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L
lproyect
Participant
July 29, 2011
Question

Adobe's unreasonable policy on providing serial numbers

  • July 29, 2011
  • 4 replies
  • 1190 views

Two years ago I purchased the Adobe CS4 suite at an educational discount (I work at Columbia Univ.) that came to over four hundred dollars. After going through what seemed like an overwrought and needlessly complicated procedure to get a serial number, I installed the software. Recently I upgraded to a new computer and discovered that the email that contained the serial number had been inadvertently deleted. So I called Adobe to get it again. Even though I had registered the product and even though the person on the other end of the phone had all my information in his database, he refused to give me a serial number unless I could "prove" that I purchased it. This means tracking down the purchase on a two year old American Express statement, but even then I was led to believe by the Adobe employee that this might not be good enough. God knows what they are looking for.

In all my years of purchasing software *legally*, I have never run into such a brick wall. I am thoroughly disgusted and will urge all my colleagues not to deal with Adobe.

Louis Proyect

Columbia University Information Technology

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    4 replies

    Noel Carboni
    Noel Carboni
    Legend
    August 4, 2011

    Given the telephone support person's reluctance, I wonder how many people call up and try to con them out of a serial number they don't actually own.  Yet another form of identity theft...  Sigh.

    -Noel

    A
    Anonymous
    August 1, 2011

    Hi Louis,

    I'm sorry you are having this problem. If you send your contact information (and this problem description) to adbecare@adobe.com we'll have someone look into it.

    ​

    the_wine_snob
    the_wine_snob
    Inspiring
    August 1, 2011

    Now that is great service!

    Hope that all works out for the OP.

    Hunt

    Harbs.
    Harbs.
    Legend
    July 30, 2011

    If you registered it, you should have a account page on Adobe's website which has all your past registrations including their serial numbers...

    John T Smith
    Community Expert
    John T SmithCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    July 29, 2011

    I work at a University, and bought CS5 as soon as it was released last year

    Not only did I make sure to put the serial number email into a folder so I would not delete it by mistake, I printed the email and put it in a folder in a desk drawer with all my other registration information AND I added that serial number to a text file that I copied to a flash drive

    While the verification process might be easier, it really is not Adobe's fault that you were not careful with your information

    L
    lproyectAuthor
    Participant
    July 29, 2011

    Look, no other software company operates this way. I purchased ABBYY Finereader for $500 since I do a lot of ocr work. When a similar situation developed with a license, ABBYY had no problem getting me going.

    L
    lproyectAuthor
    Participant
    July 29, 2011

    Furthermore, most vendors supply the serial number in the package. Recently I bought VMWare Fusion. The serial number was in the box. I guess Adobe wants to prevent piracy but if it does so at expense of alienating people like me (an IT employee with an ability to influence software purchases), there's a penalty.

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