Lightroom 5 + Adobe support = Lightroom 5

BruPri

Top Veteran
Location
Seattle, Washington USA
Name
Bruce J. Pritchard
I've been using the LR5 Beta and as much as I REALLY dislike the backwards crop tool, decided to upgrade from LR4. Went online and paid for the upgrade. Then I get a confirmation page that looks like this:
Lightroom 5.jpg
now I'm fairly computer savvy but from looking at this, there are three lines, the first has my serial number and in the download column it says not applicable and in the other two rows (I have a MAC) there is a download however there is no serial number in those rows. So I call to get clarification, It seems initially I was routed to a person with an Indian accent, that took down all my information and instead of being able to simply clarify what I was supposed to do, she assigned me a case number, and put me in the queue for tier 2 support (unbelievable). Yes, I certainly could have clicked on the Mac download link to see what happened but I wanted to humor myself. I've been listening to hold music for... ready for this? Over an hour now! Ok, at one hour, 13 minutes the support representative comes on and wants to connect remotely to my laptop, I refuse explaining that I am on my downloads page and to please tell me if clicking on the bottom option will get me what I want. I finally drew the conclusion that all I needed to do, was down load the trial version and plug in my serial number. Easy peasy. (Then they wanted my email address to verify the account, I asked why? They responded, "It's just a procedure to verify the account" No. Done and done.

This is almost laughable if it wasn't so sad. I'm not sure if this reflects more on my OCD, or tally this up to Adobe's sheer incompetence from web design all the way through to customer support. Unacceptable, a complete waste time and resources.

How's your day?
 
It's okay. They'll just get your email address from the NSA, lol. Well, support has gone to hell on almost everything these days. Your story is like a number I've heard about all kinds of companies.

The joys of outsourcing to companies that don't know the product, they just have lookup software and scripts.
 
I got routed around the globe when I had difficulty installing a Belkin wireless router several years ago. It was in interesting journey, but at the end of it I still did not have the answer I needed. I packed it up, went back to Best Buy, and and bought a Linksys router, as I'd been able to install others of their products without international intervention.

Sometimes I think to myself, "Larry, relax, you're just getting old and cranky."
 
I too was puzzled by the screen showed after I purchased the upgrade but I went ahead and downloaded the Mac file anyway. While it was downloading I checked my email from Adobe and it had the same serial number as shown on the screen. I installed the upgrade, cut and pasted the serial number and bingo all went well.

Calling the support desk is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get. I avoid it if I can.

In my past life I did some software user testing and I came to the conclusion that programmers often seem to go out of their way to be obtuse, the Adobe web authors seem to be in the same league.
 
So, cost and hassles aside, how do people like the upgrade. I'm particularly wondering if it will bog down in any notable way relative to 4.4. My desktop computer is probably powerful enough, but I have a MacBook Pro I'm going to be taking overseas for July and if going to run noticeably slower, I think I'll just stay with 4.4 for now...

-Ray
 
It seems faster for me Ray, the auto-tone function is all over the map so that's still out to lunch. The new auto straighten feature works great. Still backwards as far as the crop rectangle goes... for the life of me Aperture and Photoshop all behave the same way, you drag the box, then move it over the picture. Why on earth in LR they always have you dragging the picture under the static box is just vexing to me. (it'd be nice to make that a user preference)
 
Bruce
I called Adobe about a month ago concerning an upgrade .........much the same story ......... it is good that guns are not legal in the UK otherwise I would have been on the plane to India/Ireland/wherever Adobe are based so that they do not have to pay corporate taxes.

Their customer service is really disgraceful ........ BUT they have us "over a barrel" or "by our short and curlies"

do I upgrade from LR4 to LR5 at the extortionate Euro prices they get away with, (versus the $ price) ......... yes I probably will
 
I upgraded. I know misery loves company, but I didn't have any hassles or issues at all. Took a few minutes for the iMac and fewer still for the laptop. Runs well on both...

-Ray
 
I'll upgrade soon, but will for when I'm not so busy. The new features look good, and I hope it'll run at least as fast as 4.4.

What about Nik plugins? Do they carry over?
 
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