I recently downloaded a trial version of Dreamweaver CS4, It’s great, works well, looks good.

I noticed on the startup window a link to upgrade and save, even from the Macromedia products. Great I thought, so I followed the link and found I could upgrade my Studio MX04 to Web Premium CS4 for $599US which seems pretty good to me.

So I clicked buy now, and went to the store, chose my local store (New Zealand) and clicked go….. except the price showed up as US$770.

Odd I thought, so after circling through the ‘contact us’ pages a couple of times (obviously trying to stop me actually contacting them) I found a New Zealand sales number and gave them a call… (It eventually connected to somewhere that wasn’t New Zealand.)

ME “Hi I have followed the link from Dreamweaver to the upgrade offer but the price shows as US$770 not $US599, I dont understand”

…. 10 minutes of confusion…

ADOBE “No the New Zealand store prices are in US currency, not new zealand currency.”

ME ” oh, ok, but why is’nt it showing US$599 then?”

ADOBE “it is”

ME “no its not”

ADOBE “because it is in US$ in the New Zealand store”

followed by ADOBE CSR probably reading from a standard response in reverse … complete nonsense for 5 minutes.

ME ” Ok yes I understand you don’t support New Zealand currency, I just want to know why the prices are different?”

ADOBE “I cannot discuss that”

ME “thanks”

And so I had my rude awakening to the world of Adobe international pricing. Turns out they want almost $600NZ dollars extra for the same product, downloaded from the same website in the same language.

I would understand this if it was Adobe NZ I was dealing with, but there is NO adobe New Zealand. They don’t even have a single person in New Zealand, not a single NZ based phone number, no office, nothing. They can’t even be bothered using the New Zealand currency on their website.

Not that I have an issue with the lack of local support, its a big wide world, we are a bit isolated down here and we’re used to that…. but we have the internet.

Same store, same support, same product, same currency…. different price?

from the Adobe.com website…. “the only people who really benefit from pirated software are the pirates themselves”

go figure.

No, there’s not. I’m a graphic designer with 30 years experience, and I’ve never seen anything this bad make it to the public, (except the 2012 London Olympics logo…)

Fer Chrissakes! It’s a stick figure on its knees, scratching its ass! ;-) (I’m in the US, and agree completely with Aral. Sorry Matt.

I COULD do better, If I really wanted to bother, or was getting paid the several thousands of dollars that the agency who DID do it, got…

Yeah, I’ll design a logo, and submit it to a multi-million dollar company for free…

I still think people are being unduly rude/negative towards it… There is craft in the mark that people are missing. Craft enough that Adobe signed off on it.

I will go ahead and say I’m obviously in the outspoken minority, and I respect the company’s decision to run the logo, and I don’t think it’s a terrible mark. I also commend the design team on their efforts, despite the fury that “The Internet” may bring upon them. It’s so easy for people to throw digital rocks when they are behind a username and, yes, I myself believe that a better mark exists out there… Although I am willing to bet that the majority denouncing Adobe’s logo could do no better themselves. Could I? Doubtful, but I also don’t find the fault in it that others seem to, and I’m not about to cry “I could do better!”

Cheers.