I’d like to as Bill if he’s tried to install Turbo Tax on a computer running Vista.  I’ve used Turbo Tax for 15 years and the only thing different this year is that I bought a new computer a couple of months ago.  I’ve been working with Turbo Tax tech help (well, they’ve responded four times over the past 18 hours, rather slow response time) and have done the various exercises they have requested.  I’ve progressed from an “Unhandled Exception” error, to a “Turbo Tax Engine has stopped working”, and now the “Setup.exe” has stopped working!!!  I’ve uninstalled it a couple of times, downloaded some “necessary” C++ file, Windows has sent me a bunch of updates, and the program still cannot install on this computer that I’ve had less than 90 days.  I don’t blame Turbo Tax for the problems, but I sure do want them to refund my purchase price if I can’t get it installed.

I had a brilliant idea  to go to Microsoft.com for tech help.  The site says there is help available for 90 days after activation, just type in your product code.  Which I did.  Which they rejected as not valid.  Which I verified in the system information on this very computer.  Which was correctly typed in to the Microsoft product code slot.  They are so helpful – I could pay $59 dollars to receive help even though my product code has been rejected.  NOT!

If all fails, I’ll do my taxes the old fashion way, with pencil and paper — that ought to trigger an audit for next year’s entertainment.