Dear Adobe–
I have finally received my Adobe CS3 upgrade package, thank you.
Since the upgrade process has not been a particularly smooth one, I thought I might share a few thoughts and suggestion with you that I think could help avoid problems like this in the future.
A quick recap of my situation:
- I purchased Adobe CS2 Design Premium on 2007-04-27 and was eligible for an upgrade to CS3.
- I tried to place an upgrade order through the Adobe web site, but discovered that online upgrade ordering is not available so I called in and placed my upgrade order to CS3 over the phone.
- I was given an order number, and asked to FAX in my CS2 receipt to a number you provided – which I did 5 minutes later.
- A week later I again called in to support to see what the status of my order was. I was told that my order was on hold because they had not received my FAXed receipt. Several friends had experienced the same problem so this was expected, and was the reason I called in. As requested, I resent the receipt attached to an e-mail.
- Over the next month and a half I exchanged a dozen or so e-mails with one of your customer service reps. I was told that my order was delayed due to the CS3 upgrade product being out of stock.
- On 2007-06-15 I got a call from your customer service rep to verify that I was indeed waiting for the Spanish version of CS3. Um, no I am waiting for the English version. Apparently, this is why my order has been delayed – because it was placed for the wrong version of the product, which was out of stock. A new order was placed for the correct version.
- On 2007-06-22 – nearly 2 months after my initial upgrade order – I received my CS3 upgrade package.
I would like to note that during the entire process, the support staff I spoke with and exchanged e-mails with were polite and represented your company well. The support rep I exchanged e-mails with was also the one that finally noticed the error in the product being ordered and took the initiative to contact me.
All in all though, this was not a great experience for me – your customer. There were several places where the order process got off track, and the thing that frustrates me most is that all of these could have been mitigated or even eliminated by allowing your customers to place and view their orders online. Yes, you can see information online for orders placed online, but not for orders placed over the phone; and all upgrade orders must be placed via phone.
Specifically, if I’d been able to place the order myself it is unlikely that I’d have made the mistake of choosing the Spanish language version (which was the root cause of the longest delay). But even if I had ordered the wrong version (placing the order online myself), I would have been able to see the problem when I went to check my order status online and saw that the product I had ordered was the wrong one.
I also should have been able to see that the FAXed receipt hadn’t been received, and probably cut a few days off of the wait there as well.
Being able to do this all online myself would have changed me from a helpless customer waiting for something to happen to an informed customer that could have helped get things back on track when they went awry. It also would have saved you money in support costs; you would have avoided an hour or two in telephone and e-mail support.
My company, Crowd Favorite, provides web development and user experience consulting services and would be be very pleased to have an opportunity to talk with you about the user experience of your ordering process and the benefits of making all of your ordering information available online for your customers.
Thanks for listening.
Your customer,
–Alex King
Founder, Crowd Favorite
http://crowdfavorite.net
Wow, I had a really similar experience to yours — missing fax and all. Fortunately mine’s only been going on about 3 weeks, and the upgrade has already been shipped and is due to arrive on Tuesday. Here’s hoping it’s not in Spanish!
Hola Alex!
I wish you luck with your letter. Be sure to FAX them a copy too.
Ouch. Did you have to go through all that just because you were getting the “free” upgrade?
What a great story! I found you because I am writing a web in wordpress for a friend in New Zealand. Your name was in the links. Did you help develop wordpress? I am especially interested in your experience to put it in a speech (Toastmaster for 5 years) I am a student of the late W. Edwards Deming, the american that went to Japan and taught them how to produce quality. This does not sound like a “quality” experience. Their system is “broke” they are concentrating on shelf sales and don’t have a clue what real customer service is.
What a shame.
Adobe’s poor customer service is enough to put you off their products. If you install the trial software then buy a package you have to uninstall all and then reinstall using the DVD. Something the installation package should just automatically fix but doesn’t. If you call for support, they pass you around to several people (a two hour process for me) before they tell you why your serial number doesn’t work.
As for their website, it was pointed out to them that the Canada store is completely unavailable. One of their reps said there’d be a fix for it, but that was back in February and it still doesn’t work!
Adobe seems to be acting like a monopoly; time to find alternative products! I’ve already started using an app I like better than Dreamweaver (Mac only), but PS is hard to beat!
This is scary.
I presently work with GIMP. I have started to pool funds so that one day, I will one the holy grail.
But your experience with Adobe really puts a question mark on all that.
[…] An Open Letter to Adobe | alexking.org Adobe please get your act together on this one. Your product upgrade experience is b0rked in many ways. This is a barrier to entry for version currency. Makes little sense. (tags: Adobe creativesuite) […]
[…] Rich Internet Application Mountaineer, about a problem a customer had with Adobe customer Service. Alex King wrote An Open Letter to Adobe, to detail the problems he has had with Adobe. In his letter Alex details the 2 month wait it took […]
… makes those “Photoshop CS3, $75” which I resist every day seem more like an appropriate value!
