So, recently had to re-install Lightroom 4 (for MAC) - a product I have rarely needed to use - perhaps twice in 5 years. The installation worked but immediately it opens a dialog wanting to update to version 4.4 but clicking on the Download button results in a bunch of redirects to "notfound" webpages and ultimately lead me to a "Contact Support" link for the MAC version and alongside that a download link leading to the EXE for Windows.
I contacted the online chat people to enquire about downloading the updates for Lightroom 4. After waiting in a queue of around 112 people with wildly inaccurate time estimates suggesting I would be attended to in 8, to 5 to 3 to 1 then back to 3 and then 2 minutes - in total in excess of 45 minutes passes before Support Agent #1 responds with:
23:27:45 Support Agent #1: Hello! Welcome to Adobe support.
23:29:11 Customer: Hi
23:29:36 Customer: I'd been waiting for quite some time and had looked away for a minute or two. sorry
23:30:02 Customer: Did you understand my initial message or do i need to explain further ?
23:31:17 Support Agent #1: Yes, I have read your message.
23:33:59 Customer: hehe and your response/solution for my situation/query ?
[ notice the delay ]
23:35:01 Support Agent #1: Well you are in reliable hands, Adobe will make sure that we accomplish what you calling for/about!
23:35:01 Support Agent #1: I am here to help you
23:35:01 Support Agent #1: Please allow me 1-2 minutes to review your account details.
23:35:26 Customer: sure 
23:36:32 Support Agent #1: Thank you for patience.
23:38:07 Support Agent #1: We appreciate your patience and regret the inconvenience due to the high wait time.
23:38:28 Support Agent #1: Let me connect you to our dedicated team as you have perpetual product.
Please wait while we connect you to a representative.
[ woo hoo - passing me on to someone who will help .. yay ]
[ The new queue only has 2 people, and at some point I go from position 2 to position 3 and then position 1 - in total almost another 38 minutes passes
Thanks for your patience. Representatives are currently helping other customers. Your position in line is 2 and your wait time is approximately 14 minutes.
Thanks for your patience. Representatives are currently helping other customers. Your position in line is 2 and your wait time is approximately 14 minutes.
Thanks for your patience. Representatives are currently helping other customers. Your position in line is 2 and your wait time is approximately 13 minutes.
Thanks for your patience. Representatives are currently helping other customers. Your position in line is 2 and your wait time is approximately 13 minutes.
Thanks for your patience. Representatives are currently helping other customers. Your position in line is 2 and your wait time is approximately 8 minutes.
Thanks for your patience. Representatives are currently helping other customers. Your position in line is 2 and your wait time is approximately 8 minutes.
Thanks for your patience. Representatives are currently helping other customers. Your position in line is 2 and your wait time is approximately 8 minutes.
Thanks for your patience. Representatives are currently helping other customers. Your position in line is 2 and your wait time is approximately 7 minutes.
Thanks for your patience. Representatives are currently helping other customers. Your position in line is 3 and your wait time is approximately 0 minutes.
Thanks for your patience. Representatives are currently helping other customers. Your position in line is 1 and your wait time is approximately 0 minutes.
Thanks for your patience. Representatives are currently helping other customers. Your position in line is 1 and your wait time is approximately 0 minutes.
Thanks for your patience. Representatives are currently helping other customers. Your position in line is 1 and your wait time is approximately 0 minutes.
Thanks for your patience. Representatives are currently helping other customers. Your position in line is 1 and your wait time is approximately 0 minutes.
Thanks for your patience. Representatives are currently helping other customers. Your position in line is 1 and your wait time is approximately 0 minutes.
Thanks for your patience. Representatives are currently helping other customers. Your position in line is 1 and your wait time is approximately 0 minutes.
Thanks for your patience. Representatives are currently helping other customers. Your position in line is 1 and your wait time is approximately 0 minutes.
[ Finally Support Agent # 2 responds ]
You are now chatting with Support Agent #2.
