Complain about a product or service

Adobe

Ellen of Tucson, AZ October 28, 2009

I have been trying to get a 199 refund from Adobe for a Dreamweaver upgrade purchased July 13, 2009. After contacting Adobe customer service initially, they "deactivated" the serial number for the product, initiated a refund request and told me to send them a Letter of Software Destruction which I did on July 28th. I was told I would get a refund to my credit card "in five days".

After more phone calls (waiting in one instance more than two hours for someone to answer the phone in customer service in India), opening a case online (which was closed by Adobe without resolving the issue and reopened by me), I STILL have no refund and it's now October 28th, and three credit card statements have come and gone.

Today I was told that the case was "in the refund department" and was given a case escalation number, whatever that means. I asked to speak to someone in the United States (told that was not possible); asked to speak with a supervisor (told that was not possible). I find it UNACCEPTABLE that it takes months to get a refund.

B of Crestview, FL October 20, 2009

We bought a new computer inspiron 530S at best buy in December 2008. Our video does not work due to a 32 bit/64 bit problem that shows up on adobe upgrade but does not work.

Elizabeth of Las Vegas, NV October 19, 2009

Adobe has the most abysmal customer service I think I have ever encountered in my thirty years of dealing with the public. If you want to make a purchase, they are there to answer the phones within minutes. A return, on the other hand, takes months (in this case, four plus months). I have called numerous times (I hung up after being on hold over 90 minutes), faxed, called corporate (no one ever returned my calls) and used the "customer service" portal for assistance, all to no avail. I recently purchased Adobe Creative Suites 4 and am now going to return that too based on poor customer service (I may need tech support at some point). Adobe CLEARLY does not care for its customers.

Hyun of Harrisonburg, VA October 19, 2009

My husband bought the software Lightroom from Adobe for my birthday in May 2009. We decided it was not what we wanted and followed every step Adobe had set forth for returning the product. In short, we have not been refunded to date (10/18/2009), even after multiple phone calls and many cell phone minutes and much time wasted.

Every time I called, the representative would promise that we had done everything on our part and that within a couple of weeks we would be refunded. The last time I called, they said they would put our case in top priority. It's been several weeks since. We have not seen any refunds from them yet. If as they said we've done our part shouldn't they do theirs? Any other company where we've had to return products the refunds are almost immediate. I'm afraid we have lost our money. Does this amount to stealing?

John of Portland, OR September 25, 2009

How does one get through to Adobe? I have two licenses for Acrobat, but can find no way to get though to this company to make my programs work. They have devised their websites so that they are unreachable and their phone numbers put on hold for hours. Horrible.

cindi of texas, TX September 11, 2009

I am among the many many dissatisfied customers of Adobe products - and decided to take it to a more publicly accessible forum....lost business, denied contracts, lost revenue. We're hoping genuinely that the company will press forward, stay communicative and proactive with the issues (fires) that get brought to their attention.

Bernard of Round Top, TX September 3, 2009

What a nightmare dealing with Adobe - bought Photoshop CS4 5 weeks ago and have been unable to get any help - 6 calls to customer service have varied in time waiting from 37 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes. In 4 of those instances I just could not hold any longer and the 2 other occasions I spoke to a representative that I just could not understand - I had to keep on telling them to slow down and speak clearly. Eventually, in desperation I called Helen Pethick - supposedly the director of customer relations who has not returned any of my calls. So they have my 800 and I have nothing - how very sad from a company that so many of my photographic colleagues had and have to rely on. Is this kind of thing normal with Adobe? Is there another company out there doing anything similar to Adobe? I could see that enough people feel like I do and are for want of a better sentiment, feel they are being ripped off by ASdobe, then it will not be long before they are facing some kind of class action - you just cannot take customers money and not give them what they paid for and then ignore them.

