I'm a technical writer. Have been for more than 15 years. I have used FrameMaker since it was at version 2 and was owned by company called Frame. I have owned RoboHELP Since the early days of Blue Sky Software who used to spam my work fax with "specials". Both Blue Sky and Frame eventually found their way into Adobe's family of products.
Words cannot describe how much I love FrameMaker. I use(d) it to write everything, including mundane office dribble because I love structured documents and Microsoft Word has turned a once usable interface into tabbed hieroglyphics. RoboHELP on the other hand is now just Robohelp and hasn't changed much in years. It's not the best documentation solution, but it beats many others and has some cool features strapped onto it by Macromedia before Adobe ate them too.
Why People Hoard Violent Hostility Before Driving Home
Last August, I noticed that my installed, and perfectly functional, Adobe Technical Communication Suite 1.0 was working fine one day and the next day the serial number stopped working. This was because some update made Adobe Captivate reject my serial number. This happened on both my desktop and my laptop.
I thought I would call Adobe support. Looking back, I now see the folly of my youth and inexperience. I miss the old carefree me who doesn't cook blood-boiling hatred for Adobe's customer support methods and people.
Naturally, the support is in India. I'm okay with Indian support as long as the company they represent actually empowers them to do things. From what I've experienced, Adobe has empowered their Indian call centers to say "no" with various inflections as well as transferring me back and forth between customer service and technical support. I have been told I need to pay for support. I have been told I need to completely reload all of my Adobe software. I have been told that I should know why my serial number doesn't work.
And Time Flies
Starting in August I called several times to kick-off a mind-numbing cycle of ignorant troubleshooting. My complaint is the serial number stopped working. I upgraded to Tech Comm Suite 1.3, hoping for a new serial number and never received one. I'm told the old one will work for 1.3, but alas, it's not that easy. Adobe support's response to all of this is to have me uninstall and reinstall everything over and over for the next few months. Seeing how this is a suite of products, I spend more time following "Steve's" broken English instructions than I do getting real work done.
So now it's January 2009. Obama will be sworn in soon. Yet I am not getting Hope or Change from Adobe. We're still going back and forth on the phone. People say they will call me back and never do. I can't even guess as to how many call-backs were promised to me that just didn't happen.
I used to sing Adobe's praises for all to hear. InDesign is my publication designer. Dreamweaver is my prototyping and quick site building workhorse. However, FrameMaker is the ultimate documentation tool for me. Robohelp is a great addon that helps me just give customers what they want.
It's not like I don't want to be an Adobe customer. It's more like they resent that I still live and breath after I buy the product. This particular problem, from what I understand, is not uncommon. Damn that man who keeps calling and whining about his serial number. Damn him back to FrameMaker 5.5 and don't let him upgrade again, they say.
You Can't Fight City Hall
With every call, I'm polite and I understand that each person at Adobe tech support is special in their own way. I'm sure "Ron", who was kind enough to hang up on me "accidentally" just needs a hug. And there was "Annona" who was very stern in insisting I had to pay for support to fix my serial number. I don't yell at these people. Special people need a special place so they aren't operating machinery.
If I could affford it, I'd move to MadCap Sofware. They seem to have some interesting products. I would like to try their Robohelp and FrameMaker killers, Flare and Blaze.
But the expense of software conversion for small independents like me is enough to cause marital problems.
I'll stay with Adobe, but I'm angry with their support and I'm more angry that they know their support sucks and they are not taking steps to correct it. Maybe they're jonsing for a future bailout. Who knows.
I just know that after 6 months, I have an unresolved issue with a serial number for a product I've purchased and then upgraded. I've been treated as if I don't matter to Adobe and I can't use the software I purchased. Thanks Adobe! I can now have a blog post about it.
Asleep by The Smiths
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I'm a long time Framer user, too. I fondly remember those halycon days when you could call Frame Technology for support and, heavens above, get actual support from someone who uses the product!!
IMHO, Adobe is the ending point for good software. Once they buy something really decent, it is doomed to eventual loss of market share to any and all comers.
Flare kicks ass. I'm really sad you can't score a copy.
Oh I know. I'm actually working on getting Flare. More this week on how that's going. I'm so done with Adobe.
Support was the reason our small company moved from RH to Flare last fall. Even with training included, the price was the same.
Flink has it right: Flare is responsive and growing. Who knows what will happen with RH, now that Adobe has it's hands on it. So far, nothing Adobe has done with RH has been useful to me…
Agreed. And as a FrameMaker user, I've been underwhelmed at the releases since version 7. Adobe does not understand the tech comm and its future.
You might be able to trade in an old robohelp license for a copy of Flare.
A few months ago, I persuaded my doc team manager to trade in a couple of old RoboHelp licenses for Flare 3.1 under a $400 trade-in deal (which might still be available). Since then, our help-generation process has been trouble free and we are single-sourcing OLH from Framemaker and Word with no problems. Ramp-up was a breeze. We hope to dump Robohelp completely, as soon as we work through the content.
Whoo boy, thanks for writing this. I stumbled upon it while Googling various combinatinos of "Adobe Tech Support Sucks."
I just bought Tech Comm Suite and, remembering the easy breezy beautiful days of inserting CD, closing door, clicking and installing…well, thought I was in for the same thing.
Hardee har. It's on two CDs and the second one (Captivate, the one, of course, I really need) won't take the serial number. Silly me for calling Tech Support just to see if they could help. Help, they cannot, but they sure can read a script and have me install/uninstall assorted Adobe products with a "clean script" for over 10 hours and then tell me my "admin profile" must be corrupt. Magic, I tell you…admin profiles just "poof" go corrupt.
Sad to see you're at the point of switching products. I used to have a lot of respect for Adobe, but no more. Pathetic.
Thanks for blogging so at least I have something to do while "Adam" "researches" this problem…
Last year I had a saga much like yours with the Tech Comm Suite. Couldn't install it, was bounced back and forth between Tech Support and Customer Service. Lost count of the number of uninstalls and re-installs they had me do. After a few weeks of trying to install it and many lost hours of work, I returned the Tech Comm Suite and bought 2 of the products separately. That seems to have worked. I was able to install both. But I've since switched to Flare because I had heard that their customer service was better. It is. It's been worth the switch!
Good luck!
As a former representative of Adobe Tech, I can empathize with you on this one. Were you receiving the 'Licensing for this product has stopped working' error? If so, you might try looking up kb402003 on our website; I find that for serial number issues, removing the cache.db and the tsf.data files can end up really helping, along with running the CS3 Clean Script. Then again, I don't know what hoops they had you jumping through already. Yikes.
Just be aware that if you move the cache.db, you won't be able to install trials on that system.
I wish you the best of luck. I used to have a lot of faith in Adobe, but not so much any more. I hate watching other places and people screw over what used to be my customers.
I agree, Adobe tech support, is terrible, still waiting for a call back.
I'm glad to see there's so many others who are beginning to loathe Adobe as much as I do….
I got all of 4 days use out of purchasing Dreamweaver CS4 before having this issue… it's been almost a week of going back and fourth with Customer service, only to get get promises of "will have a solution to you in 3-4 hours…"
yeah right…
No future for Adobe and I after this bought I'm afraid…
Trade in FrameMaker/Robohelp for Flare?!!! Don't do it. Keep the products that are stable and consistent, and work!!
This blog was so funny I sent the link to my coworkers. What is it with Adobe and serial numbers? I never did get FrameMaker 8 to work with the generated serial number, Adobe support simply refused to talk to me, and the box still sits in my desk as I continue to use 7.1 a year and a half later. My company is currently evaluating Flare, and we can't wait to make the switch.