Why am i being forced to "upgrade" my quickbooks just to send emails

Greetings, @PHF Alaska. 

Welcome to the QuickBooks Community! This isn't the impression I want to leave you with when trying to send emails to your customers. 

Yes, if you have any add-on services with your 2017 QuickBooks Desktop account, this means that they were discontinued back on May 31, 2020. With that being said, certain features like, payroll, payments, online banking and support won't be available to you. 

The next step would be to upgrade your QuickBooks in order for the system to work properly on your end and to get the support you need. 

If you have any additional questions, don't hesitate to ask. We're always here to lend a helping hand. Have a wonderful day!

That’s what I’m saying, I do not use any of those features. I literally only send invoices and estimates  with it. I don’t use quickbooks for payment or anything, I’m cash only. I literally just need to send emails. Why do I need to upgrade JUST to send an email?

I appreciate you getting back to us, @PHF Alaska. I'll outline a couple of handy details about your concern with sending emails.

I understand how you feel when you have to upgrade your plan on QuickBooks Desktop. However, as provided by my peer above, your QuickBooks Desktop 2017 add-on services were discontinued way back on May 31, 2020. That said, features like sending emails are exclusive to the latest versions of QBDT.

Thus, this is the reason why you'll need to consider upgrading your QuickBooks Desktop to a newer version for you to be able to send emails such as invoices, reports, and more.

Just in case you're ready to set up your email services, I'll be adding this article for future reference: Connect your email to QuickBooks Desktop.

Feel free to visit me here again in the Community, and keep me posted on your progress with sending emails or other QBDT-related tasks. I'm determined to help you succeed. Keep safe always. 

You are absolutely right. If you’re on a payroll subscription, they should throw upgrades in for free. Basic accounting has not changed in decades. I’d be perfectly happy with the 2010 version for what I use it for. This is a bid to create “value” out of thin air. Government should step in and end this greed. Intuit is not the only company that does it.