I have been making a living with my Macintosh since 1995. Since then, I have purchased and installed hundreds of pieces of software and navigated my way through numerous operating system upgrades, some more onerous than others. As a marketing technologist, I am pretty adept at solving not only my own computer issues, but those of others, be they Mac or PC.
What I have learned over the years is that the award for the most painful software upgrade experiences consistently goes to Adobe. I vividly remember the experience of upgrading to Abobe CS3, which required a seven hour technical support call. While one might commend Adobe for their commitment to solving my problem, it just shouldn’t take seven hours to upgrade desktop software.
When I received a solicitation today for a 15% discount on an upgrade to Adobe Acrobat Xl Pro, I decided it was time to take the plunge. As would be expected, the online purchase was a simple process. I received an email with my serial number and a link to the web page where I could download the software.
I followed the instructions and installed the software 3 times. Each time my computer told me the installation was successful. Each time, when I went to launch the software, it was nowhere to be found on my computer.
It took me about 20 minutes to find the adobe technical support options, at which time I opted for live chat. What happened next, as detailed on the chat script, felt like an episode out of Laurel and Hardy.
- Hi, there are 3 customer(s) in line ahead of you. We’ll be with you as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.
- Hi, there are 2 customer(s) in line ahead of you. We’ll be with you as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.
- Hi, there are 1 customer(s) in line ahead of you. We’ll be with you as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.
- Hi, there are 2 customer(s) in line ahead of you. We’ll be with you as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.
- Hi, there are 1 customer(s) in line ahead of you. We’ll be with you as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.
You are now chatting with ‘Rakesh’
Rakesh: Hello. Welcome to Adobe Technical Support.
Rakesh: Please allow me a moment while I look into your account & verify the details.
Rakesh: We appreciate your patience and regret the inconvenience due to high wait time.
Rakesh: As I understand, you have installed Acrobat XI Pro 3 times, but the software is not listed on your computer, is that right?
Teri: yes
Rakesh: Thank you for confirming.
Rakesh: I’ll be glad to help you with that information.
Rakesh: May I have the serial number for Acrobat XI Pro software?
Teri: XXXX-0XX0-7781-56XX-XXXXX
Rakesh: Thank you for the serial number.
Rakesh: Teri, do you have any other version of Acrobat software installed on your computer?
Teri: Yes. Acrobat 9 Pro
Rakesh: Okay.
Rakesh: May I place you on hold for the next 2-3 minutes so that I can research on this issue?
Teri: yes
Rakesh: Thank you.
Rakesh: Thank you for your patience.
Rakesh: Teri, when you tried installing Acrobat XI Pro, did you get any error message?
Teri: No. No error message. The installer says the installation was successful, but the application is not on my hard drive.
Rakesh: Okay.
Rakesh: Please open Spotlight and type, Acrobat and check if it shows Acrobat XI Pro.
Teri: I did that previously. The only app that shows up is v 9
Rakesh: Okay.
Rakesh: Please navigate to: Applications/Utilities/Adobe Installers and check if that lists Acrobat XI Pro.
Teri: It does NOT list it.
Rakesh: Alright.
Rakesh: Teri, in this case, please uninstall the Acrobat 9 and then try installing Acrobat XI Pro.
Teri: Doing so now
Rakesh: Sure
Teri: I have reinstalled, with the same results. The installer says “Install Akamai NetSession Interface,” not Adobe Acrobat. Is it possible they gave me the wrong installer?
Rakesh: You need to download the Akamai NetSession Interface first. Then, you need to double click on the .dmg file which is downloaded to start the installation.
Teri: That’s exactly what I did … 4 times now
Rakesh: In this case, I’ll provide you the direct download link. Please download the software and install it as trial. Then launch the software and enter your serial number to activate the license.
Teri: OK. Thanks
Rakesh: You’re welcome.
Rakesh: First, I’ll provide you the link to open Lightroom 5 trial version page. Please open that page and it will connect you to Adobe servers to use the direct download link.
Rakesh: Once you open Lightroom 5 trial page, do not click on “Download now”.
Rakesh: Click here to open Lightroom 5 trial page:
Rakesh: Let me know once you have opened the above page.
Teri: I have opened the page. It states it is for a free trial of Photoshop Lightroom. Why can’t I just use the publicly available download at http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=acrobat_pro&loc=us&promoid=KHXXV ?
Rakesh: You need to open Lightroom 5 page and it will connect you to Adobe servers to use the direct download link.
Rakesh: You don’t have to download Lightroom 5 software. You just have to open that page
Teri: The Download Now button is the only link on the page and it is a download for Photoshop
Rakesh: Just to make sure, did you open Lightroom 5 trial page?
Teri: There is no other option on the page. Nothing else to open, just a download button for a free trial of Photoshop Lightroom 5, not Acrobat Xl
Rakesh: Click here to download Acrobat XI Pro for MAC:
The link I was provided lead to
At this point, I decided that technical support was a waste of my time, so I simply replied;
Teri: Thank you.
Rakesh: The download and installation should start automatically.
Rakesh: Since you were facing issues with that, you can use the direct download link and it will work perfectly.
Rakesh: You can install the software and if you get any error message, please do contact us and we will help you further with.
Rakesh: Thank you for contacting Adobe. Good Bye.
This chat session has ended.
Thank you for contacting Adobe.
The entire process, which including wait time both before and during the chat took about 90 minutes. After the chat, I simply went to the publicly available web page, download the free trial and entered my registration number. Problem solved.
A few minutes later I received the following email from Adobe:
Adobe Case Update
Your Case Number:0184877421
Case Description:Chat:Installation issue (CH97229227)
This email is in response to support case #0184877421 submitted by Teri Ross.
To respond to this update or review your case history, log in to the Adobe Support Portal online and look for your case number in the “recent activity” section. Should you need to send us additional information, you can do so by opening the case and submitting your update.
If you have difficulties logging in, consult the Adobe ID and Membership FAQ.
Thank you,
Adobe Customer Care
As you can see, the link to the Adobe Support Portal leads to
Adobe’s technical support is consistently as bad as it gets. Note to self. Don’t ever, ever, ever upgrade CS5.
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