AbacusNext

Diego Rodriguez CPA, MST, MSA from Lurod Financial Group (2 - 10 Employees)

Three years ago (2019) I, Diego Rodriguez, a CPA firm owner, used Intuit Lacerte as my tax preparation software in a hosted environment. I was recommended Cloud9 Real-Time by intuit as the recommended hosting platform for their software. The vision I was sold by both parties was that Cloud9 had a very simple process to upgrade the software when new software updates were released. Unfortunately, it did not work out that way. Each time I needed a software update, I went through the portal to make the request and the update were not processed on a timely basis (within 24 hours). I would have to call the technical support line, speak to an agent, explain why my update was critical and process the update. This was very time consuming and by far not what I was promised.

I signed a three-year contract with Cloud9 Real-Time which was acquired by Abacus Next & Abacus Data Systems. About a year later, Lacerte, stopped recommending Cloud9 and partnered up with Right Networks and the process did work as promised. Needless to say I had a significantly better experience. Since I was under contract until October 20, 2021. I paid for over 18 months of the service even though I was not using it at all because I signed a contract and kept my promise to pay for three years. My account representative Scott Pickens was well aware that I was no longer using the service because I expressed my displease with him and told him I had no intention of renewing.

When my contract expired, they automatically renewed it for one year because there is an auto renewal clause in the contract. When I asked Scott why was my contract auto renewed, I was informed that multiple attempts were made to “call me” and no response was received. I asked well why didn’t you email me asking if I wanted to renew to which there was silence. Scott stated we would need to escalate this situation with the legal department who are the only ones that could end the contract. Scott asked me why did I not send the written cancelation form as stipulated in the contract?

Here is why, I had a user the I had communicated via the proper form to Scott a year earlier to removed access to stop the billing. I personally removed the access through the self-service portal. When I did my annual security system audit I realized that the user was still being billed. I contacted Scott to ask why was that the case. It took two months and me forwarding Scott the same email multiple times for him to acknowledge receiving it. I did not trust the form submission process as I was failed before. I order for me to get out of being billed for another 12 months by Abacus Next I had to cancel my credit card. Instead of doing the honorable thing and refunding my account from November through February as I had indicated I would not review they did not respond to my messages. I paid them for a year and a half without using their service and this is the way the relationship ended. I in good conscious cannot let someone sign up for their services without knowing my experience and the way you will get treated if you do business with them.

Sincerely,
Diego Rodriguez

Patricia Van Haren from Law Office of Patricia C. Van Haren (2 - 10 Employees)

We have been with Abacus since 2015 and I cannot express how horrific our experience has been. Abacus is great at making promises and raising the prices however they are horrible at resolving issues. Review the terms and conditions as they will not attempt to fix any issues unless you submit it as a notice that they are in breach of contract. Even when they are in breach of your contract, they make it impossible for you to get your data out and they will refuse to comply with their own terms and conditions to release you from their contract. I strongly recommend against signing up for Abacus. Our billing system completely crashed on numerous occasions and would not allow us to post payments or costs. As we are an hourly firm, this means that we were not paid. We paid for customizations which were never completed and Abacus is again trying to state that they are not in breach.

CLARKE YOUNG from CLARKE LOGAN YOUNG Law Offices (2 - 10 Employees)

BEWARE OF ABACUSNEXT! Abacus is the kiss of death.

I signed up on 8/31/2018 . . . and I am still dealing with them. It looks like I'll have to file a suit to get Abacus to stop billing me for a product I cannot use and have never used. Frankly, a class action lawsuit is probably the only thing that will stop Abacus from refusing to allow customers to cancel their contracts without a penalty.

As soon as I signed the contract, Abacus dumped the whole responsibility for migrating my existing data to Abacus' platform onto me. ABSOLUTELY ZERO CUSTOMER SUPPORT OR TECHNICAL SUPPORT. You cannot reach Customer support or IT support.

If you enjoy listening to elevator music gone bad while on hold, just dial any of the phone numbers you can find for Abacus. Average hold time: 11 minutes . . . then you get dumped into a voice messaging system. The only way to get through to a human is to call Sales and then ask to be transferred . . . to another 11 minutes of waiting and then a voice message system. Fun!!

Given what I know about Abacus now, I am greatly relieved I did not manage to figure out how to migrate my data to AbacusNext. I sincerely believe I would no longer be in business if I had.

I have tried to cancel my contract several times, but no one with the ultimate power and authority of refund monies has ever returned my phone calls. Now it's 3/12/2020, Abacus is still billing me and intends to continue billing me until 8/31/2021! For N-O-T-H-I-N-G.

ATTORNEYS BEWARE.

In my eyes, Abacus has earned a NEGATIVE FIVE STAR rating.

UPDATE: 3/29/2020. On 3/20/2020, I received a call from an “account manager” at AbacusNext whose job it is to “represent” me the meeting at which my request for a refund will be heard. I am not permitted to participate. After all, I am only a customer. I have heard nothing since.

John from Doe

Sold product could not install. Refused to provide a refund.