When will Adobe get on ball and fix Acrobat problems?

Well dear friends, I am still gnashing my teeth over the Adobe Acrobat Version 8.0 installation/bad serial number problems (NO, THE PROBLEM WAS NOT STAPLES THE MERCHANDISER, IT WAS CLEARLY ADOBE'S!). It left the notebook computer on which I tried to install it unable to install any version, save the hopelessly obsolete version 5.0, my original full version. That was clearly unacceptable. I have been working for the last several weeks to try to fix it, including the installation of VISTA -- neither that nor a registry repair solved the problem. I am reluctant to reformat because that would cause other software recognition issues with MicroSoft which does not, to my knowledge have the activate, deactivate options of Adobe Acrobat, before the Virus acting version 8.0 Professional corrupted it. It left version 7.08 lurking in some unknown spot on my computer and unable to install and I get an annoying message saying that the "patch version" is unrecognizable and contact vendor and other words to that effect. I searched the internet in vain for a fix, sent Adobe a note in their comments section that it was high time they addressed this problem, and then did a Google.com search for people with a similar plight and found the following from another blog which I am shamelessly borrowing to express many of my own sentiments, although my problems (similar to his) were on Acrobat and not on Photoshop.

Suggestions and comments are welcome! I need the program back on my computer, but don't think I should have to wipe out everything else to reinstall. Surely Adobe must by now know of the problem and can graciously and publicly supply a fix!


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Adobe December 05, 2006
Back in the good old days, when you paid money for a product or service, the people you bought said product of service from treated you with a certain amount of respect. After all, you were their customers and the people keeping them in business. These days, rather then being treated like valuable clients, customers are treated like thieves and pirates.
A classic case in point is when you go to a movie theatre these days and the finger of suspicion is immediately pointed towards you for being a pirate. You’re not allowed to take pictures of the screen, you are told, and if you do the police will be called and you’ll be ejected from the cinema. I remember the days when people were thought to be innocent until proven guilty, but sadly that right no longer exists.
I recently bought a copy of Photoshop for the office, but when I tried to install it on my laptop as well as my desktop (as sanctioned by the licence) it all went wrong. I was presented with an error screen saying that my copy of photoshop needed to be verified online. I followed the instructions and was told that there was an error and it needed to be verified by phone. Again I followed the instructions, but there was an error and I was told that I needed to speak to an operator.
The verification process was intended to prevent people from pirating Photoshop, but all it was doing was preventing as legitimate user from running the program. It basically locked you out of the software, pointed the finger of blame and forced you to prove that you had the right to run the product.
After filling the serial number and activation code online and on an automated phone service, I was forced to read it out to an operator. You would have hoped that this information would already have been passed to the operator but no such luck. The operator I spoke to tried to fix the problem, but had no luck. In the end he had the nerve to tell me that the problem was with my new MacBook and not the software. Now I’m sorry, but if your anti piracy software is preventing me running Photoshop on my laptop, them the problem is squarely on your shoulders.
Eventually I managed to get the software working, but it cost me a good 2 hours of my time and numerous angry phone calls.
This morning, when I tried to open up Photoshop on my desktop, exactly the same thing happened. I was essentially being told that I was a pirate and that I had to phone Adobe to prove that I wasn’t. Again I rang up, and this time complained about the shoddy customer service Adobe and Photoshop were providing. I wasn’t expecting much in the way of an apology, but I wasn’t expecting to be hung up on, which is exactly what happened. The bastards!
So I’d just like to take the opportunity to tell Adobe and other software vendors that if you start accusing your paying customers of being liars and thieves, you’ve already lost the battle and you don’t deserve our sympathy and support. Because frankly, if you treat your clients like thieves, where is the motivation not to act like one?

Pasted from <http://www.andybudd.com/archives/2006/12/adobe/>