As many customers VICTIMS of Adobe products (especially in the CS3 series) know, it may very well be impossible to install Adobe's products without wiping (reformatting) your drive. Of course this most drastic of all "remedies" requires that the customer VICTIM spend hours upon hours reinstalling Windows and every other app that was lost, and then spend countless more hours trying to rebuild system and program settings and options to their previous states. Often this simply cannot be done. On more complex systems, like ours, we routinely expend about 30-40 hours rebuilding a system after wiping the drive. Adobe has now admitted, in writing, that there may be no alternative to installing its bug-riddled products without wiping your drive. This problem traces back almost exclusively to Adobe's phenominally over-zealous anti-piracy routines now being integrated into nearly all of its products. Search Google for 'CS3 install problem' to read more than 144,000 Adobe installation horror stories (growing daily). The problem is gargantuan with no relief in sight. Nowhere that we've found does Adobe make sure (or even hint) that the prospective customer is made aware of the potential (if not probable) requirement that the user will be required to completely rebuild his/her system in order to run Adobe's products. Countless tens of thousands of Adobe's customers VICTIMS have now lost estimated millions of man-hours and thousands of lost, angry clients due to Adobe's virtually non-stop malfunctions. We believe it's finally time to start organizing a Class Action Suit to recoupe some of those damages. Adobe is a company seemingly incapable of learning. They know they have a monopoly in several fields of creative endeavor, and they simply do. not. care how many people they inconvenience and cause hardship due to their often incompetent coding and counter-productive policies. They're not going to wake up on their own. A few thousand Small Claims suits won against them won't convince them of the need for social responsibility. In our view, the customers' only hope is to hit Adobe hard, in the place that will most get their attention. We've uninstalled and thrown away virtually every Adobe product we've ever installed over the past few days. We'll probably give up on Premiere as well because we do not believe Adobe can make it run on any of our systems without our having to wipe our drives and start over -- and THAT will HURT, because we have thousands of man-hours invested in creating Adobe Premiere projects that can only be rebuilt manually, from scratch. If Adobe will pay us our publicly advertised work rate of $55/hr times 30-40 hours, we'll consider it. But of course Adobe expects the CUSTOMER to eat all that time. We say enough's enough. Over the next months we'll begin researching the implementation of a
Class Action suit.
Consumers simply cannot continue to be Adobe's unwitting Beta testers. We're sick to effing death of it.
TO:
Adobe
801 N. 34th
Seattle, WA.,
98103
Registered mail receipt, signature required: 2103 8555 7491 3641 ----
NOTICE of INTENT to FILE SUIT
Re our software purchase in early December 2007 of Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0, serial # 1132-1063-xxxx-8642-xxxx-xxxx, Auth code # 5050-xxxx-4680-xxxx-xxxx.
Be advised, your software does not work.
Upon installing this product to a brand new machine (XP) with no other Third Party software yet installed, we activated the program using the “online” method, allowed the install to complete, then started Premiere. As has happened to literally tens of thousands of your customers over the past few years, the program booted about half way, then locked, and spit forth the following error:
Inasmuch as Adobe software becomes more unreliable and buggy with every single release, this only mildly pissed us off. We were not surprised. We uninstalled (about 20 minutes) and reinstalled (about 20 minutes), and lo, we were rewarded with the very same error. We tried again and again, making small changes to the install process each time, but each time being rewarded, yet again, with the same error. We spend every waking moment on computers and the Internet, and we’re painfully aware of Adobe’s growing penchant for going documentably bezerk with regard to anti-piracy measures. You are famous for making your software SO pirate-proof that it has become nearly impossible for the PAYING customer to use it. We call this penny-wise and dollar-freaking-stupid, but if you want to piss off customers by the tens of thousands, that’s your business – or lack thereof. We just don’t want those victims of your insanity to be US. Unfortunately, now it seems we ARE your victims, instead of being your happy customers.
We had actually purchased a copy of one of the CS3 Suites about two months ago. -Never did get it to install, due to your rampantly over-zealous anti-piracy routines. We took it back for a full refund, figuring we’d just fall back to an old and more or less reliable version, Pro 2.0. Never did we dream that you had also screwed up THAT version to the point where the Internet is rife with angry customers who can’t even get THAT to run.