Please don’t close the chat window or browser tab since it will end our chat session.
00:13:19 Support Agent #2: Hello! Welcome to Adobe support.
00:13:21 Support Agent #2: We appreciate your patience and apologize for the wait.
00:13:36 Support Agent #2: How are you doing today
00:14:06 Customer: I'm fine.
00:14:20 Customer: I assume the previous agent who put me on this queue 40 minutes ago has already added notes for you.
00:14:36 Customer: so I don't need to explain anything.
00:15:20 Customer: or do I ?
00:15:31 Support Agent #2: Please allow me 1-2 minutes to review your account details.
00:15:57 Customer: sure
00:16:10 Support Agent #2: Thanks
00:20:51 Support Agent #2: We appreciate your patience and apologize for the wait.
00:21:06 Support Agent #2: I am still researching on the issue
00:21:31 Customer: ok, ill just grab some water and be back in 2 mins
00:22:29 Support Agent #2: Sure
00:24:38 Customer: ok
00:27:02 Support Agent #2: As you are facing issue regarding updates, I would like to inform you that we are not supporting updates over live chat, you can refer to the link http://prodesigntools.com/adobe-lightroom-4-is-out.html , if you still face the issue you can refer to forums.adobe.com, we have experts over there who can better assist you regarding the issue
[ The link he gives is for the prodesigntools page announcing that Lightroom 4 is now available for sale!! - it has nothing to do with my issue and so quite what this has to do with my problem is frankly beyond me. Failing that he attempts to redirect me to the forums. At this point I have had enough of being mislead by the web instructions to "Contact Support", then being told by Support Agent #1 that he was going to put me in the queue that was dedicated to perpetual customers like myself (whatever that means) only to then be told to refer to some old sales advertising material for Lightroom 4 and fobbed off with appealing for help on the forums so I start to complain and dig in my heels a bit. ]
00:27:35 Support Agent #2: You can post your query over forums and our experts will revert you
00:27:44 Customer: The website told me to contact support for the mac version, whereas for the windows version it gives a download link
00:27:55 Customer: I've been waiting in 2 queues now for almost 2 hours.
00:28:31 Customer: I have a dialog open on my screen from Lightroom, telling me to download update 4.4 but that update isn't there.
00:28:54 Customer: Telling me to read some old sales material or go to the forums isn't going to cut it.
00:29:44 Support Agent #2: I can understand your concern but as you are facing isssue regardihng updates we ahve experts over forums who can better assist you regarding the issue
00:30:05 Customer: https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/lightroom/kb/lightroom-downloads.html - tells me to contact support.
00:30:46 Customer: I've contacted support .. you .. waited 2 hours and the previous rep told me you are the team to help me ... and now you are telling me I've waited for another 40 minutes for no help
00:31:53 Support Agent #2: I can understand that but as you are facing issue with update you can refer to forums.adobe.com, there are experts who are specialized on the issue
00:32:13 Customer: your website told me to contact support .. i have done that.
00:33:03 Customer: the previous rep said "Well you are in reliable hands, Adobe will make sure that we accomplish what you calling for/about!" and then "Let me connect you to our dedicated team as you have perpetual product." and now you are telling me to go somewhere else.
Your chat transcript will be sent to jason.tanner@gmail.com at the end of your chat.
00:34:22 Support Agent #2: I can understand your concern, our experts over forums are specialized for the issue, they can help you regarding the issue as they are traimned on the issue
00:34:37 Customer: repeating yourself 4 times isnt going to help.
00:35:17 Customer: I'll be filing a transcript of this chat with your complaints procedure along with screenshots of the website instructions.
00:35:41 Support Agent #2: I really apologize but we are unable to proced as we are not trrained for the issue
00:35:49 Customer: Your website instructions are wrong then and the previous agent shouldn't have put me in this queue for you if you cant actually do anything
00:35:58 Customer: then escalate it
00:36:16 Customer: I've wasted 2 hours of my time, for nothing.
