PARKERWhy I'll be Pirating Adobe's Products From Now On | PARKER

Edit: I’ve had some questions on software that I’ve been using in the interim. For Vector design, Sketch is a near perfect replacement. As for Photoshop, honestly, finding a perfect replacement has been hard, but one of the best applications I’ve been looking at is Pixelmator. If you have any suggestions for replacement software, with great support, leave a comment!

Adobe and I had a great relationship. I paid them money, they provided me with a fantastic product.
While I was in college, my biggest investment was the Adobe Master Suite CS5. It was everything I’d ever need. And no, It wasn’t part of my tuition. I worked long hours to cover that bill, but I knew it was worth every penny. Photoshop, and Illustrator were my preferred applications, a systematic ménage à trois that produced some of my greatest work to date. But oh, the heartbreak, when I find out my product (relationship) is no longer supported.

It all started with my new Macbook Retina. A gleaming beacon of self-worth, and productivity (Yes, Mac IS more productive). I had to reinstall all of my Adobe Software Master Suite onto it, sans a cd-rom… So I did what many people do. I looked for a download of the software, but to my avail, there were none for the “Student/Teacher License”. I understand there is a difference in licensing, but all I wanted was the same product I had spent all my hard earned cash on, not an upgrade, no special treatment.

I called Adobe support, and after waiting on the line for a good 35 minutes, I was greeted by Adobe’s “International” support team, based out of India where they can pay pennies on the dollar for you to get support in broken english. It’s almost as good as real english… almost. After explaining my ordeal to the support tech, he guided me to Adobe’s website, asked me to sign into my account and hurriedly told me the download link would be under the “My Products” section. I kept him on the line while I checked, but couldn’t find the link. I asked him to walk me through it, and proceeded to put me on hold for 2 minutes. When he came back on, he said that I should instead go to the Adobe forums, and the download link will be in there. I followed suit and tried searching for Master Collection, CS5, Student, Teacher, and more keywords, but did not find anything. When I asked him what I should look up in their search, he put me on hold again. Finally he came back to tell me that my product was no longer supported, and my options were to either buy and upgrade or download it from “Somewhere else”. The conversation went like this:
Support:You can download it on the web somewhere.
Me: Is there a specific site you would recommend?
Support: No Sir, you will just have to search it.
Me: All I’ve found is torrents for cracked software.
Support: Yes Sir, that will work.
Me: So you’re telling me I should download an illegal copy of your software, and use my legal serial with it?
Support: Yes Sir, that will work.

Finally he came back to tell me that my product was no longer supported, and my options were to either buy and upgrade or download it from “Somewhere else”.

I was floored. My bright and shining star for everything design, has instructed me to pirate their software. I couldn’t believe it. Why would a company as brilliant, professional, and steadfast as Adobe tell me to pirate their software? I guess you could argue that Adobe themselves weren’t “telling me” to pirate it, but they were giving me no options, and poor support. My next stop, calling Adobe sales department.

After a much shorter hold period (They wouldn’t want to make it difficult for you to pay them now, would they?) I was connected with a sales rep. His manor was very professional, and I could tell he was smart. “Thank god I got a smart sales guy. He’ll understand what to do.”, I said to myself. I explained my predicament and told him what I had talked with Adobe’s support team about. I even told him that the support representative told me that I could pirate their software and it would work with my serial. “Well, that’s not illegal as long as you have your serial applied to the product.”, the sales rep says. So I thought for a moment. Was pirating Adobe’s software truly illegal? I mean, the real purchase is the serial number. You can get the trial software on their site for free, but once you pay up, you receive a license. But, that did not settle my intrigue. I pushed the sales rep harder, but every response was another opportunity for him to get me to upgrade to CS6. I put it to the salesman like this:

Let’s say you purchase a car. Under warranty, something goes wrong with your car which is covered. You bring that car back to the place of purchase and you ask for them to fix your car. They tell you that they cannot fix your car, but they can sell you a new one.

Well, I lost the battle, but I have not lost the war. Situations like these prompt me to ponder, “What is GREAT support?” It’s a complicated struggle for Adobe, maintaining their software standards, fending off hackers and pirates, and providing genuine, gracious, support. I can’t blame the support rep from India for suggesting I pirate their software. I cannot blame the sales rep for pushing me to upgrade, and ignoring the root of my problem. They’re all pieces of the puzzle, and are all informed of only what they need to know. But to truly make an impact, you have to bring a human element back into the game. Most people genuinely want to help. When their hands are tied, they aren’t acting human any more. You have to allow your employees some sort of freedom to help customers in need, Adobe. You’re making it difficult for your employees to succeed, and for your customers to be humbled by your support. Take a walk on the wild side, Adobe, and image in your bank did this to you.
“Your account is no longer supported, you’ll have to purchase our new package in order to access your funds.”

Edit 2: For any of you that read this and think I’m an idiot. Don’t mistake my anger for the true issue. Adobe representatives have no other resolution for my problem, so they say “it’s not supported”. Paying for a license as much as Adobe’s, I would expect better support.

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