In any case, a couple of weeks ago we began in earnest trying to install Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0. As noted above we were unable to get it to run on a brand new XP machine. It simply would not run. We finally became absolutely enraged, and went and downloaded a crack serial number off the net, and used it to install and register the version we had paid for – and by the way, $800 is about 8 times too much for this unspeakably buggy bunch of code. That one machine taken care of (yes, the pirated serial worked just fine), we then tried to install the software on the second machine (which is allowed for in your absurdly stingy license). Same problem. It would install, appear to activate properly using the serial number on the cd case, then stall upon first loading and spit forth the error message above (Registration Information is Invalid – Please reinstall Adobe Premiere Pro). We would uninstall it (20 minutes), reboot, and reinstall it YET AGAIN (20 minutes), over and over and over, using slightly different uninstall techniques and slightly different install techniques each and every time, only to be rewarded each and every time with the same stupid error message as shown above. In that 48 hour time period we logged 17 man-hours wasted on your product. Our publicly-posted work rate is $55/hr.
Finally, for no apparent reason, the product installed and began working. Hurray. We had outsmarted Adobe. We began working feverishly on a little video project that was now depressingly behind schedule. We were able to get several hours of work done – and then, of course, out of the blue, Premiere spit out a message stating that our license was no longer valid, and the program locked up. We uninstalled and reinstalled half a dozen more times, to no avail. Adobe had f—ked us again. Our project was woefully slipping behind, and we had no choice but to spend many more hours finishing the configuration of our new backup machine in order to start work again on our project -- using our paid-for software with a pirated serial number. What a bunch of bullshit!
Finally, on 12-27-07 we decided we needed Adobe’s help in getting Premiere to run on our main machine. We uninstalled and reinstalled A G A I N, then chose the phone-in option for activation. We went through the procedure, input all the numbers correctly, your system accepted our paid-for serial number, the program APPEARED to activate correctly, it finished its install, and we then opened the program. Of course Adobe f—ked us YET AGAIN by presenting us with the error shown above. Being f—ked by Adobe was becoming far too common, and we were now past miffed, far past irritated, way past angry, we were livid, and we kept thinking about how close your offices are, right over there a mile away in Fremont. Perhaps it was time someone told you in person, IN YOUR DAMNED FACES, just what we and the world was beginning to think of Adobe and its buggy software. So far we have resisted that temptation – but trust us when we say the urge is STRONG. Hell, you ruined Fremont too – what was once a quaint little neighborhood, one of the brightest spots in Seattle, is now concrete-gray Adobe bunkers as far as the eye can see. We’re STILL pissed about THAT too, and so is all of Seattle. What a collosal, incomprehensibly bad turn you've done this city. You have single-handedly, unarguably ruined one of it's prettiest attributes.
In any case, we paid a staggering sum for Premiere Pro – (and yes, your CEO’s stupid, stupid public comment to the effect that ADOBE’s customers "don’t CARE about price" has pissed us off too) – and we demand that you make this piece of crap work.
To that end we called your “tech support” today at 15:50 hours, and spoke with “James” (206-675-6222). It was clear from the start that James was cranky. Well, we were too, so we made an explosive match. James persistently bugged us for an email address before he would even discuss the problem, and we persistently advised James that he wasn’t going to get one because we receive spam from every other lame-damned company in the world, and we didn’t want to also start receiving it from the likes of Adobe, a company who, just two or three years ago, we supported publicly, loudly, copiously, and now, just two or three years later, we consider to be one of the dumbest, most counter-productive and dishonorable companies in the world today. When James would NOT take no for an answer, we told him to go fu--- himself and we slammed the phone down, and vowed at that instant to file against Adobe in small claims court for the cost of the software and to be reimbursed for our time over the preceding days.
But we’re going to give you one more shot at simply MAKING YOUR SOFTWARE WORK. You get only one more chance. We’ve come to loathe you and your asinine business policies; we’ve come to be wary and, frankly, afraid of your products and the likelihood (the LIKELIHOOD) that they are going to continually leave us in the lurch when they crash, freeze, lock-up, mangle our projects and refuse to start. We’re afraid of the revenue Adobe is going to cost us and the angry customers you're going to cost us because of these shortcomings by your witless, short-sighted programmers who don't have under their belts one molecule of real-life experience, and by your administrative people who seem to be going down the same road as Microsoft, saluting and embracing the policy that says “First, make it FANCY, then, if we have time and we "feel" like it, perhaps we’ll think about making it WORK”. We, meaning “the world”, would rather have FUNCTION FIRST. Just bloody-well make it WORK, properly and reliably, and THEN, if you have time, and you feel like it sometime, make it pretty. Uncle Bill is slowly but surely losing his market because of that one, exact terminally erroneous philosophy, and we can only hope Adobe suffers the same fate.
