Adobe's phone-based Customer Service is terrible.

Oh man! It's so bad hu? I remember a colleague of mine at a previous job spending hours and hours a day for a couple of weeks trying to resolve a license transfer issue. He's like the nicest most patient dude ever, and it was seriously breaking him down.

You'd think Adobe could muster better customer support, given the astronomical prices that we are all paying for their software.

I thought I was the only one having this issue. I am stunned by how bad Adobe's service is. I was also told by Adobe sales that I could upgrade to 4 to 3.3. They made it sound so easy. I have now been waiting 4 months for this upgrade. This is after faxing and webposting my proofs of purchase and contacting Adone 6 times! Each time I am told that there was a hold up because something wasn't done right on MY end and that the software is in the mail. Guess what? I STILL DON'T HAVE THE SOFTWARE. I feel that Adobe has lied to me and cost me time and productivity at work. I would love to come after them with an attorney or at least file complaints through the BBB until somebody helps me. What a HORRIBLE company.

Same story here.

I bought a brand new Apple laptop in late October, and my purchase included a copy of CS3 with several explicit assurances that I'd get upgraded to CS4 for free as soon as possible and that they'd even put a little note on my purchase just to further reassure me. This was because they didn't have enough copies of CS4 and just wanted to give me something so that I could still go to my design classes. Sounded good to me.

I installed CS3 and fully registered it and everything, and no upgrade happened. I called Apple, was transferred over to Adobe (which made sense), and that's when things got disappointing. The guy I talked to on the phone told me that the offer was only good between certain dates, and then when I told him that I had made my purchase inside those dates, he went off to talk to a manager and then came back and said that the offer wasn't good anymore. I asked to talk to the manager, and he transferred me to a recording that said, "If you know the number of the mailbox you'd like to leave a message in, enter it now." I waited, and then the robotic female voice said, "We're sorry, but you didn't enter anything. Goodbye!" And that was it. I've never had that happen to me before.

Maybe Adobe doesn't realize it, but those of us that are actually paying for the software are already getting mocked by our friends that don't. The only reason I don't just download it myself is because I feel that since I make money from what I create with their product, it's fair that I should pay for it. However, when I pay for a product, I expect to be given what I paid for!

Time to give us our upgrades, Adobe, and spare us the childish phone transfer shenanigans.

Well abuot 12 days ago, I spoke to what is maybe my 12th Adobe employee. Once again they apologized for the delay (um that has been about 2+months) and they assured me my upgrade was in the mail Guess what? NO UPGRADE. Is this some kind of a joke? How can an established company like Adobe treat paying customers like this? At this point I have to seek legal action and file complaints with the BBB. My company spent too much money on this product to be handled in this manner.

Wow, thanks for adding to the thread guys.

After reading Square Bottle and alienbaby's responses, I'm starting to think that this is more than just poor outsourced Call Center experiences. At this point, it seems to me that Adobe has created this scam intentionally in order to clear out the old CS3 inventory.

I, like Square Bottle, received instructions hand-written onto a piece of paper by the store clerk that I bought the software from. This seemed rather odd and inefficient at the time, but the guy seemed to really be making an effort for me (it was a lot to write down) so I appreciated it.

Now, thinking back, I realize that if Adobe instructed all of their vendors to hand-write these instructions for the free upgrade to CS4, then it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for customers to have any recourse if and when their promised upgrades were not redeemable -- there's no real paper trail.

Then, theoretically, Adobe could have instructed this Call Center to be as difficult as possible and simply not allow the upgrades to happen.

For example (I never went into detail about each grueling phone call), on my second call to Adobe regarding this, they took in all of my information, sounded like everything was moving along nicely. They gave me a case number with which to track my case. I then had to scan in and email my Proof of Purchase (seems normal enough), I received a confirmation email from Adobe, here is a direct excerpt regarding their receipt of my Proof of Purchase:

"This e-mail is only informing you that we have received the
requested documentation. We are not indicating that your proof of
purchase is valid, until the appropriate department has verified it. You
will be contacted by e-mail, if your proof of purchase is not valid."

I waited. And waited. A week or so passed and I called back. They told me that I had been denied and my case had been close. They did not contact me to let me know that I had been denied. When I asked why I was denied, the woman on the phone scrambled and had no real answer. She asked if my software was registered. I said I was pretty sure it was, but not 100% sure. Then she said "oh, then that's why you were denied." This seemed really fishy to me.

She told me I could register the software and call back and still get the upgrade. That's where I am in the process now, we'll see what shenanigans they come up with next in order to dodge fulfilling their end of the offer.

I'll keep you all posted as this continues.

