Amazon gave me a full refund for that bootleg copy of Photoshop CS5 Extended that I returned. So, that part of it is over, at least. Adobe support, on the other hand, was not as pleasant to deal with. I’m glad Amazon made things right instead of leaving me to deal with Adobe.
I don’t think I’ll be buying any more Adobe products. No, don’t get me wrong–I’m not mad at them for not being helpful or anything like that, it’s more a matter of seeing how they routinely deal with support issues. My experience with them was an eye-opening taster of what I could look forward to if I had a problem with their products at some point in the future, and I didn’t really like what I saw.
If I’m going to shell out $1000 on a program, I’d kind of like to not have to spend hours on the phone repeatedly and patiently explaining to some thick-accented dude named Rajneesh what my boggle is, or waiting 5 days between web support case updates. No thanks, my time is money too, and if I’m going to pay that much money for software, I’m gonna expect timely and efficient support if I happen to need it. Naive and wishy-washy? Maybe, but you have to draw the line somewhere.
So, I’ve installed my trusty old copy of Photoshop CS on the new notebook. I’ve used it for 5 years without any complaints, and I can certainly use it for a while longer.
Damn Rahneesh, I think he worked for sprint customer support too. Almost made me throw my cell phone out the window a few years back.
Rahneesh actually is not a customer service rep. As a member of management he occasionally does demo calls while training or doing in-service for other companies. His new consulting company (motto is "customer, what customer?") has gone global, bringing a little Rahneesh to every continent (Antarctica is a little known tax shelter).
Is "Peggy" an underling of Rahneesh in the Russian division? 😉
You know it!
I'd say not to judge them on this one particular situation.
It's really not as bad as all of that. With an illegal number they probably deal with that umpteen billion times a day… and not justifying it. But I've dealt with them for over 15 years and only recently as CS that have they implemented the newer Serial Number method. And we've had to call them when we upgraded to new computers and reinstalled the same software. No big deal. Took a few seconds to explain. And done. It was pretty routine and nothing more needed explained.
WW8, Glenn, Mrs E: Ha!
Art: Really? From what you've said, it sounds like you work someplace that has multiple software seats. If that's the case, of course you're going to have a good support experience. The experience I described is a bit more typical for the average schmuck retail customer like me.
I wouldn't call your experience typical Mel. Not all of us purchased (albeit unknowingly) an illegal serial # with there purchase. 😉
But having a legal copy might be a worlds different experience. But hey your a geeky/program-my/auto-didactic kind of guy. You'd probably be just fine using other pieces of software.
~Will
You guys keep fixating on the serial number like that's the whole reason. Are you implying that Adobe customer support is clairvoyant or telepathic, and they already know why I'm calling while I'm still twiddling my thumbs on hold?
Does that also excuse the fact that every other time Rajneesh opens his mouth, the relay operator types "(asked to repeat)", "(too fast)", and so forth? I had to resort to using the web chat dealie for support. Even so, I had to do it multiple times because the first few support agents gave me nonsensical/out of date instructions on how to proceed with a web support case.
It was *not* just the serial number thing, it's the *whole* support experience from start to finish. I spent almost the whole evening before we finally successfully opened a web case and I was able to upload the requested invoice and purchase details. I scanned the invoice, the labeled parts of the packaging with the serial number, lot codes, and everything, and I uploaded it just like they asked.
5 days pass, and there's finally an update. Guess what it is? "Please upload an invoice."
What, you mean just like I did a week ago when I first opened the case? Give me a break.
Compare that to Amazon. It took literally 5 minutes to get a RMA and a printed return shipping label. 24 hours after they received the return, they gave me a full refund and I told Adobe they could just close the case as far as I was concerned. I was surprised–I thought Amazon wouldn't want to work with me because we're talking about opened software from a third party Amazon seller here.
All that aside, you don't have to take my word for it, either. A quick Google search for "Adobe poor customer service" returns 31 million hits.
You can also see some acknowledgement that this is a long-running issue straight from the horse's mouth here: http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2009/08/fixing_adobes_customer_service.html
It's not just me, and it's not just about bogus serial numbers either.
Pick a huge company and I could probably find you blogs dedicated to its paltry service. Hell I get poor service, the runaround and inept customer service from Comcast and I pay them $150 every month for it.
I guess what I am really meaning is that had that been a proper version of the software this wouldn't be an issue at all.
Sorry to hear your troubles.
Yes, you're likely 100% correct. My issue is that their stuff gets more and more bloated, complicated, and buggy with every release, and the chances that something will go wrong and require me to contact support increase with every release. Just look at the feature set of CS5 Extended and compare it to plain old CS1.
If there's this much Mickey Mouse over something as piddling as a bum serial number, I'd really hate to see what happens if I call in with a real issue. It wasn't a good first impression on their part, and for $1000, I'm not gonna roll the dice and hope for the best.