rcrusoe, I have been known to be unnecessarily harsh responding to certain posts. Please read my following comments with this in mind: that I am trying to assist you in getting the most benefit possible from these forums. Unfortunately, I am unable to provide any real help based on the information that I currently have.

Last week I posted about my problems communicating

with the support people - e-mail type message

<snip>

Problems contacting support personel are really best addressed in the "Other Topics" forums. Combining with other issues distracts your fellow users who might have been of help. In general, these types of issues don't belong on the forums, but since your <and the other person who posted today> problem is with the traditional methods of connect being close, posting this on these forums seems a reasonable thing to do.

My problem had been the loss of my files for the

period of January 2005-October 2005 after a supposed

download of MEM2 and receiving a message box saying

new files are available - I accepted and later found

I had wiped out all my files. Additionally, the

backups were attached to another set of backups for a

cpompletely different program (!) Neither the MEM1 or

the other program files can be opened.

This doesn't help us help you. Please be concise and explicit in your descriptions.

This afternoon I deleted MEM1 as per instructions

from Arizona and installed MEM2. When the

I don't know who Arizona is.

installation process

was completed the initial page appeared and

immediately a small window showed up saying THE DATA

FILE PREVIOUSLY USED CANNOT BE OPENED

Was that the exact error message? If not, then you should have provided the exact error message.

and showed the

flawed data file we wrestled with last week.

This is confusing based on the fact that you claimed earlier that your data file was wiped out.

Trying FILE>OPEN resulted in a similar error message

"Similar" does not equal "same". Again, what was the exact error message.

OPEN RECENT produced the same.

Now I don't have the file-less, but operational MEM1,

nor do I have MEM2.

I don't know what you mean by this.

Maybe there is a still-dormant flaw deep down in MEM

awaiting to evidence itself. I hope not for those who

are being successful with the program.

Unlikely based on the assumption that most v1 users have moved to v2 by now and we haven't seen a flood of these issues.

My experience has shown Antonio and Meg to be

genuinely concerned with problems, attentive to the

upset caused and first-class in every way.

I've yet to run into a Quicken employee who isn't, but good job for giving praise where it is due.

However, other problems exist.

My feeling of helplessness/fury experienced last week

has returned. INTUIT has taken advantage of me with

their flawed program.

Feeling helpless and furious does not help, and expressing that in your post only serves again to distract those who might try to help, either by inducing us <me, actually> to focus on the wrong parts of your post, or to cause you to express your problems and/or symptoms in less than clear language. Please, take a little bit of time to become calm and clear headed before describing your problems, and the community will be better able to help you.

This post will be removed shortly. Like the last one.

The forums have been going through some nasty upheaval over the last week or so. I believe that your prior post is back now. I can vouch for the fact that it disappeared for a time.

-Tony

To: APWILHELM

Thank you for your measured response.

I do not know how to intersperse comments within material written by others-I will try to be as clear as possible.

"Problems contacting support personnel are really best addressed in the "Other Topics" forums"

I was not aware of that forum or its purpose. In a previous post I described how the contact process was flawed - later I was informed changes had been made quite a while back but people were not made aware of those changes - the changes made it impossible for me to contact support. I understand this is being addressed.

It appears to me that others were not trying to use the support contact method, where I stumbled, but,rather posted their problems in the forum and received help that way. Had people tried to recommended method the flaw would have been revealed long ago. Noe that one poster complained last month and had no response(s)...??

"This doesn't help us help you.Please be concise and explicit in your descriptions"

First - the actual message texts of the last week are gone - I don't want to aggravate you further. I have the most recent,today's, verbatim and will include them.

I received the 3/16/06 e-mail alerting me to the upcoming closing of the window to get MEM2 - I started the download process-seeing it would take over 4 hours, I went to bed.The next day an error message said the download could not be completed. However, when I opened MEM I checked to see if there were any updates - The answer said I had the latest version. Then a small message box appeared telling that new MEM files were available - did I want to add them now. I clicked "YES" and they were activated.

I then opened MEM and the page appeared that asks for a listing of those who will be covered and their data. I then realized I had lost my previous files and I hadn't received the update.

When Antonio was helping I went to the SEARCH function in MY COMPUTER and called up all files with the .MEM extension. As I recall there were 28 of them. Interestingly, they were files such as,





C:\NAICPRK4\BACKUP\PRKDATA_2005-05-13\DEFBACK.MEM

NAIC is the National Association of Investment Clubs, PRK4 is version 4 of Portfolio Record Keeper, BACKUP is for the NAIC files, the date is precisely as shown on the results screen between PRKDATA and 2005 the line is an underline, while between 2005 and 05 and between 05 and 13 are dashes.

