I've been evaluating Premiere Pro CS6 for the past month. It's not bad, but it hasn't overwhelmed me, either, so I decided try it another month by using the Creative Cloud. It was very clear to me from what I read on Adobe's website that you could download the app to your computer and did not need to be connected to the internet to edit. Critical, if you're on a laptop, on a plane, at the beach, whatever. In any case, after I purchased and paid (and it was $29.99, not the $19.99 implied by Adobe's website) downloaded, installed, and verified my email address, I was getting prompted to "upload my file", so I tried to. However, I kept getting "file too large" messages and a prompt to download additional software. At this time, I attempted to contact customer service. This is where the real story begins. First, I would have been happy to send an email to customer service with my question, and wait for an answer, but I was completely unable to find anyway to send Adobe an email. I saw that Chat was available, so I went for that. I was told to wait 3 minutes and 41 seconds. After a while, I was again told to wait 3 minutes and 41 seconds. After a while, I was again told to wait 3 minutes and 41 seconds. Adobe, why would you do that to me? How is that customer service? Then, I was told to wait 4 minutes and some seconds. After a while, I was told it would be 4 minutes and some seconds. This really was disappointing and frustrating. While I was waiting for chat, I continually tried to find an answer or a phone number or an email on Adobe's website. What was interesting about that is, no matter which route I tried, which door I opened, I wound up at the same destination. Occasionally, I even wound up on a dead page. (That happened more than once). Then, I decided to Google "Adobe customer service". Try that for yourself. Some people have been so incensed with Adobe's customer service that they've reported Adobe to the California Better Business Bureau. At least one even considered reported Adobe to the California Attorneys General. I found many, many (pretty much ALL) people as angry and frustrated as I had become by this point.
Suddenly, my Chat became live but after a while it was clearly apparent that the person I was chatting with wasn't understanding my issue. I tried several times to re-word my question in hopes of making progress. (By this time, I had been dealing with Adobe customer service for over an hour). I was willing to make the effort! Suddenly, the person I was chatting with told me to "contact Technical Service" and the chat was terminated. I thought that's what I was doing...!
I then cancelled my order. (We're checking our credit card to insure that the cancellation has happened. Frankly, not only am I disappointed with Adobe, I do not trust them now). By the way, I have been a loyal *fan* and owner and user of After Effects for many years, currently at CS6.
Please bear with me. As a long time user of After Effects, I was aware of and have admired a certain prominent Adobe employee for many years, so Sunday I took the extraordinary effort of making a personal contact with this person via Facebook. I did this because of my deep personal disappointment with a company I have long admired. I didn't want to be yet another person bitching about poor customer service on the internet. What's the point? I want results. However, that person linked me to this forum as my only option.
Here's my expectation: I expect Adobe's customer service to be as good as Amazon's. Even better, why not be as good Red Giant? I was recently in contact with Red Giant customer service. I sent them an email. An hour later, I got a reply. A couple of emails later, my issue was solved. I was so impressed, I bought more software from Red Giant that day. So, Adobe, while I'm waiting to hear from you, I'm trying out Final Cut Pro X. I've heard that the interface is not all that tricky after all, that it's blazing fast (and I don't need to upgrade my video card), that there are tons of plugins already available, and the plugins I currently own ALL work with Final Cut Pro X. Adobe, I'm not going to buy an $800 piece of software from a company that has demonstrated that it doesn't care at all about me or my customer service experience. Somebody from Adobe needs to contact me, phone or email... you have my email adress... and make this situation right. As I see it, you've got 30 days while I'm trying Final Cut Pro X, although I probably won't wait that long.
Finally, I'm disappointed that I had to post this. This is not what I wanted. I wanted a great piece of software, and I wanted some reasonable customer service.
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