00:36:57 Customer: I'm not interested in your apologies, I'm expecting you to escalate it to a supervisor who can redirect it.
00:37:44 Support Agent #2: You can refer to this number t 1-800-614-863, and can get your issue resolveed
[ Support Agent #2 then gives me some number, its not immediately obvious that its a phone number but I eventually recognise it as a US toll free number which is useless to me because I'm in the UK so I make that point and the agent insists its a valid UK number - so I try to call it - even though it would be out of hours being almost 40 minutes after midnight but I thought id get a recording telling me to call back if it was valid and just out of office hours. Instead I get a recording saying the number isn't recognised. Reinforcing my opinion that it is a USA number and invalid for the UK so I make it clear again ... ]
00:38:28 Customer: refer to that number where ?
00:38:38 Customer: how is that number supposed to resolve my issue ?
00:39:19 Customer: that looks like a phone number in the USA, I cant call that I'm in the UK.
00:39:39 Support Agent #2: You can call this number and can talk to our experts if you want
00:39:47 Support Agent #2: They can help you better
00:40:25 Customer: I'm in the UK, I'm not calling the USA. Adobe is a global company.
00:40:57 Support Agent #2: This is the number for UK not for US
00:41:09 Customer: 1 800 is not a valid UK number
00:41:28 Customer: UK numbers begin with 0
00:41:59 Customer: our freephone numbers begin 0800
00:42:16 Support Agent #2: As I can see this a valid number as is only approved for uk, you can contact them between 9 am to 6 pm
00:42:30 Customer: 1 800 is not a valid UK number
00:42:35 Customer: You are mistaken
00:43:17 Customer: i just tried calling it and it is an unrecognised number
00:43:37 Support Agent #2: Let me check it again
[ Agent goes away for almost 7 minutes, and comes back with another number. I then make make it clear I'm disgusted with the support given that I've spent almost £2k with them over the years and how poor the quality of the information given is and compare it with the level of 2 bit company with a tiny support team with poor training. ]
00:50:11 Support Agent #2: Adobe: 0843 504 3736 , you can contact this number
00:50:49 Customer: and ask for who and quote what reference for this conversation and your agent reference ?
00:51:37 Support Agent #2: You can ask them the query that you are facing with your lightrom 4
[ Note how the agent fails to provide any identification details for the conversation or themselves. Obviously I have redacted their chat "stage names" but its standard procedure for "quality" support to provide some type of reference for the issue and themselves when requested by customers. ]
All told pretty poor support from a company that charges premium prices .. and these days .. certainly has no issues with revenue given their usurious subscription models. It was the one and only time I have ever contacted Adobe for support in 8 years as a customer and I won't bother again. I managed to find a download elsewhere with Lightroom 4.4 so alls well but this experience isn't encouraging me to invest further with them.
I’m aware that Lightroom 4 is a sunset product no longer no longer receiving new fixes/updates but .. the old ones should still be available as should the download links for the original product still be available on the relevant support pages.
For the curious:
- This page: http://supportdownloads.adobe.com/product.jsp?product=113&platform=Macintosh only has updates up to 3.6. It is missing all the updates for version 4.
- This page: https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/lightroom/kb/lightroom-downloads.html says to “Contact Support” for the download information for Lightroom 4 (for mac) but the Windows EXE one is there.
- This is the download link for Lightroom 4.4.1 http://download.adobe.com/pub/adobe/lightroom/mac/4.x/Lightroom_4_LS11_mac_4_4_1.dmg it should be on the previous links. It is available if you search the forums but its not the updates its a full install. I was looking to fullfill the update requests of my freshly installed relicensed 4.1 rather than download a full version. I was concerned trying to overwrite it with a full install might cause issues. Lesson learned, ignore Adobe Support pages/agents and search forums instead for knowledgeable customers with solutions.
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