4/24/2007
Who do we need to talk to here?
In the age of instant order transactions and online payments, it still surprises me how quickly companies can accept money, but how difficult it remains to get it back.
Recently a friend of mine told me about the troubles he's been having ordering (or rather not ordering), a copy of the latest Adobe Premiere CS3. I realize delayed shipping dates have always been a pain in the ass — for both customers and corporations — but the fact that he's gotten two different explanations of 'policy' when it comes to canceling orders just kinda rubs me wrong. And as someone who has also had problems with pre-ordered software in the past, I figured I'd share his grief here:
Ok, so I made a little mistake on April 3rd of this year and I ordered the boxed preorder version of Premiere CS3.
A situation came up that required my $850 to go elsewhere, and I realized I was going to be screwed when they charged me for the product.I called Adobe and was told by a representative that they had just received a memo that they could not cancel orders anymore because they were already going to ship and that I would have to just return the product when I got it. So I ask the guy when it is supposed to ship, and he told me on April 19th.
So now it is April 24 and I see on the Adobe site that the estimated ship date is now June 29! … So naturally I called to see if I can cancel it again and was told "Sorry, Adobe policy is that we do not allow you to cancel orders."
What kind of insane nonsense is this that I cannot cancel a freaking pre-order that isn't even due to ship for over a month?! My first call to cancel was on April 14th. Just please help me understand these huge technological barriers that are preventing a company like Adobe from removing me from the preorder list — Are you guys using bike messengers or something to communicate with warehouses?
Canceling an online order shouldn't really be so hard, should it?
I mean hell, I can even return a Big Mac right up until the last bite.
5 Responses to “Who do we need to talk to here?”
So what do you think?
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Hi, I’d like to help, but don’t know the name and other details to track who he spoke with, the other side of the conversation.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there were different business categories for “cancel” and “return”, but a call should really be phrased in terms of the listener’s needs rather than the speaker’s needs… “When can I get my money back?” is a reasonable question.
The credit card company can confirm whether the charges were already placed or reversed yet, but I’d encourage your friend to escalate it himself with Adobe Customer Service, and focus on his key question of “How can I get my money back today?”
Sorry I can’t do anything directly, but does the above provide a path…?
jd/adobe
UPDATE!
YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!! Something shady is going on at Adobe. After several calls dealing with people who can only say “It’s Adobe Policy” I called back one more time and asked if they could connect me to someone who could give me more detail as to what the complication is. She says “Its because the order has already been completed”….to which I responded “I don’t see how something that has not been charged and isn’t even on the shelves yet can be considered a completed order…Please connect me to someone who can explain this better…..”..She pretty much cut me short there and goes “Ok, fine, so you want me to cancel it?”…..And Im like Hellllllll yeah, why do you think I have called 8 times…She says Ok its canceled and gives me a cancellation confirmation number…..WTF! I guess the real Adobe policy is just to hold out as long as possible.
Oh and John, the f’d up thing was they hadn’t taken any money yet. It was a preorder…they had been just telling me for weeks it was to late for me to cancel it and that I would have to wait for them to charge me, and then deal with it then. They tried real hard not to get me to cancel that preorder…something tells me it must be happening a lot…
ah, okay Mike, Hi, and sorry for the hassle… I’ll make this thread and send it through various departments in Adobe, let’s see if we can clear such problems for the future, my apologies in the meantime.
jd/adobe
I had the same problem. I preordered the Master Collection and unfortunately found out that I was not eligible for the upgrade.
After several tries calling customer service, someone finally answered. I told her that I wanted to cancel my preorder and I was told that I cannot. The reason I was given was that if she cancels my preorder, the system will still charge my credit card and not ship the product. Even when I told her that I would prefer that to them shipping the product, she said that she just can’t do that.
When I told her that Adobe is forcing me to buy a product that I was not eligible to buy, she said “Oh” and said she will check and put me on hold. After a few minutes, she said that she had put in the cancel and gave me a case number.
I’ve always liked Adobe but this is the craziest thing I’ve ever run into.