"Adobe have known to have good products, but the prices are high. But worst of all, the support service. It's hard to find their service support such phone or chat room. They have chatline, but it's hard to find and when you find it, it's can't help you much. For example, I have few adobe software and I have problems with them. I tried to find support and it took me at least 3 hours to finally find a chat room/person. However, the chat person couldn't help me because she/he said he/she was in different department and I needed to try again the next day during business hour. EXcuse me? it took me like 3+ hours to find him and he can't help me? their software cost from hundred to thousands dollar and that's how they help people? really? seriously? Adobe also relies on customers help customers instead of paid support to help customers. Sad but true. :( *sigh* :("

"I usually don't shop at the Adobe Store because of their prices. You can find any photoshop or Adobe product cheaper at many online retailers BUT I have found out, the hardway, that while their prices are MSRP, with sales you get better service buying direct.
Never a problem when updating software etc because you bought from the Adobe Store."

"As I college student who loves to play around with graphics (and now working part-time in the graphics industry!), I decided to take advantage of their student discount. Even though Adobe's student discount is quite gracious, their software is still very high -- especially for a student budget. That's what happens when monopolies arise, I suppose, but it's true that no software on the market compares to Photoshop et al.

Anyway, I purchased directly from Adobe and the student verification (I scanned my college ID card and uploaded it to the correct form) was a breeze. I could then download (by downloading, I was able to have no sales tax or shipping costs). My software suite was a HUGE file that took hours to download on my connection; several times, my internet went down or the laptop went to "sleep" which ended up corrupting my file. Can anybody say re-download?

I do have to say that Adobe's activation feature is a pain in the you-know-where. A few months after purchase, I started getting "Licensing for this product has stopped working" and even after running through all of the suggested fixes, including un-installing and re-installing the software, nothing worked. This ended up not mattering because the entire laptop failed...

Actually, my laptop had literally failed twice (before I could "de-authorize" its license), meaning I had to reformat the hard drive twice -- and that two activations were wasted. By the third time, when I tried to install my programs, I was told that I'd used up both of my activations (on the same laptop, mind you!). I contacted support via live online chat and explained the situation; the rep "added an activation" to account. I just hope my laptop doesn't fail again!!

Anyway, their support has been a mixed-can for me. When I lost the serial numbers to two [other] products, they supplied new ones. However, when I asked for download links to those products, they said I should just upgrade to the newest version.

To sum up: Adobe software is great, its customer service is okay, and its activation/licensing sucks."

"I am happy with Adobe customer service and also the policy of post announce upgrades, which allow a customer who purchased an Adobe product and then a short time after purchase, an upgrade to the same product was announced and Adobe offers a free upgrade with receipt. I have received help from the person on the Adobe line each time I called and found the help on the other end to be nice and acceptable, maybe a little hard to understand, yes. I have always had a positive experience in dealing with Adobe and I am thus leaving positive feedback. I am very appreciative of the post announce upgrade to Photoshop CS5 that I received, and shipping was free and within 3 days. Thank you."

"Absolute nightmare to deal with them on the phone with barely intelligible call centre staff, and their website is a mess. Against that, their products are topnotch! It took a couple of long (25 minute+ calls) to sort out student verification was cleared. The company needs to sort out this aspect of their business as a priority.
On pricing and delivery, I went to them because Studica failed to deliver as promised - see separate review. Adobe order arrived within 24 hours of its being despatched from Ireland.
On pricing, Studica quoted £250.52. Adobe £257.01 - not a whole lot of difference, except the goods from Adobe arrived far sooner than they said they would."

"My experience:

1) Web site painfully slow to load. Flash heavy site.
2) Site poorly organized
3) Find a Mac link as Macs do not show up in the product pages
4) Review the products and select
5) Note that discount terms and conditions detail conflict with what's advertised
6) Call Sales and wait 10 minutes to speak to someone
7) Spend 20 minutes on the phone for a simple order of one product
8) Promptly receive order confirmation
9) 7 days later wonder why no shipping notice
10) Log into my account, "no order history"
11) Web site barely functional, some pages do not load. Flash heavy site.
12) Try to complete Customer Service inquiry but rejected because I must have a reg code. No product = no reg code.
13) Call Adobe and wait 10 minutes for a human.
14) Note situation and am put on hold for a few minutes. "Yes there's an order."
15) Status? Put on hold for a few minutes. "Unknown." How can this be? "We will have that information after the product is shipped."
16) Still waiting, situation unknown, end of discount period approaching.

