No License Key, No Support

by Robert Redwood
(England)

Apparently, if you can't give Adobe a license key (and a very recent one at that), you're not worth talking to.

I own lots of Adobe products. LOTS. I've purchased copies of Photoshop Elements 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 just to help make this site alone. I provide a useful resource to the community of users that buy their products.

You'd think then, perhaps, that they'd be interested in helping me to build more resources for all of you that use their products ... but apparently not.

I phoned them up recently asking if I could get some specifications for a particular type of file that Photoshop uses - a request that would help me to provide useful tools and resources to all of you. But since I didn't have a license key for an 'up-to-date product' (which means only the very last version, so your full customer support only lasts around a year!), they wouldn't talk to me.

You know what it's like when you're clearly talking to someone following a script:


Me: "...So you're saying that you won't talk to me, because I don't have a Photoshop CS4 or Photoshop Elements 8 license key?"

Them: "We don't have a license key on file for either of those products for you, no. If you have a license key, you can tell me it now."

Me: "But my request isn't ABOUT those products. It isn't specific to ANY one particular version of Photoshop - it covers all of them."

Them: "I'm sorry sir, if you don't have a license key I can't provide you with support on the product."

Me: "I don't WANT support on the product. Look, hypothetically, if I went out and BOUGHT a copy of CS4 now, would you answer my simple question that doesn't even relate to CS4 then?"

Them: "If you'd like to purchase a license key then I will be able to look into whether I can help with your query regarding the product then sir. Shall I put you through to the sales department?"

Me: "Whilst I may purchase the product if I know you'll then answer my question, I'm clearly not going to buy the product on the off-chance that you might. Will you then answer my question?"

Them: "I'm sorry sir, I can't proceed any further without your license key. I can put you through to the customer support department if you'd like."

Me: "No thank you. I came from the customer support department, who reliably informed me that this was an issue for the technical support department. I can see we're not going to make any progress here. Thank you for your time, have a good day."


It took over 45 minutes of them wasting my time to arrive at the conclusion that they weren't at all interested in anything except selling me yet another product. I can't help but think that all the money I've sent their way over the years should earn me -slightly- better service than that.

Don't get me wrong - I understand the need to limit the ongoing support time for a product - all companies do this. Microsoft stopped providing support for Windows 98 ... in 2006. They usually support a product for around 10 years. Adobe, however, won't help you much at all unless it's with their latest offering, and since they are bringing out product versions ever more frequently, that doesn't last for long.

I'm not going to stop using their products, but I won't be phoning them again any time soon...