Adobe Support??!

Hey All!

I've been getting a little XP laptop up and running for my daughter. One task is to install Photoshop CS3, which I've done, but:

To finish and activate, of course, I can have only one active installation of CS3.

Well, I have had one install on my XP workstation and one on a Vista laptop, but a while back the laptop died totally and so I was unable to uninstall or deactivate it...

So, I go to the Adobe Support site to find support/contact info. I have an account there, so they "know" me...

So I phone their customer service phone number...they inform me that it may cost me almost $50 for support services..., then they give me the option of going on CallBack status rather than being in a long holding queue, which I opt to do and they said I would be called back within and hour. I think "nothin' wrong with that", left my number, and hung up and went back to doing stuff.

Well, that was about 5 hours ago...

So, I go back to the Adobe site and look to see if there is an online support link of some sort, or email, or any alternative to the phone cal/CallBack business, and heck, I can't find anything!

It's been several years since I had any need to directly contact Adobe for anything -- the Vista install of CS3 had this glitch to do with dang user privileges and was able to reach someone by phone after enough time on hold that I was able to find the answer online.

So, very little experience with Adobe support/help and no idea:

First, will this simple task cost me $50? I'd think not...

Second, what am I missing as far as online support? Does anyone have a link that I've just not seen for contacting "someone"?

Thanks for any response -- if nobody comes up with something I guess I'll head over to the dang Adobe forums...

I had a go with their support about a year ago. Total disaster. You will have to call them, and what you need is called a letter or destruction, where you attest to the fact that one copy was destroyed with a PC then they can free up a key. Maybe. What I ran into was a refusal to support anything with respect to CS3 until I managed to escalate to a supervisor in the USA. I think it took me about three weeks. Sorry to say, but their support is nearly gone completely.

So, here is what I had to do.

Call every other day.

Keep asking for the same thing.

Once you get someone working on part of it, edit the support ticket every day asking about status. That seems to make it end up in a manager queue.

Even after you get the LOD done, you will have to scan it and upload it.

Again, just edit the ticket and keep calling.

Eventually, you will probably get what you need.

Go to My Support and look on the right side for Contact Support. Click it and it should bring up the way to chat online with an agent.

I've used it a couple of times and gladly not had the problems Sam has.

^^ that will work, but your actual conversation will not end up in the support ticket. You have to put your own notes on the ticket. Do not hesitate to tell them what you think. If you are politely demanding, it may accelerate getting something to actually happen.

It seems like their support is hit or miss. So far, I've been lucky whether using talk, chat, or emailing.

Thing is, I was an enterprise customer, and spent many thousands with them on multiple products and it did not matter. I hope things have improved. It was sad to see a formerly outstanding vendor self destruct support.

I've poked around the Contact page over and over again and just found the phone numbers -- no chat, no "ticket". Here's where I keep ending up:

http://www.adobe.com/a​boutadobe/contact.html

Anybody have a link that shows the alternatives? I want to revisit this tomorrow and get some results!

tonylong wrote in post #12512822
I've poked around the Contact page over and over again and just found the phone numbers -- no chat, no "ticket". Here's where I keep ending up:

http://www.adobe.com/a​boutadobe/contact.html

Anybody have a link that shows the alternatives? I want to revisit this tomorrow and get some results!

If you click on the "I need help activating or deactivating my software" and wait for a few seconds it should come up with the chat box. It will say if there are none available and you can wait until one frees up.

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Hmm, well, I looked at that page several times, including about noon PDT, and there was no chat option on the page and still isn't one. Maybe this is one of those "day after holiday" things? Or did you actually get that screen up just now and it's just not available to me?

I don't know -- is it possible that is only available for institutional/business support and not for individual customers?

Does it actually give you an error when trying to active it?

I have had my copy of CS2 intstalled many times - I build my own PCs and that sometimes comes with a lot of parts swapping and upgrading and OS clear-installing
A couple of times I had a PC die on me and I never had to call Adobe for anything...

tonylong wrote in post #12513118
Hmm, well, I looked at that page several times, including about noon PDT, and there was no chat option on the page and still isn't one. Maybe this is one of those "day after holiday" things? Or did you actually get that screen up just now and it's just not available to me?

I don't know -- is it possible that is only available for institutional/business support and not for individual customers?

I just got it several minutes ago. I'm an individual customer. Are you signed in?

Yeah, I've been signed in all day! This is bizarre! Are you using CS3, or a newer version? I know that some support options expire over time -- I wonder if that is the case with CS3?

^^^I use CS5.

You know, I may see something helpful, the part where it says:

I hadn't considered the possibility that I could get to the Deactivate function on my working computer and that it may give me the ability to deactivate the installation on my non-working computer.

I guess if that will do the job, then maybe I'll just relax and pour myself a nice stiff drink!

Both are worth a shot . Hope it works.