Hi Guys,
Well to start this topic, I must say I have never received such poor support for software as I have "received" from Adobe Chat Support team..
The case is as follows;
We have a volume license for Adobe Illustrator CS3 and haven't used it since somwhere before 2010. In 2010 we have moved to another city with our company. Therewith also renewing all hardware for our stylists. For over 5 years we haven't used Illustrator CS3, so we never thought about de-activating the software before getting rid of the old hardware. Since a couple months we have a new manager on the styling department, whom wants to introduce Illustrator again. Since all the stylists will need to be trained again for Illustrator, we'd like to do this in the CS3 version before upgrading to CC or CS6.
So the issue that comes up, is that I cannot activate the software, because the serial number that I've received many years ago, when buying the volume license, has been used too many times. This is because it was never deactivated on the old hardware.
The only option I had was to contact Support via Chat or Phone. Since I like to keep track on what have been said by both parties, I decided to go for the chat option..
If any of the Adobe Staff is reading along, the case number is 0215516123.
In a nutshell; If you have a retail version of a discontinued product with adobe, they can reset the activation count without any problems. If you buy bulk and have volume license, it all comes to this; please upgrade to the latest version.. There is nothing we can do for you..
Here is the complete chat log with 2 employees of Adobe, who are just not willing to help in ANY way.. I must say this really tested my patience and counting to ten skills..
Still looking for a solution tho, so any help is appreciated highly!
Thanks in advance!
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Thank you for your patience.
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You are now chatting with Naveen.
07:31:27
Naveen:
Hello. Welcome to Adobe Customer Support.
07:31:32
ME:
Hi Naveen, did my previous message come thru?
07:31:35
Naveen:
I'll be glad to help you with your issue today.
Your chat transcript will be sent to at the end of your chat.
07:32:28
ME:
that would be great!
07:34:19
Naveen:
May i know the operating system you are using?
07:34:25
ME:
W7 and W8
07:37:07
Naveen:
I am sorry to inform you but the CS3 is not compatible with windows 7 and 8.
07:37:24
ME:
What do you mean? The software works fine on W7 and W8
07:37:50
ME:
The issue I have is that from the 11 licenses that i've got, I got only 2 to activate
07:39:03
ME:
and thats probably because the old computers that we're phased out in 2010 had illustrator cs3 running on them. But since we didn't use it back then, we never thought about deactivating them.. Now the new styling manager wants to start working with Illustrator again, but I have the activation issue.
07:40:21
Naveen:
I am sorry but the CS3 is not compatible with windows7 and 8
07:41:22
ME:
How can you say that, it works fine on all of them.. 2 that have been succesfully activated and the other resigning ones are working fine on the 30 day trial.. We will be upgrading them sometime this year to CC or CS6. But for now we need to be able to activate the ones we have..
07:42:52
ME:
Your file was successfully uploaded: cs3.jpg.
07:43:01
ME:
Have a look for yourself
07:43:09
Naveen:
I have
07:43:25
Naveen:
http://www.adobe.com/store/en_us/popup/software/creativesuite/mastercollection/systemreqs.html
07:43:41
Naveen:
Please look the tech specs for the CS3
07:44:06
ME:
I have, so lets say I want to activate them over XP I have the Same issue, please help me resolve this issue
07:46:02
Naveen:
May I take the serial number please?
07:46:10
ME:
[removed by moderator]
07:47:06
Naveen:
Its a Volume license serial number, We need to transfer the chat to AVL team.
Please wait while we connect you to a representative.
You are now chatting with 'Deepti'
07:47:19
ME:
Thats fine by me
07:47:40
ME:
Hi Deepti
07:48:08
Deepti:
Hi,welcome to Adobe Support!
07:48:33
ME:
Thank you! Can you read the conversation back between me and Naveen?
07:50:51
Deepti:
Sure.
07:51:37
ME:
Great 
07:51:49
ME:
I hope you can help me resolve this
07:52:30
Deepti:
So you are facing issues with CS3 license , right?
07:52:49
ME:
yes I could only activate 2 of the 11
07:53:58
Deepti:
I would have loved to help you in getting these license activated however, we are not supporting CS3 anymore. This is a very old version of Creative suite that you have.
