Adobe is a bunch of crooks...

[SMOKKINU]

[FONT=&quot]I will NEVER buy another ADOBE Product again. EVER.

I purchased Adobe Photoshop CS3 in 2007 (Late 2007) for a lil over $550 direct from Adobe as an upgrade from Photoshop 4.0 that I used for a very longtime.

Over the past I used it on two machines, and my last machine, dell xps 4200, crashed, and HDD was done for... could not Deactivate PS CS3... no problem right, call adobe explain to them, and get it installed on my current machine.

Everything went smooth, had to hold for about 30+ minutes, then intermittent a few times after, as the guy in India tryed to figure out what to do...

Eventually, I was given a new serial.... after going through numerous hoops to get past the activation.

After a few reboots from installing other things, i open PSCS3, and low and behold...

"Your license for Adobe Photoshop CS3 is no longer valid, please uninstall and reinstall to re-activate, or contact your IT Professional or Adobe Photoshop Customer! Support"

So i call support back, give them the call code i was given for the previous support... and am now told that since Photoshop CS3 is no longer a supported product that this will be a CHARGED SUPPORT SESSION!!!!!!!!

$40 for them to tell me wtf to do to fix this. $40 for them to fix a program, i paid HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS for.... I cannot contain myself...i start getting PISSED. I tell them, thats okay, you can deduct it from the $40 i am charging Adobe for putting me on hold for 30+ minutes in the previous support session from an hour ago... ADOBE wants to charge for their time, but apparently the customers time is not important?!?! haha...what a joke!

I get nowhere with him, or his indian supervisor.... It's like they just read scripts. Yeah adobe, let's just let the indians handle the support, we as customers shell out hundreds, even THOUSANDS of dollars for your products, and you give us people in india, who dont understand the english spoken l! anguage, to read SCRIPTS to us, and on top of that, CHARGE US FOR SUPPORT????????????

In the process of arguing, I uninstall Adobe Photoshop CS3, and re-install (Thank you western digital velociraptor ) and get it done in 5 minutes flat. .

Everything SEEMS to be working correct, I did not have to re-activate... it just reinstalled and works again... Im wondering if something was preventing it from verifying the license on startup?

Anyway, adobe, you can SUCK IT. I will never give you a cent from here on OUT.

Now I fully understand why there is piracy in todays day and age, when companys like this not only give lackluster support but then CHARGE the customer to fix the problem on a less then 2yr old program... they we paid HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS FOR unbelievable!!!!!!

I get better customer support from VIDEO GAME DEVELOPERS!
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[smarteyeball]

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I get better customer support from VIDEO GAME DEVELOPERS!
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And that's saying something

BTW, the Indians are reading from a script. Common sense and logic aren't part of it

 

[Smashy]

I'm pretty sure the reason why you have to deal with Indians reading scripts is because it's hard to find anyone to do that kind of job and when you do find someone willing to do that it's either because they're missing experience to get/handle a real job in IT or because they lack the knowledge.

 

[Mason]

Although I initially purchase all of my programs. It's simply wrong for a software company to stop offering support for a product that someone paid hunreds of dollars for. :/

 

[Ex_Brit]

Free Support, especially by phone, is rare these days, except perhaps for a short period after making a purchase. That applies to just about all software, hardware, OS's etc. etc. no matter how much you pay for it in the first instance.

Whenever you pay for a product, read the fine print first, especially the support and refund options, also, make sure that it isn't about to become obsolete. If that isn't clear check how long the product has been on the market. If it's getting on for a year then the chances are it's almost obsolete.

Many companies have their phone/chat support centres in India, Philippines, etc. etc. as it's a good way of keeping costs down. If every product has a call centre in the UK or USA I think you'd be paying a lot more for your products than you are now.

That all said, I'm surprised that CS3 is already obsolete. Did you try posting in Adobe Forums?

 

[ripbox]

And its for this kind of reason and $550 wasted that lots of people find google and that other thing... (what's it called? hmmm was it person to person? bah close enough.....) very handy
a little bit of common seance and and a lot of research can save you from high blood pressure and an early grave

But sorry to hear of you troubles and i hope you find a solution without the cost

 

[saverio]

Have you had a copy of the customer service questionaire sent to you?

