Adobe has the world's worst customer service

After 3 hours on the phone today and 2 hours yesterday (yes, that's right, 5 freaking hours) talking to people that obviously can't do their jobs without reading from a script, I have officially awarded Adobe my worst customer service award in the world. My problems were never taken care of and at this point, I will spend any amount of money to buy another program that is not Adobe. That being said, PLEASE recommend another photo-editing program that works well. I am done with Adobe for good. There's no way I am spending the money for CS4. After reading several blogs, I obviously am not alone with my feelings. Thanks.

Bryan: Sounds like you had a really bad experience with some folks at Adobe. That is a shame. You've asked for recommendations on another photo editing program. I can't tell what program to buy, but in the end, all roads lead to Photoshop. You have the checkbook and can make any choice you want. There is a reason that Photoshop is so dominant in the photographic world for it's power in post processing images.

You might try Picture Window Pro.

or

Corel's Paint Shop Pro.

The product is not the representation. Too bad they decide to use poor support, but if you abandon Adobe you're slitting your own wrists. Lightroom is the Holy Grail, remember this moment.

I've heard about them having poor support before. In fact they issued a public apology acknowledging that they have had problems with the quality of their support and that they were working to resolve it. I guess it hasn't been remedied yet.

Nat was just in the nick of time, you were in great peril. Even though you don't think you were, yes you were, you were in terrible peril. You may think you should go back in there and face the peril, but no, it's too perilous. You've got to find the Holy Grail. (Lightroom)

That's the problem, they pretty much rule the photoediting world. I guess as such, they can provide crappy customer service. If you have an hour of your life to kill, just call for fun and see if you can get somebody on the horn that can answer a simple question. It's really fun.

The customer support experience is very unfortunate, but no surprise. I've been using Photoshop since version 1 (and the Creative Suite for years) ... suppose I'm lucky that I've never needed to contact support. What is surprising is the "doesn't work well" issue with the product. I haven't upgraded from CS3, and haven't heard anything negative about version 4. So, I'd be curious to know what the problem was. ?

Hey Bryan, what was the trouble? Maybe someone here can help?

I have heard similar negative things about Adobe's phone support. I have hear other people reply that their online support forums and chat are very good and often quite responsive. I have never found cause to contact them.

Hey Bryan

I was actually going to write a post on my blog sometime in the near future about the same issue .. I had to deal with Customer Service support for Apple, Adobe and my ISP provider within a week of each other (I've something of a black thumb when it comes to computers, I'm afraid). Apple were absolutely awesome - couldn't have been better. My ISP was totally hit and miss; Adobe were the worst - worse even than Nikon have been. Adobe were probably the worst I've yet dealt with. And can you believe they have the audacity to name their new products CS? Doesn't that just beat everything.




Cheers

Carl

No company can hold a candle to Dell when it comes to poor customer support. I am still trying to figure out how my replacement monitor ended up in Oregon instead of Boston. Oh well, postage was on their dime. Just ask NP and you shall receive.

Amen on Dell! Their free support at least has earned them the sobriquet "Dell Hell!"

I have had similar experiences with Adobe, they can't/won't answer even a simple question..if there was anything comparable out there I would be gone in a minute

They only support their current edition, hence if CS4 is what is current anything else is no longer supported. It is not about the customer it is about SALES of Upgrades.

Then the fact that Adobe was missing from the Photo Plus Show in NYC, what has been described as "the most important event in Photography" and an event that ". . .continues to be on the cutting edge of what’s happening in photography and imaging" is starting to make sense. Also noticed because of their absence was Apple.

Adobe laid off 8% of its employees world wide last December, and its market capitilization has dropped to 17.78B from 23B in 2007 - a coincidence?

Adobe has some ok products and it enjoys market dominance in several industries, however their software is so feature-laden that it continues to be difficult to master, is completely intimidating to those wishing to enter into the world of professional photo editing, and is priced in the stratosphere and out of the range of the average user, especially when you consider the various learning tools and serminars you need to spend money on to get up to speed.

I wonder how their revenue and profit would be affected by dropping the price and making it more accessible, usability and price-wise.

I am both a Photoshop CS2 and a Picture Window Pro user - you can get similar results from both programs. However, PWP has a more intuitive workflow, easier command structure, intended specifically as a photo editing program, and when reading RAW files, you work in a single editor, not two different workspaces and it only costs $89. You can download a free, fully functional 30 day demo standard version (no raw editing capability). It's also amazing how such a small company completely blows away Adobe's customer service and support. Program is developed by Jonothan Sachs, one of the co-founders of Lotus Development Corp in 1982. And in similar fastion to Lotus 1-2-3, PWP is relatively bug-free. You definitely get a big bang for the buck.

I first became acquainted with PWP 5 yrs ago as I was making the transition from film to digital, initially using a film scanner to digitize my library of transparencies an negatives. I stumbled across Norman Koren's excellent website, which dealt with this technology in great depth. He was a fan of PWP.