I have CS3 Web Standard.
There is no option to upgrade to CS3 Web Premium.
I miss Macromedia.
I had a very similar experience.
4/18/07 – Ordered free upgrade and faxed receipt.
6/7/07 – Call to check why not received. Shipped to wrong address, not used for over 2.5 years. Address not on my web account. Should receive new copy in 12 to 15 days. (note that I had 3 weeks vacation here)
6/15/07 – Still being processed wait 2 to 3 more days and call back.
6/22/07 – Can not determine status will call me back in 18 to 24 hours.
6/26/07 – Adobe called me back and said it will be shipping soon, but no tracking numbers.
6/29/07 – I called to get tracking number. Adobe determines that they cannot ship without faxing receipt. Order still not processed or shipped. Adobe gives me case number to attach to fax. Fax documents.
6/29/07 – Call back and ask for supervisor to make sure fax is ok. Supervisor assures all is ok, we review numbers and determine that case number was wrong on Fax (the one Adobe gave me), I will need to re-fax and call back to determine if fax is received. Customer service cannot see faxes until the next day.
6/30/07 – I call back and Adobe confirms fax receipt.
7/5/07 – I receive upgrade (along the way I was so mad that I demanded an overnight shipment.)
Similar here – still waiting 2 and half months later.
Email receipt 25/4/07 – twice, never recieved.
Faxed reciept, recieved order confirmation 20/6/07
Still awaiting package, told it would ship 4/7/07
I ordered CS3 Production Premium upgrade Apr 23 from Adobe’s site. Never saw anything indicating a need to fax anything. Called in early June to inquire about status. Told it would arrive ~June 28. No show. Called again today, and was told they’re out of stock, and that they notified headquarters about this issue etc. I asked when I could expect to see it. They couldn’t even give me a ballpark idea. It’s now almost 3 months since I placed the order,and I’m still waiting. Meanwhile I have co-workers who ordered it from Amazon last week and already have it installed. This is pathetic!
…only a month since I ordered it… no joy in getting a shipping date from Adobe despite 4 calls and an insistence on staying on the line. I now have the number for the distribution centre in Scotland – which I assume covers the UK. Am waiting for their callback in order to try and speed things along… if i get any joy i shall post the number for anyone else who wants it to call.
I am not impressed. I can’t even get to the web site to try to order. i tried to call in order and was on hold so long i just hung up. The is embarassing and i really wouldn’t do business with them unless my clients desired some Flash in their web sites.
I have never had such an unpleasurable experience buying software.
Ah….other people with Adobe problems. I ordered my upgrade from Macromedia Studio MX 2004 to CS3 Web Premium on the Canada website….seemed to work but I didn’t receive any confirmation so I called. Nothing on the system. So I placed an order on the phone and was told I would receive a confirmation shortly. No confirmation, so I called. Had a 1/2 hour call during which I told salesperson my name and was told that the customer number wasn’t mine, that it was registered to someone WITH MY NAME (ie. didn’t listen at all). Was told I would receive a confirmation. No confirmation (or receipt) ever arrived. Then the box arrived with all of the manuals (which I hadn’t ordered: the salesperson had just added them without my permission). And of course, no real receipt, so no way to know that I was charged for them until my credit card statement came. Now they are fighting me on it, refusing to do anything via email but I am loathe to call them considering they don’t follow up with their obligations when I do!
I just canceled my Adobe Acrobat certification due to the complete lack of product support.
I cannot go out and consult on a product for which there are serious problems with licensing and basic support. It would be seriously counterproductive to promote such a product.
It’s a real shame because the products can be very good.
I am currently having the same issues with Adobe. I have been trying to upgrade to CS3 and I’m very frustrated. the problem is that Adobe IS a monopoly and there is nothing I can do but wait and call and call and wait!
Ordered CS3 upgrade on 7/12/08 – my credit card was charged immediately but as of today 7/18/2008 my order status is still listed as “pending” on the Adobe website. Called 800 number to find out what the hold up was – the operator saw my order but didn’t know what was happening with the physical shipment because “that data isn’t in our system” and told me to call back tomorrow and “you *might* be able to find out what was happening from someone”. This is when the alarm bells went off, I’m thinking they lost my order somewhere along the way and I will never get my software, just a 600 dollar credit card bill. I just asked to cancel the order altogether and have my credit card charge reversed. They said they can’t refund my order until I return the physical merchandise to them – but of course they don’t know when I’m going to get it, which was why I was calling in the first place!
This is unacceptable behavior for ANY business. I’m reporting them to the better business bureau and my bank for fraud.
Next time I’m going strait to Amazon of Buy.com