Reactivating Deactivated Account

[Aron]

I am at my wit's end, unable to log-in to my account.  I have spent five days straight trying to recover my old account, which TurboTax deactivated for unknown reasons after I was 95% done with my 2018 return.  I have four previous years' returns and all information that went into them.  I was only able to log-in again using a new (empty/shell) account, which enabled me to post here but has none of my prior (or current) year tax information.

I have tried the account recovery webpage several times, including uploading a scan of my drivers license to verify my identity a few times.  No luck.  Tried related on-line help, which sends me back to account recovery page.  Endless loop.

When I called the  number, each (of several) operators over the last few days said they were referring my case onto "the security team," who would send me a separate email from another part of TurboTax.   (One operator said of course the account recovery page wouldn't work because only TurboTax can reactivate after researching and verifying.)   The latest operator (yesterday) said that such email would come within 24-48 hours, from the [email address removed] address, asking me to (yet again) send in a scan of one or more of my identification documents, but I am skeptical I will hear from them since every method and every operator statement to date has failed.

I have probably spent 10 hours, days of high blood pressure and uncertainty, and exasperation being unable to access MY tax information.  Any help from a TurboTax moderator (Case No. 447723916) or the community here would be greatly appreciated; I'm truly exhausted having all my data held hostage through no fault of my own.

Thanks, Aron

[Kat]

Aron:  I've shared your post to be viewed by TurboTax Moderators, hopefully tomorrow.  Sorry that your post hasn't been addressed sooner; the move to the "Community" is new to those of us who volunteer in the Answer Exchange.  

I'm hopeful that you'll receive some response from a Moderator tomorrow (Saturday, March 30).  Thank you for your patience.

[AronL]

Thanks, but Intuit and TurboTax can f**k themselves. I separately got a letter today about a data breach; I think that's what all of this was about. NEVER going back to this hell. F**k them. Buy better anti-hackers !! Stay with them at your peril.

[Kat]

Understood, though that kind of language isn't necessary to communicate.  

I'll let the Moderators know that you are no longer interested in discussing.  Thanks again.

By the way, I'm not a TT employee.  I'm a user like you (once were).  🙂

[Opus 17]

Deactivated accounts can only be reactivated by customer support, and it usually involves having to fax in copies of your identification.  I'm sorry that you have not been able to contact the right people, or that they don't call back.  We can still attempt to have that expedited.

[AronL]

Thanks, but I tried that many times over the course of a week, including sending scans of drivers license and passport. It finally worked.

[tkstock]

"Deactivated accounts can only be reactivated by customer support"

What is the purpose of the account recovery page then?  My account was also deactivated for no known reason and I cannot access my Advantage download.  The account recovery page requires me to enter an old email / new email address - I AM NOT CHANGING MY EMAIL ADDRESS!!  I appears that the account recovery page is really just an email address change page!

What in the world?  Taxes due on Monday and I cannot access my account.  I came here to find answers, it sounds like customer support is the only option at this point?

[AronL]

I don't know what the purpose of that page is either. After multiple hours-long calls to customer support (and scanning and sending drivers license) they finally said it won't work and problem had to be "elevated" to the security team and/or the tax i.d. team. After further hours on phone following up, days later, I was magically able to login. I was ofren treated as ignorant or a suspect on the phone. The hellish limbo went on for over a week; I hope you have better luck.
FYI, I filed a complaint with San Jose BBB, and while Intuit didn't provide a proper apology or explain why it was so difficult to get reactivated, they did refund my subscription fee. But I'll never use them again.

[tkstock]

After spending an hour on the phone with them, the rep directed me to the Account Recovery form.  I told her it wouldn't work because it requires different email addresses.

She told me to put the first address in ALL CAPS.  What???

After submitting they account recovery form "successfully" by using the same email address twice (and putting the first one in upper case), I got an email that said

"During our review we found your account was inactive and were unable to process a change;however we are unable to process a reactivation without a direct phone contact to our Customer Care team."

OK, so I'm being sent in circles.  I called back just now and another rep submitted a ticket to their "security" team.  I'm supposed to get an email shortly with instructions on how to proceed, and it's supposedly a different process.

[AronL]

I know exactly (and painfully) the runaround you're experiencing. They don't know what they're doing. That is, they have no quick way to ferret out legitimate users with hackers. Their system is hopelessly compromised, in my opinion. Breathe, and try to stay calm while you might prefer to drive to Mountain View and strangle someone. 😉

[KaylaS]

Hi tstock, if you check your email you should have received an email from Social We Care to try and help access your account.  

[tkstock]

I did receive an email, and it sends me down a path that doesn't help.  When I type in my user ID it says it cannot be found.

If I type in my phone number or email address, it will find the account that is currently active, not the deactivated Advantage account I'm trying to re-activate.

[fireryvolcano72]

I have this same issue. Intuit deactivated my account without my knowledge or permission. Customer representatives are pretty useless because all they know what to do is send you to a webpage you could have just searched for yourself. And that's not to hate on customer support, but the system support operates with is completely null. None of the representatives I spoke to knew what to do in the event of account deactivation, even though calling support is the only way to get help with your account. I was sent on a wild goose hunt of transferred calls and HTTPS and ended up nowhere. Seemingly, when your account is deactivated, it is put into the void, where support cannot find it, and Turbotax's login and account recovery is unable to find it. It is inconvenient and an issue that might not end until support is given better resources to help with deactivation cases.

[pboynton]

I've been stuck in a similar situation after my account was deactivated when I tried to download my donations from ItsDeductible and made a mistake entering my password. I never got a record number they keep asking for.  How was this supposed to arrive? Without it I am in an endless loop.

[JohnW152]

If you haven't tried it yet, please refer to the TurboTax Help article Account Recovery Request for your TurboTax Account for guidance.

@pboynton