Three cheers for consumers who expressed their ire about a new $9.95 fee from TurboTax tax preparation software, prompting Intuit, the maker of TurboTax, to make an about-face.

The fee was a new printing charge on all but the first return prepared by the desktop version of TurboTax for tax-year 2008. But customers complained aggressively on Web sites such as Amazon.com and on TurboTax's own Live Community forum. Shortly thereafter, Intuit's competitor, H&R Block, began promoting five free e-files and free printing of multiple returns for customers of its tax-prep product, TaxCut.

Intuit subsequently rescinded the fee, offered refunds to folks who'd already paid the fee and, like H&R Block, publicized free e-files for up to five federal returns.  An Intuit spokesman told us the move was "based on some competitive issues as well as some customer feedback."

Consumerism in action takes new forms on the Web. Let's see where else it will lead...

--Tobie Stanger