Customer Service Complaint

[leanneo654321]

I cannot follow the 'contact us' option, as it loops around to chat/calls and I cannot deal with liaising with anymore 'customer service' employees.

18 years in IT and I have never, ever, dealt with such utterly abominable customer service.

Whether it be chat or on the phone, they are unclear, slow and extremely rude – I’ve had one employee even laugh at me, as they didn’t understanding what I was asking for.

The below information was AFTER multiple calls about payment – TO THEM.

Extremely unhelpful.

I have an InDesign license for my business and I wanted to purchase three Adobe Pro and an additional InDesign – whilst I appreciate other businesses spend more money with them, you would think I was after money from them!

I spoke at length (for what felt like the tenth time) on chat about costing.

The member of staff ‘Andrew’ was completely incompetent and would not answer questions directly.

He said he ‘couldn’t explain it anymore’ over chat (he didn’t explain anything and certainly didn’t answer my question) and asked to call me.

I simply asked for the breakdown (including and excluding VAT) for each app, as I needed this information for different parts of the business. He insisted each time I tried to ask for the information, to talk over me and tell me I didn’t read the transcript.

I did read the transcript but it did not answer my question – I have a copy.

He talked over me and said I should listen to him but he did not understanding what I was asking for.

Lots of dialogue and rudeness later, I asked to speak to his manager.

Adobe employee: I am the manager.

Me: I want to speak to your manager.

Adobe employee: I am the manager.

Me: I want to speak to your manager.

Adobe employee: Why do you want to speak to a manager? What are you going to say.

Me: I am simply asking for information, which you are not giving to me. What is the cost of each product, including and excluding VAT.

The Adobe employee instantly provides the information.

Adobe cannot dispute this, as we record all our calls.

This is completely unacceptable.

In a day and age where businesses can be ousted on social media for poor service, this sort of behaviour is dangerous and will eventually damage a company’s reputation.

[twaritar3263062]

Branching to a new discussion,

Moving to Adobe Creative Cloud​

[chrisw37683349]

I'm sure it isn't much of a comfort to realise you're far from alone with this experience. It appears the only way one can complain to Adobe about bad service is to the people who provide the bad service.

The ACPs are even ruder and more unhelpful. After they've insulted Adobe customers, the incompetent staff who they consistently defend [I suppose it's not biting the hand] then mark their replies as 'helpful' - a malign cycle if ever there was one. You couldn't make it up.

Let's make a pact: if either of us finds a route to complain about the entirely broken support Adobe provides - to anyone that matters - without going via the route of writing a letter [which may just find a bin at the end of the day], we'll let the other know. Deal?

[davidg2020]

To chrisw37683349... if you ever do find a way to complain about the "entirely broken suport Adobe provides" please let me know too as I have been just as frustrated as you obviously are and for many, many years.

Adobe certainly seems to take advantage of the stranglehold they have on the marketplace... a year or two back I dabbled with Affinity products in an attempt to break free from the Adobe tyranny but, perhaps foolishly, decided that Adobe were too much a a part of the design/publishing/creative production industry.

I'll be looking back at Affinty products, hoping that they never turn into the monster that Adobe is. 

[Abambo · Accepted solution]

I chose "Account issues":

If wrong, you can change further...and you come back to the screen before.

If right: choose one of point 2.!

I chose "Adobe ID and signing in"

There are self help solutions offered. But as you tried one or the other and are tired of looping around choose "Show me my contact options"...

here you are:

Choose either chat or phone, depending on the problem/topic there may only be chat or there may be the third option: the fora.

Account issues (my choice in this example) are best solved by Adobe staff, the forums can help little here.

With other problems (ie software problems on unsupported or no more supported products) you only have the forum choice.

Chat works great, but if you like, you can also phone, if that support option is offered.

BTW: for the cost with or without VAT, I look at the web site. the information is there.

Now if after all, you still want being contacted by Adobe, let me know and I will check if I find someone taking care of your problem. It is always possible to get a less trained or unfriendly Adobe support in chat or on the phone, but that is not my experience. Contacting them (through my user account and not my ACP account), I got always a friendly person on the (chat) line, the waiting time was minimal and my problems got solved. Account problems are the only problems I need to solve through Adobe chat or on the phone.

For any product related problem best practice is to use the fora, not because the Adobe employees are giving bad advice or are unfriendly, but because on the fora there are real users and real staff members giving specific advice on specific products. The chance to get an answer from the specialist is much higher. With chat and the phone, you have only a limited "stock" of persons available.

The ACPs are even ruder and more unhelpful. After they've insulted Adobe customers, the incompetent staff who they consistently defend [I suppose it's not biting the hand] then mark their replies as 'helpful' - a malign cycle if ever there was one. You couldn't make it up.