I've dealt with Adobe in the past and it just get's worse. This is the same software that can be purchased all over the web. Some day I will learn to pony up the extra few $'s and order from a reliable, functioning, supplier.

On the positive side, I compliment Adobe for the courtesy manner and intelligence their employees displayed. It is rare these days. On a less positive side, this company needs a major league management shake-up.


Subsequent comment:

I did receive the product a few days later. With an expired rebate form. The rebate is clearly not what I was told when I spoke to Adobe sales and not what is currently on their web site.

So, back to dealing with Adobe.

Simply stated, I wish I had never purchased Adobe Elements."

"The same thing that everyone is talking about happened to me as well! This website is awful everytime you call you end up waiting 20 minutes minimum on the phone, then you get sent to india where, no offense to any of the workers, no one can understand you due to a language barrier. These workers also will tell you that your order is being processed and they can see your student ID up there and they are just waiting for a response from adobeEDU, and they have elevated your case to the next level and someone will get back to you within one busniess day. Which is crap because their EDU site never must check their emails because i waited 8 days for a response, and the only one i got was something that said my order will be canceled by the next day if i don't put my ID up, which i did, and another 3 days (keep in mind that one day cancelation!) later saying since i didn't put my ID up my order was canceled. The customer service is awful and they don't know how to help you and they also don't understand the words, "give me a manager" I had the worst experience with this company if you need your product and you want it at these low prices go to (putting it in caps so everyone can see it!) CAMPUSTECH.COM great website! ordered yesterday (6/10/09) and they already told me today my ID was approved and i will be receiving an email shortly with my tracking order number. Bottom line never order from adobe.com!"

"I have had no trouble with using Adobes storefront. I needed to upgrade my version of Adobe PhotoShop and decided to order online. Everything went well and my product was shipped quickly. I havent had to use their customer service so I can't comment on that aspect. The product itself worked well, I'm just not too fond of having to pay yearly fees to keep a $140 product updated."

"First of all let me say that Adobe makes some great software. Secondly, I recommend you do NOT order those products from the Adobe store.

I placed an order via the Adobe Store and within a few minutes discovered the same product elsewhere (at an authorized and reputable dealer) for roughly half the price. Within an hour after placing the order with Adobe - I decided to cancel and order from the other source.

Adobe's CSR was very nosy as to why I wanted to cancel and became less than friendly when I honestly told her the reason. She then told me it was not possible to cancel the order at that time as the "data bases had not yet merged". She then informed me the merging process would take 24 to 48 hours.

About 6 hours later, I called Adobe again and was greeted by a different CSR. This time the lady was quite friendly and did her best to cancel the order. She apparently succeeded then told me the order was cancelled and no charges would be levied against my account.

Apparently the rest of the Adobe system and staff was unaware of the cancellation (even though they acknowledged record of the cancellation later) as they went ahead and charged my credit card the full amount of the order. I could go on and on about the conversations and communications but let me just summarize in the next paragraph.

Adobe charged my card the full amount of the original order. Adobe NEVER sent anything to fulfill that order. Adobe CSRs as well as their supervisor not only failed to act honestly, I was repeatedly "misinformed" (a kind description of lies).

I had to file a dispute with my CC company to finally recieve a partial refund from Adobe. Their refund was less than the full amount they had improperly charged my account (by $6.xx ???). My CC company took it upon themselves to refund the remaining balance to my account.

Bottom line is do NOT buy directly from Adobe Store, IMHO. Even though their products are often excellent, their direct pricing is much higher than is offered by their own authorized dealers AND any discrepancy is likely to cause serious issues.

My opinion is they should not even be allowed to conduct direct online sales.

