New Find-a-ProAdvisor Website
Find a QuickBooks ProAdvisor Even if Intuit Can't Find YOU !
A week or so ago, I got an official looking letter from Intuit's ProAdvisor Program advising that they had been unable to reach me via email...(funny I get emails from them 'all the time'). This letter regarded the new 'no ship physical CDs' policy (I wrote about that previously), but it also indicated that "Your action is now required".
Reading on down the letter, it specified that I had to "Add an Account/Product" and then gave me a Customer Account # (which only had 6 digits - 'most odd') and then a new License #. After procrastinating a few days, I went ahead and followed the instructions. You guessed it, not a thing in that letter worked.
The message was 'not a valid account number'. So after procrastinating a few more days I went ahead and called ProAdvisor support, choosing to use the 'time' they suggest that has the least potential for wait time. I finally got a very cheerful Tech (for 6am pacific time) who said, that Intuit had indeed 'goofed' in the information that went out in the letter, the customer number shown is actually an 'internal reference number' (Intuit uses a lot of internal reference numbers, QuickBooks is full of them and they are 'hidden' to almost everyone but them...) and in the case of this letter anyone getting this letter now knows their hidden number too as well as their regular account number listed in their QB ProAdvisor 'account management' profile. That is the number that should have been listed on the letter; attempting to use it, well the license number in the letter was 'already in use', that is because it is the current license number. My call would have been a total waste except for the cheerful AM conversation to get my day going (and of course giving me a reason to write this blog).
The real point of this whole exercise is to confirm that Intuit has your correct Email listed in their system....I wonder why the letter didn't simply tell us to log into our ProAdvisor account and confirm our email.
Intuit has problems, especially where there are multiple account numbers linked to your 'account'; they can't seem to keep vital information straight or properly associated; for example I get emails from them addressed to someone else entirely (I have no idea whom) that obviously has some 'cross-link' to my email (how does that happen). Sometimes my brother gets emails at his business email that are addressed to me, I am not even sure how Intuit would have gotten my brother's email address. Obviously from having read the horror stories that my friend Ruth Perryman has been telling her readers about regarding credit card numbers show that Intuit has the same 'lack of control' and proper 'file association' in their system as with other information such as emails. Ruth got so mad over the inability of Intuit to straighten out the mess she 'gave-up' her ProAdvisor status. That is not only a 'sad' but a 'bad' deal for all.
So if you got one of those letters like I did; don't be surprised if you can do what the letter tells you, and that a call to QBPA Tech Support maybe a waste of time if all your information is correct, and you are 'paid up', other than the opportunity to speak to a cheerful Tech at 6am (pacific). How can anyone be 'cheerful' at 6am, but that still 'made my day'.