Adobe has issued a public letter apologizing for the company’s lackluster customer service. From our dealings with Adobe customer service, we can say that this comes none too soon. Typical wait times are in the hour+ category and problems are routinely left unsolved even for simple issues like registering product. Let’s hope they create as good a customer service experience as they are able to create great product.
Adobe says in the letter that the problems stem from transitioning to a “new global service provider”. Hopefully this transition has been occuring for the past year+ since customer service has been poor for years now.
Here’s hoping they will rethink their product suites and sales-ability during their soul-searching. Specifically their ability to sell individual products to suite owners somewhere under retail pricing. A recent conversation with Adobe retail sales at their 800 number resulted in the salesperson admitting it was a bit fantastic that, even though we own Adobe Web Premium – a $1600 product – we are not eligible for any discounts on the InDesign product and have to pay the $699(!) for the product. Design Premium includes InDesign for only $100 more. While it doesn’t include Contribut and Soundbooth, everyone on the phone call agreed that Adobe had there head screwed on wrong with respects to additional suite sales.
Anywho, here’s the first paragraph from the apology, the rest can be seen here or halfway down their customer support page.
“Adobe is committed to providing the most advanced, innovative products and services in the world. Recently, however, our customers have experienced a level of service that is inconsistent with what they expect and deserve. This is unacceptable to us and we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this has caused some of our customers. We are working diligently – in fact, teams are working around the clock – to resolve these issues. I’d like to thank all our customers who are sharing feedback and giving us the opportunity to respond. We appreciate your loyalty, support, and willingness to make your concerns heard.”