How is it possible for Adobe Support to be so bad ?

[Sorin_Jurcut]

I mean really ! For a multi billion dollar company, support is worse than Microsoft ! And that speaks heaps !

I had the worst customer experience throughout the day with people that have no grasp over the english language and moreso, no technical skills whatsoever ! None managed to understand my problem or fix my issue. I am aware they are pade minimum indian wage, but since a regular CC subscriber pays a hefty 50 bucks a month, the support is supposed to at least be faking like its helping ! I know how bad support is because I've worked for a software company myself and the people that ended up in support usually went there because they couldn't find anything better at that time. And they generally had really bad technical skills too.

Getting to the point of it all: By means of this ordeal that is Creative Cloud, I've come across a very frustrating bug. A bug that makes Creative Cloud Desktop app think its another PC. basically if I sign into the desktop app and the open Photoshop, PS tells me that it needs to be activated and while doing so, hits me with this beauty

so I go ahead and sign out of Creative Cloud and close Photoshop. Then go ahead and start Photoshop again without signing into the CC desktop app. Lo and behold ! Activation Sucessfull ! Sign back into the desktop app, close Photoshop. Open Photoshop back again. BAM, same screen you just saw up here. I have to mention that my CC is being used in 2 places. At home and at work. At work while i'm writing this the laptop's closed. So the only logical conclusion would be that CC desktop = 1 new pc. Either that or Photoshop is seen as such.

Given the great amount of NO HELP that i got from support I concluded that I will be dropping the sub first chance I get, after getting CS6. I am one of the biggest Adobe fans, and used Photoshop starting with version 6 all the way to CC, and even dreamed about working for Adobe, but I am getting tired of how badly the software is starting to be. And seriously Adobe, hire more competent support personell, that is preferably not indian. I don't have anything against them as a people, but those that work at support are just as bad as the jokes say they are. Disappointed all the way. Wonder if anyone else feels the same or experienced the same bug as I did...

[SG...]

Hi Sorin,

Sorin Jurcut wrote:

Some even ancient relics (EX: When you dbl-click on a layer to work with the layerstyle, dbl-click the shape-layer thumbnail to change layer color Photoshop opens up several Help pages and in some case even crashes because it either couldn't find Adobe Help (useless junk of a addition) or there were just too many instances of help open. Its a popular case of endless loop)

I just wanted to point out that we think we finally coralled and fixed that issue:

http://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/_adobe_community_help_keeps_popping_open

Do let me know if you still hit it with 14.2.

regards,

steve

[Sorin_Jurcut]

Hi Steve,

Well, I had problems with Photoshop crashing. The crash happened right when the old community help bug would've been popping in , like this: same behaviour, hourglass, tried to open up webpages on my chrome, several (like the old bug), but instead crashed right after trying to open the first adobe help page. Now, in all honesty this doesn't reproduce EVERY time. Only in some cases, which why i think that its quite a hard bug to catch. However, i do have the latest 14.2 version installed and  for one 2-3 weeks (i think, don't know for sure) I had no crash, but I'm not sure wether or not the last crash happened before or after the 14.2 patch. I will however do my best to keep an eye out for this and come back here if it does.

Appreciate the intervention !

[Sorin_Jurcut]

Well, its close to March. No call. The situation is becoming hilarious to say the least. Btw: any credibility that Adobe had just went out the window from my point of view. And to think I wanted to work there... )) I hope you realise that I will be making this public. I'm sorry but I just can't let it slide. Support is just one epic fail after another.

[JJMack]

When was the last time you contacted Adobe.  If you want Adobe to fix an issue you need to keep actively contacting them even then Adobe may not fix your issues Adobe does not commit to fix all bugs or that Photoshop will work exactly like documented. Adobe also has the right to change documentation and licence. Your Warranty period may also have ended by now.

6. Limited Warranty.

Except as otherwise stated in a separate agreement between Adobe and a Software licensee,

Adobe warrants to the individual or entity that first purchases a license for the Software for use pursuant to the terms of this agreement that the Software will perform substantially in accordance with the corresponding user manual for the Software for the shorter period of (a) the ninety (90) day period or (b) License Term following receipt of the Software (“Warranty Period”) when used on the Compatible Computer. Non-substantial variation of performance from the user manual does not establish a warranty right.

http://www.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/legal/licenses-terms/pdf/CC_EULA_Gen_WWCombined-MULTI-2012...

http://wwwimages.adobe.com/www.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/legal/licenses-terms/pdf/CS6.pdf

[Sorin_Jurcut]

The last time was when they contacted me. You can just scroll up to see when.

