I’ve been using Adobe Creative Cloud for several years now. No problem. But recently I had to change my credit card number, so they didn’t get their payment. I went to the page where you update your payment, and the only option is to update the expiration date of the same number. I typed over the old number anyway, and hit “save.” nothing happened. I tried this a few more times, and nothing. So I called them, and laboriously gave my contact info and new credit card info. The guy assured me my new credit card info would be on file, my plan would be reactivated, and there would be peace on earth. Nope. Now I’m locked out of my Adobe applications, and they’re still asking me to update my credti card info.
I’m a professional designer, and I’m still using my old On-A-Disk versions of P’shop, Illus, InD etc.
I don’t want to give Adobe money every month, partly because problems like this are inevitable.
I wonder how many people there are like me, who would’ve upgraded if a non-subscription model was offered.
Hey, Ah-Doh-BAY, it’s called customer service. As the OP said, if you don’t want my money, you won’t get it. You’d already have it if you hadn’t listened to your accountants while ignoring your public (your “Totes Adob’s Fan Base”).
I ran into a similar thing with the Wall Street Journal. I’d originally gotten a student subscription for a reduced price. Now that is over, and I have to move to a regular subscription at a higher price. Except I can’t - my online account will not allow me to renew there, it just tells me the old offer is over and that I need to call Customer Service.
They’ve sent me a renewal notice in the mail with the new rate … but ideally I’d like to move to the online-only subscription and not get the hard copy. And there’s no choice for that on the notice.
Not wanting to spend forever on hold, I think I’ll just forget the entire thing.
I’ve plugged the Affinity apps a few times before. Affinity Photo is currently $40 at the App Store. It will open Photoshop files. It will handle CMYK. It’s a professional level bitmap app.
When I’ve got the choice (like on my machine at work), I still gravitate to Photoshop, because I know it better. But at home, Photo does the job fine.
…I’m sure there are plenty, but not enough to make a difference. Adobe has posted record revenues for 2016.
http://which-50.com/adobe-posts-record-revenues-profits/
I’m on Creative Cloud and it is awesome. Just had an update to Lightroom that has made it as zippy as a bug. I spent three years struggling with GIMP until CC came along. Photoshop was simply unaffordable: now it is the price of a cup of coffee a month.
But to the OP I sympathise: because the customer interface and the customer service absolutely sucks. I’ve had inconsistent statements from different customer service agents that led me to spend more than I should have. The procedure to upgrade or downgrade plans is (well was when I did it) a nightmare. There were cheaper plans on the main Adobe website that didn’t appear in my upgrade list. What happened to you doesn’t surprise me at all.
I’ve heard good things about Affinity as well, you might want to give that a try. But changing your workflow sucks. 
Especially if you are forced into doing it.
I wound up letting my old account lapse, and opened a new one. Problem: it lets me log into my new account, but won’t accept my password for downloading apps. So now I’m unable to open any file I’ve ever made in an Adobe application. Even ones 20 years old, long before there was any cloud.
Back to “customer service.” I dread what that interaction will be.