Ron of Alto, NM July 15, 2009

I don't even know why I am writing this... I have found that no matter what, with Adobe, recently it means nothing. I have owned Adobe Products for years and many of them... they have HAD great tech support and a great product line. Then came CS4, I have tried to load in a new machine running Vista 64 and couldn't install it. After 6 tech support people and 12 hours on the phone it never did install. I tried to return the product and followed the advice of the Customer Servcie rep and waiting 7 days with NO reponse or fulfilment of the return request. I called them again and it took 59 minutes to get a RMA number. What I am beginning believe is that Adobe needs a computer and software that tracks what they are doing... What ever happened to #1 ...ADOBE... I am very disappointed... I guess I will try another video ediiting software system... I sure feel discouraged, I don't like leaving a excellent product line... but they give me no choice.

Susan of Littleton, CO July 7, 2009

I am unable to upgrade valid, licensed software from Adobe, Inc. and months of support emails have gotten me no where.

In 2004, I purchased and licensed software from Macromedia (who was purchased by Adobe in 2005) thru their software deliver program, then known as DevNet. This software, Studio MX 2004, is an eligible upgrade path to Adobe CS4. I purchased the CS4 upgrade from the Adobe store after speaking to their customer service and given a new serial number that was supposed to work to upgrade the software.

Because my software was delivered thru the Macromedia DevNet program and given a serial number that now Adobe refuses to recognize. I am being told too bad, they can't help me. My software is the exact same as anyone else who bought the product off the shelf. I paid the same price and I still have the Macromedia paperwork touting that this was THE preferred way to get the MX Studio Suite.

After numerous emails and hours spent on hold with their "customer service", transferred across departments having to repeat the same information over and over - I was finally told that they couldn't do anything but refer me up to a supervisor. I was supposed to hear back in 2 days, now it has been 2 weeks without a response. Their customer service support portal says there is a 24 hours response window - that is a joke. Never did I hear back from them in that timeframe.

This was my last email to Adobe thru their customer portal: "Let's employee a solution that is a win/win - I can rightfully upgrade my product and you can keep a customer that will make future purchases. Have Adobe send me a replacement disk of the Studio MX product that I had bought thru the Macromedia Dev Net program you no longer recognize with a serial number you will recognize. That way I have a way to install the upgrade. (It looks like my upgrade CS4 will accept Studio MX, Studio8, CS1, etc - so I don't care what you send me - you choose). I just want to be able to upgrade from my legitimate Studio MX copy like all other owners that apparently weren't foolish enough to believe the Macromedia Dev Net marketing about keeping me on the "cutting edge of development" - what a mistake that is turning out to be now that Adobe purchased them. I still have the marketing that says it "electronically delivers Macromedia Studio MX 2004 with Flash Professional" - too bad Adobe won't recognize it.

Seems like a great creative solution to a problem the customer didn't create."

Unfortunately, their software is the industry standard - so if you want to work in the web/print design industry, you have to know their product. And they treat their customers like they know they have no option.

Dennis of Quincy, MA May 18, 2009

Interest in what Adobe has to offer. The price is rather high however they offer a trial for each product. When I tried the trial it offered alot of areas I can use including tracing objects with a click to change color or rasterize to make a solid image. It offered Bridge which helps managed documents into any Adobe product. It had some initial and small functions for FLASH, Animation & HTML.

All these promised gave the absolute value to invest 600. However, when I actually bought the product I got a stripped product with no features that were in the trial. I called up and even reviewed the trial & it was confirmed none of the extra features existed. I was offered a money back guarrantee however the product is good & wish to expand to buy other products.

But the question is...If I trial another product from Adobe will I get the same product I buy? I would be cautious due to I feel I was a victim of bait & switch. Other concerns was lack of literature, notification of limits to download, and they added a CD that teaches you all the programs they carry rather than just Illustrator. You will see their website is very confusing, maybe done purposely in order to decieve.

It is a bait & switch issue. Paid 600 for less than what was given as trial. Including not specifying how many downloads per computer was clearly marked that effected OS issue on a computer I had to take out. (2 seats are allowed)

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