The Photoshop CS5 “non-upgrade” follow up – Just slightly disappointed with Adobe

Richard Charpentier Notes from Rich, Photoshop 1 Comment

Ok, we all know that a few weeks ago I made the move to purchase the upgrade to Adobe Photoshop CS5. And we all know that I blew it when it came to understanding Adobe’s upgrade policy.  I’ve been buying and upgrading full suites from Adobe, not stand alone products.  And even though I’ve spent thousands with them on the suites over the past few years, I can’t do a stand alone upgrade on one product.  And frankly, I don’t need the full suite, just the new version of Photoshop.  The rest of the suite isn’t necessary for my business.

And if you haven’t been following the saga, I found one other interesting item recently.  If you get the right person on the phone with Adobe you can upgrade stand alone from a suite.  My good friend Larry ran into the same issue that I did, but when he called Adobe they helped him out and he’s all upgraded to Photoshop CS5.  Lucky so and so……all I wanted was the upgrade.  I mean, CS5 has got some great stuff in it!

Well, today there’s a little more insult to injury.  I just got off the phone with Adobe’s support folks as I’ve been watching my bank account for the refund.  This whole process started on May 26th.  The purchase, the inability to upgrade, the call for support, and finding out that I goofed on understanding the upgrade track.  I was told I can buy Photoshop CS5 full version stand alone, or I can upgrade my suite.  Yeah, small business with tight margins.  Not gonna happen any time soon.

On June 4th I received an e-mail stating the funds would be back in my account in 3-5 days.  Here’s the excerpt from the e-mail:

Your credit card or bank has already been credited for 179.89- USD. Your issuing bank may require three to five days to apply the credit to your account. If you have online account access, you will likely see the credit reflected more quickly online than on a paper statement. You will be refunded by the same method as your payment. For example, if you paid by credit card, Adobe will credit the same account.

Since nothing has popped back into the bank account I got curious, and this morning spent 20 minutes going through automated phone menus and finally talking to a human being.  “Joe” was my support guy and he did a little looking into the matter.  Turns out, the e-mail I received was in error.  My refund will show in my account in 2-3 weeks from the time of the e-mail on June 4th.  So, from the time the money left my account (immediately gets held out at time of order) to the time I see it returned can be about a month.

Not the most fun process.  Next time I want to do an upgrade of this sort I’ll be calling Adobe first, establishing what my previous versions do and don’t get me, and then I’ll be going somewhere to buy the physical copy.  Glad everything with the LR3 upgrade was smooth yesterday (fortunately it’s not part of any suite).  That will be my last direct online purchase from Adobe.  Clearly, I’m a little to dense on understanding the upgrade track, and the process of refunding someone.

On the positive note?  Yes, I did really like the new features in CS5.  Great product, and sorry I’ll be missing out on it for a while.  Bummer on the support side though, and I’m more than a little disappointed.  Wish I’d gotten the same support person on the phone Larry got, I could be blogging away about all the cool goodies in CS5 instead……..  😉

Comments 1

  1. Well poo! That’s a bummer about the “whole suite upgrade” thing. I too, was under the impression you could just upgrade your Photoshop if you wanted. Guess I won’t be able to do so either, darn it! What makes it worse is the fact that I just returned from a CS5 workshop this past Wednesday and got to try out all the new goodies…now I want my Photoshop CS5 even more!

    Oh, Santa baby….

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