Deactivation hell
I recently spent seven days locked out of two QuickBooks accounts. One that I use to access client accounts, and a second legacy account that holds my own books, which used to be on QuickBooks Desktop.
Both are back now, so I thought I’d leave some tips for the next poor bastard who wanders over here in a state of panic.
First, only call through the official QuickBooks website. Google is full of fake support numbers.
To get past the AI gatekeeper, say: “Existing account reactivation case. Identity verification failed. I need a representative.” If all else fails, start swearing. They'll put you on hold to talk to a real person.
Once you get a human on the line:
- Give them your case number immediately (or establish one if this is the first call)
- Write down every new case number, representative’s name, date, and promise.
- Take screenshots of everything.
- Assume nobody has read the prior notes.
- Assume any promised callback is bullshit.
- They have no direct line to the security team.
- If you have multiple Intuit user IDs, make sure they open a separate reactivation request for each one. This is actually what took the longest...they only did one at a time under separate case numbers. Consecutively.
- If they say your account doesn’t exist, ask them to search deactivated users, legacy accounts, and CAMPs/product-registration records, not just the current QBO directory.
- Once they find the company, ask for its Company ID and save it somewhere. If you actually know your Company ID, that will save you time. Offer that at the beginning of the call.
At one point Intuit emailed me that it hadn’t received my photo ID. When I tried submitting it again, Intuit told me I couldn’t because it had already received my photo ID. This doom loop was apparently not considered contradictory within the Intuit ecosystem.
One account came back after a few days. The second (legacy account) took a full week, several calls, three identity verification submissions, multiple case numbers, and a representative finally searching the correct system.
The data was still there. The account was still there. Intuit couldn’t find it.
Mainly, don't freak out. It's pretty unlikely you were actually hacked or your account permanently disappeared.
You will never hear directly from the security team.
You will never know exactly what happened.
You will get your account back. Eventually.