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By dlscape, July 19, 2010 15:14

I’m a tech nut. If money was not an issue I’d have a house full of gadgets and high tech wizardry.

What keeps things in check is the fact that money is an issue. Living in New Zealand means you normally pay through the nose for just about everything of a techy/imported nature. I have to double and then triple check everything I look at buying to make sure it’s something that will really benefit me.

So onto the bones of this post…

As some of you will have noticed, earlier in the year Adobe released CS5. I spent the 30 days of trial licence playing with it and trying it out in every way I could think of, to make sure it was worth the pennies. Finally on May 24 I bit the bullet and handed over the cash.

And so onto my first gripe with Adobe. I purchased Lighroom 2 straight from the USA server back in Aug 2008 without a hitch. I paid my money and hit the download button. When I came to do the same thing with CS5 I was told that as I’m not in the USA I would have to use my local online store. Upon switching to the closest store available, Australia (obviously some version of the word ‘local’ that I’ve not come across before), I noticed that CS5 had jumped in price by over NZ$100. “Bugger that” I thought and proceeded to go back to the USA store to try paying with Paypal instead of VISA.

“It appears that your Paypal account it funded with a credit card that isn’t American” (or something similar) appeared on the screen. Hmmmph, well that didn’t work.

I could completely understand the price increase if I was purchasing a different version of the software. Maybe one that was localised to my language. Or that had to be shipped internationally. But I wasn’t! The download version I get from the Australian servers is exactly the same as the download version found on the American servers. I just had to pay more for it because I’m not American. Gee, thanks Adobe!

Eventually I gave in and decided to pay the extra. I just couldn’t be bothered ranting and raving to Adobe customer support any more. They weren’t listening, wouldn’t give me a reason for the extra cost and exuded an air of “we  just couldn’t care less”.

Less than a month later Adobe releases the final version of Lightroom 3. Onto gripe number two…

I was big fan of Lightroom 2 and only swapped to Nikon Capture NX 2 because I felt Camera Raw 4x and 5x weren’t doing my NEF files justice. I’d been testing Lighroom 3 beta since early in the year and was very keen to see what a difference the full version would make to my files. Especially now that it had auto lens distortion correction, new camera calibration settings and the new Camera Raw engine,so I downloaded LR3 and began the 30 day trial to see if it was worth swapping my entire workflow back.

After 22 days of testing, tweaking and lens profiling I’d made up my mind. I was pleasantly surprised to find that while LR3 wasn’t quite as good at processing my NEF files as CNX2, Adobe had done a lot of catching up. LR3 was now close enough in quality that the other benefits of using LR in my workflow were enough to seal the deal. I hit the’ Buy Now’ button and immediately received another happy surprise; if you purchased LR3 with CS5 you’d get 30% off!

And then Adobe did it again.

After a bit of digging I realised you only get the 30% off if you purchase CS5 and LR3 at the same time. If you are an early adopter/loyal Adobe fan and had purchased CS5 before LR3 was released then tough poop, you gotta pay full price. What the??

So even though I was a signed up Lightroom 2  user running a beta copy of Lightroom 3, and that I’d purchased a copy of CS5 Design Premium only six weeks ago I didn’t get the promo!

Instead, if I waited for a couple of weeks and not jumped on the CS5 band wagon I’d be rewarded for not being an early adopter and be able to upgrade both at the same time and get 30% off LR3? Hmmm, not much of an incentive to be an early adopter is there?

I hit the Live Chat button on Adobe’s site to ask them how I’d go about getting the promo price. They said to call during office hours and talk to sales, and “No” they don’t have an email address so “Yes” you’ll have to call them. So I wait all weekend, every day edging closer to the end of my 30 day trial of LR3. Finally this morning I called the 0800 NZ number, only to be told “Sorry mate, I understand what you’re saying but it’s not my problem. Call your local sales office (local meaning over 2000km away in a different country) and ask them”.

Blimey, talk about having to jump through hoops! So I shell out for an International call to my local sales office and ask “Come one Adobe, do the right thing and extend the offer to us early adopters!”

To which I’m told “No”. Wow, well done Adobe!

What sort of message to you think that sends to your early adopter users? How do you think those people will react when asked if they are happy with the way Adobe has treated them? Do you see them recommending Lightroom 3 to their fellow professional photographers over the competition?

I know of at least three people (and I bet there are lots of others) who have bought CS5 and are still using Lightroom 2. They would more than likely upgrade to Lightroom 3 if they knew about the 30% off deal and were offered, as a thanks for being an early adopter of CS5, a promo coupon code they could use with at the Adobe online store. I’m not talking about giving this to everyone, just to those people, like myself, who went ahead and purchased CS5 before LR3 was available.

I finally found an address for the Adobe Pacific Sales team by the way; p a c s a l e s @ a d o b e . c o m  (without the spaces) and have sent them an email suggesting they do the right thing and reward their loyal early adopters, but I’m not holding my breath. So far I’ve been completely underwhelmed by any of Adobe’s customer services.

Maybe they would listen if other LR2 users who found themselves in the same boat as me also emailed them? Go on, do it! Adobe will only learn if they get enough people feeding back this sort of info. As the saying goes “Only the squeaky wheel gets the oil”…