Adobe CUSTOMER SERVICE is an oxymoron

[rpcrowe]

I want to state one thing first... I love Photoshop and Adobe Bridge and do not want to change to another service.

HOWEVER --- I have had over my life nothing but heartaches and turmoil with my interactions with the humorously called "Adobe Customer Service".

Last year, I subscribed to a year's worth of Adobe Creative Cloud and paid with my credit card. During the year, the expiration date of the credit card I had used past and a new expiration date was issued...

About ten days ago, I started receiving messages that the credit card Adobe had on file for me was no longer valid. No problem I thought, I will just update to the new expiration... WRONG - WRONG - WRONG. Nothing with Adobe is as simple as that.

I updated the credit card information and continued to receive the warning whenever I opened Photoshop. I contacted an Adobe customer service representative and had an online chat. Here is the transcript of that chat'''

Rohit: Hello! Welcome to Adobe support.
Rohit: We appreciate your patience and apologize for the wait.
Richard Crowe: My credit card Visa ending in 4853 is on file with Adobe. I want to convert my year long subscription to a monthly subscription.
Rohit: Alright Richard .
info: Your chat transcript will be sent to richardpcrowe@gmail.com at the end of your chat.
Rohit: As per my understanding you received an email for your price renewal and you wish to update your credit card . Am I Correct ?
Rohit: Are we still connected?
Richard Crowe: I was originally on a one year subscription. That subscription has ended and I keep getting a message that I need to update my credit card. I have updated it and still get that message whenever I open CC.
Rohit: Alright , no worries .
Rohit: I will share the link with you to update your credit card once again for the safer side .
Rohit: Secure Link
Rohit: Click above links to update your card .
Rohit: Let me know once you are done .
Richard Crowe: Rohit - I have done this. Am I safe now, I don't want the service to discontinue.
Rohit: Have you updated now once again ?
Rohit: Let me check .
Rohit: Richard I would like to inform you that your card is updated now .
Richard Crowe: Thank you very much...
Rohit: Don't worry your service will be continued .
Rohit: And it will get auto renewed .
Rohit: You are going to receive a customer satisfaction survey. I would appreciate it if you fill it out. Thank you, goodbye!
Rohit: Thank you for contacting Adobe, goodbye!

Well, I tried to open Photoshop today to complete my organization's 2018 Calendar. It wouldn't open!!!

I contacted a customer service representative by phone and was told that my account was cancelled because of non-payment

What to do in this case. I asked for a supervisor and didn't get any satisfaction.

[DanK]

That's indeed awful customer service. As a work-around, what about trying to re-establish service using an entirely different card? Who knows, it might work.

[Digital]

My sincere condolences to you Richard.


Bruce

[Cantab]

This is awful!

If I was in your shoes, I'd be fit to be tied.

[billtils]

Richard,


I can understand the very good reasons behind your first comment, but (to continue Bruce's metaphor) if I were in your shoes I'd walk, but that's my default stance on all lousy customer service situations.

[Shadowman]

Not familiar with these subscription style software packages but wonder if it wouldn't be easier to just start a new subscription, also check the forums to see if anyone has experienced the same? Usually an Adobe representative will jump in and try to provide an easier resolution.

[xpatUSA]

I want to state one thing first... I love Photoshop and Adobe Bridge and do not want to change to another service.

HOWEVER . . . . .

My condolences, Richard.

I understand the sentiment (bolded above) but . . .

Do you have one or two of those non-subscription apps, e.g. CS6 or LR, that you could revert to forever?

Have you though about running another app, preferably free, such as the GIMP in parallel? Slowly getting used to it and perhaps switching over at some point?

My computer is proudly Adobe-free except for Shockwave Flash, needed for so many sites on FireFox.

I use Foxit Reader (for PDFs), FastStone Viewer and RawTherapee (I have little use for batching) and the GIMP occasionally if I need layers, e.g. for decomposition . .

[Manfred M]

Richard - I feel for you.

Unfortunately, it's not just Adobe, but pretty well any large business. The call centre staff have flow charts and scripts to follow and if someone hasn't built the right script for them, you are out of luck, because they don't have a response that they can give you.

I find that "first level support", whether it is technical or customer issue related is there to help with only the most common and basic issues. Getting to second level support (and sometimes higher) is generally generally required to satisfactorily resolve these issues.

[billtils]

My condolences, Richard.
My computer is proudly Adobe-free .

Mine too, but Richard has a large investment in time and knowledge in PS and would (and indeed should) think very carefully about changing. Possibly the best option would be to move to a one time purchase rather than the subscription model. If you want to look elsewhere, try Capture One Pro.

[xpatUSA]

Mine too, but Richard has a large investment in time and knowledge in PS and would (and indeed should) think very carefully about changing. Possibly the best option would be to move to a one time purchase rather than the subscription model.

Agreed, which is why I mentioned non-CC Adobe apps. Myself, I had gotten quite used to PSE and switching to RawTherapee was a bit of a hop!

If you want to look elsewhere, try Capture One Pro.

Thanks for the tip, Bill, but I'm not looking personally and it doesn't do Sigma anyway . .

[rpcrowe]

Well, my Photoshop CC 2017 is working finally. It took me several hours on the phone with an Adobe tech guru and he was pretty well flustered. What finally transpired is that we let the previous CC plan that I was working with lapse and initiated a new subscription for which I will be paying annually (no discount but it is easier for me that way).

We (Adobe and I) don't know what caused the problems. He ended up taking over my computer remotely and deleting my present Adobe CC 2017 (Photoshop, Lightroom and Bridge) and reinstalling an updated CC 2017.

The big problem is that I would have lost everything that I had stored with adobe. However, all my storage is on several hard drives and is backed up by a Carbonite system. Since I did not use the Adobe storage system I did not lose anything.

This just might be a heads up to anyone using the Adobe storage for important files. I would have lost everything stored with Adobe through no fault of my own.

I certainly will not use any Adobe storage in the future. I don't think that Adobe has me in their sights so, this could have happened to anyone and if that any one just happened to use Adobe storage, they would be out of luck.

There was a bit of humor in the situation yesterday. The phone call took so long that it went through my dog's dinner time. They are pretty well behaved canines but, around dinner time, they tend to bark which made understanding the Adobe representatives pretty hard.

I have spent years using Photoshop and am very comfortable with it. I didn't want to switch. My credit card expiration date goes through September of 2022, so I should (I SINCERELY HOPE) not have the same problem next year....

[Round Tuit]

I want to state one thing first...
What to do in this case. I asked for a supervisor and didn't get any satisfaction.

You write a very polite letter to the president and CEO of the company explaining briefly that his company's screw up left you in a lurch and suggest that a paid up subscription would go a long way to restore your faith in their commitment to their customers.
That approach got me a free replacement Canon Pixma pro-100 when my three years old printer died last July. Give it a try. You have nothing to loose.

André

P.S. Adobe's President and CEO is:
Mr. Shantanu Narayen
Adobe Systems Incorporated
345 Park Avenue
San Jose, CA 95110-2704