Should it take over a month to solve this customer service issue?

[DMcClintock]

Just over a month ago I switched platforms from Windows to Mac.  I started the process of switching my Production Suite Premium upgrade to the new platform.  On May 12th I faxed my letter of destruction and was informed immediately that I would receive a replacement Mac serial number and replacement discs.  Seven days later I added to my open case that I had not received the discs.  There was no reply by either E-mail or telephone.  After one more week I called customer service again and they told me that everything was in order and the discs would be sent immediately.  Six days later they had not arrived.  I called again, and customer service told me they had difficulty reading my serial number.  They said they resolved the issued and the discs would be sent out.  A week later still no discs so I called again.  This time I was informed I needed to fax in a LOD for my CS3 version as well.  I did that two days ago, but still no contact on whether the LOD had been received.

Needless to say I am furious.

It has been over a month since I've started this process of getting software.  I have completed two LODs, I have been told three times by customer service that this problem has been resolved and I have yet to receive replacement disks.  This problem has turned into the worst experience in the 15 years I've used Adobe products.  There has been NO communication with me other than what I have instigated.  This is turning into a fiasco that could have been remedied with either E-mails or a phone calls.  This lack of communication with a customer is inexcusable and Adobe should be ashamed.

[Guest]

OK, Take it easy. We are just users like you.

[Guest]

Adobe should be ashamed.

yup.

[Ramón_G_Castañeda]

There's no way of telling what degree of persistence and pressure may be necessary to get satisfaction from Adobe Customer Service.

Here's a little story for you:

Last year, as some of you may remember, I had occasion to ask Adobe for my money back within the allowed 30-day period for a copy of Photoshop Elements I had bought in a moment of temporary insanity.  After countless, polite phone calls, faxes and emails to Adobe Customer Service, I was still getting the runaround from Adobe for weeks and weeks.

Then I lost my patience and fired off the first of two very angry emails, in the first one of which I limited myself to telling them "you are an impenetrable den of thieves!"

That one generated yet another runaround-copout type of email response from Adobe, so I finally wrote something to this effect: "OK, you thugs, you keep your göd-d@mned money, you apparently need it more than I do, perhaps to pay those poor people you shamelessly exploit in Pune, Mumbai, Calcutta or New Dheli!" 

Within 48 hours I had a call from a Customer Consultant for Adobe in Canada (I'm in California) who promptly arranged for me to get my refund.  Evidently the outsourcing of customer service to India is a very sore point PR point with some corporations, not just Adobe.

So, unfortunately, patience and politeness don't always work.  But straightforwardness did.

There are serious issues with Adobe Customer service these days.

[Kath-H]

I know this discussion doesn't really belong here - there are plenty of tales of woe about customer service in the Feedback section - but I'll just say I'm going through a similar situation. Trying to get a licence transferred from the person who is, completely legally, selling me his software is taking forever.

The outsourcing issue makes the rip-off pricing for non-USA customers even more disgraceful - paying for in-country support, are we?