Instructions for ACPs are to be and stay friendly, I can't see now an ACP being rude. Some ACPs are sometimes extremely critical with Adobe and that is accepted by Adobe. ACPs are chosen for their knowledge in one or the other field and not for their praise of Adobe. 

If they mark a replay helpful, they think it is helpful.

[Plum26501034grwn]

I've had a similiar experience. The customer service rep Ishaan ran in circles for 2 hours while a friend and I guessed what he would repeat again with his next comment It appeared that he had no focus so we are guessing that he was attempting to work with multiple customers. He asked me to repeat myself multiple times on evey question he asked.. He didn't seem to know anything about Adobe or the products. and certainly nothing about effective communication. Does anyone review these chats? He asked questions that are already answered on the website and tried to tell me there was a typo in the email so that's why I wasn't getting the verification code but ignored when I told him that I did receive one and then when I entered it the system asked me to change my password and then said it would send me another verification code, but it never did. He couldn't find my account at first.  He asked me twice for information that was inappropriate to request. He asked me to create a screen capture but he didn't know how I was supposed to get it to him. Plus on the website it tells you that if you enter your email wrong you will receive a message telling you about this problem. There were long pauses between responses and at the end of the day I was still billed for the wrong product and lost access to the product I had been using. I was afraid to ask him to do anything like refund the charge or set me up in a new account because I feel safer doing that myself rather than entrusting it to someone who did not seem to listen or care about what I needed fixed although he asked me 4 or 5 timess. I also can't find how to create a new customer account here. While you ask us to be respectful of your people, we certainly were not treated with respect by your customer service rep who wasted so much of our time with no solution for restoring my account but simply telling me to start over. If that was the only option, that explanation should not have taken more than 5 minutes... I was working on a trial usage of Creative Cloud for our company but at this point I can't recommend it.

[kglad]

@Plum26501034grwn 

i don't blame you for being aggravated. just getting started with a human being requires  insider info (type "agent" in the chat bot) that i've not seen in writing outside these user-to-user forums.

then to have the experience you had.   for every one else, once you suspect an incompetent agent, thank thrm for trying to help, but you want to escalate this matter to a supervisor.

that's no help, i know, for @Plum26501034grwn who wasted i don't know how much time.

but, if you decide to try again with adobe help, you would normally note the case number of your previous chat and start the next agent with that info so they could pickup were the previous person left off.  

but in your situation it might be better to start fresh.  and maybe get some background help here before venturing into another chat.

a few of the problems you cited have happened to me (with non-adobe help), and i was very unhappy. i've never had all those problems so i don't even know if i'd be cool-headed enough to follow my own recommendation.

is there any info that (that another user like me) could supply that would help now?

[Plum26501034grwn]

Thank you for the advice. I've never encountered someone who was so inept at what they are doing as that chat service rep. I thought I would try calling on Monday but the comments about that are not encouraging either. I guess Adobe doesn't care but they took my money and gave me nothing. 

[kglad]

maybe it's like watching videos of police encounters with black drivers. you see a few reports and think they're all bad outcomes, ir alot of them are.  but there are probably thousands that aren't newsworthy because everything was done reasonably.

the complaints here (and elsewhere in these forums) might make it seem like you have little to no chance of getting decent help.  but, i think (and i know i see reports of successful encounters), and i suspect, there are alot more successful encounters than unsuccessful ones..  

(and i've never  read anyone else give a report  as convincing with as bad an encounter as you had.)  

p.s. is it easy and short to explain what you're trying to accomplish?  i may not be able to help and don't want to waste more of your time, but i might have something helpful.

[Plum26501034grwn]

All I know is that I have yet to hear anything positive about Apple Support and I have been hearing complaints from their customers for years. Not just this forum. I tend to think that less technical customers may have a harder time but now I understand the problem better from my own first hand experience.

It’s like reviews on Amazon - you don’t need to have 100% unhappy to know it’s bad. If you are at 10% on the lowest rating, I won’t buy the product, in spite of the fact that 1000 bots are happy with it.

You don’t have better data or a more reasonable view. You are simply more tolerant of not just bad customer support but the worst I have ever experienced in 40 years of technology product experience. No one should accept that even 1 customer has had this bad of an experience.

Sent from my iPhone

[kglad]

1. i think you mean adobe support, not apple support.

2. unlike amazon, no one's being asked to review anything here.  these forums are for people that need help.  

[Plum26501034grwn]

Yes, and

Why isn't anyone being asked to review the service? Most service groups do
seek feedback when their company cares about their customers. That's the
crux of the issue. Thanks for highlighting that!

[kglad]

you're welcome.