I had a similar problem with adobe messing an order up and I blew my stack in a very productivly eloquent way in the questionaire.

Within two days I had an Adobe UK rep calling me to discuss my concern and offering me a refund for the demo DVD's and an appology.

I too had to go through the indian call centres, who do actually read from scripts.

Unfortunately, as Ex Brit says, it's done to keep profits high and costs low, why pay a local guy 10 pounds/dollars an hour when you can pay an indian that for the day?

I would keep complaining through their feedback loop.

I can sympathise with you though, I've found them very poor to deal with for many years now.

 

[ripbox]

I don't mean to be racist in any form but when your put in a situation like that and you have to talk to some not tech knowledge from Pakistan for what they call "tech support" then don't be afraid to ask to speak to a normal english speaking person who know what they are talking about (this is your right)... i do admire these guys for doing such a stressful job but it can sometime (a lot of the time) only make matters worse when your problem gets lost in translation
Thier was a big case about this with BT where when you had an issue the only people available to help resolve your isue were pakistanies and this caused a lot of problems both for the company and the customers and after many complains- watchdog and all the rest now 90% of the work load has come back to the united kingdom

just to remind you im not being racist at all by this comment

 

[SMOKKINU]

I found a solution... i reinstalled and it seems to work fine now. I just cannot believe that They were going to charge me $40 to tell me to re-install and download a patch from the Adobe website.... that just makes me FUME. If it was not for another member on the Adobe Forum who pointed me too this fix, I am afraid I might have gone postal.


It is also sad, when large software companys like Adobe, who charge HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS even THOUSANDS for some... and then after a year on the market, those programs are oboslete and no longer supported? And you get indian call centers? hahaha... Microsoft used to do this, but doesnt from what I can tell... Same thing with Dell, i remember getting my first PC...


Had issues, and after 6 months, I had to pay $20 with CC to get the guy to tell me to press F2 at startup and change a BIOS setting to get my PC to boot off of a CD... are you kidding me?! haha... I remmeber shortyl after, they ditched the indian support centers and now have americans.

 

[SMOKKINU]

Have you had a copy of the customer service questionaire sent to you?

I had a similar problem with adobe messing an order up and I blew my stack in a very productivly eloquent way in the questionaire.

Within two days I had an Adobe UK rep calling me to discuss my concern and offering me a refund for the demo DVD's and an appology.

I too had to go through the indian call centres, who do actually read from scripts.

Unfortunately, as Ex Brit says, it's done to keep profits high and costs low, why pay a local guy 10 pounds/dollars an hour when you can pay an indian that for the day?

I would keep complaining through their feedback loop.

I can sympathise with you though, I've found them very poor to deal with for many years now.

No questionaire... not even sure how to get one.

 

[Zirro]

I don't have much time for Adobe either.
Why?
Because they have been promising a 64-bit version of Flash Player (for Windows) for years but haven't delivered!
I can get 64-bit drivers for just about anything, but still have to run a 32-bit Browser to surf the net.
Its a joke!

 

[jimbo45]

I can't understand the gripe of "Having to use a 32 bit browser" to surf the net.

IE8 64 bit works fine -- who always wants to see all that flash junk on most sites anyway. If I'm researching something and there's a load of "Flash", (worst of all --hideous music at unbelievably low quality and scrawny jittery home video quality graphics) I'll immediately go to another site.

Most music on Internet sites is so hideous that it makesa bunch of Road Drills seem like The Boston Symphony Orchestra by comparison .

If you want animations etc on a website perhaps its time to look for an alternative to adobe flash -- someone somewhere must have some time on their hands to do it.

As for not getting support with CS3 (at 500 USD a pop) I suggest that Google and the small ---a are you best friends here.

Furthermore if everybody refused to buy products which only had Indian / Phillipine etc call center support we might get somewhere -- aolthough there really ISN'T any serious alternative to Photoshop for that type of work.

The Gimp is great (and free) but if you need Professional quality studio work then the GIMP can't really be used for a proper professional workflow -- but it's still VERY VERY good indeed for an open source program.

Whilst primarily a Linux program it has been ported to Windows.

It might just suit your requirements.

