Tech Support?

My experience has been great with Lacerte tech support, but whenever I have had a bad tech support person, I call back and get someone who knows what they are doing and then I report the person to a Lacerte tech support supervisor. If we don't tell the "powers that be" that we are not getting what we pay for, they can't correct the situation.

I agree completely. I have been a Lacerte customer since 1991 and the technical support is nowhere near as good as it used to be. It seems they have quite a few new support people that don?t really know the program that well. If you are persistent though and your question moves up the ranks ? the support is quite good.

I just figure the company is growing a great deal so you just can?t get the personal attention you used to.

The most recent update to DMS wouldn't restart after installing it on our terminal server...
lacerte support helped nicely. Not all the folks there have the same level of experience...kindly request second tier support if you feel it's a very complex issue you are having trouble communicating.

Tech support is why I purchase Lacerte also. I would concur that the quality has declined over the years. We should make sure management knows about those who provide sub-par service.

The way I usually get in touch with Tech Support is thru e-mail, often attaching the client file. I just got an answer to a difficult question today, 5 days after I sent my original e-mail.

Sometimes, as today, even a half-answer from Tech Support points me in the right direction so I can sort-of answer my own question.

My particular question had to do with a schedule of foreign tax credits on Form 1116, utilized from past years on the current year, and what carries over to future years.

I couldn't follow the many statements from the program, and the Tech Support person thought it was hard to follow but suggested I take a look at a particular statement and then said that from the info I had submitted, my client had gotten everything he was entitled to and had nothing to carry over, which was as the statements portrayed it.

I couldn't quite believe that so I went back to my '05 and '06 returns and started making my own spreadsheet so I could follow all the carryovers. My spreadsheet proved to me that over the course of the 3 years, the client had asked for $1900-odd of credits, and had finally received the $1900-odd of credits by the end of 2007.

So everything is right, and the program is working right, but the statement as Lacerte prints it, confuses me and would confuse my client. Therefore I added a couple of sentences to the letter note so the client can see that, no matter how confusing the statements are, he got the three years' worth of credits, in varying amounts but finally in full, by the end of the 3 years.

Often the support staff e-mail me back several days after I sent in my query, but when I happen to ask an easy question, they answer right away. I do feel the support used to be better, years ago when Larry Lacerte still ran his company, but it isn't bad now.

This is my first year using Lacerte, having used ProSystems FX and ProSeries previously. I think I used phone support more often then I will in future years given my unfamiliarity with the product. I was impressed by tech support in general. Most individuals seems genuinely concerned about "getting it right" no matter how long it took. Even close to the tax deadlines I never felt rushed by the tech support individuals. This is not to say I did not get wrong answers on occasions. On two occasions the second time I called on a issue I was told the phone person would go back to the original individual and set them straight on the issue. Lacerte technical support as well as the product are superior to both ProSeries and ProFX in my opinion.

I have used Lacerte since 1994. I received excellent support the 1st year as a new user and for many years thereafter, with a blip when the program changed to windows.) Since Intuit bought Lacerte, I think the quality of support has declined and wait time has increased.

My guess is that they have tried to save money with some new call center approaches. Two years ago, the support was so poor I considered another program. A group of very inexperienced people didn't even know the basics of the program; one center was in Provo, UT. They had improper training and the year was VERY frustrating. Several people wanted me to start by giving them every item on the return before they heard the problem. After 45 minutes, I told them I didn't have time to train them on preparing a tax return (They didn't even have the basics down).

I heard other complaints about not being able to understand the accent of the non-English speaking person (from overseas center). You had to keep asking them to repeat what was said.

Intuit needs to understand that time is PRECIOUS in tax season (we don't have time to wait for 30+ minutes for help and we sure don't have time to train their people on how to prepare a tax return.) That's worse than having no support., and we are paying for superior support. Time is money during tax season; every hour wasted is money lost or causes our already LONG days to be longer. This makes me cranky.

Intuit needs to quit trying to save money on cheaper support and continue the support the way it was in the past. That's why we keep paying the big bucks and that's why we keep coming back!

This year the support I received was great. I was expecting further deterioration and I was pleasantly surprised with the quality and speed with which problems were resolved.

It sounds like the quality of support depends on where the support comes from.

I would say it's also true that if you don't need to get back to the particular return right away, you can e-mail the problem, complete with the file, to Tech Support, and they'll get back to you whenever they do but at least you're not waiting on the phone for them.

You can put the return into a pile of "waiting for info or waiting for Lacerte Tech Support" (to me, waiting for one thing is the same as waiting for another -- I can't continue until I have whatever is missing) and then get on to the next return. Eventually you get Lacerte's answer, which might be helpful, and you finish the return.