The dreaded Internal Error error meets the dreaded Adobe support, sigh

[Emily Berk]

Hi FrameUsers:

I don't know why I thought this list was no more.  I'm glad that it is.  Please help me with my FrameMaker 7.1 (yes, I know it's old; I am too and it's all the company I work for is willing to use and I need to be able to generate this one little PDF sometime within the next decade).

Following is my latest tale of woe.

I always forget why I always get queasy before calling Adobe's tech support.

But then, once again, once my interaction with Adobe is complete, the nightmare has only just begun.

Take today, for instance.  Well, it all started yesterday when I began to get Internal Error crashes when I tried to generate a PDF, any PDF, on any Frame file (not on Word docs) using FrameMaker 7.1.  Because I had a vague recollection of what it was like to interact with Adobe support, I didn't try that.  But I did try a LOT of other stuff.  For hours and hours.  All to no avail.  

So, I decided to try to sleep on the problem, which wasn't a successful strategy for me.  I've had a number of these Internal Error issues come up in the past and they never, ever, never go away on their own.  

Since sleep did not come, I chose to begin my Adobe nightmare early.  Called tech support and spoke with about 3 or 4 perfectly nice folks whose English was very unclear.  

They would have to ask their questions, oh, six or seven times before I realized that they were asking, for the seventh or eighth time, what my customer number or serial number or product .... was.  

Eventually, (I was on hold and/or being transferred and then asked redundant questions about 45 minutes) I get to speak with someone about my problem.  He doesn't speak very good English, but I am given to understand that he does not DO FrameMaker support.  

So now I'm on hold again for another very long interval.  

And a guy picks up who DOES speak English.  And I explain my tale of woe -- no change on my end in terms of the software for at least 2 years.  The doc is one I've been working on since last October at least.  

I tell him the whole story and he lets me go on and on and then he tells me, in his good English, that he doesn't know anything whatsoever about FrameMaker.  

But assures me that the guy who next picks up with both know FrameMaker AND be able to speak English.  So I'm on hold again for -- not all that long -- maybe another 8 minutes, but time has been ticking away.  

Then a guy picks up and yes he does speak English and implies that he knows everything one might want to know about FrameMaker.  But he knows nothing about me.  

SO, I have to re-iterate EVERYTHING again.  Customer number, phone number, address, hair color, eye color, preferred brand of beer, product serial number, tale of woe.  

And then, after I'd re-iterated everything, he says, "FrameMaker 7.1 is no longer supported.  You need to search the knowledgebase or buy FrameMaker 8."

1.  THEY ALL KNEW THAT THEY WERE NOT GOING TO PROVIDE SUPPORT TO ME ONCE THEY KNEW I WAS USING FRAMEMAKER 7.1.  Why did they just not hang up on me then?  

2.  AND YET THEY KEPT ME ON HOLD/TALKING for NEARLY TWO HOURS.  (I'm guessing all those guys who didn't speak good English get paid to delay people like me by the minute.)

3.  AND THEN THEY REFUSED TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM, BUT IMPLIED THAT THE SOLUTION IS IN THE KNOWLEDGEBASE.

4.  WHICH IT ISN'T BECAUSE I'VE TRIED TO DO EVERYTHING MENTIONED IN THE DATABASE FOR Internal Error: 7104, 6063074, 7693891, 0

And, no, the company I'm working with is NOT going to upgrade to FrameMaker 8 just because Adobe did some hidden "upgrade" to 7.1 that made it psychotic.

Do I sound frantic?  It's probably just stress.

Anyone have any suggestions?

-- Emily