You've just got to love Adobe support.

[John 2]

During the rebuild of my computer, I had difficulty getting CS6 to work. It froze as soon as it opened up. Since I had been happily using it for 3-4 years and wasn't ready to go to CC, I contacted Adobe support via the chat line. The exchange recorded below is from their confirmation e-mail.


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info: You are now chatting with Suneel.
Please don’t close the chat window or browser tab since it will end our chat session.
Suneel: Hello! Welcome to Adobe support.
Suneel: Hi John,
Suneel: I am reviewing your issue. Please stay online and do not close the chat window or browser in order to ensure our chat session connectivity.
Suneel: I understand that you are unable to use Photoshop CS6 applications and when it opens and it closes and will not load , is that correct ?
john Crashley: No Suneel, the application opens but it then freezes
Suneel: Thank you for the information .
Suneel: Are you able to use Photoshop CS6 application on same computer ,without any issue ?
john Crashley: No. the problem is with the CS6 application. It has installed but when I open it up to use it, it stops responding.
info: Your chat transcript will be sent to john.crashley@btinternet.com at the end of your chat.
Suneel: Thank you for the information .
Suneel: Thank you for your patience.
Suneel: I apologize for the inconvenience.
Suneel: As this is the CS6 Product and we do not much information on this issue , I will provide you the Adobe Forums link and there post your query and one of our product team will reply your query
Suneel: .
Suneel: https://forums.adobe.com/welcome
Suneel: Go to the above link for Adobe forums
john Crashley: That is disappointing Suneel and not what should be expected from "Product Support.
Suneel: John, I certainly understand your concern in this regard, however ,we are from installer team and ads the this is the product specific issue , the if any CS6 Product features issue ,have support available through our Adobe forums .
john Crashley: Thank you for your time Suneel
Suneel: You are most welcome!
Suneel: Is there anything else I can help you with?
Suneel: Are we still connected?
Suneel: Since we have not heard from you for some time, we will now end this chat. Please click to chat with us again if we can be of further assistance.
Suneel: Thank you for contacting Adobe. Good Bye.

I eventually located the source of the problem myself but I wasn't impressed.

[Shadowman]

I recently had an issue with my tracfone and couldn't get through using standard communications (email or community forum), located a facebook help forum, spent about one hour total communication time to locate problem and eventual solving. Sometimes it takes multiple paths to get to the eventual conclusion. Often times, the virtual community has better knowledge of a product than the actual customer service department. Glad it worked out for you.

[DanK]

I would be annoyed too, but after all, it is a product that they no longer sell, and the replacement has been on the market for nearly 3 years, so it is not entirely surprising that they are no longer training their phone support people to deal with it. He said that one of the product team would post a response to your query on the forum. Did someone do that?

I personally hate the subscription model, but this is one reason why I gave up and subscribed to the photographer's package, which in the US costs $10/month. It avoids headaches.

My own experience with Adobe phone and chat support has been reasonably good. Any given session can take a long time, but I think in every case, they eventually got the problem fixed. At least twice, I had to let them take control of my computer remotely, which I hate doing, but I was able to watch what they did to fix things.

[Manfred M]

Unfortunately John, CS6 is an "obsolete product" and is 4 generations back (CC, CC2014 and CC2015). Unfortunately, every software vendor I have ever dealt with stops supporting old versions of their product, almost on the day it release the newest update.

It's a pain, but also reality. It was also one of the considerations I had when I switched to CC (about a year after it launched).

[John 2]

I suppose my beef is that I was brushed off quite so quickly. I certainly understand and I guess, have some sympathy with your point you make Manfred but I can't get around the fact that Adobe still have a dedicated support site for CS6 and that the point that their support engineer makes is that they only provide support for installation problems. I would understand it if for an obsolescent product, installation support became limited but support for on-going usage lasted a bit longer. But perhaps I'm being a bit too logical.

[chauncey]

FWIW, in addition to Manfred's response...not being computer literate, I find it necessary to contact
customer support virtually every update release due to a myriad of problems.

Having them link-up with my computer makes the ordeal a whole lot easier...usually.

[lunaticitizen]

It was a bit surprising to read that the Adobe CS6 is already considered obsolete. I expected much more from a product designed for professionals.

Here we only deploy products that have lifecycle of at least 10 years! If the products of Microsoft, Red Hat or Oracle have lifecycle of only 3-4 years then I would have a headache every morning..

[Manfred M]

It was a bit surprising to read that the Adobe CS6 is already considered obsolete. I expected much more from a product designed for professionals.

Here we only deploy products that have lifecycle of at least 10 years! If the products of Microsoft, Red Hat or Oracle have lifecycle of only 3-4 years then I would have a headache every morning..

The product is almost four years old. That is definitely getting long in the tooth. Other than its OS Microsoft updates much of the rest of its line every couple of years. 10 years is a very long product cycle, especially in IT.

[IzzieK]

I was just smiling as I read the exchange John...because I had a problem yesterday with DeNoise -- I decided to buy it. Then I found out I have to unzip it. I thought for a good while there that I have an unzipper file. Apparently not. I ended up buying Winzip, which I had been familiar with for many computing years. It kept telling me that my RegCode is wrong. So I wrote them a threatening email telling them that if I cannot register the software today (yesterday), I will cancel my credit card payment immediately. Within minutes, they gave me the right answer and I was able to open DeNoise.

