Adobe - A Story of Corporate Arrogance

I recently experienced some of the worst 'customer care' I've ever encountered. As a result I've cancelled my CC subscription.

I feel I may have cut off my nose to spite my face, but the fact is that after a two hour chat session with Adobe support, I felt compelled to cancel!

I'll get to the crazy detail of the 'Adobe service' I was subjected to shortly, but here's some background first...

I’ve used Adobe software professionally for over 25 years. I’ve been a full CC subscriber since 2013, paying nearly £50 per month.

I use the products at home and at work through two different accounts. I was self employed for a number of years and thus the CC package was one of the monthly overheads I had to factor in.

My circumstances changed, and, being fully employed once more I found it hard to justify the £50 monthly fee (we'll come back to this).

A little more relevant experience.....

I recall a period in 2004 when Quark XPress was due for an update. Coincidentally, I was hiring to expand my team at this time. Adobe had developed InDesign to a point where it was a serious rival to QXP. I had a choice to make - stay loyal to Quark or switch to Adobe. This was a choice many other studio managers were contemplating at the time.

So, given the competition, what did Quark offer its existing clients as an incentive to stay. A FREE product manual (in print)! No price incentive or loyalty offer. That was the limit of their imagination.

Or was it something else?

Perhaps it was corporate arrogance stemming from the belief they held a monopoly in DTP?

Quark must have assumed that their customers would not want to go through the hassle of learning a new DTP application.

They were very wrong. They were also slow to realise that they were wrong.

Customers abandoned them in droves for InDesign. The rest is history.

My experience with Adobe suggests that they now feel they are untouchable.

Back to my recent experience...

Ideally I wanted to tailor my apps - I only really need InDesign, Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator and Acrobat, but after after browsing the bundle options it was clear this wasn't an online option.

Hoping that Adobe could tailor a more cost effective way to continue my subscription, I started an online chat.

Whilst waiting for a response I noticed that upon initiating the cancellation process Adobe were suddenly keen to offer me a 40% discount (approx £30 instead of £50!)

Wow. They kept that quiet. (Reminds me of when your car insurer raises your premium every year, you call them to ask why, then they miraculously discover that not only can they lower the price, but they can offer it for less than last year! AKA taking advantage of loyal clients).

I also discovered that if I were to go ahead and cancel I would be charged a cancellation fee of £149.25! (this due to the remaining time on my contract).

When the chat rep finally understood what I was asking for, I was told that there were no other plan options available.

After stating that I'd noted the discount offer, this was repeated back to me, as if by a bot.

I queried why Adobe do not offer more flexible bundle options, but this was ignored and the response was simply "Shall I go ahead with the changes?" (meaning the discounted offer).

I asked again why there was no flexibility with bundles but the rep just ignored my polite questions and repeated robotic corporate platitudes.

So frustrating.

At this point I'm afraid emotion got the better of me. I really dislike dealing with faceless corporations who outsource customer care, taking advantage of cheap labour (I have absolutely no beef with the call centre staff, not their fault). It's telling that when you wish to speak with someone about making a purchase, you often get to speak to someone whose first language is English.

Now I just wanted to cancel my subscription.

I asked if the £150 fee could be waived.

The solution offered?

TAKE OUT A NEW SUBSCRIPTION.

"Why?" I enquired.

"The free 3 months make it more cost effective" was the reply.

I replied, "So you're suggesting that the best way to avoid the £149.25 cancellation fee is to sign up to a new £30.34 monthly plan, taking advantage of a 'free' 3 month period, but still be subject to a cancellation fee if I cancel after three months?"

The response, "I am sorry, it's not possible to avoid this cancellation fee".

I then suggested that it was possible to waive the fee, as a gesture of goodwill to a longstanding client. Denied.

After requesting to talk with a manager (ignored), I was advised that the cancellation fee could in fact be waived.

I asked for email confirmation that I would not be charged, and for a transcript of the chat. I received neither.

I then had to start another chat with another rep, repeating much of what had gone before (you can guess how much fun I was having, right?) before I finally received this confirmation.

Experiences like this have lead me to become more than a little mistrusting of promises made in such circumstances, therefore I took the precautionary measure of cancelling the card they had linked to my account.

The above happened on a Sunday.

And guess what.

First thing on Monday I received an email from Adobe stating that they had tried to take payment for £149.25 from my account!

So I was right to be cynical.

Thanks a lot Adobe.

I can only imagine the fun I would be having right now trying to recover my money if I hadn't been wise enough to prevent you taking it.

Due to your monopoly I will have to continue to use your products (at work at least), but it's sad to see that the company has become too large and too arrogant in its position to care about longstanding customers who remember the days before your domination of the market.

I can only hope that a few upstart companies enter the fray and offer alternatives - perhaps then you'll start treating customers with respect instead of utter contempt.