Bottom line: You ain’t getting’ our email address. Filtering spam takes too much time as it is. Were you a competent, reliable, honest and honorable company, we’d be happy to supply you our address – email is a great way to communicate and it might more quickly facilitate a cure for our problem. But you are NOT an honorable company, and thank the Gods of Camels, the world is finally beginning to see what you’ve become and are becoming. We simply don’t trust you with our email address. But we DO trust you with our phone number, and if you don’t care to appear in small claims court, we suggest you make use of it and, over the phone, FIX THE PROBLEM WITH YOUR SOFTWARE. It’s really just that simple. Make your product work. That’s all it takes. Your product probably worked just fine before you loaded it down with anti-piracy routines and counter-productive crap (CS3 is an absolute nightmare for the entire world and you know that well). Sure, you’ve kept a few pirates from schlepping your program, but you’ve angered many, many times that many in the form of honest customers who are at this very moment, like us, taking a really hard look at Avid and even Sony Vegas. You see, we’re just plain sick of you and your shenanigans. We just want our products to work – doubly and triply so when they are as obnoxiously over-priced as yours. Of all the video editing prods we’ve used over more than a decade, and that means ALL of them, Adobe’s products are the LEAST reliable. Adobe’s products have caused us more lost work than all other editing programs combined, and that is NOT something you get kudos for.
So consider that this will fulfill the Washington state requirement that we notify the offending party of their need to settle any given dispute within 30 days before we can actually file in small claims against you. If we were to file today, the amount would include a complete refund on the product, and $935 in labor trying to get your miserable batch of scrambled code to run. You may pay this amount within 30 days, or you may make your software work within three business days of the date you sign for this legal document, or you may meet us in small claims court right down there on 9th street, because we WILL file against you if you do not resolve this, and we’ll do our very best to establish, publicize and promote a method whereby your out-of-area victims can sue you by proxy right here in Seattle. Their numbers are growing and they need and deserve relief.
In profound and absolute disgust,
[signature]
12-27-07
Ph: -----------------
CC: http://www.truth-or-consequences.com/badder_business_bureau/adobe_sucks/adobe_sucks.htm
Current Status:
Label/Receipt Number: 2103 8555 7491 3641 XXXX
Status: Notice Left We attempted to deliver your item at 11:19 AM on December 31, 2007
It can be redelivered or picked up at the Post Office. If the item is unclaimed, it will be returned to the sender. Information, if available, is updated every evening. Please check again later.
12-31-07 was a standard business day. --Not a holiday by any definition. While some companies close early on New Year's Eve so that the cacophany may begin as quickly as possible, almost no businesses -- especially major corporations upon which much of the creative world DEPENDS, take the entire day off -- as Adobe in Seattle has apparently done. We're sorry that we (all of Adobe's victims worldwide) have overpaid Adobe's employees to such a degree that they no longer have to work AT ALL on regular business days. For God's sake even our lazy government had to work -- but not Adobe. We submit that, with the colossal failure of Adobe's new CS3 products, their teams in every office in every city should be foregoing the mindless celebration altogether, and working feverishly 24/7 to try to save the company. We're so sick and tired of the major shortcomings of this company that even their small mistakes have begun to enrage us. Of course if their products WORKED and were reasonably priced and their support actually fixed things that were broken, folks would tend to cut them some slack. But the majority of Adobe users (Google: CS3 Sucks) have been so pummelled by this company's stupid decisions -- which cost the user revenue and customers and blood-pressure points -- that we just don't have any patience left for them AT ALL. Adobe's credibility account is empty, and now even the smallest irritation is like fingernails on a blackboard to its apoplectic users. Seriously -- Google 'CS3 Sucks'. 198,000 pages and growing daily. It's estimated that roughly 1 in 100 angry customers will go to the trouble of describing their complaints online. Let's see; if that's true, then 198,000 times ten = _______
Most gas station attendants still in high school and all 19 year old baristas would have known not to release that junk at its current stage of development. Yet Adobe simply didn't have the collective mental horsepower to see it. Or they didn't care? Either scenario is reprehensible. Adobe seems to have not the slightest clue regarding the millions or billions of wasted hours it causes its customers due to stupidity on its part. Adobe just doesn't get it. We're betting they never will.
We have removed every single Adobe product from every computer in this shop except Acrobat Reader (we're currently seeking a generic replacement) and Photoshop. Acrobat is easy to replace -- Photoshop not so much. If (IF!) Adobe can make Premiere Pro work using our valid, paid-for serial number (both machines are now running on serial numbers we FOUND on the net, while both machines positively refuse to run on our paid serial number), we will continue to use it for a short while ONLY because we have so many Premiere projects on our drives and it's going to cost us a fortune to convert them to another editing format. Once that's done, however, we will cease using Adobe's video editing software forever. Even if Adobe makes our current version of Premiere work tomorrow, they've still lost us as customers. Adobe is just too irresponsible to use in the capacity of having a business DEPEND on their software and their extremely dubious or even non-existent support. We believe that Adobe's products have lost all credibility and must now be relegated to the realm of "curiosities", toys, and novelties. They might be fun for kids to play around with, but no serious business can afford to be at Adobe's mercy. It just doesn't make financial sense. The business world needs (1) products that WORK (what a novel bloody concept these days) and (2) Support that is absolutely reliable if a problem occurs. Adobe provides neither. Updates in this disgusting fiasco will be appended below:
Update 1-2-08:
Update 1-3-08:
Adobe couldn't be bothered to contact us on 1-3-08.
