Free Quickbooks Pro at Staples on Monday 12/22/2008

Intuit sent the following message out to ProAdvisors on Friday:

To help small business owners grow and run their companies, Intuit will offer the Windows version of QuickBooks Pro 2009 for free* at all Staples stores on Monday, Dec. 22, for one day only.
Why? This effort originally started out as a small test, but Intuit decided to expand the offer. Intuit wants to help small businesses through tough economic times, and of course we are always working to bring more business owners on board as QuickBooks users – increasing the number of potential clients for QuickBooks ProAdvisors.
 
Fine Print: The Meaning of "Free"
We’re using free* in quotation marks or with an asterisk because there are some conditions attached to this offer. It works like this:

• The regular price at Staples is $199.99.
• The customer will receive $40 in instant savings.
• The customer at the store will receive a $159.99 mail-in rebate form.
• When the customer mails in the rebate form they will receive, some weeks later, a rebate for $159.99.
• Once the customer

obtains the rebate, their base costs are zero: $199.99 - $40.00 - $159.99 = $0

The buyer may still be responsible for sales tax at the time of purchase; sales tax is not free.

So.... if you're looking for an upgrade to your old version of QuickBooks, the price is right on Monday.  My friend and co-worker at K2, Mac McClelland, informed me last week that Intuit has also discounted the 2009 version of QB Premier Accountant Edition to $299 with free shipping (not sure how long this pricing is in effect). 

While this "free after rebate" strategy has been employed by Peachtree and Microsoft in the past, I think this is the first time I've ever seen Intuit give away QuickBooks Pro. 
 

 

Comments

[Brian Tankersley]

Rich Walker from Intuit read the post above, and wanted to pass along the following FAQ on the free QB offer @ Staples....
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We’ve seen some questions on the online boards come up about the free QuickBooks Pro 2009 offer at Staples, so I thought I’d pass them along the answers for your readers.

1. Question - is this a real offer? Yes, the Staples offer is real, while supplies last. It is for one-day only - December 22, 2009, and works like this: Go to a Staples Store, buy one copy of QuickBooks Pro for PC (single-user SKU) and use the Staples $40 off instant coupon. Pay the difference plus sales tax. At the store, pick up the form for the $159 rebate and then follow the instructions to mail in the rebate form. Sometime in the near future you'll get your refund.

OR - go online to Staples.com on Monday, December 22, and buy it that way. Same deal - you have to pay $159 plus tax, then file the rebate form to get the money back. And the same "while supplies last" term holds true, although Staples has lots of inventory, according to our Sales team.

2. What about Sales Tax? Sales tax is the responsibility of the purchaser.

3. Can we use this to make our existing copy of QuickBooks Pro 2009 multi-user? Yes, but remember that each customer can only get ONE rebate.

4. There are 1400 Staples Stores nationwide. What if the communication doesn't reach every store? The Intuit Sales team has emailed, fed ex'ed, etc to all stores, but with 1400 stores, it may be hard to get 100% compliance. As of Monday, December 22, 2008, the offer will be on the HOME PAGE of Staples.com. We recommend going to a store early or exercising the offer early online. Also, if they do go to a physical Store and the supplies have "run out," there are, unfortunately, no rain checks – this offer is “while supplies last,” but most Staples stores have lots of QuickBooks inventory. There is a limited number – albeit quite large – of copies available online, as well.