Commentary

Printer friction marathon: A strange way to end the Adobe Summit

My new printer cannot print Adobe Acrobat documents. Getting the company's attention became a marathon in customer friction.

Image iStock.com

April 17, 2019 by Elliot Maras — Editor, Kiosk Marketplace & Vending Times

Talk about the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing!

Two weeks ago, I had the privilege of attending the Adobe Summit in Las Vegas, which explored every conceivable aspect of improving the consumer experience. Topics included strategies for making the customer experience engaging, rewarding and seamless.

Little did I know that upon returning to my office the next week to report on the sessions, I would have a chance to learn first hand about Adobe's customer care capabilities when I attempted to print Adobe Acrobat documents.

What I experienced was a dramatic case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand was doing, and I hope Adobe executives are reading this, since I am not likely the only user to experience customer friction trying to print Adobe Acrobat documents.

New printer, new problem

I recently purchased a Brother International office printer, model HL-L237ODW. When I returned from the Adobe Summit, I received an email from my accountant with my income tax documents attached and ready to sign. When I tried to print the documents using my new printer, the pages were blank. There was nothing wrong with the printer, as I was able to print documents in Word and other software programs.

My accountant had to mail me the tax forms to sign if I wanted to stay on good terms with the IRS. Fortunately, I had not waited until the last minute to begin the tax preparation process.

As luck would have it, my automobile insurance renewal came due the same week. I was unable to print my insurance ID card because it, too, was only available as an Adobe Acrobat document. Rather than asking my insurance company to send it in another document, I forwarded the Adobe Acrobat document to a friend who has a different printer and was able to get my printed ID card from him.

The problem remained: I could not print Adobe Acrobat documents.

Brother's customer care informed me there was nothing they could do to help since they don't have an agreement with Adobe. They suggested I contact Adobe.

Customer support was evasive

When I was unable to find a customer support phone number on the Adobe website, I contacted the media relations coordinator who had helped me during the Adobe Summit. She said she did not know who to refer me to and suggested I contact customer support on the Adobe website.

The fun had just begun.

While there is no customer support phone number on the main Adobe website, I was able to find a customer chat box. I explained my problem on the chat, but did not get a prompt response. Rather than wait, I attended to other tasks, checking the chat box every 10 minutes or so.

Unfortunately, I missed their response. A couple hours later I noticed the session had closed with a note saying they were sorry we got disconnected and they hoped I would get back to them.

This scenario repeated itself a few times until the next day, at which point they advised me that they could not find my subscription account. They directed me to an Acrobat Reader forum, without bothering to explain that I first had to reconfigure my laptop printer function from Adobe Acrobat to Acrobat Reader.

Hence, I was still unable to print Adobe Acrobat documents

Did they read my review?

When I received a Adobe customer satisfaction survey later in the day I gave them the lowest possible score for every question. Obviously, it didn't concern them, as there was no follow up.

The next day, I contacted customer care again and explained I was still not able to print Adobe Acrobat documents. This time, they said the problem appeared to be technical in nature so they would forward my case to a technical support specialist. Why they couldn't discern this the first go around I'll never know. It also begged the question why there is no technical support button on the main website, only "customer care."

Things started to get better when a technical support person contacted me via the chat and offered to start a remote session. Lucky for me, I wasn't on deadline, as the specialist took control of my computer for more than an hour to work on my system's printer configuration. I had to stand by the whole time to answer questions as they attempted to fix the problem.

After several unsuccessful attempts to print Adobe Acrobat documents, Adobe asked me if I had an Acrobat standard license. I told them I did not, adding that I had never been asked to get a software license when buying a printer.

The specialist then converted my Adobe Acrobat to a program called Adobe Reader DC, which is free. All of the Adobe Acrobat documents on my computer immediately converted to Adobe Reader DC documents and I was able to print them.

My problem has been fixed and I am thankful to Adobe for fixing it. The process was, however, a marathon of customer friction. Hopefully, Adobe can find a way to spare others from this experience.