I use Paint Shop Pro version 10 (PSPX) on a computer running XP. I recommend it highly. You can find it for $20 on Ebay. Newer versions are very much bloated, have a built-in security program, do not do anything better (in fact have a crippled Curves tool, like PSE's) except for the HDR Merge tool, which is reputedly nice but not IMO worth the loss of speed. But PSP has very erratic support for 16-bit-depth editing, has a primitive RAW converter (not updated in 5 years), no support for 16-bit filters/plugins. I've used :Lightroom and may again,. but converting in ViewNX then editing in PSP gives better results than Lightroom.

As for customer service, 13 years ago the new head of the computing center at the univ where I taught gave out a directive that obviously has been universally implemented: the techs were supposed to respond to every single reported problem; respond to, not solve, or help fix, or actually do anything substantive.

Try emailing Kirsten Harris with Adobe. I fought a product exchange for 3 weeks. Finally got in touch with her and the problem was solved in a couple of hours.Kirsten Harris <kiharris@adobe.com>

Worked for me. Let us know how you fare.

sorry the link didn't go I'll try againKirsten Harris , kiharris@adobe.com

Bryan,
Having been through Adobe hell, I feel your pain. That said, I do love Lightroom and PS and I don't see myself moving away unless another really compelling offering shows up. Preferably something that runs on Linux!
But, to answer your question, I've heard great things about Lightzone. I've never tried it, but you can check it out here -
http://www.lightcrafts.com/lightzone/
I also tried PWP. I liked what I saw, but ultimately I realized I didn't have the time to learn it. Easier to stay with what you know (LR and PS)
BTW, I hope to never have to call Adobe support again. I've found online forums to be the best source of help with Adobe issues. (Except for activation problems. Then you're stuck)
Best of luck to you on this.

Had similar terrible customer experience. A 180 from previous excellent service. Wrote letter to President of Adobe. Problem was resolved promptly.
Apparently, Adobe has moved CSR work offshore. They need to know how bad the service is. Suggest that you write letter.

Bill Brennan

Just to address what my issue was. I have PSE7 and LR2. The unfortunate thing about PSE7 is you can't flip over to it from LR2 for more intense editing, but that's cool with me b/c I have gotten by just fine without having to spend $600 on CS4 or whatever it costs now. As mentioned above, I am not a professional photographer and barely have enough time to master PSE7 or LR2 and do my regular job and enjoy my family. So, my issue was very simple in my mind. I purchased Adobe's file backup service so I would safegauard my photos offsite and I figured what the heck, Adobe makes sense. The problem was that my wife last year moved files outside of Adobe (just in windows) to better organize them, not knowing that it screws up the file locations in Photoshop. So, since the service was trying to reconnect those files for backup, I had to manually go in about 1000 files and re-connect them because the program couldn't figure out where they were located on their own. Here's the root issue, when you stop the auto search feature for re-connecting lost files and just hit browse button to find them yourself, it shows a thumbnail photo and the file directory right below it where it is supposed to be located, 9 out 10 times, that's exactly where it is, so you navigate there and hit re-connect and you're done. My question is this, if it already knows where the file is located, why can't it just go there and re-connect automatically? (I hope everyone is still following me). It's seems pretty simple and my problem was because so many files were misplaced, I don't have time to manually browse to locate each one to re-connect. All I wanted was an easier solution so I could continue backing everything up. Again, it suggests the target location, but then you have to go there yourself?? I don't get it.

So, enter the catechism of hellacious customer service to find an answer to a simple question. I still don't think anyone at Adobe ever understood my issue.

Why rely on pricy Photoshop for what is likely an RGB-based digital photography workflow? Most photographers do not need Photoshop, they only think they do. Granted, Adobe and popular publications will make you think that PS is essential. But Elements is built for people who do not have to deal with CMYK or high-volume issues (and for people who don't want to pay the PS price) - especially photographers. It obviously has some PS features that are missing, but there are easy workarounds - if you REALLY need those high-end features (most of the features are duplicated in LR anyway - curves, channel mixing, etc.). Elements is so stinking cheap, especially upgrades. And it plays nicely with Lightroom. Why not Elements? Seriously, I bet that 99% of people here do not actually need Photoshop.

'My question is this, if it already knows where the file is located, why can't it just go there and re-connect automatically?'

It can, but it shouldn't. The problem is that the software cannot be 100 percent certain that these are the correct files. Just because they have the same names isn't enough—they could be back ups, different versions, etc. Given the choice of causing you a bit more work or accidentally messing with files is shouldn't, it has made the correct choice of requiring your input into the decision.

It's not really surprising that customer support had trouble helping you with this. It seems like you were unhappy that the software was behaving the way it was designed to and expected them to get it to work in a way it doesn't or shouldn't. Personally, I think you are over reacting a bit. I had to read you explanation three times to figure out what was going on and I'm still not really sure I understand. I seems like you messed some things up in a way that's hard to explain and in a way the software was not designed to easily fix. These things happen and it's very hard for customer service to predict everything that a user can mess up. I've had my share of file mishaps with Lightroom; they were my fault, it caused some time loss, but I was able to sort it out.

