Adobe support - is there anything worse?

[shawninvancouver]

Dec. 1 @ 1420h (PST)

Support call # 5 or 6 now... I am still on the phone (45 minutes in).

The first person I spoke with, I am certain that I just woke up this guy. I know I might be in trouble when he answered, "....Welcome to....err..." long pause so I said, "Hello?" and he replies, "errr... Welcome to Adobe Technical Support, how may I help you?" Then I had to repeat my Cust ID a few times (despite a perfect connection and the fact that his command of English assured me there wasn't a language issue). The rest of the conversation was like it was in slow motion... finally, he told me that I was in the wrong queue... so 1/2 hour later, I am still listening to music.

Then, at about 3:15 PST, I spoke with 'Richard' who then informed me I was in the wrong que (Video, this time!). I only waited a few moments to get to the 'proper' Captivate 4 'technical support'.

I won't bother to go into a whole lot of nonsense I dealt with over the next forty minutes... suffice to say, I finally reached a customer support representative in the U.S.; this woman (I can offer details to an Adobe employee if one cares) determined that I had a case and made a Tier 2 level support case for me. Furthermore, she promised to email me a summary of the case and with her email address, I could send additional information about my issue, and include a sample .cp (Captivate 4) file. I never received any correspondence from Adobe.

Next day...

Dec. 2 @ 0940h (PST)

Armed with my case # from yesterday, I call support.

... waited about 1/2 hour before I reached someone. I gave them the case number, followed by their boiler plate questioning. I was told that they couldn't help me because it was a customer support case number. 34 minutes later I finally demand to speak with a supervisor!

....11 minutes of music and the Adobe sales department answers; the sales women states that she is 'sorry' for my troubles and promises to send me to the 'right' department.

....6 minutes later... I am sent to support in the Philippines (I think). This guy has absolutely horrible manners! I ask to speak with a supervisor. I am put on hold....

....I waited an additional 35 minutes (there is no music.... just hold static)... I am assuming he never transferred this call.

Back to the beginning????

I have no idea what the status of my case # is...

Is Adobe's technical support the worst in the world??

This would almost be funny if it were not for the fact that I am encountering a serious problem with Captivate 4 and/or Connect Pro and my job is literally on the line to find a solution!

[Captiv8r]

Hi Shawn

Indeed there have been many different reports of support issues. I believe the support was outsourced a while back. There have been enough complaints lodged that Adobe issued an appology letter. You may view that by clicking here.

My Status Bar clock is reporting to me that it's 12:15 AM presently in India. So if one of the calls ended up there, it's not too surprising that you may have awakened one of the reps!

Not sure what to advise here other than to submit a Bug Report. Once in a while a Bug Report will result in one of the development team contacting you for more detail.

Wish I had a magick bullet for you... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links Captivate Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Adobe Certified Captivate Training SorcerStone Blog Captivate eBooks

[shawninvancouver]

Thanks Rick... I wish you did have something... magical or magickewl!

But time zones are no excuses for sleeping on the job. They are hired to support a North America which lies in those wee hours. I had to do the same years ago and it requires changing your sleep patterns.

Anyhow, the greater problem is when they don't appear to know the product you are calling about. There is excellent support available in India and but I suspect Adobe

Update: After about 1 1/2 hours in a new phone call, I finally spoke with someone who was willing and technically competent enough to help out.

It turns out that I did not receive an email from customer service because Adobe had my email address spelled incorrectly. Let's see where this goes next.

>Not sure what to advise here other than to submit a Bug Report. Once in a while a

>Bug Report will result in one of the development team contacting you for more detail.

Yes, I had submitted this as a bug report and no reply.

[Captiv8r]

Hi Shawn

LOL, I wasn't being apologetic for the sleepy sounding voice. Just making an observation.

I come forom a technical support background. I worked in a call center for a number of years. And I can attest that regardless of the call center, regardless of location, it's always "luck of the draw" with the customer experience. You see call center reps that really could care less. They are only there because they need a paycheck. They do nothing more than absolutely necessary to scrape by. One former co-worker would always come ask my buddy and I how to solve issues. Once the call was over, back to playing Tetris she went. Another popular request was "reboot and call back if that doesn't work". Can't tell you the number of times I receved the second call. Grrrr

I eventually moved to a role where I supported the call center hardware. I got calls to fix "Non-system disk or disk error" on bootup. I'd walk out and pop the floppy disk out of their system and watch it boot. And that's the type of call *THEY* were supposed to resolve for customers calling in!

It's really quite amazing to watch common sense just take a leap out the nearest window sometimes. But I digress.

Best of luck to you with the support... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links Captivate Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Adobe Certified Captivate Training SorcerStone Blog Captivate eBooks

[shawninvancouver]

Ha! I know you were not being apologetic. 🙂

But it was interesting to learn a little bit about your past experiences. My experience was similar, especially about useless co-workers. It's really, truly sad that these people are allowed to work in such positions and then hurt the reputation of the organization. Worse, the good workers rarely receive any acknowledgement from management. That is why I have a personal philosophy of always sending a thank you to the supervisor of a technical support group, when I receive exceptional help.

Anyhow, thanks as always for both your support and sympathy over the past month! 🙂

[mvlele]

Hi Shawn,

Can you please check your private messages folder. I have sent you a message sometime ago.

Regards,

Mukul