONEY.  QB stole and kept their money, closed their accounts, deleted their books and left them broke and scrambling.  QB used to be the leader in Accounting Software Packages and now they are at the very bottom, QB Online is subpar and can't even stand up to, or keep up with Quicken. Intuit is now resting on it's laurels and abandoning their morals.

QuickBooks Desktop customers, DO NOT NOT NOT GO TO QB ONLINE. You WILL regret it and you WILL end up paying a lot more.  I tried QB Online, took classes and just had to go back to desktop and when I called QB, they said, over & over again that their customers really like the desktop version and not the online version.

Inuit ignored their own employees so that they can continue on with their greed.

Greed is a disease for which there is no cure, so what does greed do? Greed produces companies like Intuit.

They will go under.  QB Online actually believes they will be the leader of all accounting software for small to medium sized business... how stupid is that? A small to medium size business can't afford QB immense greed, lies and theft.  The whole company should be incarcerated.  QB advised me, that me owning QuickBooks Desktop for Accountants is a desired software and since they are not taking any new subscribers for that version, I should sell it.  A year and half later, after giving me that precious little piece of advise, they raised the price by 2K and then announced they were closing QB Desktop.  So.... they tried dragging me down to their corrupt  pathetic greedy level.  I have been doing accounting since 1974 and now I don't know what I am going to do.

I have to work and all I know is accounting and my health is not that great and I just don't feel up to learning SAGE at this point in my life but I dare not tell QB that because they are likely to charge everybody's credit cards an additional fee of several thousand and have a party because they destroyed me.  AND that's my opinion of QB, they are destroyers and as they continue to destroy their own customers, do they really believe they won't destroy themselves?  You can not fling mud without getting some on your hands.

They could be trying to run from their criminal behavior. All their customers that QB stole from, should get a lawyer and file a class-action lawsuit before QB Desktop disappears, perhaps that's why they gauged us so severly for a number of years and then decided to close, they are running, like criminal do when they are afraid of about getting caught.  QB has been caught.

I wish I could still use the QB Desktop Accounting Software  and do my payroll somewhere else.  I don't believe that will work because Intuit is deleting all the books of all their desktop subscribers on May 2, 2027.  PLUS Intuit has become so horrible that I kind of think that if you dare use their software after that point, Inuit will give you the "FU Virus" They have become too muddled, too dishonest and too greedy to not give any computer still using their software the FU Virus.  Plus my computer guy told me that when QB Desktop closes down there will no more security patches and my computer will get attacked. Sigh.... The Intuit QuickBooks has fallen!

Why couldn't they sell their desktop version and allow some decent folks take it over?

They are so full of themselves that they really believe all desktop users will go over to online.

How has it never occurred to them that because of the way they treated their desktop users, the are just gonna leave...

Hello, I need to downloading too.  My clients have 20 page bank statements.

@PASC 

I wish I could still use the QB Desktop Accounting Software and do my payroll somewhere else.

You can use QB Desktop + Payroll Mate. 

I don't believe that will work because Intuit is deleting all the books of all their desktop subscribers on May 2, 2027.

I haven't seen any announcements yet. They'll likely announce the discontinuation of the Pro/Premier/Mac editions in the next few months. But I'm still confident they'll release QB Desktop 2027 Enterprise this year.

Plus my computer guy told me that when QB Desktop closes down there will no more security patches and my computer will get attacked.

Their stated security commitment is limited to password requirements and Intuit accounts. As a QB Desktop user, you remain responsible for protecting your own data.