Although not quick, I have had pretty good experiences with Adobe's support. The only time I've needed it was for licensing issues, but they (relatively) quickly bumped me up the chain to get me to a person who could resolve them.

Check out Photo Impact? Certainly has at least 99% of features of CS at a very reasonable price. Bought it a few years ago for $49, but haven't taken the time to learn all its features.

It may be a matter of who you get at the other end of the phone. I had a Lightroom registration problem which they couldn't or wouldn't resolve in June. Just got it resolved in five minutes today.

"It's not really surprising that customer support had trouble helping you with this. It seems like you were unhappy that the software was behaving the way it was designed to and expected them to get it to work in a way it doesn't or shouldn't. Personally, I think you are over reacting a bit."
Thanks for the explanation and you are probably correct about software design. I guess the point of the rant or what is described as an over-reaction is not about software design, but rather the fact that the hold times (hours) are outstandingly ridiculous and the fact that nobody can "think" about what I am telling them. If getting disconnected twice and being hours on hold is over-reacting then, guilty as charged. They have to rely on a solution algorithm that doesn't cover the answer. So, why have human beings anser the phone if they are only going to read off a script? For the price we all pay for their software I expect more. A lot more.......

I also think your expectations of solving the problem were a little high. However, your expectations of how you were treated (hold times, patience with your explanations, disconnects, etc.) are not out of line at all.

Anyway, I think Elements is really great as long as you don't want what it is missing - or used to be missing...they're adding more with each release. For me, when I upgraded to CS4 from Elements 4 it was to get 16-bit support, proper curves, actions and droplets, and soft-proofing.

I've also tried LightZone a couple of years ago, and I really liked the idea, but it was very slow. It was also much more of a RAW developer than editor, to the point where I felt I still would have needed Elements or CS (kind of like Lightroom is now).

You would think that if they charge hundreds of dollars for their software like the $700 photoshop because it is supposed to be the number one photo editor that they could at least ensure that the support is top notch as well.

Outsourcing support is a pretty surefire way to ensure the quality of service will be very poor, sure its a lot cheaper but if you charge your customers more than 7 times what a lot of other photo editing software costs don't you think they could at least put some of that extra money into quality support. It would be nice if when you called in you would speak with people who spoke your language fluently and actually knew what they were doing rather than following procedure so that they could really understand what your problem was when you explained it to them and help you resolve it like things used to be. It would be nice if that was the case with all tech support but I understand that for software that only costs $50 there goes all their profit on the sale after one phone call if they don't outsource but if you are paying $700 for a "quality" product then quality service should also be expected.

If you go to a nice restaurant where you will be paying 7 times more than you would at Mc Donalds you expect top quality food and top quality service, if you are paying that much more it doesn't matter if the food is amazing if you have to get up from your table and find a waiter to take your order who then loses the order and you have to get up again to check on it. You would expect that extra money to go toward hiring a competent staff to take your order, not a pimple faced high school student to whom this is his first job.

I think too many people with bad experiences with Adobes tech support just give up and let it be but if all those people wrote letters to the adobe president stating their frustration with paying so much money on a product and not being able to get help with it when there is a problem then adobe would have to do something. They should demand that paying a premium price for a premium quality product should also come with premium quality tech support and that means not outsourced support.

Bryan, just to be clear, I don't think the rant is overreacting, but rather tossing Adobe products because of a bad experience. Expecting customers service to be able to address every problem quickly in something as complex as photoshop is expecting too much in my opinion, but being cutoff is in-excusable, especially considering how long you sometimes need to wait.

One very real advantage to continuing to use photoshop rather than other software is that there is a huge community of people and an enormous amount of information in forums like this where you can generally find answers to your questions without resorting to phone support. You will be hard pressed to find this level of community and publisher support in any other software package.

Your point is well taken about the available help in the community. That's what I will need to do is not actually rely on support from Adobe but from others. I was turned on to NAPP and they have a helpdesk for their products and actually use them. So that's what I will do.

I still wish they had some real competition to raise their level of service.

For those that beat up on Dell, was it the standard service that you had a problem with? I'm certain that it was. If you purchase a business system and purchase the "Pro Support" $199 for 3 years you get service that is very comparable to Apple. Very knowledgeable true tech support that doesn't read from a flow chart. I've dealt with the standard consumer Dell service and it's just the same as the other consumer support, very weak. I now deal with Dell's business "Pro Support" and they have been awesome! They even support my downgrade to Windows XP Pro. They haven't missed a beat so far and have always went the extra mile for me as a business customer.

If you want Pro Service then you gotta pay for it just like Apple.

Well, geeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzz, I do know ther are problems, but please don't condem a product because of a person. Weigh it all. I also wish my best as I have had a desk top, lap top, and TV all go down ing a month. BUT, life is good

Hi Brian

I agree customer service is poor but for me for different reasons, on the occasions I have contacted Adobe they have always been responsive and have usually solved my problem immediately. What really niggles me is the point Freda Kraus raised that they no longer provide service for anything other than the latest version (in particular plug-ins for the latest cameras) and when you consider what you pay for it (especially UK prices) I think at best CUSTOMER SERVICE is POOR!

David