Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:02/06/2023

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I cannot transmit tax returns because the system continuously tells me to print all bank documents, but the system is not uploading all bank documents. This has happened for 3 weeks in a row. I was told I had to delete the bank screen and add it back to get forms to populate, and that tactic worked for three clients. Last week I spoke with supervisor *******/*******. I requested that she request programmers to look into this and also wanted free returns since I did not know I would have to delete screens and add them back, and I used all my paper and ink, re-printing bank documents over again. I am now unable to transmit again due to the bank documents populating, so I am on the phone with Drake's csr and they stated the sup did not put in any request. Ironically, I am having the same issue. Clients are in my office, and I cannot provide them with professionalism and efficient tax services when issues like these occur, and my issues are being swept under the rug and not fixed or documented. I currently cannot use the software I purchased, and I am taking a significant loss. Nobody can help me, and they keep saying they are sending it up, but when I call back, they do not see anything has been sent. I would like to request a credit on my account. I have missed out on 4 clients costing me close to $1000

  Business Response

  Date: 02/06/2023

  Immediately after this complaint was received, we had one of our top-tier agents contact the customer to work through any outstanding issues that they may be having.  The customer stated that there issue had been resolved by a member of our frontline call center management team.  The issue was that the customer was getting diagnostic pages inside the tax return that the customer didn't know how to resolve. 

  With the problem resolved, the customer then asked for compensation, which our agent denied based on the fact that we do not compensate based on customer service satisfaction.  The customer then hung up on our agent.

  The customer's problem is resolved, which was what the original request in this complaint was: "repair".  In terms of compensation, we will not provide additional compensation based upon communication with our technical support staff.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:01/24/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  *Upgraded Software *Requested to downgrade due to Bank misinformation *was advised by all reps that I could down grade, was told in the beginning not to use the software *Software had not been used ****** declined to downgrade me after being advised over a week I could. I processed my clients under an alternate software when I could have been using my own to meet the banks requirements for next year.****** was rude and placed a note to only connect me to her ************* takes no accountability. Had a similar issue last year and they took no accountability *finally got someone who refunded me *attempted to get the downgraded version and ***** locked my account so I could not *after speaking with ****** for several days and being pushed back time after time with promised call backs and loss hundreds of dollars placing my business on hold while I fund someone else's

  Business Response

  Date: 01/24/2023

  The customer purchased our unlimited package. We released this software December 1, 2022, giving the customer a serial number which would activate the full package installation.

  It was after this that the customer asked to be downgraded to a limited package (pay per return). As the customer had already been given a serial number to unlock the full version, it would be impossible to refund her a portion of her payment and downgrade her to a limited version. Once the customer has access to the full version, they will have that full version in perpetuity (as long as they are an active customer). 

  We explained that while we couldn't downgrade her to the limited version, and that while she was past our agreed-upon terms of refund we would be willing to issue a full refund of the unlimited package (since it is a significantly higher cost) due to her circumstances. ************ exception for this customer.

  After processing the requested refund the customer contacted us again to purchase the limited (PPR) software. We stated that we would of course welcome her to purchase the unlimited software again, but since she had access to the unlimited software if we enabled her customer account that we could not sell her the limited software (PPR).

  We have made exceptions to our policies to try and help this customer as much as possible. What she's asking for here is not something that we can do. We would be more than happy to help her in any other way that we can, but we cannot allow her to use our limited software with an unlock key for unlimited software.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 01/25/2023

   
  I am rejecting this response because: I was advised for over a week by all representatives that I could downgrade. Thus company has a ticket where they offer downgrades to customers. They are not taking accountability for being advised by each person I spoke with on the accounting team that I could downgrade. I was also advised by ******* they could wipe out the serial number given but that no one wanted to take the time to do it. With my business on hold for over a week I processed returns under someone else software giving them a portion of all fees. Had I been advised differently (which Drake accounting reps stated it would not be a problem) I would have done things a lot differently.  
  
  

  Business Response

  Date: 01/25/2023

  I understand that there was quite a lot of confusion about what the customer was trying to do here.  It is not an issue of someone not wanting to take the time to help.  As outlined in my prior response, the software cannot be sold and/or function.

  We have given the customer a refund, in full, of all license fees paid.  There are no other fees to refund.  I consider this case closed, as the customer has been refunded and moved on.  We will not compensate for miscommunication or the customer's lost time in trying to decide what software she needed to run her business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:01/11/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  My business uses Drake Software for tax return preparation. Last March, my main computer crashed and I had to reinstall Drake Software on my machines. After the reformatting and reinstallation, Drake Software was not functioning properly. I received zero support from Drake Software during this time. A representative named ***** was entirely rude, condescending, and refused to assist me stating that "they don't help with these types of issues" among other things and demanded that I call an IT professional that has zero knowledge about Drake Software. My business was closed for weeks and I lost business as a result of this problem. I am a small woman owned business. I only had two employees; they both quit after these problems. I was forced to close my office due to lack of staffing. All of this can be sourced directly back to the software problems that drove my business into the dirt. It cost me way more than the cost of Drake Software to fix these issues that Drake refused to help me with. It is more than fair that I either receive a refund of the cost of the software or be given a free renewal for this coming year. To be clear, I would NOT be using Drake Software again if not for the fact that I have years and years of prior year data that would not import into new software. Drake Software knows they have me by the ***** and I am forced to continue using them and their crappy service.

  Business Response

  Date: 01/11/2023

  Upon reviewing this account, the original call that prompted this was made to us on 3/9/22.  The caller stated that they were getting permissions errors when opening our software package.  It was installed on a network and they were getting errors when opening it from the network drive.  This of course is related to the setup of the network, not the software.  We explained in full detail what that error meant (the appropriate network permissions were not in place to be able to read/write to the network drive). However, we try when we can to go above and beyond with our service and offered to remote into the customer's computer(s) and assist. She declined our offer.  She called back in May for additional "network assistance".  We attempted to reach the customer 3 times about this specific ticket without a callback.  The customer was also reached out to in late May as well as July and our records indicate that voicemails were left and unanswered.  

  From the conversation that she had with our agent today, it appears that she got a third-party IT firm to assist her with her networking issues (as would be expected); however, she expects that Drake Software compensate her in some way for this, as if it were the responsibility of the software company to ensure that her internal office hardware and processes were setup in a manner that would allow her to install the software in the specific way that she wanted. In the same way that we would expect a functioning PC to be in place in order to assist with the software install, a functioning network must be in place in order for us to assist with a network install.

  We will deny the compensation request on the grounds that we continued to provide top-level customer service and her internal office troubles were not related, in any capacity, to our software product.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 01/11/2023

   
  I am rejecting this response because: my computer was set up properly and placing the blame on "internal" issues is absolutely ridiculous. I needed help from Drake for their software not functioning after a CORRECT installation of their software on a functional computer; after a crash, and after a totally different machine was put into operation. Drake failed to support their own software and their continued attempts to pass the buck onto another party just further proves my claim. 
  
  

  Business Response

  Date: 01/13/2023

  When speaking with our agent, it was stated that an external IT firm was hired and were able to "fix the issue". The customer was upset about having to hire a third-party whom she was clear didn't have any Drake Software experience. If this was an error internal to our software, it would be very difficult for a third-party to resolve this issue. Given the information that I received, the data that was logged for the customer's inbound calls, and my 20+ years of experience with this, it is quite obvious that the customer had a network permission issue that needed to be resolved on the customer's end before our ********************** would function as expected.

  I stand behind our statement that we will not offer a prior year refund based on this information. It is clear where the responsibility lies on this and it is outlined in our end user license agreement.