Buying Adobe CC shouldn’t feel like a scam

[Robinvx]

Here’s my rant. I’m a one-man creative business, and all I wanted was a simple yearly Adobe Creative Cloud subscription. One invoice, one payment, done. Easy, right? Nope. It turned into an absolute circus.

First, Adobe wouldn’t accept my card. I tried with the card from my first business.. declined. Tried again with my second business card.. also declined. For no reason. Both cards work everywhere else. Adobe offers three payment options: card, PayPal, and SEPA (bank transfer). So I tried SEPA. That didn’t work either.

At this point, I contacted support. And honestly, it was some of the worst support I’ve ever dealt with. The rep kept insisting I was entering my card details wrong. I re-entered them multiple times, tried two different cards, triple-checked every digit. Still, he kept blaming me. Then he gave me a link to “fix it,” which just led back to the exact same broken payment page. When I asked about SEPA, he flat-out told me Adobe doesn’t offer that payment method, while I was literally staring at SEPA as an option on their own checkout page.

Instead of solving the issue, he tried to push me into one of Adobe’s new “AI options.” Like… how am I supposed to buy your upsells if I can’t even pay for the basic subscription? He eventually just ended the chat. I tried again with another rep, and it was the same routine: poor English, no understanding of what I was saying, blaming me, and pushing AI junk I didn’t ask for.

Finally, one rep said he could give me a discount, €200 off. Funny thing is, another had already offered me €50 off, and I’ve read online about people getting €400+ off. So what’s the real price here? Why is Adobe throwing around numbers like this? Anyway, I accepted the “offer,” got an email with a payment link, clicked it, and (surprise) it sent me back to the exact same broken payment page I’d been stuck on for two days.

I tried SEPA one more time through that link, and thanked the universe it went through this time. Adobe sent my bank a payment mandate, my bank confirmed the mandate, I was charged 600-ish euro's, I got a confirmation email, an invoice, and I downloaded the apps. I was finally using Photoshop, Illustrator, everything. Seemed like it was over.

But then I noticed the invoice had the wrong VAT number. I’d carefully entered the right one, but for some reason Adobe used the VAT from my other business. So I contacted support again to get it fixed. And this is where the insanity peaked. They told me they couldn’t fix it because “no payment had been made.” Excuse me? €600 had left my account, I had an invoice, Adobe had thanked me for my purchase, and I was actively using the software. Yet the rep insisted SEPA wasn’t even possible at Adobe and that I needed to “just give them my credit card details.”

I wasn’t going to do that, so I kept pushing. After four or five chats, I finally found one rep who actually listened. I walked him step by step through my account; orders, invoices, payments, and he eventually admitted something was wrong on Adobe’s backend. He said he’d escalate it to the backend team, which would take 5–7 business days. I thought that was already absurd, but I agreed. He promised an update. Of course, no email ever came. Neither did I get one from all the other reps who promised me a follow-up.

Instead, a few days later, I got an email from Adobe saying my account was suspended because I hadn’t paid. At this point I completely lost it. Adobe had my money, my bank confirmed the mandate was official, and I’d been using the tools. Yet Adobe now claimed I never paid and shut me out.

I called my bank, explained the situation, and thankfully they were sympathetic. Normally SEPA payments can’t just be reversed, but since it was clearly an Adobe issue, they reimbursed me through some insurance I had and would, in the meantime, try and retrieve the money from Adobe (which as I understood correctly, they were able to do). So at least I have my €600 again. But I have no account, no subscription, and no idea what the hell is going on.

Honestly, I’ve been using Photoshop since I was 10. I still want to use it today. But after this mess? I don’t know if Adobe even wants customers like me. Between the insane subscription prices, the shady discounts, the broken payment system, and “support” that feels like a complete scam.. I’m terrified of paying again.

What do I even do here? I want the tools, but I can’t trust the process.

[Shivangi_Gupta]

Hi Robin,

Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences and concerns. We truly value your feedback.

• Subscription Transparency: Adobe offers both monthly and annual plans. The “Annual, Paid Monthly” plan provides a discounted rate in exchange for a 12-month commitment. The cancellation fee is part of this agreement and is disclosed during sign-up.

• Free Trial to Paid Transition: We strive to ensure that users are informed before transitioning from a free trial to a paid plan. Reminder emails and plan details are provided, but we understand that these can sometimes be missed. 

• Cancellation Experience: We regret any technical issues you may have faced while trying to cancel. Adobe always offers full refund within 14 days if a user could not cancel the plan during the 7-day trial period.