GIMP - for Windows

heers
jimbo

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Zirro]

An example of a decent site I and millions of other use use often because we dont have access to decent or reliable Internet connections:
www.speedtest.net
You need Flash installed to use this well regarded site.
There would be countless other business oriented sites (i.e not for the kiddie surfers)that use Flash.

Its a 64-bit world now.
Adobe have at least released the 64-bit Flash player for Linux.
Dont know whats holding up the Windows version.
have

 

[Airbot]

An example of a decent site I and millions of other use use often because we dont have access to decent or reliable Internet connections:
www.speedtest.net
You need Flash installed to use this well regarded site.
There would be countless other business oriented sites (i.e not for the kiddie surfers)that use Flash.

Its a 64-bit world now.
Adobe have at least released the 64-bit Flash player for Linux.
Dont know whats holding up the Windows version.
have

http://www.sevenforums.com/network-internet/1200-whats-your-internet-speed.html

 

[Chris34]

No questionaire... not even sure how to get one.

fill a complain report then. Cs3 isn't obsolete... Companies usually support the newest version and the previous version. Cs2 is probably obsolete by now(though), but I doubt Cs3 is as Cs4 is fairly new and not everyone jumped and bought a CS4 update/upgrade.

 

[swarfega]

tbh I think there should be a boycott of all adobe software. They seem to pick a random price and charge wildly over the odds for it and most of the time its not worth the value they placed on it.

I find that PS has an antiquated interface and very little in functions, compare that to Paintshop Pro at a fraction of the cost and you have an easy to use interface and a similar (if not more) range of functions. My advice would be to change software.

Its the same with their flash player. They are stuck in the past refusing to release a 64-bit version. I hope more sites start using Silverlight instead.

I have always felt Adobe were crooks with their hugely inflated prices and this post only reinforces it with charged support with unintellible staff.

 

[jimbo45]

tbh I think there should be a boycott of all adobe software. They seem to pick a random price and charge wildly over the odds for it and most of the time its not worth the value they placed on it.

I find that PS has an antiquated interface and very little in functions, compare that to Paintshop Pro at a fraction of the cost and you have an easy to use interface and a similar (if not more) range of functions. My advice would be to change software.

Its the same with their flash player. They are stuck in the past refusing to release a 64-bit version. I hope more sites start using Silverlight instead.

I have always felt Adobe were crooks with their hugely inflated prices and this post only reinforces it with charged support with unintellible staff.

Hi Swarefega -- Do PLEASE THINK before making "Vatican Like" statements about the relative merits of PAINTSHOP PRO (PSP) vs PHOTOSHOP (CS4).

If you are a Professional Photographer there really IS NO OTHER CHOICE other than LIGHTROOM (guess who from again), or the manufacturers own products such as Canon's DPP.

Paintshop PRO doesn't have many of the functions a typical PRO photographer would daily - even if most non pro shooters would rarely know they existed, and those areas where it can compare with CS4 you'll find the functionallity very much reduced compared with CS4.

Typically :

Hardware Colour calibration
CYMK profiles for Pre-press production etc.
colour profiling in general
Layers
Curves
Gaussian Blur
Custom White Balance
Unsharp Mask and zillions of other filters
Perspective correction
Lens correction
Exposure correction -- very very useful this one BTW -- when you want
decent Histograms
to get both highights

etc. etc I could go on and on --

Some things can be replicated in PSP but nothing like to the degree needed by a pro shooter.

Don't get me wrong PSP isn't bad at all -- for things like web banners etc it would work admirably but there's almost NO PROFESSIONAL photographer on this planet who would choose PSP over CS4 - in spite of the humungous cost.

For the average user photoshop is grossly overkill I agree -- but the cheaper package Photoshop Elements is usually more than sufficient for these types of usrs -- and a comparison between this and PSP is a more relevant question --(and the price is similar in any case).


Cheers
jimbo

 

[swarfega]

hmm well I guess at that sort of level your right, but for your adverage home user, PSP will be adequate.

 

[jimbo45]

hmm well I guess at that sort of level your right, but for your adverage home user, PSP will be adequate.

Cheers
wasn't intending to be "angry"

jimbo

 

[swarfega]

you didnt come across as angry. but you did call me swarefega