The original post: /r/photography by /u/Cosmic1255 on 2025-02-21 18:36:24.

Hey Reddit,

Iā€™ve gotta vent about something insane that happened to me today with Adobeā€™s support. Iā€™ve been using their Photography plan (Photoshop, Lightroom, 20GB cloud storage) for years, and in Ukraine, where Iā€™m from, it costs me $4.79 a month. Itā€™s 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 havenā€™t 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 wasnā€™t 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 couldnā€™t 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:

  • ā€œYour payment info is up to date.ā€
  • ā€œWeā€™re charging you the overdue amount of $4.79.ā€
  • ā€œYour regular $4.79/month payment will continue starting February 23, 2025.ā€

Sweet, right? Problem solvedā€”or so I thought. But 30 minutes later, my apps were still locked. I was like, ā€œWhat the heck?ā€ So I hopped into Adobeā€™s support chat to figure it out.

And thatā€™s when it got weird. The first agent, Saurabh, pulls up my account and goes, ā€œOh, your Photography plan (20GB) is suspended. No worries, Iā€™ll add it back for you.ā€ Then he hits me with this: ā€œItā€™s $14.99 plus $3 tax, so $17.99/month. Shall I proceed?ā€ I nearly spit out my coffee. Iā€™ve been paying $4.79 for YEARS, and now they want almost FOUR TIMES that for the SAME plan?!

I told him, ā€œNo way, dude. My planā€™s $4.79ā€”look at my payment screenshot!ā€ I sent it over, showing Iā€™d just been charged $4.79 like their site said. But heā€™s like, ā€œSorry, the price has been updated. We donā€™t have the $4.79 offer anymore.ā€ Iā€™m sitting there thinking, ā€œAre you kidding me? This feels like a bait-and-switch!ā€

I wasnā€™t buying it, so I asked for a supervisor. After a wait, I get Rajat, the ā€œfloor supervisor.ā€ He apologizes and says, ā€œYeah, your payment was pending in December, so your planā€™s in ā€˜past dueā€™ status and canā€™t be reactivated.ā€ His solution? Refund my $4.79 and sell me a new plan for $14.99 plus tax. Iā€™m like, ā€œHell no! I donā€™t want a new planā€”I 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 Rajatā€™s stuck on repeat, pushing this $17.99 nonsense.

Then he tries to sweeten the deal with a ā€œspecial offerā€ of $8.99 plus tax. Still double my original price! Iā€™m getting heated at this point, telling him, ā€œI donā€™t want your ā€˜specialā€™ anythingā€”just give me what your site promised!ā€ And hereā€™s the kicker: while weā€™re arguing, I get an email out of nowhere saying my membershipā€™s reactivated for $4.79. I check my appsā€”theyā€™re working again! I told Rajat, ā€œUh, itā€™s already active for $4.79. Whatā€™s your deal?ā€ Heā€™s still trying to sell me a $5.99 plus tax plan as a ā€œone-time exception,ā€ even though my accountā€™s already back to normal.

I ended the chat with a ā€œthanks for nothingā€ because, honestly, it felt like a total scam. Itā€™s like they were testing me to see if Iā€™d cave and pay more, but since I pushed back, they quietly fixed it. The timing of that reactivation emailā€”right in the middle of the chatā€”makes me think it was automatic, and they were just hoping I wouldnā€™t notice.

Iā€™m 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? Iā€™m sharing this to warn you allā€”check your billing details closely and donā€™t let them bully you into overpaying. If they try this, stand your ground!