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[Locked] Please, Can't We Just Continue To Purchase Photoshop, not CC, Adobe?

Forum|Forum|12 years ago
March 1, 2014
15 replies
67498 views

Please, could we just continue to purchase our programs, Adobe?

I cannot go along with the Creative Cloud only option. Although Adobe is offering great "discounts" on the Creative Cloud versions, they will absolutely raise the price each year. (That is clearly stated in their "Terms.") Adobe's "special discount introductory offer" goes to the "current price" after the first year. The $9.99 / month special offer becomes $19.99 or $29.99 after a year (or much more - it is completely at Adobe's discretion how high it goes).

I do not want or need the Cloud, Storage, or Collaborative "features" that are the hallmark of the CC releases. I am pleased to wait for a year for new features. (Updates for bug fixes should not be delayed, however.)

This is just like the cable and satellite TV companies, they surreptitiously raise the monthly price, until you are paying INSANE amounts.

Like Woody Allen said (my paraphrasing, sorry):

"If you put a frog into a pot of cold water and slowly bring it to a boil, he will just sit there and boil - because the discomfort change is so slow, he'll hardly notice it, until he is thoroughly cooked!"

Adobe wants us to be that frog.

And once we have all signed up and are comfortable in our plan, Adobe wants us to forget that we are (almost invisibly to us) paying each month - while the price goes up and up each year.

I just read about a student who signed up last year for the "introductory" CC pricing for students, and now his price is going up to $29.99 per month, after just one year. And where does it stop? Do you think it stops at $29.99?

(Quick math solution: $29.99 X 12 = $359.88 PER YEAR, EVERY YEAR! And this is not capped, so the upward monthly price is unlimited!)

Although I love the products, I don't want to pay another gouging cable or satellite company!

Thanks for listening.

And Adobe, could you please, please continue to offer our "old-style" purchasing of new versions of Photoshop?

I will not join the 'Cloud.'

Please join Me.

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer Nancy OShea

As of January 2017, Adobe officially stopped selling Creative Suite software.

If you want Photoshop, you have to subscribe to a Creative Cloud Plan.

The Photography Plan ( PS + Lightroom bundle) is currently USD $9.99/month (paid monthly for 1 year).

Other plan options are also available.

Creative Cloud pricing and membership plans | Adobe Creative Cloud

Nancy

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R

roboticamanAuthor

Participant

To several answerers to my original post:

I'm not crying about potential increases. I'm demanding that Adobe end this affront to the long-time users that made Adobe (and Photoshop) an international success and a standard. Yes, we have benefitted from an excellent, forward-pushing application. But we did not get it for free, and every upgrade was at a cost. Now, to stay "current," we have to accept a new "business model," that will make Adobe richer per user than previously imagined. I purchased the Photoshop that was purchased outright, for me to use until my computer OS could no longer do so. To change this method of using a program that we have used for so long is unacceptable. I don't want to change - I should not have to change. It is Adobe that established this method of selling the program to me, and although they can change whenever they want, I don't have to accept it.

It is not enough that "I have the ability to go elsewhere for my imaging / retouching, etc. program. Adobe owes us in a big way. We do NOT have to accept this change, when they are taking a program that we all do need and use, and changing our ability to afford it or keep current with features, or when our operating system changes. I do understand that Adobe wants to make money (I believe that they have, by the way). But they are changing an understanding, or implicit agreement (whether explicit or "implied" - it does not matter) that we all had with them. That understanding was that we would be supported in learning, using, and even forming businesses around their product - and we could be assured that they would continue to supply the product in a way that we could dependably and similarly continue to use it. This is a MAJOR change from the usability that we have come to use, expect, and be comfortable with - and this is NOT acceptable!

As long as Adobe is not satisfied with their subscriber base numbers, they will continue the low initial discount price. As soon as their numbers approach what they want, the initial discount will end.

Will prices go up?

Someone asked: "How do I know the prices will go up?"

My initial answer was, "Have you subscribed to any satellite or cable services?"

But here's an example clipped from these very forums:

Creative Cloud billing issues...

Dec 6, 2013 9:04 AM

My year subscription to Adobe Cloud ends in a month and in an email I received it noted that my monthly bill will be going up from 29.99 to 49.99, I have tried to contact Adobe by online messenger and by the phone but no response yet. I am a student at Graduate School and had been paying the student price but now with my renewal it wants me to pay more....something is not right.

If any help could be given, it would be greatly appreciated.

_______________

Imagine your $9.99 Introductory Offer going up to $29.99 after one year.

Because it WILL.

So indeed, we may have no power to change this. We know that they are going to TRY to do this anyway.

But . . . We can still let them know just how strongly we DO NOT WANT THE CC only.

Please: Everyone write Adobe! Tell them this is wrong! Tell them NO!

They may actually be listening after all.

Or "go silently into that good night," knowing you just kept quiet and accepted what is best for them, without letting them know how you feel about it!

D Fosse

Community Expert

If you really wanted to get into a moral issue, I'd be more concerned with CEO paychecks than customer pricing. That's rapidly becoming a big issue here in Norway, where people are laid off but CEO paychecks skyrocket; sometimes astonishingly adding up to the same total amount.

Anyway, I should think one major consideration trumps all of this: piracy. With the lowered threshold of the subscription model, I wouldn't be surprised if this was the first really effective blow to the hackers. As we all know, activation had absolutely zero effect (and only caused grief for legitimate users).

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roboticamanAuthor

Participant

I'm with you 110% on the exhorbitant CEO pay. It is shameful and unjustifiable.

I see your point on the piracy issue. If they would just guarranty that the price will not go up (to insane levels) the way that satellite and cable bills have, I would completely be behind the move.

I just cannot abide joining the CC with the "teaser" rate of $9.99 / month, knowing that it will double or triple in a year (because it absolutely will).

