Apart from the above question I have some gripes which I will record here for the record in hopes that someone will eventually see them and pass them along to someone who can do something about them. I am aware that this is a fantasy, but I have to cling to the possibility of the world becoming a better place in order to stay sane.
* Intuit is REQUIRING a phone number to E-file, but they are not *describing* it as a requirement. This is disingenuous. If it is being required it should clearly be described as required and a justification for why it is required should be provided. In addition, this should be done up front so I don't waste my time entering data into the Turbo Tax application only to hit a road block that prevents me from filing at the very last minute.
* The "online help" chat bot use broken, useless junk. It could not find related questions to mine on how to skip entering a phone number and offered to let me talk to a human, but this turned in to a "Just call us" option--and then it wanted *my phone number*, the very thing I did not want to provide, and would not give me the support contact number without it. I provided an invalid response to its phone number prompt a few times, then it asked me to confirm my email address--then gave me a support ID. In the end I did not even use that support ID (I was not asked for it when I called), which just makes the entire exercise somewhere between frustrating and useless. I was *authenticated* while this was happening, you already know who I am--and what my contact information is, excepting only my phone number. Is it really that important for metrics or whatnot to link my specific chatbot session with my eventual support call? If so I hope you enjoy the profanity I resorted to entering when my frustration rose too high.
* I called the support number only to be met with a highly unhelpful voice-only chatbot. I long for the days of "Press 1 to do X, Press 2 to do Y". You should *at least* provide an option to fall back on such a system. I had to call back a second time to even get past the *FIRST* prompt of "is this about your tax return?" -- just saying "No" didn't work until I moved to a room without a computer in it (I guess the fan noise was too loud or something). I don't want to use fuzzy-approxi[product key removed]ing, I want to provide clear and discrete signals by using a keyboard or numpad. The next part was worse in that I had to resort to *spelling my surname* one letter at a time *by voice*. That's slow, error-prone, and highly irritating. Why didn't something prompt me for the support ID number that I had? That would have let it look up my name information without wasting lots of time.
* The only thing the support person could do was suggest changing my phone number to an invalid one, which is not helpful (and I'd call it a very bad idea). He said he couldn't do anything, so I asked "Who can?" and he put me on hold to maybe find a supervisor or something--then we got disconnected. The nice narrative is it was a connection issue, but for all I actually know he just hung up on me to make the problem go away.
* There should be a *public bug tracker* where I can file UX bug reports like "No way to skip the E-file phone number prompt" or "No way to unlink a phone from an account through the account UI." Not having one is not acceptable for a modern company.
* There should be a *published set of contact information* consisting of *at least* an email address and phone number. The phone number is likely listed somewhere, but it is more hidden than it should be. An email address or web forum where users can communicate with intuit asynchronously is most ideal for this kind of issue where the response need not be realtime. I am treating *this* forum as such a thing, although I know its true purpose is to soak up inane and repetitive support questions that it would be expensive to filter through or respond via an actual support system.
I am surprised I need to say this, but: you should not disrespect your customers. I feel very much unseen, ignored, and diminished by this process. Let me be in control of my own information and my own security, do not TRICK ME into providing you information you DO NOT NEED and I DO NOT WANT to give you.
I am perfectly capable of securing my own access to online services. I have been doing it for 25+ years and I am very familiar with what it takes to make something secure. Using smart phones as authenticator devices is a practice with which I strongly disagree as it has, in my not-so-humble opinion, as many negatives as positives. For myself personally, my cell phone is not a thing that I ever want to or plan to use as part of an authentication loop. I will walk away from any situation where I am required to so use it. I recommend that everyone else do the same thing. Text messages are not secure, TOTP is secure but keeping your secrets on something easily lost or stolen is not secure. Requiring that all persons have and carry a smart phone will lead to a dystopian society and we should all do our part in helping prevent that society from emerging.
tl;dr I KNOW BETTER THAN YOU, stop hurting me by preventing me from controlling my own destiny. Should this situation remain unresolved on 2024-01-01 I will abandon Turbo Tax after having used it forever (I think I filed my taxes once using paper, then Turbo Tax after that) and smear the good name of intuit to everyone who will listen.
