Jason Dunn
01-18-2006, 05:00 PM
In February of last year, I picked up the Adobe Premiere Elements 1.0 and Photoshop Elements 3.0 bundle for about $179 CAD, and it memory serves there was a $30 rebate, making it about $150 or so. Not bad. I was getting tired of my current video and photo editing programs (Pinnacle Studio 9 and PhotoImpact 10 respectively) and thought it was time to stop fighting the system and look at the "mainstream" applications. Tutorials and add-ons get written for <i>popular</i> applications, not always the <i>best</i> ones. Photoshop Elements had some cool features, but in usual Adobe fashion it was bloated, took forever to load, and had its Mac heritage stamped all over. I enjoyed using Premiere Elements more, their "lite" version of video editing industry-standard Adobe Premiere. But Premiere Elements 1.0 was definitely rough around the edges. And when I was just getting used to using the applications, Adobe announced a new version. The never-ending march of technology - you either love it or hate it.<!><br /><br />So back in November of 2005 I thought to myself "Well, how much is the upgrade?". I began searching and at Adobe.com I found that while the full version of the Photoshop/Premiere bundle was $149 USD, the upgrade was $119 USD. Not a big savings, but I'll take it. The next step was to find a local store that had this upgrade - and that's where things got frustrating. I called no less than all four major computer retail chains in Calgary, and searched their Web sites: nothing. Several had the full version of the software for $179 CND, but seeing as how I had just bought the full version earlier in the year, it seemed insulting that I should have to dish out full price again. Normally if a store carries one version of the software, they can order in a variant, namely the upgrade. Not one of them stocked the upgrade, or even had it in their computer systems as a special order. How's that for retail channel management on Adobe's part?<br /><br />A bit baffled now, I called Adobe to find out about ordering the upgrade directly. While they could sell it to me, they'd have to ship it to me from the USA, which would mean a hefty shipping charge, import brokerage fees, and taxes - effectively deleting the upgrade discount. I then asked them which retailers carried the upgrade, and they directed me to their <a href="http://partners.adobe.com/resellerfinder/na/reseller.jsp">online retailer search tool</a>. So I first look for retailers by putting in my postal code...and nothing comes up. What? <i>[I later discovered that while nothing came up for retailers, if I change it to All Resellers, my local stores come up. That seems broken to me.]</i> I then tried switching to looking for an online store that would sell me the upgrade. The only two stores listed (<a href="http://www.softchoice.com">Softchoice</a> and <a href="http://www.pictureline.com">Pictureline</a>) severely lacked any choices. One store had zero hits for Premiere Elements, and the other had version 1.0. Neither had the upgrade option.<br /><br />In the end I gave up and simply went down to a retail store and purchased the full version of the bundle for $179 CND. There was a small rebate on it - one of those "just because" rebates - so I ended up saving a bit of money. The whole process was a frustrating one, and it certainly taught me a lesson: while there may be consumer-level software upgrades on paper, most retail stores aren't going to carry them and I should just resign myself to buying a new copy of the software each time. Yet, as an Adobe customer now, I find that situation frustrating. If Adobe has an upgrade, they should work to make it available in the Canadian market through retail channels. At the very least it should be available for special ordering, even if it meant I had to wait a couple of weeks to get it. Adobe, you can do better than this.<br /><br /><i>Jason Dunn owns and operates <a href="http://www.thoughtsmedia.com">Thoughts Media Inc.</a>, a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys mobile devices, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Alberta, Canada with his wife Ashley.</i>