I have no use whatsoever for any of the "Cloud" features.

D Fosse

Community Expert

I just did an interesting calculation.

For a full master collection over a 3-year cycle (one full + one upgrade), the monthly price would be (the Norwegian equivalent of) $149.

Over a 6-year cycle (one full + three upgrades), the monthly price would drop to $98.

A full cloud subscription here is $79 a month (incidentally I'm paying $45 first year as previous customer).

I'm sure the ratio is similar for stand-alone Photoshop. So where exactly are we being ripped off?

Noel Carboni

Legend

LIkewise, buying upgrades every 18 months or so (as has traditionally been necessary to ride the cutting edge) at $199 (for Photoshop Standard, not Extended) isn't terribly different than the $9.99 / month deal, which also includes what was Extended functionality along with Lightroom thrown in.

And if you're crying about how sure you are that Adobe will raise prices, what makes you think they wouldn't have raised the upgrade prices in the future if they'd kept the old model? The price of everything goes up.

And lastly, if it makes you feel any better, there's literally no such thing as a version that will actually run in perpetuity, practically speaking. What, you say? Let's see you run Photoshop CS today, assuming you have a computer running an OS that will allow you to even try. You have NO IDEA what the OS Microsoft or Apple is going to release next will or won't allow. But if you have a subscription you can be pretty sure Adobe will work to support it.

Life changes - nimble people adapt. It's about business, not catering to someone's OCD. Their software has value, your money has value. Neither of you is being forced into a contract with the other.

-Noel

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

What people should bear in mind is that the $9.99 per month offer won't be available for ever — despite Adobe continually extending the cut-off date at the moment — and in a few years’ time, those people who stayed with CS6 are going to be in much the same position as people running CS now. That won’t make CS6 any less powerful, but you are going to be disadvantaged compared to people using whatever Photoshop has evolved into by then.

I’m currently working through a full day’s worth of shots from a festival I covered on Saturday working in Marlborough’s bright sunshine, and I am able to very quickly turn out results noticeably better than I could have managed with CS5. That keeps me in work, and maybe I’ll be able to provide even better image quality in a few years’ time.

Actually, I’m going to give myself a reality check, because people will probably be getting similar results from their mobile phones by then.

Noel Carboni

Legend

You're just a bit late. That conversation has come and gone.

The subscription model is a confirmed business success.

-Noel

station_two

Inspiring

You can still buy a perpetually licensed copy of Photoshop CS6 even now, but then that's it.

I'm staying at CS6 myself.

As Curt Y says, you're preacjing to the choir here.

R

roboticamanAuthor

Participant

I have CS6 - as I said, I have been a loyal purchaser of Photoshop since the first.

But we need to let Adobe know that we DO NOT WANT THIS (and tell them that we will never be OK with this), and that we see through their ploy.

They are packaging "extra" add-ons and giving us a "great deal." One which we cannot pass up.

We see through their camouflage, and we know this is being done just to allow "no limitations" in their future pricing - because price increases will almost appear invisible to us. They will be slipped in to our monthly payments after the introductory "special" period.

This is a horrible thing for Adobe to do to all of us.

Even if you / we all join The Cloud - we should go kicking and screaming!

This is the end of having any say in what Adobe sets in terms of pricing!!

Up until now, we could look at their price, or their "upgrade special offer" and decide whether to continue or upgrade.

If we don't upgrade (or skip one), we can use the program we purchased, and its older features.

Now, we "buy in" and they manipulate the price we pay at will, invisibly.

Even if we all go along with this, they should be aware that _we know_ what they are doing to us.

Yes, we have the option to either "go along" or "drop out."

But this is not adequate. WE are the ones who have made Adobe this rich and powerful.

Sadly, we have helped to make Adobe so powerful that they now control us, and can demand whatever price (or terms) they want.

Like many in that eschelon, they have completely lost touch with their customers / users. All their users are not wealthy corporations nor even businesses with myriad workers.

Adobe they should know that, in doing this, they have stated clearly to us all:

Adobe is now a horrible company, a company, blind to what their customers want, need, or can afford.

They are showing that they do not care in the least. "The New Way is better," they tell us.

Once you join, you can only use their software for a limited time, once you learn that you can't afford (or justify) their prices.

When you finally can't afford the stratospheric price they set any longer, then throw away all of your work a few months later, when your app stops working - permanently.

Thanks, Adobe!

A

Anonymous

estherb77376956 wrote:

I guess maybe for the professional. But at one point I did own 5.0. I'm just a home user who wants to make a book. Oy Vey. Okay off to my next project...

Enthusiast chiming in here.

You never owned any software; you just had a copy and a license to use that software. (This is the same deal with any physical copy of software. You just get to use it until it doesn't work anymore.)

I wasn't a big fan of the sub model until it had a pretty good price point. The CC Photography Plan was that price point. I do feel for those who want to use other apps like Illustrator, though (which has no plan like the CC Photography Plan) but since Thomas Knoll didn't create that app...well...maybe Adobe will feel charitable enough in the future. Lord knows Adobe made a megaton of money with the CC Photo Plan alone.

Still, $50/month for the whole kit and kaboodle might be worth it for those that like to work with media across-the-board, plus even if you're an enthusiast/hobbyist, you gain a skill set you can use in the professional arena. People pay way more than that a month just to watch reality shows on cable (which, IMHO, is ridiculous, but to each his own).

Thanks for your input. I just don't like tying up my credit card with monthy service fees. It seems like that is the business model...auto ship...contracts...etc. If I could I would throw my phone away...but people insist on getting a hold of me. Lol.

A

Anonymous

That ship has sailed. We are just users here.

Creative Cloud billing issues...

Dec 6, 2013 9:04 AM

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