The sage continues.....
Update 1-4-08:
Adobe couldn't be bothered to contact us on 1-4-08.
The sage continues.....
Update 1-7-08:
Adobe couldn't be bothered to contact us on 1-7-08.
The sage continues.....
Update 1-8-08:
Adobe couldn't be bothered to contact us on 1-8-08.
Adobe's three days are up. However, just to demonstrate how willing we are to settle this out of court (Adobe need only make their product work -- kind of a novel concept for them) we'll postpone any formal action until close of business on 1-11-08. We want the judge to understand that we tried EVERYTHING before filing suit.
The sage continues.....
Update 1-9-08:
Adobe couldn't be bothered to contact us on 1-9-08.
The sage continues.....
Update 1-10-08:
Adobe couldn't be bothered to contact us on 1-10-08.
The sage continues.....
Update 1-11-08:
Adobe couldn't be bothered to contact us on 1-1-08.
We consider this page to constitute documented proof that Adobe does not care if it's software installs, runs, or performs any useful function whatsoever, and that Adobe's support is nearly non-existent. As time allows we'll describe our next steps below. We now regard Adobe as one of the top ten worst companies operating in the world today. We may try any of several remedies over the next weeks or months, but we feel the only way to properly get Adobe's attention is with a Class Action suit.
Update 1-24-08:
On this date we found a voicemail from a female identifying herself as "Bing" with Adobe Customer Support. She requested a call back at 866-341-2256, ext. 53607. She promised to help us solve our Premiere Pro 2.0 installation problem. We did return the call at 13:44 Pacific on this date. The recording said we had reached Adobe Canada -- curious, since we're in the US. When we tried Bing's extension, we of course were greeted with a recording. We left a clear message, explaining the problem and supplying our callback number twice. We explained that we were on the verge of filing a chargeback for the errant product. Again we wait for Adobe.
Update 1-29-08:
Again Adobe cannot be bothered to return our calls. We'll make one last attempt, then return the software for a refund and go after Adobe in small claims court for our wasted time. At this point we believe we can represent our contention as fact, not opinion: Adobe Sucks. We continue to run Premiere Pro 2.0 on a bogus serial number. It continues to refuse to install on any computer using our paid-for serial. We edit video files an average of 3 to 6 hours per day. We average 1-2 crashes per hour, regardless of project, regardless of computer. This product is less valuable than garbage -- it's a liability.
Update 2-07-08:
As of this date we've received NO cummunication from Adobe. --Not so much as a voicemail message. Again we called "Bing" at 866-341-2256, ext. 53607 at 13:52 Pacific. We reached her voice mail as usual. We left a clear message explaining the problem and repeated the callback number twice, slowly and clearly. We explained that there would be no further calls after this. Next week we will send the product back for a refund. If the merchant won't cheerfully refund, we'll file a chargeback. Again we advise: Stay away from this company (Adobe) and its products. Its products documentably do not work in any way that makes them worth even a fraction of the cost, and Adobe obviously, documentably, refuses to support its products in any kind of timely or meaningful manner. If you must buy a MAC to run Final Cut Pro, do it and don't look back.
Update 2-13-08:
Adobe continues to refuse to call us back. On this date we've demanded a refund from the vendor. Again we caution anyone considering Adobe's products: stay away. There are software companies who at least TRY. Seek them out and use them. At this moment we're researching MACs.
Update 2-16-08:
TO: RMA@CaritasProducts.com (CC: to every email address on Caritas.com):
We're sorry you did not reply to this. This will be our second and final request via email.
We need to return this product for a refund because it cannot be installed on any computer (not even a brand new one) using the key that came with it. The prog will run unreliably with any illegal key, but will not even install with the registered key. We've been demanding that Adobe solve this problem for over a month. Adobe steadfastly refuses to even try. We've documented this fiasco at the following url, and we'll continue to document it there. If you are unwilling to refund, we'll file a chargeback.
http://www.truth-or-consequences.com/badder_business_bureau/adobe_sucks/adobe_sucks.htm
Update 2-20-08:
Caritas Products (dot com) has refused to reply to us in any way. A chargeback was filed on this date.
.
