Inflexible CC plans, especially for students (and support issues)

[inVitro]

Alright,

first of all a comment on the support options for individuals:

• The contact link under the support tab is practically useless for general questions and feedback (On the german site it says "For questions, suggestions and feedback". Hah. Very funny.)
• Only offering chat and phone as a contact, both of them not available at night, phone not even saturdays is blatantly disrespectful towards customers. I mean, I get that companies and teams generate most of the revenue, but come on, what's wrong with email support so I can at least write about an issue when it comes up, not 3 days later?
• When facing a problem that does not exactly fit the predefined categories on the support page you're done. You cant' click on forums, chat or phone without selecting an option. It might seem trivial to click on the community forums link in the footer or just google them, but for people who are not native to the internet it really isn't. Support pages should make it easier for people to find help, not harder.

Don't get me wrong, from an economic perspective I completely understand why Adobe is bahaving like this. And judging by my daily spam mail count I can image the amount piling up in Adobes inboxes, so removing the option to send them things makes perfect sense. But a company the size of Adobe must be able to deal with that without sacrificing the most basic sonsumer support.

But I actually wanted something from the support, so here it is:

For 8 months now I have subscribed to the photography plan. I would now like to book another app. A single one. Which inexpicably costs THREE times as much as the other two apps I had before (and includes 100GB of cloud storage which I don't want). Or I take the yearly subscription, but that costs almost as much as the student version when CS6 still existed.

Then I thought, well, if they don't want me to subscribe to a single app, then why not take the whole suite for 20 bucks a month? So I went into my settings and tried to upgrade my subscription to the complete CC suite. After awkwardly clicking through my options, the price tag was $250. Because I could only get a prepaid yearly subscription.

So no big deal, I thought, I'll just cancel my current plan and then get the student CC subscription. Which I also cannot do because the photography plan is a one year plan as well.

So the bottom line is, at least for students, unless you really use all the products included, the CC subscription offers no additional value over the traditional single purchase approach. Yes, you do get the occasional update, but when the time comes that your software would be actually outdated, you have pretty much paid the full retail price. For me, the leading argument for a subscription based product line was always it's flexibility. But the inability to upgrade student plans and the "buy everything or nothing" pricing has completely pulled the rug out from under my belief in creative cloud.

I'm gonna cut this short before I start ranting on about the general problem of students and schools effectively paying for strengthening Adobes marketshare by imprinting their toolset onto them.

Cheers,

Aram Becker

[Abambo]

Hi Aram,

I cand understand some of your troubles. First, as you are fluent in English use the English support which is 24/24 and 7/7. You just need to switch your region to an English speaking region.

As of your problem with the plans: Adobe has taken the approach they have taken and they are hell successful with that. Do not expect that to change. The Photography plan is a special plan because it fits the needs of pro and hobby photographers and has a special price probably because there is some competition out on that field and Adobe did not want to loose the Lr customers.

An all apps student plan is also special priced, You should not need a different one.

As for the options of cloud space, you may not need that one, but a lot of people use that feature. I use it quite extensively. So I’m happy with it.

Please Contact Customer Care for changing your subscription.

[inVitro]

Thanks for the tip with the english support. That worked and they have sorted it out. I'll admit, at least in this case, once you get hold of the support it's quite good. Although I can imagine cases where having to stay in the chat or on the line can be quite annoying.

But again, even if you speak english, it's not trivial to get the idea to change your region in the footer to some other language which might have different plans and pricings. The support page in it's current state makes it very hard and confusing even for people who comfortably get around the internet.

Regarding the subscriptions for students I still don't understand why I had to contact the support just to change plans. Both students and teachers will very rarely use multiple products so the all apps plan is nice, but often not necessary. Three years ago for example I tried to get Premiere and Photoshop for my schoool. CS6 had just about run out back then so I was only offered the creative cloud options. Again, the "buy all or nothing" pricing left only the option to subscribe to all apps. Because we had planned multiple workgroups and the possibility to extend it into the regular classes, the only option was a per device license for only one computer room. The super special pricing for schools boiled down to over $5000. PER YEAR!

If you have ever tried to convonce your public school to buy anything you can imagine how hard it is to get them to pay multiple thousand dollars. And then try to explain to them why they have to do that every year. (By the way, the license per student would have been $20.000 PER YEAR)

I think Adobe is really missing out on some long term benefits from introducing students early to their products. Personally I don't know of ANY public university or school that offer the creative suite to their students, especially as the non-subscription CS6 is no longer around. As the money for schools comes from the community council in germany, it's ususally possible to talk them into making a one-time investment. But a service you have to continually pay for ist pretty much impossible to get funding for.

