Why is product reliability and support so poor?

[rafr88803205]

XD on Windows regularly stops working due to Windows Update (I presume). This is not the first time this happened to me and it will likely not be the last. There is a very poorly written set of long and laborious steps to resolve this known, long standing, and common issue:

Adobe XD launches into a white screen on Windows

These steps, for me at least, do not work.

To add insult to injury, Solution 4, the very last suggestion after a process that can easily take two hours, tells you if you see a particular error in Event Viewer, you should follow those steps, not the others. It tells you this after you do all the other steps. The only recompense is that even when you have the exact error message it documents, the final proposed remedy also does not work.

It is at this point that I contacted Adobe Support online, since I could see no other method. The consultant in the chat, who was clearly on other chats at the same time (as it would often take several minutes for him to reply), insisted I do these same steps again, even though I open with a link to the steps I followed and a copy of the error message I received. When I said I will not spend an additional two hours doing the same thing again, he went to solution 2, 3, and 4. I had to explain every time that I have attempted all the proposed fixes and that they are time consuming to the extreme.

He asked to take remote control of the computer, when I asked why, he said to do the steps I had just completed. He called it "troubleshooting" but I explained that troubleshooting involves diagnosing a problem not attempting random and time intensive fixes that are known to not work.

I asked for an escalation and to Adobe's credit received a call back that same day.

Alas, I was not able to reach the phone in time but again to Adobe's credit I received an automated email saying they attempted to contact me and to please contact them back. However, the email, I swear, did not say how to actually contact them again, it was left to my prognosticative skills.

I tried replying to the email hoping that was the action they expected, but nothing. Two days later I received another automated email saying my case is still pending, this time it included a phone number, so I called the number and was told "this number is not connected, please check the number and try again". I checked. The number in the email isn't correct.

How is this possible? How can we spend $5000 per year and get this level of reliability in the product and this kind of support? I am just stunned.

We as a company will make every effort to (1) receive compensation for this (again) and (2) get off most of the Adobe suite. But it seems like such a waste of resources and time. Why can't you show just a little bit of respect for your customers Adobe? Most of us are happy to throw money at you just so the products stay more-or-less the same. Work when we need them to work and get fixed when they don't. Why is that so hard?

[Abambo]

Discussion successfully moved from Adobe Creative Cloud to Adobe XD

[Preran]

I understand how frustrating this must be for you, and I apologize for your experience. Please send me your Adobe ID over a private message along with your phone number and location and the day at time at which you would like to be contacted. To send a private message, click my picture and use the message button.

Let us know if you need more info.

Thanks,

Preran

[Abambo]

Just to add to Peran's instructions: How to send a PM to someone:

Hover over the persons id, a window pops up and you can click "Message"...

[rafr88803205]

Thanks Preran​ and Abambo. I have done so. I should mention that I think the product features and usability are very impressive both in scope and in cadence, but this makes these kind of issues all the more stark and unforgivable.

[rafr88803205]

Update: I got a call from Adobe Customer Support today. The call goes like this:

"Hi, this is <inaudible> from Adobe Customer Support. Hello? Hello?" And then they hang up. I barely managed to say my name. Not sure if it was heard or not. Call duration 15 seconds. No other call back.

Immediatly I get another automated email but this time I also have the caller ID: turns out the number is +1 800 .... rather than 1800 (a common freecall number prefix in Australia, even used by Adobe Sales). So that is one mystery solved: Adobe just assumes everyone lives in North America. I call the North American number (you are happy to give us Aussies a free call when we want to pay but not when we need service, ha?) and the phone rings.

There are no menu options to select an existing case and enter the case number. Instead, you go through a long and deeply nested set of menu (XD support is option 7 four nestings down). And then I am left on hold for 20 minutes.

Result?

You can speak to a CSR at exactly the same capacity as the web chat. Pointless. No genuine escalation. No L3. Just "have you tried turning it off and then on again" level of support.

Time to look at your customer support experience, address the technical deficit (what about better diagnostics when an app fails to start? improving performance; updating troubleshooting steps) and not just add features on top of features. You might actually retain and attain more customers that way.

It is not simple to wean a development shop off Adobe (though I'll make a good go at it). But keep this up and your customers will abandon you eventually.  As it is there is a growing movement to find alternatives. [REDACTED: had to remove a link to free alternatives on lifehacker (a totally mainstream tech site). Very funny.]

[Preran]

I will ensure that I share your experience with the support team for improvements to their workflow. Meanwhile, I need your Adobe ID for a follow-up. Can you send that to me over a private message?

Thanks,

Preran

[rafr88803205]

Well, it is happening again. Preran​ is there any follow up?

[Preran]

We have reported all issues of this nature to the product team and they are investigating these on priority. Pardon my memory, but did the support team reach out to you after our previous interaction? If you would like me to raise a support case for you, send me your Adobe ID, location, and phone number over a private message. I will do my best to help.

Thanks,

Preran

[rafr88803205]

I get a call from Adobe almost every week now but it is always the same level of support (front-line) and they are only interested in going through the steps in the document I linked to earlier.

At this stage, I have unfortunately become an expert at fixing the white screen of death, so I don't need their help to do that.

I am willing to offer my help, my time, to attempt to address the underlying problems (regular corruption of the program on Windows, lack of diagnostic output, outdated and poorly written troubleshooting procedures) but so far no one with whom I have spoken has been willing to escalate or look at the issue.

The conversation (abridged) is something like this:

Adobe: "I see you can't start XD because of a white screen of death";

Me: "No, I have fixed it";

Adobe: "So can I close the case?";

Me: "No, it keeps corrupting and I want the underlying issue to be addressed";

Adobe: "But you say that you can start XD";

etc.

I asked for an escalation twice and it was not given. Instead they wished me a nice day and a week later someone else called with the same script.

So basically I just document the time I spend fixing the program each time this happens and take it from there.

[Preran]

Thank you for the info. If you can share with me the information that i requested for in my previous post, I will do my best to help.

[rafr88803205]

I received a call from Adobe. Same script: "if XD starts, then problem solved". But CSR was able to understand where I was coming from. He said that it is 'with the development team' and 'being taken seriously". I offered to help with any diagnostic information that was needed. As nice as the CSR was, it was just words. It is clear that Adobe knows there are architectural issues with XD on Windows.

IMO, even if these issues are not easy to address, there is nevertheless low hanging fruit to help make life a bit less painful for Windows customers when this happens. Overall I am sad to say that I think the product and support quality are incredibly poor when compared to competitors and I unfortunately (and reluctantly) have to hold to this opinion.

Preran: thanks again for reaching out even if there was no beneficial outcome from it.

[porowski@earthlink.net]

Can you spell MONOPOLY? This is what happens when the company is allowed to corner the market and buy out the potential competitors! I wonder if Trump is buying into this scam, would fit his methods perfectly!!!!

[mowglivj]

What you describe is my ongoing experience with support. Their job appears to be to deflect and distract rather than resolve. I'm tired of reinstalling everything every time I have an issue, not that doing so has EVER fixed it. I'm also sick of support staff completely ignoring whatever information you give them while clearly ploughing through a script. Things would be more bearable if at least the software wasn't as bug-ridden as it is. The quality of Adobe software has really dropped since CC was released and appears to get worse with every new iteration.