07:55:44
ME:
I know that, but it is a license we paid for and still are i title to use according to the license rights.. And as I said, we have the intention to upgrade them this year to the latest CC or CS6 version. But we need to start somewhere again and still have these licenses. I work for 3 companies in the group I work for. And 2 of them have all of the latest versions available. This company is a little behind on things, but we do need your help to get further..
08:03:06
Deepti:
I would have helped if it would have been cs6 or CC. This is an obsolete product and we are not supporting it anymore. You can refer to forums.
08:03:46
ME:
How will the forums help me on activating licenses.. I'm not asking for product support, I'm asking for license activation support, for licenses that we have paid for!
08:04:53
ME:
Clearly it is only some reset button you have to use to empty out the registration/activations from before 2010.
08:05:33
ME:
To show we are trying to keep up to date with licenses and latest versions you can see the volume licenses registered to
08:06:05
ME:
I really don't understand the mindset where you don't help out a paying customer
08:06:22
Deepti:
I am sorry but we don't have any reset button for volume licenses.
08:07:23
ME:
It was ment figurely.. There must be something you can do to help? I get the feeling that the support you are "giving" only means getting customers to pay more for the latest versions.
08:07:50
ME:
which as said we will upgrade somewhere this year.. But my stylists need training first
08:08:03
ME:
Hence thats what we need to activate them for right now
08:08:52
ME:
We paid for the license and are in title to use them.. But you are blocking that right now..
08:09:09
ME:
Which is totally outrageous
08:11:33
Deepti:
Yes you are entitled to use them. You have the serial key. You can install the product and use it till the time you want. It's just that Adobe has stopped providing support for obsolete versions.
08:12:49
ME:
I understand, but since I cannot activate them over the internet It only works for 30 days... The connection is fine, the serial is volume licensing.. But adobe says no sorry cannot activate because of too many activations.. And I only used 2 out of 11.. So please provide me a solution!
08:22:05
Deepti:
I am so sorry but there is nothing that I can do . I mean I don't have any deactivation button that I could use to deactivate the license for you.
08:23:22
ME:
So what happens when a customer has CS6 and the hardware was disposed of, on which CS6 was installed and wasn't deactivated? He buys new hardware and has the same problem as I currently have.. What do you tell that customer? I'm sorry there is nothing we can do for you? I really doubt that..
08:30:23
Deepti:
CS6 version is still in the support boundary hence, if there is any activation issue that you are facing with CS6 , we would be supporting you for that.
08:31:38
ME:
Wow.. I have never ever experienced such poor support for software as I have today with you from Adobe.. This is really dissapointing, especially if you spend that much money on licenses to be compliant..
08:32:26
ME:
So please tell me, what options do I have to make this work?
08:51:01
ME:
It would be appreciated if you can answer my question?
08:59:50
Deepti:
I am sorry but this is out of support boundary. You can refer to the forums , I am sure you will find some information related to the activation queries.
09:01:22
ME:
I am reading on the support forums that support of adobe needs to clear the current activations..
09:01:34
ME:
Only you @ adobe can do that
09:02:28
ME:
You should be able to tell me how many activations of the CS3 illustrator are currently done in the licensing portal
09:02:37
ME:
and you should also be able to clear them!
09:03:00
ME:
https://forums.adobe.com/thread/441285
09:03:17
ME:
https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1324890
09:05:40
ME:
Manish-Sharma (in answer to Leonardophoto) It might have not got deactivated properly from your old computer hence contact Adobe Support to get the count of activation resetted.
09:05:59
ME:
everywhere I look I need you from Support to reset the count of activations..
09:06:05
ME:
So please help me with this
09:10:15
Deepti:
I would have not kept you waiting for so long if I would have the option to deactivate your license key.
09:11:09
ME:
Then how come Jeff A Wright (your collegue) refers to this in every post he makes on the forums regarding activation/deactivation reset count settings..?!
09:12:23
Deepti:
That is for retail licenses.
09:13:00
ME:
Wow, so as a customer who buys bulk there is no solution?
09:14:23
Deepti:
There is no such problem that the Volume license customers face.
09:21:26
ME:
So now your saying that my problem doesn't excist?
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