Adobe slated over channel compo cockup

Adobe appears to have made a real hash of the move to a new rebate structure, with resellers claiming they are still unable to measure progress made on sales targets.

The Creative Suite developer, which is cutting 7 per cent of its workforce, moved to a new deal registration programme back in October – one month into its fiscal Q4 – following a pilot that was supposed to iron out the glitches.

Dealers registering business worth more than $10,000 get a 3 per cent rebate, they receive 4 per cent on $50,000 and 7 per cent on anything larger.

However, resellers contacted by El Reg are reporting "teething problems" with the switchover, claiming that Adobe has applied both the old and then new deal registration mechanisms in one quarter.

"We didn't get our [sales] targets until half way through Adobe's fourth quarter ending [December] and there have been no updates on performance so have no idea where we are [in terms of making the rebate]," said one channel source.

This comment was echoed by other Adobe channel partners, who claimed that they used to received weekly and sometimes bi-weekly updates on progress made on sales targets.

"We haven't got any idea when things will improve," said a dealer source, who claimed Adobe had not communicated why the issues were occurring.

The details of the deal registration changes were not in question but the execution of the new programme was, all the partners added.

Adobe was preparing a response at the time of writing and we will update the story when or if it arrives. ®