Wow. This is Adobe Customer Service at Its Worst

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I hate reading things like this. Alex, I’m sorry you had to go through all that just to get software which you were obviously excited about. It’s a shame that for whatever reason we couldn’t handle the order online. What makes it worse is that we have some very, very passionate users. One of the comments in that post says “I presently work with GIMP. I have started to pool funds so that one day, I will [own] the holy grail.”
That’s how people see Adobe products, as the holy grail of design software. It sucks when we can’t get that software quickly and painlessly into the hands of people that want it. I’m just a lowly evangelist Alex, but I feel for you. Hopefully this is something we’re working on.

[via James Governor]

[tags]Adobe, software, customer service[/tags]

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  • http://www.creative-restraint.co.uk Andy Allan

    I hate to say it, but here in the UK this is a daily occurance, from both a Sales and Technical Support perspective.

    When trying to purchase a product, assuming Customer Service don’t tell you a product has been discontinued (ColdFusion and JRun being the prime two examples) you are ultimately put on hold before finally being told there is no one available to help and can you please call back later.

    Technical support usually involves being asked for $500 so that someone from the US can call you back, because no one in the UK knows how to deal with your problem (again this is coming from a ColdFusion/JRun perspective).

    I’m hoping the technical support issue will start to fix itself now that Adobe are opening their Customer Care Centre of Excellence in Edinburgh, where they are currently recruiting for ColdFusion Technical Support people.

    As for Sales, I wish Adobe UK would remember they have products other than Flex, LiveCycle and Connect.

  • http://monkchips.com james governor

    things like this drive everyone nuts

    dude where’s my pownce invite?

  • http://www.brandonellis.org/ Brandon Ellis

    I hate to pile on but maybe the more folks that speak out…

    We called and ordered CS3 Web Premium and got a small ‘volume discount’ since we ordered six licenses. Seemed like a good deal. That was until they posted our order for download and it was the wrong version. We got back on the phone and waited and waited and waited and called back and waited some more. Finally someone told us that they could not change the order. They would have to cancel that order, back out the charges and re place the order. The we waited and waited. At this point the order was again wrong. So we called again. Calling Adobe Customer Service is not a speedy process either. Alright. So finally they (Adobe Customer Service) tell us it would be easier for them to just ship us the dvd through FedEx or something and cancel the download version. Wow that’s lame. We finally get the copy and since we all work from home, spend our time installing and passing to the next person. All good? Well not exactly. With volume license keys we had to log into an Adobe server to retrieve the key. I couldn’t get past the login screen for a whole day. I could still use CS 3 but couldn’t register. Which meant more of my time taken up with this.

    In the end I’m very happy with CS3 but the actual hours spent on the phone with Adobe instead of working, cost us way more in ‘billable time’ than any discount we received.

    I hope someone is being held accountable over this.

  • Phillip Kerman

    Actually, Adobe is very lucky to have someone write up such a detailed recounting of the events. They/you should take advantage of the information contained.

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  • David

    Absolutely – there’s still a chance to salvage something. If you ever hear Tom Peters, a “good comeback” is an absolute necessity if you mess up.

    Davo

  • http://scissormonkey.wordpress.com Thomas

    I agree with the others that say this is a perfect chance to turn this around.

    A customer has actually taken the time to write up the problems they have encountered, so the problems can be addressed.

    This is much better than the generic ‘Company X sucks’ with no real reason.

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  • http://www.walking-stick.com Dale

    First of all, let me say I have literally been an Adobe user for 20 years. Their software has always been amazing. I have wracked up thousands upon thousands of dollars on just about every major app they sell. But my faith in the company has really been shaken over the past weeks by their whole sales/customer support system.

    I decided a month ago to switch from a PC, back to my first love, the Mac. I ordered a new MacBook Pro, and then set about getting software for it. I thought it would be a good time to upgrade much of what I have now to the latest versions. Everything was going fine until I tried to upgrade to the latest Creative Suite. First I was a bit put out when I could not find any upgrade path from any of the software I own to the Master Collection. I have two full shelves of Adobe products, but because up until now I purchased them almost all as individual licenses, nothing was good enough for an upgrade. I found one small discount for the Web Edition of the Creative Suite with my copy of Photoshop CS3. So I decided to go that route. After a great deal of work on the Adobe web site, which was very, very sluggish, I placed my order. The moment I saw the receipt page I realized I made a mistake and orderd the wrong upgrade. I had orderd the Master Collection upgrade, instead of the Web Edition. This was on February 2. Ok. A bit frustrating, but it was an error on my part. On my email receipt it stated if I needed to get in touch with Adobe about my order, contact Customer Service through their web portal. (no phone number) I got online and looked again for a phone number, but did not find one, so I filled out their form. So within 5 minutes of placing the incorrect order I did what they asked and submitted the form. The response to the form was they would get back to me within 24 hours. 48 hours later on February 4th, I got an email from Adobe, saying I needed to call Customer Service, giving me the phone number.

