Can't Cancel, Can't Refund

by Ryan Kirgan
(Sydney, Australia)

I cannot begin to convey my frustration dealing with Adobe's customer support system.

I recently ordered a copy of Adobe Premiere Elements 8 via the Adobe website only to discover that I didn't instantly receive the serial number.

I contacted Adobe's customer support via the Live Chat facility on the Adobe website. It took at least 45 minutes for the Live Chat not to be "Busy". Once connected, I was told that I would be connected in "6 minutes time" and eventually "3 minutes time" - I received this message for close to 30 minutes.

Eventually I was able to talk to someone from Adobe who informed me that it would take 48 hours to receive the serial number. I told him that this was laughable and that I was in disbelief that a company the size of Adobe would have such a poor turnaround time for something that I imagine should not be that difficult to process. I understand that time may be taken to verify the validity of a credit card, but 48 hours is plain ridiculous.

With that being the case, I asked the consultant to cancel my order. I provided my Adobe ID and was told that this would be effected. I was not apologised to for the failure in process.

I then logged into my Adobe ID account and changed the details (including the ID itself) as I did not want to receive any correspondence from Adobe, vowing never to purchase another Adobe product again.

Sure enough, when I've checked my credit card statement this morning I find that I have been charged A$169.95. Not the $165.00 as per the order, not the $134.00 as per the original quote (although I do believe that the added $31.00 may be because I asked for the discs to be delivered as well).

After 30 minutes I was connected to Adobe's telephone customer support (1800 833 6687) and was given a reference number and have been assured that I will receive a refund. This fellow was as helpful as could be expected (as he is not responsible for the poor process around the serial being sent out, nor was he responsible for not cancelling the order) however he could not provide me with information around when I could expect the refund, he could not provide me with an email receipt of our correspondence stating that I would in fact receive a refund and he could not detail the value of the refund, except to say that it should be $134.00. When I questioned this, he said he would put me in touch with the sales team to confirm the price. I told him that I did not need to know how much it would cost me were I to buy it again - I just wanted to know how much I was to be refunded.

I asked if I could send evidence of the order notice through and he gave me an incorrect email address, for which there was no such domain.

I have wasted so much time on this now that it would have been better to write off the money and not bother at all. Adobe should be ashamed of this poor level of customer support.