Not a question: If it's not free, don't say it's free

[anastrophe]

Seriously, this almost rises to joke level.

I have turbotax Premier, Windows desktop edition. I'm about to file my returns.

At "How Do You Want to Pay?", it says

Pay with your federal refund

 "We'll take your TurboTax fees out of your federal refund for free. You'll need to buy TurboTax Premium Service for $45 to get this payment method".

That is the very definition of NOT free. If you spend money to get a service you would not otherwise have, there is no "free" involved.

Ridiculous!

[ee-ea]

Meet the qualifications and it is free.

https://turbotax.intuit.com/modals/simple-tax-return/

if you do not try elsewhere

https://www.irs.gov/filing/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-for-free

If you do

https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/change-service-level/downgrade-lower-pri...

[anastrophe]

Incorrect. You're welcome to reread my post if necessary.

[VolvoGirl]

Sorry in the Desktop program you get 1 free state PROGRAM download.  Then each state return (including the first one) is $25 to efile ($20 early before March 1).  Or you can print and mail state for free.  Be careful and watch out for the screen for how to pay it.  Avoid the extra Pay with Refund fee $45 in California and pay with a credit card.   It's easy to go fast and click on the wrong box.  

[anastrophe]

I guess I must have written my post in some rare foreign language that nobody understands. I appreciate the reply, but this also is completely unrelated to my original post.

Oh well.

[VolvoGirl]

I answered your exact question.  You are in California, right?  If you want to have the fees deducted from your federal refund you have to add Premium Service.  It's $5 less in other states.  Where do  you see 

          We'll take your TurboTax fees out of your federal refund for free.

Can you post a screen shot?  Didn't you see the screen I posted above?  

[anastrophe]

I'll try again. I'll bold the text. Maybe it will be clear from that. I did see your screenshot. It says exactly what I wrote in quotes!!

"We'll take your TurboTax fees out of your federal refund for free. You'll need to buy TurboTax Premium Service for $45 to get this payment method".

Think about it. "we'll deduct your turbotax fees from your federal refund AT NO CHARGE. But to get this grand, FREE service, you have to PAY $45.

That is not how "free" works. You are charging $45 to deduct the turbotax fees from the federal return.

[anastrophe]

(It doesn't say EXACTLY what I wrote, it lists a different price. But that's immaterial. It could say the service costs $1, and it would moot the claim of 'free')

[VolvoGirl]

Oh, I guess I never noticed "for Free" before.  Hmmm.  That might be just for California.  I have CA.  Good catch.  

[anastrophe]

Regardless, it's not free, no matter how it's worded; it's deceptive. Sure - maybe somebody who wrote it meant to say something else. If this were a beta, I'd understand, have filed a bug report, and moved on. This is the 'production' product.

I didn't even bother bringing up one of the next screens after that, about how you can sign up to automatically get the next year's turbotax. However, what it says is that you "sing" up. Sigh.

Careless mistakes tarnish reputations, and make consumers wonder if there are other "misteaks" of a more egregious nature elsewhere.

[taxlady28]

Intuit programmers are located overseas and English is not their first language.  This is not an intentional mistake, just the mistake of a programmer using their second language and getting confused with how to write in clear English.  

[anastrophe]

It is highly unlikely that all of their coders are overseas. Regardless, Intuit has an obligation to PROOFREAD whatever textual information is in the product before it goes to production.

In doing my taxes, I ran across zero misspellings during the process.  None. No poorly constructed wording, no syntax errors, no grammatical errors.

It is odd that the only "error" is at a place in the program where you have the opportunity to PAY for something they claim is FREE.

[anastrophe]

So, my annoyance with this little mess led me to be a bit more 'aggressive' about it than I should have been, so I'll give my impression of how that page _should_ be presented (I can't take a screenshot as I've already gone through the whole process).

How do you want to pay?

To pay by credit card, please click the 'Pay with your credit card' button below.

Interested in having your Turbotax fees paid from your Refund?

With Turbotax Premium Service - $xx.xx - You get all of the following benefits:

• Pay your Turbotax fees from your refund—blah blah
• Annual Audit Defense— blah blah
• Full Identity Restoration— blah blah
• Identity Theft Monitoring— blah blah
• Identity Theft Insurance— blah blah
• Priority Care—blah blah

To enjoy all of these benefits, click the "Sign up for Turbotax Premium Service" button below.

Pretty simple. It's called "effective messaging". Instead of saying that turbotax fees can come from your refund 'for free' (for $45), list ALL of the benefits, and don't say any of it is free -it's simply one of the included benefits.