    I called the number, and suprisingly got through to customer support in seconds. A half hour later “Allen” at customer support tells me that the product already shipped, and I’ll have to wait until I get it. Then call back and get instructions on how to send it back. Not happy I hang up and wait. A few days later I receive the shipment. I call Adobe immediatly. Again I get right through to support. Again it takes at least a half hour to get the instructions on how to send it back. I follow their instructions to the letter. Drop the shipment off at FedEx and wait some more. It is now Feb. 9th. On Feb. 11, I get notification from FedEx that the shipment had been delivered to Adobe. Then I wait to see the charge credited to my account. On Feb. 18, I decide maybe I need to call again. So once more I get on the phone, talk to customer service, and twenty minutes later am told that yes they received the product back, and it could take up to 10 days to credit my card. Ok, so Feb. 21 is the magic day. Today is Feb 22, three weeks since I placed my original order, and still no credit to my card.

    So tomorrow I get the pleasure of calling Adobe Customer Support for the fourth time. The crazy thing is, once I finally do get credited, I’m going to turn around and buy one of the Creative Suite packages. The software is just that good. But the same cannot be said for the support. I really think Adobe could learn a thing or two about support from Apple, who seem to bend over backward to help me whenever there is any kind of issue at all. Sadly I think Adobe used to be much better than they are now. But perhaps the fact that they’ve bought out nearly all their competition has made them too comfortable in their monopoly. It can only last so long.

  • Alex

    It’s just unbelievable that a company like Adobe would have such an incompetent customer support. My ordeal started very innocently: in October/2008 I got an offer to buy CS4 and Lightroom 2.0 at a discount directly from Adobe. I went online and ordered both, but made a mistake and left the default “download” instead of “ship DVDs” button enable. But company policy requires me to get the original media with all software purchases. Thus I called customer service, and after a few phone keypad dance around I got someone on the phone.

    I requested that the DVDs be shipped to me, and I would use the key-code to enable the software. He said it could not be done like that. I had to fax a “letter of software destruction”, and they would cancel the licenses and refund my money, and I could re-order the same stuff but this time on DVDs.

    I faxed the letter, and my credit card got refunded.

    The same person offered to enter the new PO, I agreed. But he made a mistake, and entered the order at full price, without the discounts I was entitled to (as I did on the first order).

    When I got the DVDs and the invoice I noticed the mistake he made. I called again, danced on the phone keys agia, and then go a cust. service rep. online. I requested that he credit the price difference to my credit card. He said this would be impossible, that I have to fax a letter of software destruction (again???), and place another order, this time with the correct price (and DVDs).

    I had enough. I told him that I would fax the letter, but I would not place a new order until I was sure my refund was posted, thus avoiding another order and another problem.

    Lo and behold, the second order was placed in December 2008, and I still don’t have the refund from Adobe (we are in July/09).

    I tried to reverse the credit card charge, but Citibank says that I did not return the product, thus no refund is in order. I tried to explain to Citibank that Adobe does not take DVDs back, they just require you to send a letter of software destruction. They didn’t buy that.

    I have been calling Adobes customer support since January, and the last time was two weeks ago. I was shocked that the rep. was angry at me “why do you keep returning software to us? he asked”. Then he said that my money had been returned, which was not true. After about 15 minutes or arguing, he checked the database to see credits and debits to my Citibank card, and when I thought that finally my issue would be solved … click … the call dropped (or he did hang up on purpose).

    In summary: Adobe does not want to solve the problem. Their customer support center (I believe it is in Mumbai, India) are incompetent, and the supervisor that took my case last time was rude and sarcastic.

    I will give it a final try this week, but for now adobe has $1000 that belongs to me and refuses to give it back. Shame on Adobe.