Blog Post
I am writing to express my extreme dissatisfaction and frankly, outrage, regarding the recent changes to your software that have effectively crippled my ability to perform a basic, essential business function: emailing invoices directly from the MYOB platform. I want to state upfront that I have never lodged a formal complaint, however the recent changes implemented by MYOB regarding invoice emailing have caused such significant disruption and frustration to my business operations that I feel absolutely compelled to voice my extreme dissatisfaction and outrage regarding these modifications.
The decision to inextricably link this fundamental feature to the mandatory setup of your online "Pay Now" facility is unacceptable, as it is a coercive tactic. Forcing users, who have absolutely no need or desire for your online payment processing, to go through a verification process involving highly sensitive personal identification (driver's license, passport) simply to restore basic emailing functionality is appalling.
Let me be unequivocally clear:
- Emailing invoices is CORE functionality: This is not some premium add-on. It's a basic expectation of any modern accounting package, and it was a function available when I initially subscribed to MYOB. Its removal under these conditions constitutes a degradation of the service I pay for so I expect a reduction in the monthly subscription fee.
- This is NOT "Opt-In": You have removed a key feature and are holding it hostage, demanding users adopt and verify for a separate, chargeable service (online payments) they may not want, simply to get the original feature back. This feels less like a service update and more like a blackmail tactic – comply with our new demands and potentially expose yourself to new fees or lose functionality you already paid for.
- No Choice, No Consent: I do not consent to providing my sensitive personal identification to MYOB or its unnamed "third parties" for a payment service I will never use. Being forced into this verification process under duress to continue operating my business efficiently via your software is a gross overstep.
- No Reduction in Subscription Fees: Despite removing this essential functionality for users unwilling to comply with the unnecessary verification for an unwanted service, there has been no corresponding reduction in the subscription fee. You have unilaterally diminished the value proposition of your software while continuing to charge the full price. This is fundamentally unfair and poor business practice.
I chose MYOB as an accounting package, not as a mandated payment processor. Your decision effectively forces the latter onto your customers under the threat of removing essential tools. This is a fundamental betrayal of the relationship I, as a small business owner, expected when choosing your platform.
This situation is untenable there needs to be an immediate decoupling of the invoice emailing function from the online payment setup. Basic emailing capability must be restored to all subscribers without forcing them to undergo verification for, or adoption of, the optional payment services.
Failure to address this critical issue promptly and satisfactorily will leave me with no alternative but to cease my subscription and migrate my business accounting to a competitor that respects customer choice and does not resort to such coercive strategies to push unwanted services while degrading core functionality. Furthermore, if this issue is not remedied ASAP, I will be lodging a formal complaint regarding these coercive and unfair business practices with the NSW Fair Trading and Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
Well said Tina_15.
Totally agree.
MYOB's completely arrogant position with this is outrageous. They are forcing customers to comply with their underhanded money grab.
Nothing about sending an email is less secure than emailing a statement or payslip - and those functions are still available - at the moment. Unless they decide to hold us to ransom with that as well. Complete blackmail to force compliance by taking away a basic function of the accounting package while still charging the same monthly fee.
I refuse to verify. I don't trust them.
I know its such a pain but we have to get in to the habit of saving to PDF or moving to another program because just throwing up your arms, complaining and then signing up for this BS is not going to make things better.
If everyone refuses to sign up and prospective new customers are scared away by the level of scrutiny involved just to send invoices, MYOB will eventually have to reconsider.
Ditto Tina, Couldn't have said it better myself. Although I did try, was censored & threatened with being banned. The ACCC complaint sounds like a great idea. Thank you.
Hi Tina_15
I'd like to ask how you went with providing feedback / making a formal complaint to MYOB - what was the response?
Did you proceed with any other formal complaint with Financial Ombudsmen or Fair Trading?
As an 18 year veteran of MYOB - I have only ever complained twice & made 1 suggestion.
My suggestion (quite a number of years ago, I might add) was to add 'attachments' to sales. We all know how that is going - although I see this morning that it has made the coming soon list!
1st complaint: The horrendous GUI update earlier in the year to help people who only occasionally use MYOB to find things easily. It took 2 days for me to re-create all of my users so they couldn't see any sensitive account information & click into reports that they had no business being in.Functionally, I still don't use those buttons even though I am in the program all day everyday building reports.
Aesthetically, it is still an assault on my eyes each day!
2nd complaint - this one.
What Tina has articulated above is pretty accurate to how I am feeling today after getting my 15 days notice late last night.
We are a business in operation for almost 25 years with ATO, State/Federal departments, Licencing Directorate (with police fingerprints) all satisfied that we are a legitimate business.Our banking / financial institutions & Accountants are satisfied with our company identity (and actually asked for far less than what MYOB is) & offer secure payment options that we are happy with and paying for (that are costing LESS than what MYOB is offering).
As previous victims to identity theft, we are extremely cautious of providing any identification digitally, as this is how we were compromised, through a 'reputable' third party verification process. We can't even call our bank anymore & must visit a branch with 100 points of ID before they can even open our file for discussion.
And now, my accounting software wants me to upload more than the what was uploaded last time, to verify me for a service that I will not use - ever. Sorry, not true because as an added bonus, if we do decide to verify, I get to go back and MANUALLY adjust over 300 invoices that will default to the service that I didn't want. So whilst I am doing that, a customer may choose to 'pay securely' and by default - I have used the service that I never wanted.
Side note: I read somewhere that the cash flow forecast is required for MYOB to insure / protect themselves against charge backs? We have NEVER had a charge back request from any of our customers, so that argument does not stack up.I get that MYOB needs to abide by compliance in the financial sector if it wants to be a financial service provider but that is a business decision by MYOB. Forcing your customers to unquestionably support this decision & downgrade them if they don't is coercive behaviour and I don't stand for that either professionally or personally.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to Mind MY OWN Business using Mind Your Own Business. 2 Strikes MYOB ... and I don't even know if it will take a third.
