licensing issue

Question

Adobe in their infinite wisdom has decided that my copy of Photoshop CS6 is pirated.  Several years ago when I bought Photoshop CS6 dual license, I called Adobe support and asked them what do when I got a new computer.  I was told that all I had to do was call and Adobe would switch my license to my new computer.  Now I actually have a new computer and Adobe doesn’t do phone support for my product.  My old computer was defective and was replaced by Apple.  I was unaware that I needed to deactivate the product from my old computer before erasing the hard drive.  I can no longer do that.  My copy of Adobe Photoshop CS6 has not been pirated, it was just that I didn’t follow a procedure I didn’t know existed.  This revocation of my serial number is completely unfair.  I had a very unsatisfactory online chat with Adobe technical support just now.  I was told that I'm screwed and that I cannot escalate the issue. I am very disappointed with Adobe.  A Customer Service supervisor is going to call me in a few hours.  Do any of you have any suggestions?

Terri Stevens · Accepted Answer

There are many pirated copies around and not everyone appreciates that buying from unauthorized Adobe dealers like eBay can result in Adobe effectively abandoning them. So the obvious question is where did you buy your copy of Photoshop? Did you register it with the company? What reason did they give for saying your copy was pirated? It sounds if they revoked your serial number that its a serial in use by someone else. Really if it is a pirated version then there's not much you can do other than accept you have been cheated by a fraudster and get a Creative Cloud subscription.

bluebotl · Answer

I'd like to share what I learned.First off, I learned that these forums are a very good source of information. Given the inexperience of some of current Adobe tech support personnel, it's easy to get misinformation. For example, I was told that I didn't have to do anything to move Photoshop CS6 from one computer to another. It might be true for CC, but not CS6.Second. I'm pretty frustrated by how I was treated and the end result. On Tuesday, I spent 5 hours in Adobe Technical Support Chat. I passed one person to another 4 times. I believe that in the days before tech support and sales were off-shored, I would have come to a resolution in 15 minutes, maybe a half hour at most. So, what I've learned is that Adobe doesn't really care about it's customers. At least not as much as it cares about share price.Third. Here's what happened. I finally talked to a Tech Support supervisor who explained to me that what I had was an serial number that is associated with an enterprise license purchased by a university. So I really had bought pirated software. A tip of the hat to Terri Stevens for her analysis and help. Amazingly enough, the vendor, ITDirectDeals, that I bought CS6 from is still in business. They declined to refund my money and instead offered to sell me another serial number, probably also pirated, for $207. At that point I attempted to buy CS6 directly from Adobe, only to be told that they no longer sell a perpetual license for CS6. I was however able to download a 30 day trial of CS6. So I get to use it for 30 days. Then I think I give Pixelmator a try. If it doesn't do what I need, I'll pony up and start leasing Photoshop CC.Thank you to all who responded to my request for help.

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded