Comments on: Adobe CS2 Woes

By: Photography Hack | Tips, Techniques, News, Guides and Links to Help You Shoot Better Pictures

Wed, 28 Sep 2005 10:54:39 +0000

[…] I can’t wait to check this out, but Erik and I are bummed as we had both recently bought Adobe CS… just not recently enough to qualify for Adobe’s stingy Adobe CS 2 upgrade policy. […]

By: Bill

Bill — Fri, 13 May 2005 21:37:11 +0000

In my case, I called the customer service group/ When I got stonewalled by the front-line rep, I asked to speak with a supervisor. When the supervisor stonewalled, I asked to speak with his supervisor. My name, phone number, and serial number was taken down and I was promised a callback. It was "Howard" who called me back, apologized for the earlier responses, and took the order for my free upgrade. If you can't get the same result, it seems to me a complaint regarding the anti-trust issue would be the ultimate recourse. Adobe CS is the equivalent of "Microsoft Office" for design professionals, and I couldn't imagine Microsoft getting away with this sort of policy.

By: kartooner

kartooner — Fri, 13 May 2005 05:19:08 +0000

Great to hear that Bill. On my end of things, despite numerous calls to their Customer Service department, they don’t seem willing to budge or see it my way.

I wonder what could be done to persuade them otherwise.

By: Bill

Bill — Thu, 12 May 2005 19:45:45 +0000

UPDATE: I received a call from an Adobe representative this afternoon. They are going to give me a free upgrade to CS2 after all. Yippee!

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 10 May 2005 14:00:48 +0000

I also purchased CS Premium in early February only to discover this major new version was available less than 90 days afterward. Adobe has not budged on the upgrade price; I will have to pay another $500 for the privilege of using this new version.

I’m honestly considering ending my 17-year relationship with Adobe over this. (The last time I was in this mood was when they killed Type-on-Call support without letting me know; I nearly lost thousands of dollar in fonts purchases. And did they offer an upgrade path to the OpenType Library when it was released? Nooo.) I don’t think this upgrade policy is fair treatment. Furthermore their response to it has been condescending and unmoving. This is not the Adobe I fell in love with. In fact, I’m nearly furious.

The only additional point of leverage I can think of is to contact the Justice department to file anti-trust complaints over the impending merger of Macromedia and Adobe. If they are acting this way when they have some modicum of competition, how will they act when they have the desktop graphics market sown up? And do you think Microsoft could get away with something like this if they had a similar policy for Office upgrades?

By: Tony

Tony — Wed, 04 May 2005 08:46:19 +0000

I just had a call from Adobe responding to my letter to the ceo complaining about the upgrade policy (I bought CS 2 months ago as well). The caller didn’t seem to think that I understood the policy and explained yet again about the post April 1 thing, so I don’t think I’ll waste any more time on this (it’s like arguing with a cat). But the future doesn’t look to good as these boys now more or less have a monopoly in the graphics software area

By: BRA

BRA — Thu, 14 Apr 2005 05:23:50 +0000

Well this is the way it is, I with a team of Adobe techs they are not Adobe employees but an outsourced company(No names because of non-disclosure agreement) both tech and customer service support team is only allowed to repeat what Adobe tells them to say so if you really want to get your problem resolved and actually speak to people who can fix it just call 206.675.7000(corporate office) and say that you are not getting it done calling sales support and want to talk to somebody about the upgrade policy because you are thinking about never buying the S/W again

my 2 cents Zyphon

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 13 Apr 2005 18:51:21 +0000

Ha ha, you paid for photoshop…

Man, I hope nobody from Adobe reads your site…

By: kartooner

kartooner — Tue, 12 Apr 2005 14:20:24 +0000

Max: I tried convincing Adobe to see it my way, but they weren't willing to see "eye to eye". As I mentioned, their "Post Announcement Upgrade" policy is that the individual is only eligible for an upgrade if they purchased CS1 between April 1st and June 31st, 2005. It just seems absurd that anyone in their right mind would purchase the older version of Creative Suite when the upgrade is available. If Adobe has a "Post Announcement Upgrade" then surely they should consider a "Pre-announcement Upgrade" for those who purchased an older version. I think 90 days would be fair enough.

By: Max

Max — Mon, 11 Apr 2005 20:02:59 +0000

I only update every couple releases or so because I can’t keep up financially with their upgrades usually.

I’d take your brother’s advice — when pressed, companies can do the right thing. Apple, for instance, has gone out of their way to correct some major errors with their hardware/software for friends I know. They bitched and Apple made it right for them. Give it a whirl!