Very well said, when is MYOB going to listen to their loyal customers? We have been with MYOB for 26 years, and now we are downloading our invoices, and having to compose and attach them to a separate email, so time consuming and unnecessary.
I guess this is what we will have to do until I can get Xero up and running.
Frustrating, but going through the verification process actually makes me so stressed & anxious - I feel physically ill.
I don't think we will get any resolution, even a compromise, at MYOB which is why I asked if Tina had success with lodging something formally that I can support.
We are considering a class action about these changes, the blocking of functions already paid for, and the standover tactics used in rolling out this change (not needed by our business and many others).
Keep us updated!
Hi Tina_15 , thanks for joining the forum, even though it is not under the best circumstances.
The community forum is not an official/formal complaints channel, but I will definitely make sure that this feedback is presented to the team responsible for the upgrade.
If you do want to make a formal complaint, you can email to feedback@myob.com
To address a few points in your message:
The third-party is not unnamed, but it can/has changed which is likely why the messaging is more generic.
When you are clicking through the process in product you will see that it says 'Powered by frankieone'
You can learn more about frankieone (and their privacy policy) here
I can definitely see how needing to verify to continue utilising the email functionality would feel like it is being 'removed' or that you think there should be a reduction in fees.
But the functionality still exists and there is no additional cost associated with it. There is the one-time verification though.
New customers will find this far more logical as part of signing up, to verify that they are a legitimate business, just as you would if you were trying to open a business bank account.
This secure invoicing upgrade is not solely about the 'pay now' function as you say, but in ensuring that the MYOB platform is only used by verified businesses to distribute invoices in Australia.
Once verified, the secure invoicing functionality does include the payments feature but this can be tailored to suit businesses by enabling or disabling it.
Also for the reply from ClaudineJ , email is only the most commonly used function for sending invoices. The change is not specific to email but to the distribution of invoices.
MYOB provides 3 secure distribution methods. Email, SMS and Copylink.
As there is a heavy emphasis around invoice fraud in Australia for this change, it is absolutely only emailing invoices that is impacted, and not emailing payslips or statements.Hi Mike
I have been using MYOB for 30 years now. For the first 20 years I had no significant complaints other than the constant increasing of price. For the past 10 years you have added on some great features but then made them a percentage cost of invoice if they were used, as well as putting up the prices. Then you bought in the online system but didn't include all the features we get with the desktop version. Some of these features are vital for our company so we are stuck using the desktop version but paying so much more. At this point I feel I am paying a lot of money to have a system that has just the required functionality. It will be useless to us if you then get rid of the desktop version which I am sure you will plan in the near future.
I am also concerned that the costs you are charging for customers to pay online is breaking the law. The following is from the ACCC site.
"Rules when calculating a card payment surcharge
The lowest surcharge
If a business wants to set the same surcharge for all card payment types, it must not be more than the lowest surcharge they can set for a single card payment type.
Example
A business’s average cost of acceptance for Visa debit is 1% and for Visa credit is 1.5%.
If the business wanted to charge the same level of surcharge for each payment type, it would need to be 1% as that is the lowest of all its card payment types. The business could not average out the costs for both.
Flat fee surcharge
Businesses can use a flat fee rather than a percentage card payment surcharge. However, businesses need to make sure that the surcharge is no more than the lowest amount it costs the business to process each card payment type.
Businesses need to be careful of imposing a flat fee surcharge. Flat fee surcharges can often be higher than what it costs the business to process the payment, especially on low-cost transactions."
Before this law came into effect we had a CBA merchant facility charging us around 0.8% for the cheaper credit cards and obviously more for the Platinum ones etc. We wore this cost until prices increased and then we moved to Tyro for their flat rate of 1.1% which we passed on to our customers. When the law came in to effect, we changed to Tyro applying the actual rate for the type of customer card at the time of the transaction. Worst case on most credit cards is 1.4%. We are only a very small company so MYOB would be able to negotiate a far better rate. Back to the ACCC....
"Flat fee surcharge
Businesses can use a flat fee rather than a percentage card payment surcharge. However, businesses need to make sure that the surcharge is no more than the lowest amount it costs the business to process each card payment type.
Businesses need to be careful of imposing a flat fee surcharge. Flat fee surcharges can often be higher than what it costs the business to process the payment, especially on low-cost transactions."
MYOB needs to be transparent about the rates they are being charged to ensure they are not breaking the law. The current rate appears to be excessive.
Hi rturnour , 30 years running your business and partnering with MYOB is a wonderful thing to hear. Congrats!
We have no plans to get rid of our AccountRight desktop software, we continue to invest in this software as seen by our recent command centre update and we also are continuing to develop the ability for AccountRight customers to have the flexibility of accessing their software on the go in a browser as well.
Regarding the surcharging, providers of financial services (in this case MYOB) are absolutely held to strict standards and I can assure you that MYOB is compliant in how the online payments surcharging is conducted.
We also remove the stress of compliance for our customers by not allowing the surcharge fee to be edited or adjusted. If our customers choose to surcharge to the consumer, then it will always be at the rate set by MYOB which is complaint to the ACCC regulations.
Another benefit, is that it is a single rate, regardless of the card type. You noted that other services tend to have variable charges, higher for Amex, lower for Visa as examples. Other providers of merchant services also typically change their rates based on a businesses turnover. But with MYOB, no matter whether you are invoicing one hundred or one million dollars annually, and regardless of the card type being used, its always the one rate of 1.8%
I hope this helps provide some additional information and comfort around the service.
Regards, Mike