Also, warranty is not yet void.

Its not necessarily the fact that the software has bugs, that's something that I'm well aware. I am comparing it with older version which were more stable when they got released. Now it seems all they do is rush the release. Plus, a licence bug is a serious issue ! Expecially if you're planning and counting, as a company (Adobe) that users will adopt the new Extension Builder Eclipse addon and develop HTML extensions in favor of AS3 powered ones. This a major block in that direction. Its not like having the occasional crash that I can live with, even if it drives me nuts. This prevents me from using the application properly in relationship to the advertised licence conditions. IE: having the same licence active on 2 pcs (each pc active at a different time).

Not sure how you would feel, but personally, it pisses me off terribly because I have to find workarounds just to be able to test my extension in photoshop (not even mentioning that debugging is not an option in this case).

[JJMack]

I feel most professionals think Adobe management policies don't prefect good professional behavior there are for profit. Professionals also know that Adobe management can get away with their practices because Photoshop is the best application around even with its growing number of bugs.  Like it or not. This is not likely to change Professional are trapped as corporation have invested much in training and developing Adobe work-flows and have many assists tied to Adobe product.  To compete in the workplace professional need to learn Adobe product. Adobe's has a rope

[Sorin_Jurcut]

That is very true. And its not only true for Adobe, but for other companies as well unfortunately. This however will drive a decline in new product sales as people will go back to using older more stable versions of the apps they need. Even if it means cutting back on some of the new features. Its something I see all around me with CC and CS6. A lot of peeps stick to CS6 because its a bit stabler and doesn't feel as rushed. Honestly I don't get this 1year product lifecycle. For industry apps and OSes this is way too short and you cannot use Agile techniques in developing such monster products, because as usual, quality has to suffer. You can see it with CC and Windows 8 (8.1). Its just sad.

[Trevor.Dennis]

Sorin Jurcut wrote:

You can see it with CC and Windows 8 (8.1). Its just sad.

Please note that Adobe are only one half of the above equation.  I believe that Mac users ran into a good few issues when updating to Mavericks.  My own laptop went into slow mode when updating Windows 8 to 8.1, and it turned out that MS arbitrarily changed my nVidia sourced video card driver, for a generic MS version.  What the heck?!  I had to go back to nVidia and reinstall the proper driver to get it working properly again.

[EDIT]  The biggest downside to the CC subscription model from my point of view, is that it messed up this forum.  The number of interesting how to do stuff with Photoshop threads became drowned under the weight of often daft, and usually boring questions about how to make updates etc. work.  At least 90% of those questions would have been clearly answered if the OP had bothered to look for an FAQ, and another 9% easily sorted via a quick Google search.

[Herbert2001]

Trevor Dennis wrote:

[EDIT]  The biggest downside to the CC subscription model from my point of view, is that it messed up this forum.  The number of interesting how to do stuff with Photoshop threads became drowned under the weight of often daft, and usually boring questions about how to make updates etc. work.  At least 90% of those questions would have been clearly answered if the OP had bothered to look for an FAQ, and another 9% easily sorted via a quick Google search.

I was having the exact same thought a couple of days ago: it seems 80% of the threads are silly support questions mostly having to do with updates, license questions, subscription issues, and so on, and so forth.

Very tiresome indeed. There is so much confusion among (especially new) users here. A large part of these can be explained by Adobe's horrid support. I noticed a rather big number of users begging for assistance with subscription problems through these forums, since they could not get hold of Adobe support, and/or just did not receive the support they hoped for. 

[Sorin_Jurcut]

In faaact Adobe itself is pushing support problems to A) Chat support/Phone support and B) Forum support. I guess people come here as a last resort in hopes that someone will hear their pleas. As I've said before, I've not posted on the Adobe Forums for the best part of the last 7 years or so. Whatever info i needed I could find on my own.... 😕 This tells you how much the quality of the software has declined over the years.

@Trevor: I believe you are right. However, since I'm on a windows machine (mostly due to the outlandishly high price of a mac here in Romania, that is because of stupid customs taxes and the fact that everything sold in europe is ALWAYS more expensive for some reason.) I wouldn't know about them. But I do belive you. I've seen some of these issues myself while looking for information on signature errors. This pointed me to problems on Maverick with CS6 and CC.