Students having experience in the Adobe products before joining the economy is not only a huge plus for companies. It would also strengthen the marketshare of Adobe as students are already familiar with their products and might choose them above other ones when it comes to it.

[Abambo]

No, it’s not trivial to have the idea to change your region to change your language. Language and region should be separated.

You are wrong in that case that teachers and students will use only one product. I know of students and teachers using at least 3 of the products, most use more.

Yes, cash for schools is a problem, especially if schools are missing the essentials. Adobe may be able to help there, but it’s probably not the task of Adobe to overcome the deficits of the public schooling system.

[inVitro]

I'm sorry, but I don't quite agree there. Yes, it's not their responsibility to fix the school system, but it is their task to deal with what we have. I fail to understand why Adobe is so resilient to offer reasonable pricing and choice to students and teaching institutions. Sure, the $20 package for all apps is an incredible deal, but it's only valid for one year and unnecessary for many people when only a few apps are needed. By making it impossible for schools to buy their products Adobe is not only taking away invaluable learning opportunities from students. It also massively misses out on the chance to imprint their software as the industry standard onto the next generation of designers, developers and managers.

A lot companies have already realized that, for example Autodesk, Maxon and Microsoft all offer students and teachers many of their products for free. As Autodesk quite appropriately puts it: "Today’s challenges will be solved by tomorrow’s designers". And tomorrows designers are the students of today so they should get a chance to face those challenges equipped with the right toolset.

Regarding the support I still can't get over the fact that Adobe only offers 24 hour support in english. By transitioning their line-up from single purchase products to a subscription service they now offer just that: A service. And a service that I potentially can't use 75% of the time just because I may not speak english can hardly be called a service. Also, a support page that young, older or mentally disabled people will not be able to use speaks not very well for a company that produces design and development software.

I love Adobes products, but I don't love the surrounding support and the way they provide their services. This is not to talk down Adobe, I want to offer this as a genuine feedback after years of struggle with educational licensing and support, not only from Adobe. Many companies have already learned their lesson and tackled this challenge, I'm sure Adobe can do so as well.

[inVitro]

But I guess Adobe doesn't care about their customer's experiences. They seem to have created this forum not to give support but rather to exploit their userbase as free labor force. Worse, Adobe even gets money from their subscribers who fill the gap in support staff.

This is the only place to give feedback and get support in the 128 hours a week when Adobe chooses to ignore their international customers. I'd expect them to at least glance over the entries once in a while and give an indication whether they got the message.

[Test Screen Name]

Adobe policy makers never respond in these forums. This is not a way to reach them, just a way for users to agree (or disagree) with each other. You may want to use the Wish form: Feature Request/Bug Report Form

[garethjohnson]

Sent another feature request for Flexible Plans.

This most recent price hike is for apps they have added that I just wont use, but will HAVE to pay for just to keep the 4-5 apps that I do use.

I think for individuals / hobbyists who don't have deep pockets and only need specific apps they should be more flexible. I think it would increase their user base and revenue tbh.

[Abambo]

This is a public forum. Any answer here of Adobe staff concerning their commercial policy could be understood as a commitment. Adobe staff may answer when your software does not work but not regarding commercial policy.

[inVitro]

But this is neither a feature request nor a bug report. This is a comment on their Creative Cloud Suite. So I chose the Creative cloud forum. At this point I'm just annoyed by the complete lack of consumer care from Adobe's side. I'd be happy with a "feedback taken, will forward that to the corresponding channels". No commitment, just an acknowledgement that they received my feedback.

Solving this can't be done right away, I know that is is a process. Right now they're in the comfortable position of being the only reasonable option in many of their product ranges. But that might change in the future, and unless they seriously step up their game they will not keep their status as the industry standard.

It's a shame that there's such a gap between the quality of their products and the quality of their support. I was about to wholeheartedly recommend CC to a friend who is working self-employed. But now, knowing that he would be left weekends without support, I honestly can't recommend it to anyone for whom the working of their software is time critical.

Over and out.

[Test Screen Name]

It may be neither a feature request nor a bug report, but if you want a chance of change it's no use just posting in this forum. I suggest you find a way to call the pricing changes you call for as a "feature request" - features aren't just things in software. I agree, it would be good to have a visible complaints process. Big companies often lose track of this.