Your problem here is different I know -- I also have CS6 but had not gone to any support about it. Maybe later on during the year when I decided to upgrade my pooter. Hopefully I will not have to go through the same robotic response that you encountered here.

William and others, the worst had happened to Bill and me about letting anyone in to operate our computers remotely. Please be careful...

[Tringa]

I can understand you frustration John, but also see the points made by others that support for an old product is going to be lacking. It would not be surprising if many in the support team you contacted had never used CS6.

However, your journey could have been made much easier if Adobe had updated information on the help pages. Something on the lines of they no longer provide support for operational problems with the following products, etc and then provide a link to support forums. It would have saved you the hassle, and annoyance, of contacting the support team only to be very rapidly redirected.

Surprised you needed to buy WinZip, Izzie. I thought all operating systems came with an unzipper.

Dave

[Manfred M]

William and others, the worst had happened to Bill and me about letting anyone in to operate our computers remotely. Please be careful...

I think it depends who it is. I've had both Intel (McAfee) and Adobe (Photoshop) do this on my personal hardware. The process was painless and the outcomes met expectations. At work, I occasionally needed one of the techs to do this remotely, but that is a slightly different situation. I would never let any third party supplier do this as I have heard horror stories when that happens.

[lunaticitizen]

The product is almost four years old. That is definitely getting long in the tooth. Other than its OS Microsoft updates much of the rest of its line every couple of years. 10 years is a very long product cycle, especially in IT.

Four years of support is really really short period if we consider corporate deployment. It's just not worth it. Here we are still preparing to retire our RHEL 4 servers, which was released way back in 2005. It's not only operating systems: Microsoft ActiveX framework is a good example of aging technology which was dropped from Internet Explorer recently.

Izzie, I think WinZip was not necessary. Is it really a .zip file? Most operating systems have built-in .zip support; after all it's just simple DEFLATE algorithm. There are also free softwares to open or create .zip files.

.zipx is different but is there really anyone using it?

[IzzieK]

...
Surprised you needed to buy WinZip, Izzie. I thought all operating systems came with an unzipper.

Dave

Thought so too. I used to just right clicked and there it was! I can't seem to find it now...

[IzzieK]

..
Izzie, I think WinZip was not necessary. Is it really a .zip file? Most operating systems have built-in .zip support; after all it's just simple DEFLATE algorithm. There are also free softwares to open or create .zip files.

.zipx is different but is there really anyone using it?

Yup! It is a zipped file. Well, mine in my laptop doesn't have any. I used to have IzArc but I deleted it because it keeps telling me that it needed updating when the file is really current. Too much process to add to my operating system if it keeps asking me that every time I operate my update software thingie. I am not a programmer but I keep my software and drivers current since the last I suffered some unknown glitches last year.

[lunaticitizen]

Yup! It is a zipped file. Well, mine in my laptop doesn't have any. I used to have IzArc but I deleted it because it keeps telling me that it needed updating when the file is really current. Too much process to add to my operating system if it keeps asking me that every time I operate my update software thingie. I am not a programmer but I keep my software and drivers current since the last I suffered some unknown glitches last year.

Hmm that is strange. If you right-click on any zip file there should be an "Extract All" option. Pardon the Japanese language.



If you double click on the file it should open and there should be an "Extract All" option, too.



If the option is really not there then the registry item for zip files might have been accidentally deleted. There is a simple fix but you already have bought WinZip anyway so I guess it's not needed.

[SuffolkGal]

I bought CS-6 just before CC was announced. £550 it cost me and it was a maximum of 3 years ago.

I find it absolutely disgraceful that Adobe don't support CS-6 and I feel this is purely because they want to force rented product on everyone. It is also blatantly obvious from the transcript that English was not the first language of the support guy and his command of the language is clearly lacking.

[IzzieK]

Leo, thank you. I used to have the extractor but I didn't have it recently since I do not bought a new software often, but I think it was John (2) who had recommended DeNoise. I bought it instead of 'trying' for free. Then I found out I have that problem. And oh, I do not mind Japanese language. I learned Japanese when I was still living in Australia full time -- from a Korean teacher, would you believe? Lack of practice I suppose...I can read and sometimes translate though...

Hmm that is strange. If you right-click on any zip file there should be an "Extract All" option. Pardon the Japanese language.


If you double click on the file it should open and there should be an "Extract All" option, too.



If the option is really not there then the registry item for zip files might have been accidentally deleted. There is a simple fix but you already have bought WinZip anyway so I guess it's not needed.

[John 2]

I bought CS-6 just before CC was announced. £550 it cost me and it was a maximum of 3 years ago.

I find it absolutely disgraceful that Adobe don't support CS-6 and I feel this is purely because they want to force rented product on everyone. It is also blatantly obvious from the transcript that English was not the first language of the support guy and his command of the language is clearly lacking.

I find that happens a lot Jenny, not just with Adobe. I sometimes think that it is either because it's not their first language or, in some cases, they just can't be bothered to read what you have reported. On the other hand I've had some good experiences so the problem isn't universal by any means.

[SuffolkGal]

Agree very much, John. It seems that there are more laws about the sale of a sprout than £550 of software.

[mastamak]

Thought so too. I used to just right clicked and there it was! I can't seem to find it now...

If you are using Windows 10 just right click on the zipped file and go to Open With.. Open it with file explorer. Much easier than mucking around with Winzip.

Grant