The original post: /r/photography by /u/Cosmic1255 on 2025-02-21 18:36:24.
Hey Reddit,
Iāve gotta vent about something insane that happened to me today with Adobeās support. Iāve been using their Photography plan (Photoshop, Lightroom, 20GB cloud storage) for years, and in Ukraine, where Iām from, it costs me $4.79 a month. Itās a yearly plan with monthly payments, and I pay it through a special bank card I use just for online stuff. I only add money to it when I need to, and honestly, the past few months, I havenāt touched Photoshop or Lightroom much. So when Adobe tried to charge my card $4.79 lately, it kept failing because the card was empty. I wasnāt stressed about it since I barely use the apps these days.
Today, I finally decided to pay up. By some crazy coincidence, I also got an email from Adobe saying my plan was suspended because they couldnāt charge me. The email had a button to update my payment info, so I clicked it, added funds to my card, updated everything, and got this confirmation on their site:
- āYour payment info is up to date.ā
- āWeāre charging you the overdue amount of $4.79.ā
- āYour regular $4.79/month payment will continue starting February 23, 2025.ā
Sweet, right? Problem solvedāor so I thought. But 30 minutes later, my apps were still locked. I was like, āWhat the heck?ā So I hopped into Adobeās support chat to figure it out.
And thatās when it got weird. The first agent, Saurabh, pulls up my account and goes, āOh, your Photography plan (20GB) is suspended. No worries, Iāll add it back for you.ā Then he hits me with this: āItās $14.99 plus $3 tax, so $17.99/month. Shall I proceed?ā I nearly spit out my coffee. Iāve been paying $4.79 for YEARS, and now they want almost FOUR TIMES that for the SAME plan?!
I told him, āNo way, dude. My planās $4.79ālook at my payment screenshot!ā I sent it over, showing Iād just been charged $4.79 like their site said. But heās like, āSorry, the price has been updated. We donāt have the $4.79 offer anymore.ā Iām sitting there thinking, āAre you kidding me? This feels like a bait-and-switch!ā
I wasnāt buying it, so I asked for a supervisor. After a wait, I get Rajat, the āfloor supervisor.ā He apologizes and says, āYeah, your payment was pending in December, so your planās in āpast dueā status and canāt be reactivated.ā His solution? Refund my $4.79 and sell me a new plan for $14.99 plus tax. Iām like, āHell no! I donāt want a new planāI want the one I just paid for!ā I kept pointing to their OWN website saying my payment was good and my access would be restored soon. But Rajatās stuck on repeat, pushing this $17.99 nonsense.
Then he tries to sweeten the deal with a āspecial offerā of $8.99 plus tax. Still double my original price! Iām getting heated at this point, telling him, āI donāt want your āspecialā anythingājust give me what your site promised!ā And hereās the kicker: while weāre arguing, I get an email out of nowhere saying my membershipās reactivated for $4.79. I check my appsātheyāre working again! I told Rajat, āUh, itās already active for $4.79. Whatās your deal?ā Heās still trying to sell me a $5.99 plus tax plan as a āone-time exception,ā even though my accountās already back to normal.
I ended the chat with a āthanks for nothingā because, honestly, it felt like a total scam. Itās like they were testing me to see if Iād cave and pay more, but since I pushed back, they quietly fixed it. The timing of that reactivation emailāright in the middle of the chatāmakes me think it was automatic, and they were just hoping I wouldnāt notice.
Iām so ticked off. How does a big company like Adobe pull this shady stuff? Has anyone else dealt with this kind of upsell trickery from them? Iām sharing this to warn you allācheck your billing details closely and donāt let them bully you into overpaying. If they try this, stand your ground!