Take My Money... Please!

Sometimes I wonder if businesses actually want to take my money. I asked for a quote on an upgrade to my Adobe FrameMaker 7 license to FrameMaker 9. I started a phone and email conversation with one of Adobe's representatives, whom I will call "Jim." I explained my situation in detail, Jim told me that I could not upgrade to FM 9, as the company no longer directly sells that version, but that I could upgrade to FM 10 and purchase a separate back license for an additional $20. Because the pricing ($1120) was way too rich for my independent contractor finances, I thanked him and moved on.

About a week later Jim informed me via email that Adobe was having a short-term promotion where they were knocking $400 off the license fee, meaning I could get the same deal (FM10 with a back license for FM 9) for $720. Still way to expensive for software, but much more manageable than before. I checked to make sure I could write off the cost on my taxes (yes), talked it over with my wife (since we would have to pay for this out of our own money), and decided to pull the trigger on the deal.

Somehow, the details of the conversation I had with the Adobe rep got lost as he transferred them first to another Adobe rep, whom I will call "Roy," and then that rep sent them on to distributor (whom I will call "Lori") to process the transaction. She sent me a Purchase Order for FM10 for $740.

I emailed her back, re-explained the situation to her, and asked her what the issues were. She apologized for the confusion, she wasn't given the information on the back license (and she would have to talk with someone in house to make sure they could do it), and that they were from a different country, so the discrepancy in cost was due to the variations between the countries.

Lori verified the FM 9 issue and sent me a new PO. I got the new PO with FM 10 for $740 and the FM 9 license for $25. With that country's taxes, the grand total was a whopping $865. Still better than the $1120 I was originally quoted, but well above what I was expecting or wanting to pay. She called, we talked, and I told her I would hold onto the PO but I was going to try to get the American pricing from an American distributor if I could. She was fine with that arrangement.

Today, I sent Roy a follow up email and asked if there was any movement on this. He immediately forwarded my info to three other people. However, it is the end of the work day and I did not expect a reply until tomorrow.

And then my phone rang. It was a brand new Adobe rep (we'll call her "Mona"). She was verifying whether I wanted to proceed with an upgrade to my Adobe FM 7 license, as time was running out. Soon, there would not be an upgrade path from 7 to any higher version FM. Yes, I said, I know... Jim explained this to me when we spoke by phone and email. I had to explain to her that I was already in the loop, already trying to purchase this upgrade, but that Roy had needed to send my info to a new distributor as the first one was giving much higher pricing. She kept reiterating that the pricing was limited time only and I would need to upgrade soon. No matter how many times I explained it, she didn't seem to get what I was saying.

Adobe apparently uses India to answer these types of requests, as Jim, Mona, and Roy all have Indian names and accents. While Jim was very polite, understanding, and easy to talk to, Roy seems more of a delegator, and Mona was simply not getting what I was saying (and I was having a hard time understanding her). I'm hopeful that either Jim will get involved again or the new people that Roy sent my info to will get the pricing correct and get me a PO in short order that I can pull the trigger on. If they cannot, then I will go back to Lori, accept and pay for her quote, and just eat the extra $100+ cost, as she was easy to talk to, understanding, and personable.

Adobe should have a much lower solitary user license fee as well as a much simpler online process for making a purchase. Frankly, I didn't need to have all of these phone calls (4) and emails (12) for what should be a relatively easy upgrade. I'm not sure why my original request to Adobe wasn't forwarded to Lori   (or one of the new people) in the first place, and then she could call and I could speak with her directly. The run-around of going through an account rep, a second account rep, a distributor, back to the second account rep, to another distributor, and then having a third account rep call is frustrating and off-putting.

It's like the company doesn't actually want my money or is used to dealing with independent contractors.

ADDENDUMS
1. One of the new Adobe reps, whom I will call "Dan," just emailed me that he will be sending my information to yet another rep located in my area, whom I will call "Rich." Rich will be the one contacting me about the PO. Geez, Adobe, enough!

2. Rich just called. He isn't sure if I can go from 7 to 9 or 10 (he only has upgrade paths from 8 or 9 to 10) and he's not certain if he can provide the back license to 9 for me, even though I have been clear with every person that this is the primary reason for doing this. I asked him to call someone, a manager, anyone, and verify this before he sends me a PO. He was more than happy to and will call me back shortly with the results.

3. Rich called back; I was right, he was simply unaware of the promotion going on. I now have a PO for a grand total of $760.00, rather than one for $865 or $1120. I will pull the trigger on this deal before anything else changes!