Neither the NAIC or the .mem extension files can be opened.

"I don't know who Arizona is".

I chose not to write the name of the person in Tucson who, in an e-mail, instructed me to delete MEM1 prior to installing MEM2, thus I used ARIZONA as a substitute.

Re: installation process completed and window said THE DATA FILE PREVIOUSLY USED CANNOT BE OPENED.

"What was the exact error message"

In a box saying QUICKEN MEDICAL EXPENSE MANAGER the exact message was:

"The data file previously used cannot be opened.

C:\NAICPRK4\BACKUP\PRKDATA_2005-05-13\DEFBACK.MEM"

When I used the term "wiped out" I should have used some other term to indicate the file was no longer available-sorry.

"SIMILAR does not equal "same". Again, what was the exact error message."

FILE>OPEN when clicked generated a window that has LOOK IN followed by a small opening in which appeared PRKDATA_2005-05-13

Below that, in the large space in the upper left corner area was DEFBACK.MEM that had a logo not of MEM.

Clicking OPEN at the bottom produced:

C:\NAICPRK4\BACKUP\PRKDATA_2005-05-13\DEFBACK.MEM

OPEN RECENT produced: C:\DOCUMENTS and SETTINGS\EDWARD\MYDOCUMENTS\MYMEDICALMANAGER\MEDICALMANAGER.MEM

When clicking on the file shown immediately aboe the message received is:

The file you have requested cannot be opened

Now I don't have the file-less, but operational MEM1 nor do I have MEM2.

"I don't know what you mean by this."

Simply said: Before I installed MEM2 I un-installed a workable MEM1 although all the files were not available. When I opened MEM2 I received the error messages thus telling me I couldn't use MEM2. Therefore I have neither.

In clicking FILE NEW I get the large window described above SAVE IN PRKDATA_2005-05-13

and in the big window DEFBACK.MEM

File name (at bottom) MEDICAL MANAGER

SAVE AS TYPE MEDICAL MANAGER FILES (*mem)

Clicking on PRKDATA_2005-05-13 returns

MY RECENT DOCUMENTS

DESKTOP

MY DOCUMENTS

MY COMPUTER

3 1/2 FLOPPY

LOCAL DISK C:\

NAICPRK4

BACKUP

PRKDATA_2005-05-13 (Highlighted)

CD-RW DRIVE

etc.

"...most users have moved to v2 by now and we haven't seen a flood of these issues"

Good.

I two-finger type and I make many errors-this is very time-intensive-- I correct as best I can but I miss some of the typos - it takes a long time to compose a message telling of program difficulties and to be met with a denial of sending the message while using the protocol desired by the site; it does induce stress, and after the second or third time, anger. Then to be told they made changes some time back and didn't pass on the word doesn't help.

The post to which your responding took about 35 minutes - I didn't time this response but it probably took even longer.

Antonio and Meg spent more than an hour on the long distance phone guiding me through various diagnostics and had a follow up call 2 days later. As mentioned, I could not have asked for better attention to this problem.

Earlier this afternoon I spent almost an hour sending a message to the support group. The former procedure has been completly changed and the automated response by e-mail indicates the message was received.

Counting the time spent on this last week, the telephone time of the people in Tucson, your time in responding and my response to you totals far too much attention to this problem which appears to be non-solvable.

One point however, gaining access to INTUIT is a nightmare. It appears they have purposefully built a wall to insulate themselves from the users/customers. Their recent actions vis-a-vis Quicken v3 even drew ire from Lee Gomes in a Wall Street Journal column that appeared nationwide editions. -full column devoted to INTUIT's actions.

I am giving up...I will go back to Excel.

Maybe I'll short INTUIT

Thank you for your time,attention to my problems and your forebearance and restraint.

Ed

Great improvement.

Noe that one poster complained last month

and had no response(s)...??

Yes, but as a fellow user, there's not much I can help with that.

I then opened MEM and the page appeared that asks for

a listing of those who will be covered and their

data. I then realized I had lost my previous files

and I hadn't received the update.

None of what you described so far should have affected your data file in any way. I could believe that it would have caused MEM to lose track of where the data file was, but not actually get rid of the file itself. However...

