PTravel
Senior Senior Member
I use both Audition 3.0 and CS6. I like CS6 for mixing, 3.0 for mastering and CD burning. I also have dozens of projects mixed in 3.0 and, even with a tool like SES3SEX, they don't convert well to CS6.
A couple of weeks ago, my computer contracted a virus (probably thanks to my wife, but that's another story). It was particularly pernicious, so I decided I would just re-install the OS and reload all of my software. I finished last week and, this Friday, decided I wanted to work on one my 3.0 projects. That's when the fun began.
I had deactivated all of my Adobe software, so I anticipated no problems reactivating 3.0. Boy, was I wrong! I loaded the software, went to the activation screen and selected "activate on-line." I received an error message saying, "The Activation Server is unavailable." Okay, I'll just do phone activation. I call the listed phone number, laboriously punch in all the digits for my serial number, all the digits for the machine ID, and receive an error message: "Activation failed." I tried again. Same result. I have two 3.0 license (long story), so I uninstalled the first copy and tried the second. Same routine, same result, except this time, when I cancelled activation, the software told me, "Your trial period has expired. Please purchase the software."
I called again, failed again and was offered the opportunity to be connected to an activation support technician. I selected that option and, after several minutes, received a recording telling me that Adobe's support hours were Monday through Friday.
I waited until this morning, Monday, and called again, went through the same failed phone activation and finally was connected through to activation support. The robo-answerer offered 5 selections -- the 5th was for activating any products not identified in the other 4 selections. I pressed 5 and was rewarded with a recording that said, "phone support for your product is not available on-line -- please go to adobe.com/go/activation." I did that and was instructed to use the "chat" function. I selected "chat," and received a screen telling me, "All representatives are busy. There are 7 people ahead of you."
I had to leave for work by this time, so once I reached my office I opened my browser, went back to the site, and selected chat. This time there was only 1 person ahead of me.
After several minutes someone came on-line in chat and I explained the situation. Once again, I had to enter my serial number and machine ID information. Here's the redacted conversation:
Ahmed_Ziya: Thank you for contacting Adobe chat support, my name is Ahmed, I have received your query. Please
allow me a moment to review the details of your request.
Paul: Okay.
Ahmed_Ziya: So if I understand the problem correctly, you are not able to activate your product on your machine.
Ahmed_Ziya: Right?
Paul: That's correct.
Ahmed_Ziya: I will surely help you with your concern.
Ahmed_Ziya: May I please have your email address registered with Adobe?
Paul: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Ahmed_Ziya: Thank you. Can I also have the serial number for the product?
Paul: XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXX-XXXX
Paul: Wait, I mis-typed
Ahmed_Ziya: Thank you for the information. One moment while I look into your customer record.
Paul: XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX
Ahmed_Ziya: Thank you
Ahmed_Ziya: Can you please tell me that what is the exact error message that you see on your screen?
Paul: Activation server not on-line. Then I tried phone activation.
Ahmed_Ziya: All right!
Ahmed_Ziya: Paul, I would like to inform you that Adobe has disabled the activation server for CS2 products,
including Acrobat 7, because of a technical issue. These products were released more than seven years ago.
Paul: I don't care about that. I just need to get this activated, and phone activation failed. If you look at my purchase
history, you'll see that I have TWO licenses for Audition 3.0. Neither serial number will activate. This is software I
bought and paid for, I wanted to use it this weekend and I couldn't.
Ahmed_Ziya: Here are the steps to Activate the product on your machine:
Ahmed_Ziya: 1-Please remove/uninstall older version installed on your machine
[Remainder of steps deleted]
I had to re-download more than one gig of software, re-install it and then use a different serial number that was supplied to me. I tried it out on my laptop here at work and it did install and activate.
This is ridiculous. I wasted a whole weekend when I could have been mixing, and then at least another hour, just to activate software that I had already purchased. Twice!
