I reinstalled Elements 12 after a crash. Editor and Create does not work. Getting "you must purchase" message. It was purchased already. What should I do?

Question

Please help....purchased Elements 12 and Premiere Elements 12 in August.  My hard drive crashed and I had to reinstall.  Now Elements does not allow me to use editor or Create and keeps telling me to purchase the software I already have.  What do I do?

Answer 1

Peggy-D
This is not Adobe. Rather user to user.
From whom did you purchase Premiere Elements 12? Or, did you purchase from an authorize reseller?
Either way, you are well beyond the typical money back within 30 days of purchase type of arrangement.
But, as I said, this is not Adobe with whom you are communicating here. If you purchased from Adobe, then refund decisions are from Adobe.
If you purchased from an authorized reseller, then you need to deal with that company's refund policy.
I am surprised but glad that you got through to Adobe/Chat/Tech Support people. Typically they will only deal with current version/purchased/registered, and it is well into version 13 by now (13 was released September 24, 2014). When did you contact Adobe? Do you have a case number with Adobe Tech? Did it give you a troubleshooting scheme to follow? Were you supposed to get back to it? Did it work after your interaction with Adobe Tech?
Post 2 of this thread highlights the things that worked for me when I was in situations such as your with Photoshop Elements 12 and Premiere Elements 12.
Have you gone through the drills
a. determining if the problem exists with and without the antivirus and firewall(s) disabled
b. creating a new User Account with Administrative Privileges and installing and running Premiere Elements 12 from there.
If you purchased from Adobe direct and want to get an official decision on a refund, you can try using the following link to Adobe Chat Orders
Contact Customer Care
Premiere Elements
Membership, Account, Payment
Payments, invoices, orders
Chat Panel
As of a few moments ago, the Chat Panel was visible. If the link set does not hold, then you will need to navigate to the Chat Panel using the above titles as guides.
We will be watching for your decision on how you want to proceed.
ATR