When Antonio was helping I went to the SEARCH

function in MY COMPUTER and called up all files with

the .MEM extension. As I recall there were 28 of

them. Interestingly, they were files such as,

C:\NAICPRK4\BACKUP\PRKDATA_2005-05-13\DEFBACK.MEM

NAIC is the National Association of Investment Clubs,

PRK4 is version 4 of Portfolio Record Keeper, BACKUP

is for the NAIC files, the date is precisely as shown

on the results screen between PRKDATA and 2005 the

line is an underline, while between 2005 and 05 and

between 05 and 13 are dashes.

Neither the NAIC or the .mem extension files can be

opened.

I suspect that none of the files under C:\NAICPRK4 are related to MEM in any way. Now I understand clearly what you mean by them being with another program's backup.

"I don't know who Arizona is".

I chose not to write the name of the person in Tucson

Do you mean a support person for QMEM? I've never dealt with any support personel, and everyone I have communicated with at Intuit are in the Pacific Northwest, so I'm not really sure what person or group you might be in contact with in AZ.

who, in an e-mail, instructed me to delete MEM1 prior

to installing MEM2, thus I used ARIZONA as a

substitute.

This is where things get dicey, and I'm beginning to believe that your data file may actually be gone. A straight uninstall should not have touched the data file, but if there was any post-uninstall cleanup that happened, that may have gotten rid of it.

OPEN RECENT produced: C:\DOCUMENTS and SETTINGS\EDWARD\MYDOCUMENTS\MYMEDICALMANAGER\MEDICALMANAGER.MEM

It looks like there are spaces missing in this. The original *.mem file that was created on my computer was in:

C:\Documents and Settings\Tony\My Documents\My Medical Manager\MedicalManager.mem

If you do File|Open, and navigate to the:

C:\Documents and Settings\Edward\My Documents\My Medical Manager

folder, are there any *.mem files there?

If you do end up giving up on your current data file but continuing with QMEM, make sure, when you do File|New to create the file in the above folder <or some other data specific directory>. Also make note of the file name so that you know exactly what file to look for if QMEM loses track of it again.

When clicking on the file shown immediately aboe the

message received is:

The file you have requested cannot be opened

Now I don't have the file-less, but operational MEM1

nor do I have MEM2.

"I don't know what you mean by this."

Simply said: Before I installed MEM2 I un-installed a

workable MEM1 although all the files were not

available. When I opened MEM2 I received the error

messages thus telling me I couldn't use MEM2.

Therefore I have neither.

If the *.mem file is gone or damaged, having MEM1 wouldn't help you any longer. Take this as a warning to make sure you have backups. A USB thumb drive can be invaluable for this purpose; and search the Quicken Windows forums for 'backup strategy' <or something like that, I forget the best search phrase right now>. jepollard or MikeB has an excellent description of a very thorough strategy that I'm trying to implement.

One point however, gaining access to INTUIT is a

nightmare. It appears they have purposefully built a

wall to insulate themselves from the users/customers.

Their recent actions vis-a-vis Quicken v3 even drew

ire from Lee Gomes in a Wall Street Journal column

that appeared nationwide editions. -full column

devoted to INTUIT's actions.

Please remember that the people who read these forums are not the people about whom your comments are directed. The Intuit employees who are here to read your comments are not the ones responsible for the corporate decisions and are focused on doing what little they've been given authority to do to help.

I am giving up...I will go back to Excel.

I'm truly sorry to hear this. QMEM still needs help, and additional eyes and experiences can only help.

Thank you for your time,attention to my problems and

your forebearance and restraint.

Ed

I'm trying. I'm getting better, but I've still a long way to go.

-Tony

Hi Ed!

It is Quicken Meg, who was on the phone with you the other day for technical support.

Just a couple of things that I would like to clarify for you.

I happen to be familiar with NAIC and am on their local board of directors, so I am familiar with Portfolio Record Keeper. The .mem files that you are seeing in that directory are not QMEM files. It is my understanding that the .mem extension is used by several other programs, so PRK is probably one of those.

Also, regarding your comment that Intuit is trying to insulate themselves from the public is not our goal at all. By utilizing primarily email support and then being able to make calls on those issues, such as yours, that cannot be resolved via email, it allows us to keep the cost of the program affordable and the support free for everyone.

As I stated in our conversation, I sure hope that you would give QMEMv2 a try because I am VERY interested in what your opinion of the improvements are. Your opinion matters to me.

I look forward to hearing from you, should you choose to give QMEMv2 a try.

Have a great day!

Quicken Meg