Un-registering my copy of Quickbooks 2012 so I can sell it.

July 19, 2013 1:44 PM

I have a copy of Quickbooks 2012 for Mac that I just put up for sale on ebay. (The program just wasn't for me.) I am getting a number of inquiries from interested bidders about the transfer of the license of the software. I do not recall if I ever officially registered the software after i installed it or not. I played around with it for a little bit and decided it wasn't for me. I uninstalled the software and it has sat in a box until I put it up today. How do I go about ensuring that the software and license have my info removed so that the winning bidder can install it on their computer with little to no hassle? The Intuit/Quickbooks website offers a lot of contradictory information. Much thanks.
posted by TwilightKid to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

I have both QB and Quicken and have chatted with Intuit online. The one thing I got from them is that their online agents are not all that knowledgeable. Of the 2 or 3 times I did this, I came away feeling they were cutting and pasting scripted answers as opposed to answering questions. So for this type of query, I would expect them to be of less help. I would go with a straight up phone call to support and vigorously rustle the phone tree until you get someone who can give you an answer. The general number is 1-800-4INTUIT. If you get into a loop of unanswerable choices, just start pushing all buttons repeatedly. It actually helps sometimes getting a live person on the line.

You might have to register just to be able to talk to them, so have all your numbers ready.

As far as the legality of transferring licenses, unfortunately I am not up on that but if I was in your shoes, I would start with the phone call..
posted by lampshade at 2:29 PM on July 19, 2013

Oh and regarding the Intuit website, it is a mess, as you have found out. Nearly useless save for the section with the 800 number.

I just wanted to confirm your experience.
posted by lampshade at 2:30 PM on July 19, 2013

It seems unlikely that you'd be able to do this. Here and here are threads on the Intuit boards asking this exact question. There is indeed a form for transferring the license, but users report that it is entirely up to Intuit whether they allow it or not. Unless you are selling your business or buying another, it appears they do not like to allow license transfers.
posted by KinoAndHermes at 3:05 PM on July 19, 2013

One thing that may complicate this is that with Intuit products you're often not just registering a product key, you're signing in with your Intuit ID. So you'd have to share your Intuit ID with some random stranger which you probably don't want to do.

Honestly I'd just cut your losses. Sorry you got stuck with QB for Mac, I think even Intuit knows it's a joke. You can get a 30-day free trial of QuickBooks Online, that might suit your needs. If you want full-featured QB Desktop on your Mac you can run Parallells or VMWare, or you can use a hosted platform like Rackspace to remote in to your QBD.
posted by radioamy at 9:49 PM on July 19, 2013