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Adobe:"NO COMPLAINTS PLEASE" Open Letter

Guest
Nov 15, 2013 Nov 15, 2013

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Dear Adobe,

Like SO VERY MANY other people, I'm frustrated and angry with you. You make some of the best software, which is why we all tolerate your bad behaviour.

Your reluctance to improve only ADDS to our frustration: I've spent the last hour trying to make my voice heard. Unlike Apple and others, feedback is not invited, there is no place for complaints (other than the forums, where we just talk to each other), there's never a 'customer satisfaction survey' after any of the horrible interactions with you,  and it seems you just don't care that your over-complex, ridiculous, horrifically designed installation and app-opening/management processes are wasting the time of millions of PAYING CUSTOMERS.

Two nights ago I spent OVER TWO HOURS trying to get through to your 'Chat support' because one of your products I'm forced to subscribe to told me I had exceeded my activations on the max 2 computers (remarkable as I only have 2 computers). When I eventually got through, the girl at the other end actually said "have you logged in with your username and password?" Really Adobe? Do you have any concept of just HOW bad you are?

Like others, I work from customer premises on my laptop and can't always be ONLINE all of the time. Every other app I've ever paid for allows me to work wherever I like. But not you; you force me to go through online authentication every 12 hours. Really Adobe? I'm PAYING YOU EVERY MONTH AND YOU WON'T ALLOW ME TO USE THE PRODUCT I'M PAYING FOR WHEVER I LIKE? Seriously?

Updating any app I own takes a tiny amount of time, beyond the basic download. It's a background process. But we have to take a lunch break if we should be unlucky enough to trigger an update to an Adobe product; even the smallest downloads take forever to complete and take over our entire machine!

In this world of clean, simple computing, you seem like an ancient dinosaur. For example, just now I updated my flash because a popup appeared on my screen. By the end I'd actually had to experience 5 separate window interuptions to my work...FOR A SIMPLE UPDATE!  Honestly? Then, when it eventually finished, yet another window popped up telling me it had finished and that I might be interested in another Adobe product, which failed to appear.

adobe-complaint.jpg

How can you justify 5 separate windows for one simple app update? IT'S A MESS. And how about a bit of design continuity here!  I could go on and on and on.

It's obvious to us all that the people who design your amazing products, like Photoshop and Lightroom, can't possibly have even a passing association with the people who put together your horrorific, amateurish, nightmarish installation and app-management processes.

The fact that I have to post this here tells me your ears are CLOSED and your head is buried. But please, I beg you, let's stop this silliness now. Clean up your disastrous installation and app management nightmares. And don't tell your loyal paying customers where they can and can't work. We appreciate you want to limit pirated apps, but don't do it at the considerable cost of upsetting your paying customers.

We love you, but we won't much longer if you keep abusing us.

Big sloppy kiss,

Jonnny Doe

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LEGEND ,
Nov 15, 2013 Nov 15, 2013

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This is a user to user forum, not a way of addressing Adobe. There is no Adobe personnel assigned to answer questions here. And we fellow users cannot do anything about your problem but sympathize.

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Mentor ,
Nov 15, 2013 Nov 15, 2013

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The sad fact is Microsoft Office365, hs the same issue,

The way It supposed its supposed to work:

  1. sign up.
  2. Pay for the service once a Month or once a year.
  3. Download
  4. Activate.
  5. Starting 30 days from activation you get a phone Home signal.
  6. If for some reason the connection to your  account is down*, then your supposed to receive periodically a phone home signal up to 4 days.
    (*as is typical for about 85% of the US at some point in the day)
  7. If a Phone home can not be received, then and only then you have to reactivate.
  8. Between those days Adobe/Mcrosoft should user the user leave the heck alone the User.

Thisissue was Brought to day On the Office Answers by a College professor who bought Office365 has to go to his Office hook up, Activate, then go to his classes and teach his classes. He does this every day. It appears Like Adobe. You've go to have 24/7/365 unbroken connection as the Phone home siginal is constant between you computer and Adobe or Microsoft.

I 've been saying on every forum I can say it ever since the idea It won't work Then Internet is not in good condition in about 85% of America. Majority of people that have Internet are still using POTS (Plain ole Telephone System), or DSL which is just souped up POTS.) Many like my on Cable system that have infastucter that was put in the 80's and hasn't been updated.  The only way Subscription will work is if Fiber Optic is made availble to every interstate, Highway, Bylaw, Road, Pig Path in the US.  It should as ubiquitous as the telphone. Then and only then will subscription ever work.  Companies will end up going through a period lose their ***, awil come crawling back to providing downloadable copies which do not have to have a monthly or daily activation signal.

