Mainetaxguy

ATX just wants to get in touch with your feelings.

I think you should continue to keep "ATX" on the message board - it makes it easier for other ATX customers to find us, and get the real story about ATX.

There is nothing much that ATX can do to reclaim lost ground. In fact, the ground has already fallen underneath them and they are falling into a deep hole they will never recover from. All ATX can do is offer very deep discounts, pray they will keep enough customers around another year until they get the mess taken care of, and maybe next year start to rebuild. Based on the bad PR, I seriously doubt they are going to get too many new customers on board. In the meantime, as I've mentioned before, they need to cut the sales and customer service staff in half, and reinvest in hiring and keeping better programmers. In this industry, it's WOM (word of mouth), not marketing and sales, that really matter. CCH has destroyed the ATX brand. It will take them years to regain ground - or if they are smart, sell ATX to a company that really gives a damn about the little guy.

Only 30 items?!?

This whole thing underscores the fact that ATX clearly wasn't ready to launch the new version. Obviously, top CCH management made a decision to move forward, crossing their fingers that a solution would be ready by the beginning of tax season. They were wrong. Trust...so important in today's business.

KC, I agree. At least Jeff did the honorable thing by resigning...it's too bad more CCH executives didn't follow his example.

Tax season is over. You are relaxing. Another successful (you hope) season. Time to take a breather. Catch up on all the TV shows you recorded. Time to contact your love ones you have been ignoring for weeks. (I have a son? I have a daughter? I forgot!) The phone rings. It's an ATX sales rep calling. He wants you to renew early. What do you say?...........

Maribeth, if you did the beta testing - and I'm not disputing the fact that you did - why did ATX screw up so badly this year? It has been posted that ATX claims they used "1,000" beta testers. Really? Who are these people? What I really meant by "myth" is that if "1,000" people actually tested this, why are we having so many problems this tax season? Did the beta testers actually report their concerns or findings to ATX? Did ATX actually take their concerns seriously? Apparently not.

First, Jeff was forced to resign. Second, this whole myth of "beta testers" is just that - a myth. If you recall, CCH claimed that more than 400 people did a beta test of IntelliConnect before it was released - and we all know what happened after that - major cancellations from subscribers. They rushed this thing through without any real consideration to the customer. While I believe changes had to be made to ATX, they obviously could have done a better job.

I will say this much - it will take a lot of courage and guts for Brandon and other ATX sales reps to start calling us after tax season about early renewal discounts. All the ATX sales reps should be given hazard pay for what will be coming soon...but then again, we are talking about CCH, and they don't appear to take their ATX customers...or their employees...very seriously.

The dog is dead. The bunny is dead. May they both rest in peace as we begin to piece together our lives soon after tax season and determine our next course.

They have no idea about the day and the life of an accountant. It reminds me of what ATX did a few years ago - close down the original ATX board a couple weeks before the end of tax season. They never learn. Again, they need to get rid of the CCH clone, Mr. Marx, bring an outsider in who can crack some heads, and bring common sense back to ATX. They never learn. They need to fire the bad computer programmers and hire better ones. To do that, they need to fire half the sales and customer service staff (who are useless at this point), and bring on some talented people. They never learn. Or better yet, they need to sell ATX to a company that really gives a damn, and cares about the little guy.

When you say "8606" to an ATX sales rep, he is probably thinking that is the number of hours it will take for technical support to call you back.

This is 2013. If a company wants to know what type of software you are currently using, believe me, they are going to find out. With the use of the internet and other sources, it is becoming extremely easier for marketing departments to provide their sales people the right leads to target. However, I would caution anyone before jumping ship. Test the waters. See what's out there....and then negotiate the best deal you can. ATX screwed up. We know that. ATX's competitors are like sharks...they small blood in the water...just make sure they don't bleed you dry with low prices today and "jack up" renewal prices tomorrow.

While it may be nice that ATX appears to be making improvements, it would have been more helpful if these improvements were made before the beginning of tax season. I mean really....do we need all the drama? ATX president publicly apologies and is forced to resign...technical support people who hang up on your or don't return your phone calls...clients wondering why its taking so long to complete their returns...bad press in the media, etc. I pity the poor sales rep who has to get on the phone after tax season to call us about early renewal discounts...

I suspect what is happening is that a salesperson got a little too ambitious and was trying to do a "force sale" on you - sending you the software with the hope that you will keep it. Given all the problems that ATX is having these days, I suspect some of the ProSeries sales people must think you and others would welcome their software with open arms. It could be an honest mistake. I would never install any software that I didn't order. Just return it and make sure you don't receive a bill.

Taxtrio, after seeing the mess that ATX is going through, I seriously doubt that Drake, Pro Series or any major competitor is going to do "an ATX" and screw things up. I'm sure ATX's competitors are closely watching the developments and and going to avoid making the same mistakes. The key to upgrades is take it slow and do it in gradual steps. It's clear that ATX tried to rush this through in order to "save money", so that they could lay off computer programmers after tax season and not have to pay their high salaries. Well, as always, whenever CCH tries to "save" money, they just end up losing more money. Also, keep in mind, that Drake, Pro Series and others have better management and better lines of communication within those companies. CCH failed ATX and us because they clearly have bad management, and little lines of communication between different divisions, etc. There are at least four to five CCH executives who have resigned within the past 6 months. Several CCH field sales reps have left the company within the past year. Wolters Kluwer bought CCH to squeeze them for every dollar the company has, and CCH in return bought out ATX and Kleinrock to squeeze them for every dollar that both companies have, and in the end they only squeezed out their customers, destroyed two good brands, and in the end, more heads will roll. Can you say abandon ship!

