FTC bans TurboTax from advertising 'free' services, calls deceptive advertising
1–10 of 268 posts
Re: FTC bans TurboTax from advertising 'free' services, calls deceptive advertising
#2This is nice. Free should mean free no matter how much large print text to clarify is needed.
Re: FTC bans TurboTax from advertising 'free' services, calls deceptive advertising
#3Intuit is an embarrassment of a tech company. Instead of innovating in software, they've invested infinitely more in lobbying to keep tax-filing complex and in creating new and innovative dark patterns to obscure their (federally mandated, btw) free product.
Re: FTC bans TurboTax from advertising 'free' services, calls deceptive advertising
#4> This decision is the result of a biased and broken system where the Commission serves as accuser, judge, jury, and then appellate judge all in the same case
Interesting argument, but also a distraction from "we lied in advertising."
> It could also clearly disclose the percentage of customers that actually do qualify for the free service, somewhere close to the “free” claim advertised, the commission said.
They ran an ad during the 49ers game this weekend, centered around it being free for the character in the ad. I'm guessing that's how they'll work around this.
Re: FTC bans TurboTax from advertising 'free' services, calls deceptive advertising
#5Intuit is an embarrassment of a tech company. Instead of innovating in software, they've invested infinitely more in lobbying to keep tax-filing complex and in creating new and innovative dark patterns to obscure their (federally mandated, btw) free product.
They are not a tech company. They are a regulatory capture company that uses tech to extract from the general public what should be free. The code and platform are the performance art to enable the rake.
Edit: Meant to scope this comment solely to TurboTax. Replies correcting me are well deserved.
Re: FTC bans TurboTax from advertising 'free' services, calls deceptive advertising
#6Intuit is an embarrassment of a tech company. Instead of innovating in software, they've invested infinitely more in lobbying to keep tax-filing complex and in creating new and innovative dark patterns to obscure their (federally mandated, btw) free product.
They are not a tech company. They are a regulatory capture company that uses tech to extract from the general public what should be free. The code and platform are the performance art to enable the rake. Edit: Meant to scope this comment solely to TurboTax. Replies correcting me are well deserved.
I think most people would be shocked to learn how big intuit is in terms of market cap. Bigger than Verizon wellsfargo ibm nike
Re: FTC bans TurboTax from advertising 'free' services, calls deceptive advertising
#7Intuit is an embarrassment of a tech company. Instead of innovating in software, they've invested infinitely more in lobbying to keep tax-filing complex and in creating new and innovative dark patterns to obscure their (federally mandated, btw) free product.
Free government-provided tax calculators and online filing are an existential threat to Intuit. I think that the business should not exist (or should be scaled down to a fraction of its size, as an accountant's tool), but can you blame them for trying to block the deathblow?
Re: FTC bans TurboTax from advertising 'free' services, calls deceptive advertising
#8Intuit is an embarrassment of a tech company. Instead of innovating in software, they've invested infinitely more in lobbying to keep tax-filing complex and in creating new and innovative dark patterns to obscure their (federally mandated, btw) free product.
They are not a tech company. They are a regulatory capture company that uses tech to extract from the general public what should be free. The code and platform are the performance art to enable the rake. Edit: Meant to scope this comment solely to TurboTax. Replies correcting me are well deserved.
No, they are a tech company, they produce software for their main product.
Like a lot of companies, tech and not, they use their power and resources to keep their position.
The difference is that their actual competitor is the government. But that's also a big part of why private healthcare is way too expensive in the US, for worse results than other places.
Re: FTC bans TurboTax from advertising 'free' services, calls deceptive advertising
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
They are not a tech company. They are a regulatory capture company that uses tech to extract from the general public what should be free. The code and platform are the performance art to enable the rake. Edit: Meant to scope this comment solely to TurboTax. Replies correcting me are well deserved.
I think most people would be shocked to learn how big intuit is in terms of market cap. Bigger than Verizon wellsfargo ibm nike
From comments in threads like this I think most people would be shocked that Intuit makes the largest segment of their income from business customers, not individual consumers.
Re: FTC bans TurboTax from advertising 'free' services, calls deceptive advertising
#10Intuit is an embarrassment of a tech company. Instead of innovating in software, they've invested infinitely more in lobbying to keep tax-filing complex and in creating new and innovative dark patterns to obscure their (federally mandated, btw) free product.
>they've invested infinitely more in lobbying to keep tax-filing complex
I always feel the need to point out that anger at this is misplaced. Intuit is a business lobbying on behalf of itself like countless other businesses do. If the result makes you upset, you should be upset at our political system and the politicians who are willing to sell out the country for whatever those lobbyists are pushing. It is those politicians who are supposed to prioritize the good of the country, not Intuit or their lobbyists.