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Explorer ,
Nov 16, 2013 Nov 16, 2013

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If you have complaint with adobe and cant find any where to do so contact the BBB (better business bureau). They will then contact you and adobe and try to resolve it.

Adobe is rated as A-.

Corel is A+.

Microsoft is A+.

Apple is A+.

Quark is F. Lack of responce at all to bbb attemps to resolve issues.

And many other software companies are not even listed because they have not registered.

Agreed Phil. The problem with your analgy is im not sure how much infastructure cares about phone lines any more. Im a college student. I have never owned a land line in my adult life and am graduating college soon. I like many rely on cell phones. I agree with you 100% that having software verify regularly is a bad idea the way its being implemented. Instead of it being the day the compnay chooses to check it should be when you choose. Lets say where you work you dont have internet and yes there are places like this in the USA. My wife is from a tiny town of less than 1,000 people a place that DSL is the only internet provided there and only by 1 company and even then the infasructure does not support it and it drops alot. Then you could just force it to verify the next time you get to a decent internet signal. I live in a fair sized town aparment and my internet as yours goes down probably a few times a day and I have to unplug and replug my ethernet cable. The apartment has shared internet and this is part of the issue and I know its not just me as others tell me the same thing. Maybe when DSL becomes standard companies can try this approach but not yet. This is just the USA not counting any where else in the world.

Customer service can be hit and miss. Consider that its actual people. I have done 2 online chats with Corel representatives. The first time they could not really answer my question maybe it was too opinionated of a question but instead of saying sorry sir that is and opion and we cant asnwer that they just kept trying to sell me a product after I said I wont buy till I get the answers I need. I think my question was along the lines of how does corel compare to adobes products. The persons name I could assume is forien. The second time I did which was yesterday I got what sounded like an American named person and all the answers I needed and they were very helpful and patient and didnt really try to get me to buy anything till I was satisfied with my several questions.

In my last job I was at UPS. I was for a few months a warehouse clerk and most of my job was customer support. People would come in looking for their packages or wanting them to pick them up early and many other things. I would make a few phone calls a day to contact customers about wrong addresses and different things. I was always curtious and helpful to the customers on phone or in person. I generally would drop what ever i was doing to help them and get back to it when done. That was only part of my job and i tried to be nice about it. If I couldnt help them I would get some one who could or find out right away.

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Guest
Nov 17, 2013 Nov 17, 2013

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So... how do we get Adobe's attention? They wont answer their phone or chat sessions.

Of course, we will not buy anything from them ever again. We will also make sure that our companies don't buy Adobe products.

Sadly, there seem to be enough clueless drones out there to keep them in business - this despite great alternatives to Adobe products.

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Community Beginner ,
Nov 18, 2013 Nov 18, 2013

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Claudio, I  agree with the points raised in the letter (which your comment seems to make worse)! So just how are people supposed to contact Adobe to complain? This seems like absolute madness to me. How can a company this size seem to care so little about the feelings of their customers. I've read lots of news articles about this. There must be an answer?

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LEGEND ,
Nov 18, 2013 Nov 18, 2013

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All these conglomerates are making it difficult for customers to contact them for help or to complain because they know that they simply can't deal with all the complaints they receive almost daily. I was recently in contact with BT, our one of the biggest telecom suppliers and I almost gave up because it took them almost 1.5 hours to answer the call. i had to tolerate this because they had my bank details and now they have decided to close my account and I have decided not to give out my bank details to anyone unless I get the goods or services there and then. Not in a one years time like CC is.

The call center was supposed to solve the problems but this has backfired because the quality of people working in these centers remains much to be desired.

The only way is to get trial versions first and if it works, buy it otherwise look for something else.

I have decided not to buy Creative Cloud because it is not suitable fr my needs. I am better off using the CS6 packages for now until replacement comes out in 18 months time. I am sure the competitors are working on replacement products.

If you guys have CS6 then keep it because it is still a good product and will last you for another 18 months. You don't need updates especially if you are very careful with your computer's security. Software can't be secure unless your own computer is secure.

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LEGEND ,
Nov 18, 2013 Nov 18, 2013

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mytaxsite.co.uk wrote:

…I am better off using the CS6 packages for now until replacement comes out in 18 months time…

Adobe will never bring our "replacements" or upgrade to the CS6 packages.  There will never be a CS7 or equivalent.  From now on it's CS6, the CC subscription or nothing.

mytaxsite.co.uk wrote:

…If you guys have CS6 then keep it because it is still a good product and will last you for another 18 months…

Actually, it will last you as long as it is still supported by the OS you choose.  In my case, I fully expect my current software to outlive me.