Taxed, the reason why the "blog" (and notice I'm putting that word in quotes), is because I'm sure someone at the CCH PR department is reviewing any comments before they are posted, or quickly deleting any posts that don't follow the company line. CCH is not to blame for this. Most company blogs are lame and useless. Company blogs are more of a PR and marketing tool, rather than a real way to contact with customers and prospects. A lot of companies are involved in social media (Facebook, Twitter), but they really don't follow through on updating those sites, or adding anything relevant to the real world. I'm sure some folks at CCH and ATX are reading our posts. But does it matter? Are they really going to change? I seriously doubt it. Again, they need to bring some fresh blood into ATX - someone who will shake things up - not more CCH clones ("Yes sir, whatever you say sir, I have no opinion sir, I'm here to serve the CCH master."). It's the "go with the flow, see no evil, hear no evil" attitude that got ATX in the mess its in today.

Birddog, while I agree with all your points, you have to remember that CCH is a large bureaucracy and it's very difficult for them to respond to these types of problems. Sure, in hindsight, they could have moved us to TaxWise or Prosystem fx, but that would have involved literary hundreds of hours of e-mails between various divisions, several phone conferences, etc before someone could make a decision. That's just the way CCH is - no one takes responsibility, no one speaks up, they just go with the flow until they flow into the gutter. Even if they knew (and I'm sure they did) the problems that were coming, at the very minimum they should have hired and trained more technical support people to handle the onslaught of phone calls they knew were coming. I really don't blame the sales guys - but if they are smart - and if they want to earn a decent living after tax season - they should move on, and hire more good computer programmers.

Jack of Ohio, I think ATX may be around next year - but only if they offer deep discounts year round, and hire better computer programmers. However, I don't think the Mr. Marx, the new ATX president, is going to be much to help the company. He's too much as a CCH clone - they really need to bring an outsider in - someone who has never been associated with CCH before - to clean up the mess. But sadly, knowing the company well, I just don't see that happening. I know from my CCH sources that the company has seen a major exit of very good field sales reps in the past year or so. With both the sales director and CEO resigning (among others), CCH is imploding. Despite what we may think, ATX is not a big fish in CCH's world. If they had taken ATX seriously to begin with, they would have hired better programmers and developed more realistic deadlines. Mr. Marx needs to get in front of the problem after tax season. As for the ATX sales reps, they would be better off selling Girl Scout cookies than calling any of us for an early renewal discount.

Mr. ATX sales rep, I have more respect for a homeless guy begging for money on a street corner than you - an ATX sales rep who has the nerve to ask me for an early renewal payment. At least a homeless guy has more integrity. You - ATX sales rep - sold me a bill of goods! Release yourself from your CCH master and be free...go, I say, go...be free and work somewhere else where you can look yourself in the mirror everyday...go...and be a better person before it's too late...before you become another CCH clone...following orders, never speaking up, never offering an opinion...as you watch your co-workers and entire company flow into the gutter and end up on a beach, bloated, only to become food for sea gulls as they eat you alive and you hear yourself screaming for mercy...and you hear in the distance the screams of hundreds of angry and frustrated ATX customers, cursing the day that CCH bought out ATX, and made the company its butt boy and its customers their play toys...go...Mr. ATX sales rep...go before its too late. You still have time...you still have time...

All computer programmers have deadlines and goals. Somewhere in the mid-point, if they knew they weren't ready in time, they should have paid their programmers major overtime and hired more good programmers to get the job done. You do what you have to do to make software work - and if you don't..well...kiss your brand and your customers goodbye. Again, I believe the people at the bottom saw this coming, but they didn't want to tell the people at the top what was going to happen. In short, slow motion train wreck.

I still think the issue was bad programmers. Obviously, CCH leadership has a lot to answer to. And of course, no one in advance knew how Congress was going to screw things up until it was too late. Even if we believe that CCH was working on the revamp for two years, somewhere, somehow, something went terribly wrong here. There is no way that any programmer at ATX would have agreed to release this program without doing some serious beta testing and quality control. I believe it was a situation where the "little guys" at the bottom of the company ladder saw this coming, but either out of fear or out of ignorance, or a combination of both, they decided not to speak up. This has always been a common theme at CCH - the "little guys" see the train wreck coming, but they don't let the big guys know about it, and when all hell breaks loose (e.g., introducing both IntelliConnect and IntellForms the same year before tax season), everyone hides and points fingers. At least this time CCH decided to have an executive (Jeff) resign, rather than threw some lower level slob under the bus. I'm sure Mr. Marx (the new ATX executive), must be asking himself "what the hell did I do to deserve this?"

And by that time maybe ATX would have hired some decent computer programmers...

Just be careful that you don't spank the monkey!