Unresolved customer service complaint

[faceless2]

I am repeatedly being given warnings from the "Adobe Genuine Software Integrity Service" about unlicensed software on my computer, and after four weeks, over an hour on the phone to Adobe Licensing Support and two case numbers, I am still unable to resolve this issue. After requesting a contact address to make a formal complaint about this process to Adobe I was given the following reply:

Please share your feedback on below links. https://www.adobe.com/products/wishform.html

Below is reference link:- https://forums.adobe.com/message/9957610#9957610

Re: Customer Service ComplaintThanks & Rergards, Adobe Support

Which I find astonishing. As apparently my means of creating a formal written complaint is a public forum post, here I am.

I have fully licensed versions of Acrobat Professional 9, 10, 11 and DC installed on my computer. All of these were purchased from adobe.com. I have the original sales emails from Adobe for all of these, which have been submitted and acknowledged as received by Adobe Customer Services as part of my original case (ADB-6938191-S3S9). This first case was closed without my consent while the issue was unresolved - I was told to open a new case (ADB-7118690-K2W8) and the proposed solution was to download and reinstall Acrobat 10 and 11, which I did. This appeared to fix the problem and the second case was closed on 16 May 2019, but I rebooted my computer yesterday and the warnings have returned.

The continued popups are interfering with my work, and the threat to disable licensed software on my computer in two weeks time will almost certainly break the law here in the UK - specifically the Computer Misuse Act 1990. As Adobe refuse to give me any form of customer service email address, and instead have directed me to this forums, my intention is that this post will serve as a written record if Adobe disable my software and I am required to take them to court.

For the record, my calls to Adobe Genuine Customer Support were:

30 Apr 2019 - duration unknown, at least 15 minutes.

9 May 2019 - 3 minutes

13 May 2009 - 48 minutes

and actions requested of me by Adobe were to:

1. Send copies of the license emails I received from Adobe, which I did on 30 April.

2. Download and install new copies of Acrobat 10 and 11, which I did on 13 May.

If this issue remains unresolved and Adobe impair my ability to run licensed software on my computer, I want to make it clear that a) this action is unauthorised, and b) that given my communications with Adobe both here and as documented above, I would argue this action is reckless as far as the Computer Misuse Act 1990 is concerned.

I request someone from Adobe Licensing look into this as soon as possible and reply, in writing, to the email address from either of the case numbers above or publicly in this forum. The ID from the "adobe genuine page" I am being directed to is "88ZA3VI38H".

[David__B]

Hi there,

Sorry to hear about what happened. I'm not aware of any kind of online form or anything like that for submitting complaints. I know in some instances if you feel that your case or situation is being mishandled asking to speak to a manager is an appropriate next course of action. Based on your description this doesn't sound like something which would be resolved here in the forums. I'll make arrangements for someone to follow up with you over the phone and see if we can get this resolved for you. Sorry again

- Dave

[faceless2 · Accepted solution]

Hi David

Thanks for your reply. Actually I got an email from a J Garcia a couple of days later who helped me diagnose the problem - an old, incompletely uninstalled installation of CS5 rather than Acrobat, as I'd been told over the phone. Deleting CS5 turned out to be very difficult, particularly when you've deleted the uninstaller (preferences, support libraries, everything on your computer with CS5 in the name...) as part of the process.

However, the program downloaded from Adobe - Adobe CS5 Clean Tool  ​did finally uninstall CS5 to the satisfaction of your software checks, and the warnings are now gone. Perhaps, this time, for good.

I strongly suggest that these "genuine software" checked include both the details of WHICH software is allegedly invalid, and an option to UNINSTALL the offending software at that point. I spent several hours on this, and your phone team spent over an hour with me, failing to resolve an issue that I could have fixed in less than a minute with those options.

And Adobe need to offer a support email address. You're one of the largest software companies in the world. Email is still kind of a big deal when it comes to support, particularly for licensing issues where a public forum post may not be appropriate.

[Sophie21]

Hi David,

I have had a customer service issue open for over 7 weeks now. I am constantly being completely ignored, the only thing I am getting in response, over and over and over again is a request for money but zero acknowledgement of the issues I am trying to have resolved. Adobe have taken money from my account twice without permission but done nothing to help me. I have requested to speak to a superior within customer service and that has been ignored too. I have a business to run, no one has over 7 weeks to waste dealing with customer service for anything. Can you kindly escalate my case to a manager who will resolve my issues once and for all as currently, this is the most outrageous customer service dealings I've ever had and there's still no end in sight. It makes me sick that I know I'm still going to be handing over money after such disgraceful 'service'.

[ProDesignTools]

Hi Sophie, what is the issue exactly? Can you share more details?

(David may no longer be on this thread because the Forums system changed recently.)

[ja_mon]

Hi Sophie - if this is still happening (I assume it is), I created a forum in The Lounge where people can post their issues. My hope is that we can all connect and do our best to make Adobe listen to us paying users.

There are many known issues with multiple items (desktop app, other apps, customer service and support) and yet Adobe refuses to listen. It's not just you and a few others - it's far bigger than they want to admit,

Let me know if you want the link to the forum and I'll reply with it.

[Sophie21]

I would love that link, thank you! It's crazy what they're getting away
with.

[ProDesignTools]

Hi Sophie, what is the issue exactly? Can you share more details?