Are Intuit’s Disk Becoming an E-nusiance?

Have you been a recipient of an Intuit’s try me disk?  I have receive quite a few especially around tax season,  but I never realized so many other people had too. How did I know? When I was cleaning out my  My GreenDisk box which was spilling over with computer junk, I noticed quite a few Intuit Disks in the pile.  Some of them were probably mine.

In fact, I will be adding to the pile with the above pictured  Quicken Disk.  Coincidentally,   I received  this disk in the mail today urging me to activate the new 2010 disk since my 2007 disk will be expiring soon.  Funny thing is I use Quicken’s 2009 software. So, the 2007 expiration warning does not apply to me.   All Intuit had to do was check their records or cross check against my address since my husband and I use different name to see which version I owned.

I know Intuit is trying to drum up business for itself, but why do they need to send out so many CDs that get thrown in the trash?

My wish list for Intuit is that they partner with Staples, Office Max and other local office chains to take back their CDs.  And they may be open to it given  their sustainability accomplishments.

“Intuit officially went green in August 2007, although we’d been environmentally conscious for a long time before that. Urged by employees and encouraged by management, we created Intuit Green, our corporate sustainability effort, with three specific goals….

It started with the formation of employee green teams at various company locations, creating grassroots efforts to reduce waste. Innovative recycling programs sprang up throughout the company, ranging from electronic waste collection to employee swap events…”

Now, I am not saying that their sustainable efforts are not laudable.  But what about all those nasty disks?? The carbon footprint to create these unwanted disks and  mail them. The plastic and paper?  I was fuming and had to give Intuit my two cents.

On Intuit’s website, there is not a “contact us” or feedback section for me to send in a response. (Intuit you need one.)   Since I am doing an article about their disks, I thought I would write their press contacts about the amount of unwanted disks. And as the golden rule, always give some suggestions if you are going to b*tch about something.  So, following my own advice, I  gave them some ideas on how to collect them.   After I pressed send, I figured I would get the  old ” we will get back to you reply line”  that I so often get.  (Do you think it is my breath?)

I was pleasantly surprised by Julie Miller, one of the press contacts.  She contacted me Monday to tell me that she sent my email to their Director of Sustainability, Rupesh Shah, as well as their marketing department.  Being pretty jaded,  I emailed Ms. Miller back and told her I have gotten that line before from many  companies.  (Been there with Avery and still waiting for a response.  How months has it been?)

I wanted the email address of the Director of Sustainability to follow up with my discussion with Ms. Miller.  She promptly emailed me back with his email.  Four stars for Ms. Miller!  So, hopefully my interaction with Intuit will be more positive than Avery.  (Still waiting, Avery.  Take back your darn plastic binders.)

Just today, two days after I emailed Intuit, I received an email from Mr. Shah and we have a scheduled call for the end of this week to discuss ideas. Although I am not fond all of their unwanted disk,  I am really excited about their response.

So, wish me luck and I will keep you posted.

In the meantime, reader,

• Do you think that Intuit has become the new AOL? (Remember all those pesky AOL disks in the 90’s?)
• Have you received unwanted Intuit disks?
• What do you do you do with your disks?  (Be honest. No judgments here.)
• Are the only people who use Intuit’s  software victims of the unwanted disks?

Let Intuit know what you are doing with your unsolicited disks! Leave me a comment!  Let’s your voices be heard.

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