I have been a loyal TurboTax customer for over 25 years. This year all went to hell. I use Premium, and this year somehow got Premium with Expert Advice. I completed my return without expert advice, saw the bill at the end, and then couldn't find the Downgrade function. I used their AI function, which couldn't provide a link to that. When I typed that it hadn't solved my problem, it offered for me to speak with someone. My guess is that triggered the Expert Advice. While waiting for the call, I found the Downgrade button. The phone rang, I explained that I no longer needed help, and they hung up. Then this happened:
1) I clicked on Downgrade, and a page came up asking me to reconsider, and then listing a number to call. Clearly if I had clicked Upgrade, it would have been so simple. I called the number to downgrade to regular Premium, and the technician asked to screen share with me. She clearly had never done this before, as her cursor paused under each word on the page as if English, or TurboTax, wasn't her first language. She then had me scroll to the bottom of the page, and said to hit the Pay button! I said no, reiterating that the whole point of the call was to downgrade so I didn't pay for expert tax advice that I didn't need. She then told me to press Clear and Start Again! This obviously pissed me off, and I asked to speak to a supervisor.
2) The supervisor was friendly and professional, but also couldn't figure out how to downgrade. She then told me to pay for the product and then call back to request a refund between the two prices. A trouble ticket had been generated after talking with the technician, and I assumed all the discussion with the supervisor was entered. I hung up, hit Pay, and then called back to request the refund. I never got notification of a trouble ticket. The person I spoke with sent me an email to submit the refund request, which I did with full details. I then received an automatic response denying the refund, with the explanation that refunds can't be offered once the product has been paid for! This despite the supervisor telling me to go that route, because they couldn't figure out how to downgrade it!
3) Days and many hours later, today I again contacted TurboTax via chat and said I needed to speak to a supervisor again, since I still needed a refund. The technician said she could do the refund via chat. I had to explain everything again, and she then said I had used Expert Advice. That was the first time I realized that the failed AI ability to provide a link to the Downgrade hadn't just sent me to the normal technical help line. I pointed out that I solved the problem before I got that call, explained that to the person calling, and that was it. She then said she would send me an email with a link to submit the refund request. I asked what was going to prevent the auto response that denied me the first time, but she assured me. I sent the formal refund request a second time, with details included. Again, I got an automatic response that I couldn't get a refund because I had already paid!
4) Today I called and again asked to speak to a supervisor. This one finally authorized the difference between Premium and Premium with Expert Advice, something I should have been able to fix easily before submitting my return. At this point I'm so pissed that I, politely, said that the difference in the price between the two should have been refunded the first day I spoke to people, and now, days and many hours of aggravation later, it should be more than that, but she said she couldn't provide more back for all of this chaos.
And that's why I'm posting this. Twenty five plus years of loyal membership, and this is what customer service has come to.
Desired outcome: Fully refund TurboTax this year. Many hours and days later, after multiple phone calls and bad advice, I finally got what I should have had on day one (refund of the price difference).
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