Adobe Promised Refund Issue - a detailed ongoing account...

After years of being a loyal Adobe customer, I need to post this current issue billing-related I am having with Adobe. All of the below communications thus far have been with their overseas customer service.

I am a US-based business owner and Adobe Customer since 2011 and have spent over $25,000 with Adobe (I have purchased the full suite standalone Adobe Collections CS3, CS6, etc. over the years (multi-licenses and platforms), and for the last three years the full creative suite paying FULL price ANNUALLY UPFRONT).

On 12/01/23, I called into Adobe Customer Service to see if I could take advantage of the Thanksgiving/Cyber Monday deals on offer. My last annual plan renewal was processed on 6/23/23 where I once again paid $635.87 (including taxes). I was advised by Customer Service that I could indeed take advantage of the offers, and was offered a deal where I would receive a new discounted annual plan of $381.47 (including taxes), which would immediately cancel my current plan and they would issue me with a FULL REFUND of my 6/23/23 renewal ($635.87) I thought “this is great” however there was a catch… I had to part with the $381.47 BEFORE my refund would be processed, and that I would receive my refund in 5-7 business days. I was immediately uneasy about this and told the Customer Service Rep several times that I didn’t feel good about doing it this way. I reluctantly processed the transaction and requested that I got a confirmation email before we disconnected. While I was waiting for this email confirmation, I first got a confirmation that the “ticket was closed” and I asked the Rep why she was closing the ticket before issuing my refund confirmation? She kept telling me “Don’t worry, don’t worry” and about 5 minutes later I received the confirmation email:

After hanging up, I still felt uneasy about giving Adobe another $381.47 before them giving me anything back, so I Googled “Adobe Refund Issues” and to my horror I immediately found literally 100’s (maybe thousands?) of Adobe horror stories with the common theme of Adobe being accused of not processing promised refunds to customers.

On 12/05/23, I called Adobe Customer Service again to inquire if my refund had been processed. The Customer Service Rep confirmed that it had been processed and sent me another communication confirming as such:

Very shortly after that I received another email from Adobe stating that this case was closed as an “Account Related Issue” (email attached and below). I thought this was odd but didn’t think much of it at the time.

On 12/07/23, I called Adobe Customer Service again being that we are now 5 business days into the “refund period” and I was still feeling very uneasy about Adobe’s billing and refund practices given what I had read online. The Customer Service Rep confirmed for the now THIRD TIME that my refund had been processed, but this time I demanded to speak to Adobe Billing Representative to see if could get the credit card refund authorization number. After spending 45 minutes on the phone up to that point the Adobe Billing Rep confirmed that MY REFUND HAD BEEN CANCELLED with no reason provided! At this point I was absolutely livid! The Adobe Billing Rep stated that it may have been a “technical issue” and that I needed to provide my credit card info again via a secure link and new Case ID ADB-32219420-Q5S2 (which I complied, however this process is total BS as the very same credit card was processed by Adobe for my 6/23 renewal ($635.87) AND is the very same credit  card that Adobe billed only a few days earlier for $381.47). I was then told I would need to wait 24 to 48 hours for “that Internal team” to get in contact with him (the Rep) before we can figure this out. I stated that I needed him to provide another communication confirming this “new discovery” and received yet another new case id:

Note that there was no email confirmation that my refund was "cancelled" (accidentally or otherwise), and had it not been for my "Spidey-Senses" and persistance (triggered by my unease of other's experiences with Adobe) Adobe would have left me hung out to dry.

So right now I am in limbo with this “promised” refund, and my scenario is playing out just the way others have reported online. Why the hell does Adobe – a roughly 15+ BILLION DOLLAR company – conduct business this way? Why the hell should I need to go through this crap and spend hours of my precious, billable time chasing them up for this refund?  All said and done, Adobe has already cost me more money in my time than the cost of taking advantage of this "deal."

I strongly discourage any "die hard defenders" of Adobe that love come here and snark it up in posts to try and lecture me on anything. I run multiple businesses (which others regard as being highly successful), and I doubt many of you have my finanical exposure with Adobe over the years. I am not expecting any resolution via this channel per se, I am posting this so that people understand how Adobe conducts its business. I am not here to bash Adobe for the sake of it, I just want my matter resolved and ultimately wish I could reach a US-based resource at corporate who can handle and resolve this matter in minutes. This entire refund ordeal should be a very simple process, however, it is hard not to reach the conclusion that Adobe appears to make this process *intentionally* difficult.