Related to the FAQ: it depends how it's presented ! If you just throw it out there to be rid of it and don't care about the structure, nobody will even bother to read it. I've been constantly working for software companies as a UX/UI designer and the way you present information is absolutely crucial to a user. Most people never bothered to read the faq because it was not easy to browse, it didn't have a clear enough structure and it never answered their question.

Related to your nvidia problem: I'm hearing this for the first time. I, personally, never had problems with mine. I'm not really entirely sure its even possible unless it gives you recommended updates the same way it does os updates. That's when that sort of thing usually happens.

[JJMack]

Sorin Jurcut wrote:

In faaact Adobe itself is pushing support problems to  Forum support. I guess people come here as a last resort in hopes that someone will hear their pleas.

I come here first I don't want to have to deal with Adobe's support...

[Noel Carboni]

There's nothing bad about using the "Give me recommended updates the same way I receive important updates" setting IF you down-configure Windows Update to always check with you before installing, then actually read every update it proposes to install.  Hide the ones, such as those for display drivers, that you don't want.  It may seem tedious, but it's worth taking the time.

Sorin, while I don't make a habit of complaining here, I have to agree that support should not be sending people to the forum as a habit.  We try to be helpful here, but it really should be that we help with "how do I mask this" or "how do I paint that", not give advice on correcting activation problems or fixing corrupted preferences or advising on downloading drivers.  It should be Adobe support that's the savior of people from technical problems.

Just the other day someone asked about removing remnants of a screen pattern in an image and I almost fell off my chair.  I'll be candid: I've been getting more and more frustrated about the incessant "Creative Cloud lost my activation status" and "This or that is broken after the update" messages here.  It's putting me off from participating.  Bill Hunt put it very well above...  "Now all we need is..."

Sigh.

-Noel

[Sorin_Jurcut]

Oh, trust me, I know Noel. I am doing that exact same thing myself. I've NEVER EVER EVER like stuff being done without me giving my approval stamp beforehand, because I am a controlfreak. I'm not implying its good, just stating a fact. However, most people breeze through the windows update part because they find it hard to configure or just don't really want to think about it. In fact this was by design like this by Ms. They wanted people not to pay attention to what it is that update installs on their systems in order for them (ms) to be able to slip through all sorts of nasty additional software that sends more or less anonymous data back to ms servers.

Related to support: I've noticed that people don't talk among themselves. This is something unconceivable in my opinion. If you're not talking to the people in the same department as you, how are you doing your job by not coordinating yourself ? The left always has to know what the right is up to because the 2 are supposedly interchangeable inside a department. But that's wishful thinking.

[the_wine_snob]

Trevor,

I think that we are in the midst of "the perfect storm."

We have Adobe CC, then Apple's Retina Display + Mavericks, and MS Windows 8.0/8.1. All of these are hitting at about the same time.

When one then adds in the posts from folk trying to download with their firewalls, and anti-virus software set to Extremely Hight, a few issues with Adobe servers, the people who delete an Adobe program without Deactivating it, and the like, and it's been a tough couple of months in the Adobe Forums.

The regulars in the Adobe CC Installation/Download Forums must be pulling their hair out about now.

Will be nice when we get back to telling people how to do Masks for hair...

Hunt

PS - now all we need is for nVidia and AMD to release a handful of broken drivers.

Hunt

[Sorin_Jurcut]

I've managed to find out the root of the problem after a lot of careful and repeated usecase testing (I have worked for a development company before as UI designer and continue to do so, and some habits just stuck with me ) ).

The way the licence bug reproduces is as follows:

You got 2 pcs both activated. On either one, you are doing development of App Extensions with this : http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/extensionbuilder3/ and have it installed in Eclipse.

If Photoshop is NOT opened up when you are trying to debug or run your extension in Photoshop, to test it, the plugin/eclipse does that for you. Unfortunately, that's when the licence system kicks in and tells you that you have reached the max amount of activations.

Now you might think this is because of the plugin. You would be wrong. The only thing that the plugin does is invoke a instance of Photoshop. If the licence system would be written properly, it would detect the fact that you're running the same Photoshop as before, so a new activation is not required. I'm curious wether or not an Adobe employee is going to submit it to the bug tracker.

Cheers guys, and as heads up: If you're writing extensions, make sure to have Photoshop running when you're doing the testing, to avoi situations like this.

[Sorin_Jurcut]

2 Weeks right about now since that steve fella promised me to take care abou the problem. Have sent him a private message with requested information. Nothing, not even a f*** you. Meanwhile, I've noticed that my issue has been closed. That's how adobe washes its hands of the subject. Pretty awesome !