Why is Adobe so bad at customer service.

[chaithecat]

Over the last 9 years as a private individual, I have spent over $8000 on adobe products. Every time anything goes wrong, the only reply I get is it will cost you. I have to put up with the ridicules exchange rate, and excuses that downloading the same product worldwide is dramatically different. Its not that I get anything but US English. What is that by the way, I live in England, we speak English.. So today like any other I am trying to get a simple thing like Acrobat to read a file without constant warnings, I mean I have bought the product more than 5 times but this does not matter. So I try to get through to customer support. An oxymoron in this case). Have been on a phone line now for 27min no luck, just the same incredibly poor music drifting in and out so you think you may have lost contact. When your customers pay so much for the privilege of using your product, stop crapping on their heads....

[Darragh1998]

I havent the answer, just that I concur with your view. A bunch of tools is what they are.

[wasdwasdwasdwasdwasd]

completely agree wih you

[Kathleen_O_Reilly]

Just a wild guess: they don't want to spend the money on good service.

[lp777]

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT BUY any kind of Adobe membership. I bought a one-year membership for my daughter last Christmas. When I tried to cancel it (this Christmas), they informed me that I would be charged $100+ because they had automatically renewed my membership. I did not receive any renewal information/notification. This is criminal. There is NO customer service. They should be ashamed.

[Ameteur Ps Artist]

My friend.. Simply put, this is the direct result of out sourcing. Plain and simple.

[ITNAconsultants]

For me I run two small business [website addresses removed by moderator] the support is very good and i am satisfied with adobe

[Ussnorway]

because they think in terms of we spend $X on this issue

not we fixed this issue

[hokuwho_]

I had a billing issue that was not resolved as customer service (csr) assured that it would. The next CSR advanced the resolution after I explained my disappointment ( and mentioned my many trips to the Philippines). I do agree with outsourcing being a penny-wise, pound-foolish policy for one of the wealthiest creative software giants ever, as a loyal customer base made Adobe and will be open to alternatives as frustrations evolve to actual disappointment, even rage. I too spent thousands since Photoshop 4 and was sucker-punched when my CS3 would no longer work from an Adobe registry sabotage.

  I recently became aware of the fact that my email address was different years ago which precludes -to some degree -association of my old AOL address to my current Gmail for my Adobe ID. If I can get that consolidated, I, loyal in nature, will post to the Planet 

[zeremkarty]

I'm only into my second month of a PS/LR subscription. I've had to use the chat help for a few issues. I'll say this: they are not bad people, but they are mostly incompetent. I'm normally patient and understand that certain issues might be known bugs waiting for an update. Other issues are things that can be fixed on the spot. The whole workflow and follow-up is very inefficient and you might find yourself spinning your wheels in frustration. In my case, a week went by, they did not solve the problem, and sent an email saying the case was closed, try this or that, and good luck. Oh, and you can't reply to that email. You have to get back on chat, go through a useless customer service rep, and only when you scream at him, they will hand it over to tech support where they ask numerous time-wasting questions like "what version of Photoshop are you using" in order to buy time and make it seem like they're helping but are not. Miraculously, my login problem to the forums was fixed after venting my frustration. Seriously, they make you want to go back to using a bootleg version of Photoshop 3. Just incompetent and not what you're supposed to get for a paid service.

[Cactus Cowboy]

So what ya gonna do huh? Where you gonna go, where ya gonna turn to. What ya gonna fall back on. Nobody helping you and you've spent all this money now what? I mean there's always Gimp it's free can't beat that for the price or maybe Corel Corporation but I'll bet they're swapped with grippers of their own. But you knew all this already long before posting these rants didn't you. And you'll continue to buy Adobe products no matter what won't you; sure you will and a year from now you'll still be in the forums ranting and raving...and you know it's true.

[zeremkarty]

What are you talking about? These rants? I didn't originate this thread. I chimed in with my own recent experience. I've used Photoshop for twenty years. Yes, twenty years. And Lightroom since version one. All this money? I just began a subscription at $10 per month. It's a reasonable fee.

[Nancy OShea]

winofigments2  wrote

I'm only into my second month of a PS/LR subscription. I've had to use the chat help for a few issues. I'll say this: they are not bad people, but they are mostly incompetent.

Why are you not  posting questions in the product user forums?  It's available 24/7 and in most cases, you'll have an immediate reply and solution from fellow product users who really understand the software.

Customer Care is mainly for handling billing and activation issues.  Beyond that, they have little hands on experience with Adobe products.   They cannot teach people how to use the software.  That's not their role. 

Nancy

[zeremkarty]

Nancy, there is no indication when first looking for online or telephone support direct from Adobe that their service is only for activation. However, I soon realized I'd rather look to the forums...but, I could not log into the forums page. I'll spare you the details but it was something on their end, not a user end issue. And that was the point of me adding my experience to this thread. I wasn't looking for their support in "how to use the software."

[Nancy OShea]

I stand corrected .