I'm staying with Photoshop CS6 and even older versions of Illustrator, Indesign and Acrobat Professional.

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Community Expert ,
Nov 18, 2013 Nov 18, 2013

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>last you as long as it is still supported by the OS you choose

Windows 7 yes, Windows 8 I think yes... as long as you don't upgrade to 8.1 (some problem reports

Mac OS before 10.9 yes... some reports of problems with 10.9 aka mavericks

For Windows users, buy an OEM copy of Win7 now, while you still can, to build your own new computer when your current one dies of old age

I don't think that option is available for Mac users, but am not sure about that

I have CS5 Master Collection which does all I need... and an extra Win7 for when (probably not if) my current computer dies of old age

Cloud is a NEVER for me... home video with no income to offset a monthly expense

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Explorer ,
Nov 19, 2013 Nov 19, 2013

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I think what they meant was in 18 months other companies will have options and present viable alternatives to adobe.

Corel actually makes it very easy to complain and contact customer service or a sales representative. Maybe their site and products work so well they get few complaints... For me their site is very good about giving information about products and other sites are good also. Adobe is really bad about giving you info about their products as though they belive they need no introduction...They seem very interested in customer service and listening to them. They make it very easy to get in touch with them for different things. I have not called them yet but have not needed to. I have called other companies befor and had to wait over an hour on hold. Corel has an answer to that. You can besides calling for free pay and your call will be put at the top of the list and says you will be guaranteed to be called back with in 2 hours. But if its anything like my online char im sure you wont have to wait long as mine were less than 2 minutes of wait time. The 2 times ive done live text chats they responded very quickly. The first time I think I waited 1 minute before a rep replied. The 2nd time I think it we less than 30 seconds. So fast I had actually gotten up to grab something while I waited and heard the beep of the response. Also corel has at least 2 times asked me to give them feed back for using their site and adobe only 1 time. Also their forums are actively monitored and contributed by their employees. I posted a question about if a product would do what I needed in a forum and an employee actually responded. I have seen this person actively in the forums. They gave me a very impartial answer saying its good for x and not as good at x and told me I could try the trial and find out for myself. Very none pushy. The other time was from the adobe forum I commented about a corel product and the person in the forum was a corel employee trying to provide factual information. I looked him up later and found he is active of corels blogs and this Sr. Director of Product Management, Graphics, responsible for CorelDRAW,http://www.corel.com/painter Corel DESIGNER, CorelCAD and the CorelDRAW Graphics Engine SDK as well as a few other products. It was amazing and a great honor to get contacted by email by a top employee from corel asking my to take a servey about corel because I sounded like I knew a fair amount about corel. He responded and was amazed that at the time I didnt own any corel software but knew so much about them. Its amazing how active and accesable corels employees are and even their manages.

I agree if you have cs6 you are good for at least the next 18 months or longer if you choose. For me I own no adobe products as a student. Im a blank slate. Im still not 100% decided on an alternate company or cs6. I for sure will NEVER use CC (crazy cloud). They just had a class action lawsuite opened against them about the security breach and lack of security and false advertising of market leading security. There is no way in the world I will give adobe my credit/debit card information. I think if I do buy CS 6 standard collection I will get a 1 time reloadable card say from Walmart but just enough on it to get the purchase. Get my purchase and drain all money from it and cancel the card and make sure adobe has none of my personal information. Or I may buy it in cash or charge it to my student account at the student store.

Since May or since the first release of CC 1 year ago many of adobes competitors have reacted. Most have at times offered sales to entice adobe users in by giving them the upgrade price. Many are running sales. They dont seem to have jumped the gun too much by releasing products immediately in reaction to cc. Many have released new editions for 1/4-1/2 of their products since may though. Serif has 5 main products and have released 2 new editions since may. Xara has 3 main products and has released 1.5 new editions since may. Corel has more products than I can count on 2 hands and has released several new editions of several of their main products since may, I think 3. Companies are reacting to the smell of blood in the water and the sharks and vultures have started to circle adobe looking for an opportunity. Most likely all of adobes competitors will continue to see spikes in their new membership and all will grow. My bet though is on corel. They seem the next best to adobe in multiple aspects.

The more I learn of adobes business practices the more disgusted I become.

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