How to turn online customer service into a lost sale

I needed to order something from Intuit's online store. I went to the site, needed a bit of assistance retrieving a past order, and used the online chat service for help.

Twenty minutes later, after two up-sell attempts, my order is incomplete and I'm looking around at other places that I can buy the same stuff.

The task should have take three minutes at the most. The intrusion of the online chat slowed everything. In my first note, I indicated what I needed for help. Three questions later, the humanoid named Ken asked if I was ready to place the order. I restated what I needed. He fetched the information and then added two paragraphs about a feature that I didn't want or need. I declined the offer.

Mid-way through the nearly-final steps, he asked again, this time offering to sell me pens with tamper-proof ink. At that point, I bailed out, concluding the chat with a statement that I didn't plan to shop at Intuit again.

Sadly, of course, they've got a near monopoly on personal (Quicken) and small business financial software (QuickBooks). Because they've reached that saturation point, they don't have good ways of increasing revenue except by trying to add marginal features wherever they can.

Wouldn't it be great if businesses could say, "We make enough money. We'll maintain our products, issue upgrades to stay current with operating systems and other external requirements, and just make stuff work well. We won't load your product with new and unneeded features until it's both unrecognizable and unusable." ? Yup, that'll happen right after the unicorn parade.