Turbo-Tax EULA
Yesterday I bitched about TaxCut’s incredibly bad EULA. I went back to Fry’s today to return TaxCut and purchase TurboTax, along with several other software products I should have bought before which are free after rebate. I was hoping to blog TurboTax’s EULA by comparison, but was unable to cut and paste it. I can print it out and scan it, so maybe I’ll have it up eventually. Meanwhile, here’s a brief summary of the differences:
- While H&R Block conditions Tax Cut’s shitty little warranties on you not installing your own goddamned product on more than one of your own goddamned machines, Intuit expressly authorizes you to install TurboTax on one or more machines that you own or use, at home or at work.
- Like H&R Block, Intuit generally disclaims merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, etc. That is bad. However, TurboTax makes it clear that the software really is supposed to do what it’s designed to do, thereby creating an exception to that disclaimer that pretty much swallows the rule. And unlike TaxCut, it doesn’t purport to limit its liability to $10,000, $25.00, the purchase price, or $0.00 if the problem arises “for any reason.” And TurboTax doesn’t go overboard with the disclaimers the way TaxCut does, e.g., it doesn’t disclaim such irrelevancies as the warranty of quiet enjoyment, which applies only to landlords and tenants.
- Like TaxCut, TurboTax limits jurisdiction and venue to a specific county and state, in this case, Santa Clara County, California (i.e., San Jose). For what it’s worth, however, TurboTax does not require you to arbitrate rather than litigate, as TaxCut does.
Bottom line: TurboTax doesn’t have a great EULA, but then again, almost no software does. The important thing is, TurboTax’s EULA is substantially more consumer-friendly than that of its chief competitor, TaxCut.
December 7th, 2004 at 1:37 pm
But I liked the “quiet enjoyment” exclusion, having visions of speakers emitting high-frequency squeals at odd hours, or the lighting in your house flickering at 4 hertz, or your hottub temperature bcoming random. And no recourse. What moroons.