And to Square Bottle - great point. For the rare honest folk that do PAY for the software...and pay THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of dollars, mind you, Adobe should have the sense to reward this good behavior, because pirating this stuff is so easy it's a deliberate choice to do the right thing and buy it.

I guess this is the harm in Adobe and Macromedia merging, now they truly have a monopoly on creative software, so they can take our money and treat us as crappy as they want and we can't do much about it. Maybe it's time to start taking GIMP seriously...

So I just spoke to yet another Adobe represntative. After keeping me on the phone he told me they were shipping my CS4 upgrade overnight. He gave me a confirmation # over the phone, but of course didn't email it me, even though he confirmed my email address twice.

Sally, I too went through all the same hoops, including scanning and uploading my proof of purchase to Adobe via their support portal. Fortunately for me at least one of these reps gave me an order confirmation in November, so even though they did not fill the order, I have proof that they approved it and were going to ship it but never did.

This is beyond bizarre and these reps must be trained to handle these requests this way because it seems all of us are being told the exact same thing. Such a shame, because up until this I had nothing but a positive impression of Adobe and their products.

I cannot even believe I am taking the time to find boards to complain about Adobes terrible support- for the amount of money they charge for their products the least they can do is provide decent customer support. And why are their call lines in India, give me a break! What bothers me and I agree with all the above- I PAID for my product. I had so many people say to me, "Why are you buying it, get a pirated copy." And I replied, "I don't steal." However paying for my product has been a total hassle- I have been waiting weeks for a cross platform upgrade. I had to send a letter saying I destoryed my old copy of photoshop before they would send me the new- sent the letter THREE times. No response. All the while calling INDIA and getting zero help. In the mean time all the people with pirated versions are up and running! So disgusted in Adobe.

Nice how Adobe has jumped all over this problem. ;^) At least an explanation of how or why their call centers work this way. Sheesh.

Agree .... Adobe Customer Service is terrible! I have been trying to exchange a PC version for a Mac version of a recently upgraded CS4.

I was asked to provide ALL Serial Numbers, of ALL versions beginning with the first purchase ..... I don't even remember when I purchased the 1st copy. All the time Adobe had these records, but to access them I had to provide the email address under which they were registered? I'm changed providers enough that I don't remember those old email addresses.

Finally ... 4 hours of the phone .... I found the old email and the representative found the SN#'s. He READ them, yes read each, asked that I write them on a Letter of Software Destruction form which needed to be downloaded and printed, sign the form, scan the form, make a PDF of the form, and then email it back to Adobe.

After doing that I waited two weeks and called again.

I was then told that Adobe didn't have the form! Please email the Letter of Software Destruction Form. I did it again, and again, and again. Finally the Representative .... Edwin ..... watched the incoming email. He saw my email but said there was NO ATTACHMENT .... you need to email the Letter of Software Destruction form.

I did it several times and THEY weren't getting the attachment, but I was being told that I wasn't sending it ...... you need to email the Letter of Software Destruction Form.

Wouldn't you expect that the last upgrade that worked, because it found the prior software was properly purchased and registered, was the most current record of sale and that would be enough to exchange a PC version for a Mac version? The website says that it can be done.

It's the last upgrade of any Adobe product I will ever purchase. I realize they have a corner on the market, but I'll live with this one and never even consider a new version.

File with the BBB in San Jose, CA. Outside attention needs to be raised to get this problem solved for all of us.

Since I posted complaints about the Adobe Customer Service on this Forum I thought it only fair to post that there was a resolution on the part of Adobe. I received a copy of MacOS version of PS CS4 in exchange for the Windows version was has since been deactivated and the SN invalidated.

Although I tried various ways to make the exchange, in the end I filed a complaint with the San Jose, CA - Better Business Bureau. They contacted Adobe and within 24 Adobe got back to me, reviewed the situation, and processed the exchange.

I have shared the details of my experience with the person I was in contact with at Adobe and it is my feeling that Adobe Corporate headquarters will make an effort to improve Customer Service.

Adobe has the worst support of any company I have had to deal with.
I have CS3 and had to jump through all sorts of hoops to do an additional
install on my laptop. They finally gave me a new serial number and after
two laptop failures I am not unable to install my program on the new laptop.
I probably need a new serial number. I tried the 800 number. No one
answered after 30+ minutes, so I hung up. They have it so the music goes
from loud to soft and soft to loud to encourage you to hang up. They have
a chat line, but no one is ever home. I PURCHASED (that means paid for) Adobe CS2 and and later CS3 and if this does not get resolved it will be the last Adobe product I ever buy. I belong to NAPP and will be sure to get the word out there too. I AM DISGUSTED!

Adobe is talking to customers at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid... where there is a conversation open to anyone, get your issue on here and get listened to. Adobe's VP of technical services is responding to customers - be assertive but don't be abusive, see you there.