Adobe, I'm using 7 year old software because subsequent versions of Audition (at least until 6.0) were complete garbage, removing key features that I needed and making it impossible to work with on-going projects. I should not have to waste so much time and energy simply to use a product I already own.
A couple of weeks ago, my computer contracted a virus (probably thanks to my wife, but that's another story). It was particularly pernicious, so I decided I would just re-install the OS and reload all of my software. I finished last week and, this Friday, decided I wanted to work on one my 3.0 projects. That's when the fun began.
I had deactivated all of my Adobe software, so I anticipated no problems reactivating 3.0. Boy, was I wrong! I loaded the software, went to the activation screen and selected "activate on-line." I received an error message saying, "The Activation Server is unavailable." Okay, I'll just do phone activation. I call the listed phone number, laboriously punch in all the digits for my serial number, all the digits for the machine ID, and receive an error message: "Activation failed." I tried again. Same result. I have two 3.0 license (long story), so I uninstalled the first copy and tried the second. Same routine, same result, except this time, when I cancelled activation, the software told me, "Your trial period has expired. Please purchase the software."
I called again, failed again and was offered the opportunity to be connected to an activation support technician. I selected that option and, after several minutes, received a recording telling me that Adobe's support hours were Monday through Friday.
I waited until this morning, Monday, and called again, went through the same failed phone activation and finally was connected through to activation support. The robo-answerer offered 5 selections -- the 5th was for activating any products not identified in the other 4 selections. I pressed 5 and was rewarded with a recording that said, "phone support for your product is not available on-line -- please go to adobe.com/go/activation." I did that and was instructed to use the "chat" function. I selected "chat," and received a screen telling me, "All representatives are busy. There are 7 people ahead of you."
I had to leave for work by this time, so once I reached my office I opened my browser, went back to the site, and selected chat. This time there was only 1 person ahead of me.
After several minutes someone came on-line in chat and I explained the situation. Once again, I had to enter my serial number and machine ID information. Here's the redacted conversation:
Ahmed_Ziya: Thank you for contacting Adobe chat support, my name is Ahmed, I have received your query. Please
allow me a moment to review the details of your request.
Paul: Okay.
Ahmed_Ziya: So if I understand the problem correctly, you are not able to activate your product on your machine.
Ahmed_Ziya: Right?
Paul: That's correct.
Ahmed_Ziya: I will surely help you with your concern.
Ahmed_Ziya: May I please have your email address registered with Adobe?
Paul: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Ahmed_Ziya: Thank you. Can I also have the serial number for the product?
Paul: XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXX-XXXX
Paul: Wait, I mis-typed
Ahmed_Ziya: Thank you for the information. One moment while I look into your customer record.
Paul: XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX
Ahmed_Ziya: Thank you
Ahmed_Ziya: Can you please tell me that what is the exact error message that you see on your screen?
Paul: Activation server not on-line. Then I tried phone activation.
Ahmed_Ziya: All right!
Ahmed_Ziya: Paul, I would like to inform you that Adobe has disabled the activation server for CS2 products,
including Acrobat 7, because of a technical issue. These products were released more than seven years ago.
Paul: I don't care about that. I just need to get this activated, and phone activation failed. If you look at my purchase
history, you'll see that I have TWO licenses for Audition 3.0. Neither serial number will activate. This is software I
bought and paid for, I wanted to use it this weekend and I couldn't.
Ahmed_Ziya: Here are the steps to Activate the product on your machine:
Ahmed_Ziya: 1-Please remove/uninstall older version installed on your machine
[Remainder of steps deleted]
I had to re-download more than one gig of software, re-install it and then use a different serial number that was supplied to me. I tried it out on my laptop here at work and it did install and activate.
This is ridiculous. I wasted a whole weekend when I could have been mixing, and then at least another hour, just to activate software that I had already purchased. Twice!
Adobe, I'm using 7 year old software because subsequent versions of Audition (at least until 6.0) were complete garbage, removing key features that I needed and making it impossible to work with on-going projects. I should not have to waste so much time and energy simply to use a product I already own.
