Why is Adobe Customer Service so awful?

Question

Does anyone know why Adobe customer service is so objectively bad? I bought a hard drive that came with 2 months of CC Photography plan free. There was no mention anywhere on the box or promotional slip about which photography plan so obviously I assumed it didn't matter which. I redeemed the code and instead of applying it to my existing plan, it added an additional plan to my account. First impression of trying to contact customer service is it's hard to navigate the labyrinth to find contact options. Second, what's with companies making their Indian call center reps assume English names? Like no, I don't believe your name is Stan when your Indian accent is thicker than molasses and you barely understand a word I say.

So I spent an hour trying to argue with people in India who barely speak English, are just reading off a script and clearly aren't given the tools to make anything right. The answer I got was that the code was valid for the 20GB plan only, when there was absolutely nothing anywhere to indicate that. Not in the fine print, not on the promotional slip, not on the box, not on the "Offer Terms" page. Nobody could give me a number to a US call center or any way to contact a customer service rep in the US. Facebook messages and comments go unanswered. What do you have to do to speak to an American service rep? Show up to Adobe headquarters?

DelphiZoa · Accepted Answer

Hi Jonathand.photography,I know the situation is not funny, but your post made me laugh because of the image of a frustrated customer ringing the doorbell at Adobe headquarters.I do not know why Adobe customer service seems to break down for some people. I have actually had pretty good success working with chat technicians (I have never tried calling). From time to time I have gotten someone who doesn't seem to know how to address anything off script, but, in that situation, I have politely signed off and then contacted chat again to try with a different technician. I assume it's like any other workplace. There are knowledgeable employees and not so knowledgeable ones.As for getting a native English speaker, I believe there are a number of U.S.-based staff working the Adobe Customer Care (@AdobeCare) | Twitter​. They also seem to be pretty quick about responding. Therefore, if you are still hoping for some more in-depth answers and you have a Twitter account, it might be worth posting your concerns there.

peteburkeet · Answer

I empathize completely. I literally spent days on hold with various customer service reps and tech people trying to get multiple issues solved. I lost hundreds of dollars through my job and all because Adobe could not solve the problem each time I contacted them. One time I literally spent 4 hours on hold and trying over and over and then sitting with a tech guy and he couldn't do it. I had to leave so I had to stop letting him try various nonsense troubleshoots. I then finally spent another 3 hours with a tech person who promised the issue would be resolved if I waited 3 hours and tried again like poof they would solve it. They actually did that time. On their end of course. Here is the thing, with a company as huge as Adobe and a system like their subscription service they NEED to be infinitely better at this. I was so fed up that I demanded to be compensated with an extension or something and got nothing. They were completely worthless there. I explained to them that Apple, a company that I often must come to for fixes will never ever let you waste literally days of your life trying to fix issues that arise on their end and will instead replace phones etc. and fix the issue apart from wasting the customer's time. Adobe customer service did not care about this obvious idea that they could easily employ. Here is the thing, I KNOW for a fact that they can easily set up subscriptions from their end without any trouble because I have had it happen before but they refuse to do it. It is like they just don't care at all and are cutting corners by letting customers do the work for them. This is a TERRIBLE business practice. They are lucky that some of us do not have a choice and need their software for work because I for one would jump ship in a heartbeat if given the option. Total joke.

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