Support experience

[photo-graph]

I’m a loyal Adobe customer for more than 20 years. Never liked the subscription model but had to subscribe in 2015. Never needed any customer support until this week.

Step 1) Find out how to get real support and not in circles with a “AI” bot which seems to have lost the “I” after the “A”. Adobe Forums are your Friend, but not the Adobe support page.

Step 2) Chat to a real person (I assume) and explain the problem:

“I have a subscription for Ps, Lr, … but it seems the subscription needs to be renewed, because when I open any of the products on any of the registered devices, I’m asked to buy and can’t use the product, whereas the creative cloud account page shows I have a valid subscription for the products”

Step 3) get transferred to technical support, as my account seems to be ok and payment was done - "there must be a technical problem" with my device.

Step 4) get a “clean install”, agent gets remote access, removes existing Adobe products and does a fresh install. Of cause I’m stilled asked to buy before use (test period expired) after the install.

Step 5) get transferred back to accounting team, as technical team can’t find issue, and explain the next agent the whole story again, as the agent do not transfer chat protocols or any informations what they have done so far to the next agent.

Step 6) go back to step 2), 3), 4) and 5) but this time talk on the phone (I’m used to the Indian accent so no issue there)

Step 7) After 6 (or 8?) different agent followed the same work instructions, they all came to the same dead end. Despite 3 hours of chatting and on the phone with support, they gave up and told me, that someone will call me later.

Step 8) 24h hours later (no one from Adobe called me) my customer gets angry because I can’t deliver my retouch work without my tools. Thus, I contact an agent again and ask politely whether he/she has any information on my issue. Of cause not, so I’ve send screenshots and explained (still calm and polite) the issue again.

Step 9) agent ended chat without a word or explanation

Step 10) Customer is threatening me and I have to find a solution quickly without using the Adobe tools I’m familiar with – maybe that’s the chance to learn better ways on how to get value for money.

… to be continued (Hope someone senior from Adobe is reading this, but my hopes are low)

[Mo Moolla]

Really sorry to hear about this experience you have had. 

I hope ypour issue is resolved soon. This must be really frustrating especially when it is affecting your income.

Mo

[LAWRENCEcanDRAW]

Hi p-g,

Like you I have been using Adobe products for 20+ years and have encountered this issue before. A couple of times in fact. I also was not 100% convinced by the subscription model (to say the least) at first. However, I have changed my mind on that because it is more cost effective if you use enough pieces of the software and Adobe really do put the effort into updating it with good features. Anyway, on to your problem...

If you are running a VPN then this could be causing an issue. tricking your software/computer into thinking the licence is in the wrong country etc. daft but can sometimes happen. Turn that off and go to the correct Adobe site for your country. UK, US, whatever it is. Login and doublecheck your account and your subscription is correct and up to date. While you are logged in, open Photoshop or other apps needed and see if they work. Open Creative Cloud. If the apps are still giving you problems despite the website telling you everything is fine then logout of the main Creative Cloud app on your computer and log back in - make sure the login details are the same ones you used for the site obviously. That should solve it. Let me know if it doesn't and I will have a think. 

[Nancy OShea]

[Moderator moved from the non-technical Lounge to Account, Payment & Plans.]

Verify Your Plan's Status and Update Support Case:

With a browser that accepts cookies and does not have script blockers, please log-in to your account portal below.   Ensure that your account is active and payment card details are current.
https://account.adobe.com/plans

https://account.adobe.com/support#

See Paid Plan Reverts to Trial Mode:

https://helpx.adobe.com/manage-account/kb/stop-creative-cloud-trial-mode-after-purchase.html

Log-out and Log-in again:

1. Open CC Desktop App.
2. Click your Avatar (top right image) > Preferences > General tab > Settings. Select "Always keep Creative Cloud up to date."
3. Click on your Avatar again.
4. Sign-out of Creative Cloud.
5. Close all apps.
6. Restart your computer.
7. Open CC Desktop app.
8. Click your Avatar.
9. Sign-in with your paid ID and password.

Manually Reset the Hosts File:

https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/activation-network-issues.html#reset-host-file

Failing all of the above, CONTACT ADOBE SUPPORT and ask for a technical supervisor:
================
Online Chat: https://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html?rghtup=autoOpen

At the prompt, type AGENT followed by ENTER key.  Wait for a human to join the session. 

Phone M-F, during normal business hours: https://helpx.adobe.com/contact/phone.html

Hope that helps.

[photo-graph]

Hello Nacy, thank you for the information, but this is exacly what I and multiple Adobe agents (remotely on my PC) have tried before over and over again. Situation remains unchanged (independat from the device I use).

[Nancy OShea]

• Update your operating system.
• Temporarily disable Firewall and Anti-virus.
• Test with a friend's or family member's device on another network.
• When I had connection issues in the past, it was router related.

Unfortunately, help with hardware, Wifi and ISP goes beyond the scope of what this community or Adobe support can provide. 

[Jeff A Wright]

Photo-graph, we appreciate your patience.  Evaluating Adobe services on a new computer can be frustrating when you are blocked from beginning the experience.

I am showing that case ADB-26668842-T9K6 is currently open and will be updated after additional research has been conducted.  Please use the process listed in https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/customer-support-portal.html to review and make any updates to any of your recent support cases.

If you do not wish to wait, you may consider evaluating the software on a different device.  You can find more information on managing the usage of the desktop apps included with a Photography plan at https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/using/install-apps-number-of-computers.html

If you encounter the same difficulties on a different computer, then you may want to reevaluate the instructions provided around network troubleshooting.  If the Adobe applications are blocked from verifying the membership status on multiple computers, then the blocker is usually due to the configuration of the local network or Internet provider.

[photo-graph · Accepted solution]

Thanke you all who tried to help. Problem is solved now!

I finally got connected to an agent on the phone today, who was able to dig deeper into the issue. The agent found out, that there was a problem with the Adobe internal (SAP ERP) system, when users changed from credit card payments to PayPal payments after an payment issue.

The way it was solved was that he canceled my subscription (and I was promised to get a refund for the payment I already made within the next two weeks) and I immediately subscribed again while on the phone with the agent. Immediately after I subscribed again, everything was back to normal and working on all devices, even without the need to log off and on again (or to do any reinstallation).

[kglad]

good to hear all's well.

[kglad]

start here - https://helpx.adobe.com/manage-account/kb/stop-creative-cloud-trial-mode-after-purchase.html

if that fails, proceed to these steps - https://helpx.adobe.com/enterprise/kb/resolve-trial-and-license-expired-errors.html

if those all fail, change your cc language.  eg, try international english

if that fails, change the install location

[kglad]

did you remove your license info?

[photo-graph]

I did this, but the agents also just follow their work instructions (a bit smarter than the AI bot) but if those do not produce a solution to you problem, you'll have a hard time as there is no complaint or escalation path for customers (I'm aware of)

[Moderator Branched & Merged with original topic.]

[kglad]

@photo-graph what problem are you having?