• Support Interactions: Our support teams aim to offer helpful solutions, including alternative plans or discounts. However, we acknowledge that these offers should always be clearly explained and optional. We'll make sure your feedback is shared.

We’re committed to listening, learning, and improving. Your feedback helps us evolve and serve you better. If you’re facing any unresolved issues, please let us know. We are here to help.

Thank you again for being part of the Adobe community.

^Shivangi

[Robinvx]

Thanks for the response, but honestly, this feels like a generic copy-paste that has nothing to do with what I actually wrote. Let me break it down:

Subscription Transparency – Yes, I’m aware of the annual plans, monthly vs yearly, and cancellation fees. I made it clear from the beginning: I wanted a yearly subscription. My problem was never about cancellation terms, it was about being able to pay in the first place and Adobe failing to process that payment.

Free Trial to Paid Transition – Again, irrelevant. I never started with a free trial. I’ve been using Photoshop since I was 10, I know the products, and I went straight into purchasing. This has nothing to do with my issue.

Cancellation Experience – Completely unrelated. I never asked to cancel, nor did I try to. In fact, the entire problem is that Adobe suspended my account after already taking my money. Did you even read what I wrote?

Support Interactions – You mention “helpful solutions” and “alternative plans or discounts,” but that is exactly what I found so frustrating. I wasn’t asking for a discount, I wasn’t asking for an alternative plan. I just wanted to pay for a subscription normally. Instead, I was offered random discounts (ranging from €50 to €200, while others online report €400+), redirected to the same broken payment page over and over, told SEPA wasn’t an option (even though it clearly is), and pressured to provide credit card details I don’t even have for this business, while at the same time getting upselled some AI rubbish I don't need.

So once again, this response ignores every specific issue I outlined:

• My payment through SEPA did go through.

• Adobe did charge me.

• I did get an invoice and access to the software.

• And then Adobe turned around and claimed I hadn’t paid, suspended my account, and forced me to waste hours in useless chats.
  
  

Please don’t tell me “we’re here to help” while giving me a templated non-answer that doesn’t address the core problem: Adobe’s payment system and customer support are broken. I need to know what I can actually do now. Do I try again? Do I risk another €600 disappearing into thin air? Or is Adobe simply not capable of providing reliable billing for independent creatives?

[Shivangi_Gupta]

Apologies! I realize my earlier response may have come across as generic, so I wanted to follow up with more specific details regarding your case.

I’ve looked into your case and can confirm that you have an open support ticket with Adobe. Our system currently shows that your payment has not been processed yet. As per the support representative handling your case, there were issues with the invoice you provided, which has already been escalated to the backend team for further review.

Since this is a public forum, I’m unable to share specific account-related details here. However, if you're still unable to access your applications, I strongly recommend reaching out to Adobe Support directly for an update on your case.

Here’s your case reference number for quick follow-up: ADB-41637795-J3V7
You won’t need to repeat the details, everything is already documented in the case notes.

^Shivangi

[Robinvx]

Thanks for following up,  and this just confirms my point where your first reply was generic and had nothing to do with my actual case. Now this second reply simply tells me what I already know: that Adobe considers my payment “unprocessed.” Of course it’s unprocessed now, because after being stuck in limbo for days, my bank refunded me.

Here’s the reality, yet again:

• Adobe did charge my account.

• I did get an invoice, a confirmation email, and access to the apps.

• Then Adobe turned around and claimed I hadn’t paid.

• After hours and hours wasted with support, nothing was resolved, and my account got suspended.

• My bank had to step in and pull the money back.

So yes, the ticket is “escalated” and “under review”, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m back at square one. I don’t have a subscription, I don’t have a working payment method, and all I’ve gotten from Adobe are copy-paste replies that feel like I'm talking to a brick wall.

What I need now is a clear, actionable answer:

How am I, as an independent creative without an enterprise contract, supposed to reliably pay for Adobe Creative Cloud without risking another €600 disappearing into limbo? Do I wait until the backend team contacts me directly that they’ve fixed the SEPA issue and I should try again - or what?

And frankly, considering the sheer amount of hours I’ve already wasted just trying to give Adobe my money, I'm almost inclined to ask for some form of compensation, seems more than reasonable at this point.

[Robinvx]

And just to make it abundantly clear: being sent back to “contact support” over and over is not a solution. I’ve already done that enough. So being redirected back there again isn’t an option. I’m exhausted with this process.