"

"Please read the posting referencing a purchase from Europe via the Adobe Online Store. My above invoice number shipped but never made it to its destination; only one of a number of mistakes made by the AOS - Adobe Online Store.
Since the last user outlined so many faults consistent with my own experience, I will list my own as bullet (*) points.
* Shipping to a PO Box is not allowed and yet Adobe shipped to a PO Box. I had a different non-PO Box shipping address.
* Customer service representatives state grossly inaccurate claims and explanations. The customer in note above offers as to why this may be.
* Incredibly long wait times when calling SALES or SUPPORT.
* Customer service representatives not knowledge and confused about performing simple tasks.
* Organization of support frequently leads to have to pass the call between sales and support - and often numerous times.
* Download facility non-functional outside the continental US with US billing address and USD credit card. Very mis-leading. Erroneous error messages given when trying to purchase. I'm very puzzled as to why Adobe simply does not disable the online store outside the continental US. They are a software company after all aren't they?
* For price of software, and for the list prices in the online store, you would think you would be receiving premium service for premium priced products.

Recommendation: If you can wait to receive the product, but from reseller. The only downside is the return policy.
"

"Ordered easily online. Item (Photoshop CS2) arrived well ahead of schedule in perfect condition. Phone contact was a pleasure and CS rep was extremely helpful. Parts of Adobe's site did consistently crash Firefox and I was forced to crank up IE to visit certain areas."

"The order was for Adobe Photoshop Elements for Macintosh v3.

The order was placed online, however the site does not allow any changes to the shipping address unless you change your entire personal info. I live in Europe and was trying to have the software delivered to a friend who was coming in a few weeks to visit me and bring the disks.

Although showing as "shipping now" on the Adobe website, my order status showed as "Backordered". I called Adobe (International Long Distance) to inquire about the status and ask them to manually change the shipping address.

The Customer Service Representative that I spoke with told me the software was "backordered" and could not give me a date for shippping. I pointed out that the website STILL showed the software as "Now Shipping", he told me that it "wasn't his area". When he told me he was unable to change the shipping address on an unshipped order, I cancelled it.

A few days later, while checking my bank account online, I noticed that Adobe was making a $1 "inquiry" against my credit card each day. I called Customer Service again and found out that the previous Rep had noted the cancellation but had NOT actually cancelled the order. This second representative told me that she COULD change the shipping address for me and that the software was indeed shipping. So after a 45 minute International Long Distance phone call, the order was reinstated.

Once again, a few days later, I checked the "online order status: BACKORDERED". Yet another Intl. Long Distance call to Adobe. I spoke to "Dell" a Customer Service Manager. He informs me that the software is BACKORDERED and delivery won't be possible for 3-4 weeks. I still let the order go, figuring when my friend returned home, she could mail the CD's to me. To apologize, Dell said he would throw in the shipping costs.


Once again, a few days later, the order status changed to "shipped". However, the charge to my credit card was a bit on the high side.

Another ridiculous (ridiculous in the sense of the comedy and incompetance displayed by the Adobe staff) International phone call puts me in touch with "Jeremy". Jeremy informs me that my order did indeed ship out. I asked why there was such a high charge to my credit card, and it turns out that "Dell" shipped the order with the correct address BUT SHIPPED THE WINDOWS VERSION. On top of that he HAD charged me for the shipping that he promised not to.

It is now two days before my friend departs for Europe, and Jeremy assures me that he has made total effort toexpedite another package. I asked him for the DHL Tracking info so that I could see when it arrived. The DHL Tracking field showed the package delivered to Central Philadelphia, many miles from the address in Chester, Pennsylvania.

Yet another call to Jeremy, and he tells me that "we list those addresses that way for security purposes... that he shows "on his screen" that it was delivered to Chester.

Of course, after contacting DHL by phone, it was clear that he was either wrong, too dumb to know what he's talking about, or lying.

In the meantime, "Dell" sent me an email stating that he was refunding the $10 difference from the windows price. I replied that he still owed me the cost of the delivery charges, tax and some amount for the simple fact that he managed to screw up the order once again.


The end of this fiasco is that the software was purchased from another dealer. They delivered the software on time and to the correct address.

Every aspect of using the Adobe Store in this case was nightmarish. Every single person dealt with managed to add to the problem. I am STILL waiting for my refund."