How to Exchange, Return, or Refund Adobe Software Products
December 17th, 2012 Leave a comment
It’s the season for holiday deals – and so it also can be a season for order changes and returns… Although naturally, this can happen at any time of year.
Sometimes even despite using Adobe’s free trial downloads to try out the software before buying, customers may want to exchange an Adobe product and get something else – say swapping Photoshop for Lightroom, or returning Photoshop CS6 Extended and getting the full CS6 Design Premium suite instead (which includes eight applications instead of one).
So did you know that Adobe offers a full money-back guarantee policy on almost all current products? This includes CS6, Creative Cloud, Lightroom, Photoshop Elements, Acrobat, and so on. This offer applies even after you’ve already opened the box or downloaded and installed the product – however, only software purchased directly from Adobe.com worldwide can take advantage of this refund policy (not resellers, retailers, or auction sites).
Yes, it’s true – you can simply contact Adobe within 30 days (via live online chat which is very fast and convenient), and provided you follow the correct procedure they will take it back (after being uninstalled and deactivated from your computers, if applicable) and then issue you a refund.
So this means your purchases are protected right out of the gate – and effectively you’ve got 60 total days (30 trial + 30 “warranty”) to make sure the product is right and definitely the one you want! If not for some reason, you can effectively cancel your purchase for a refund.
All this even applies to Adobe’s Creative Cloud, even though it’s a new style of download-only membership-based offering. That’s important because Creative Suite boxes will be going away soon!
Returns can be processed whether you originally paid via credit card, PayPal, or purchase order. Any original shipping & handling charges are not rebated.
This is one reason why we recommend buying direct from Adobe whenever possible – it’s simpler, faster, and cleaner – and you can always be 100% certain your software is genuine, safe and authentic – plus you can download it instantly and return it easily if needed.
“Grace Period for Free Upgrades”
What’s especially interesting is that you can use the exchange policy above to create your own “grace period” when buying any Adobe product, so that if a new release comes out within a month of your purchase, you can simply trade what you have and get the next release instead… So say for example you buy CS6 now, and then CS7 were launched within a month – well then you could return it for a refund if you like and get CS7 or Creative Cloud instead – meaning you’ve got some “insurance” for a free upgrade, which is a nice side benefit.
There are some conditions and fine print, so you may want to read the full policy in detail which includes the step-by-step procedure that you need to follow to get your money back. And be sure to simply contact Adobe Customer Support if you have any questions about it.
Read more great tips for managing your software investment:
- How Many Systems Can You Install and Run Your Adobe Products On?
- How to Move Adobe Software Between Computers or from Windows to Mac
- How to Legally Transfer Adobe Products Between Two Parties or People
- Why You Shouldn’t Buy Adobe Software through eBay or Amazon Marketplace
- See the Complete Online Documentation (PDF) for All Major Adobe Products
Keep up with the latest on Adobe software — subscribe to our RSS feed or follow us on Twitter or Facebook… You can also just enter your email and have new articles sent directly to your inbox.
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I feel just devastated at the moment. In November I learned I can’t update my CS4 Premium Package to CS6 and have been forced to an unwanted CS5.5 to be able to upgrade to CS6 because I couldn’t afford byuing it completely new when CS6 comes out. I bought it via credit card to be able to pay the price for the software in monthly installment because I couldn’t really bring up the money to pay it full immediately. In fact I couldn’t really afford to pay that money at all, but felt I have to because I had no other options. And now I learn that all the sorrow that this price politics caused me has been unnecessary. Thank you Adobe, thank you so very much for not thinking before talking. Thank you for making a complete idiot out of me because I gave the information (of not being able to upgrade to CS6 from CS3) to my friends and colleagues who bought the software too – due to my advice they spent large sums completely unnecessary. And of course the 30 days warranty is over and I can’t give back the software I never wanted in the first place. BTW it is not installed yet but stays untouched at my shelf because I never meant to use it but I wanted to be able to upgrade to CS6.
So sorry Silvia if it’s too late for you to get a return if that’s what you want. Since we don’t have power in those things, you might try sharing your story also with Adobe Customer Service directly to see if there’s anything they can do for you.
But don’t forget too that your upgrade cost from here to CS6 should be considerably less than if you hadn’t done that, because of Adobe’s Tiered Upgrade Pricing Policy. In other words, it should cost a good bit less to upgrade to CS6 from CS5 than from CS4 – so your investment in what you spent shouldn’t be lost.
Well, I have been trying to get a refund for my student edition of CS 5.5 that I purchased in Dec. 2011. My student id was good until the end of the year but Adobe said I had to be enrolled in the last 6 months. My classes were over in March and I am now waiting to get accepted into a graduate program. Anyway they said because I wasn’t a student in the last 6 months I was not eligible to register the software. So I said OK now I need to return this product. I uninstalled and followed all the directions, sent them all the receipts (I purchased it from an outside retailer) —— now here we are Feb. 10 and I still don’t have a refund and the only thing Adobe Customer service has been able to tell me for the past 3 weeks is that my refund has “been escalated” and no I cannot speak to anyone else….no way. This whole process has been abysmal. I don’t have $500 to lose and the software is nothing but a coaster as it is now. I can’t get anywhere with Adobe…..please can someone help me?
Sorry to hear that Stephanie, but you should be getting that refunded soon… According to Adobe’s policy, it can take up to 20 business days (4 weeks) for refunds from reseller purchases – which are issued via check.
Really only Adobe can complete that for you – but if another week passes now and it still isn’t resolved, please contact us with your Case Number… and we’ll see what we can do to make sure it’s taken care of!