Thousands of other users agree with you, but in these user-to-user forums, what do you expect your fellow users to do about it?  You're not addressing Adobe here, even though some Adobe staff members do contribute as volunteers to the forums on their own time.

Countless other users are in the same situation you find yourself right now unfortunately.

There is also

http://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family

We can hope that Adobe has some Social Media listening system in place to capture the mood of their customers.

I'm in the same boat. I purchased my copy of CS5 the last week in Dec. 2011. I waited hoping Adobe would change it's policy. It didn't, not until the deadline passed. I had been waiting for CS6. Now I'm stuck with buying two upgrades. And others who waited until after the deadline only have to buy one. Not Fair, I cry Foul!!

If Adobe was going to change the policy, do it before the deadline, or give a free upgrade to those who purchased just before you (Adobe) changed your policy, and came out with the next version.

You may have received bogus information (which is typical from a third party call center in a cheap country). The only reason why Adobe would charge for a call is to provide technical support. It does not sound like this is technical support. This is strictly a customer service/sales issue. There should be no charge to call.

See this discussion:

http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2012/01/new-upgrade-options-for-cs3-and-c s4-customers.html

Adobe Support and Customer Service

800-833-6687
Monday–Friday, 5am–7pm PST

Marian Driscoll wrote:

Most of Adobe's customers work in the sales/marketing/advertising market. We are the tastemakers. Surely we users should be able to market our concerns better than any other politcal action group.

You'd think we'd have a head-start on this, wouldn't you? Unfortunately Adobe has spent the last 10yrs decimating the opposition so that we really only have one option left at the Professional, and even Prosumer, level. I mean, what else is out there as an alternative to full-on Photoshop... GIMP?

Having used CS6 exclussively for a month now, I'd miss ACR7, but other than that, I can't think of anything I can't do without.  I feels kind of strange that the one version upgrade policy should come at the same time as a non-essential new version.   CS6 is definitely not worth the NZ$750 it will cost me to upgrade, but I am trapped by the single version upgrade thing.   If there were an alternative that came even close, I would DEFINITELY be switching to it.

John Waller wrote:

 

Subscribing to the Cloud (monthly or annually) may be the only remaining option when perpetual licenses are eventually discontinued.

Sigh.  Your logic is sound.  I don't look forward to the above.  Monthly/subscription payments are bankrupting the world.

-Noel

WHen you think of all the apps that allow free upgrades forever...

Topaz Adjust and the other Topaz plugins

Photomatix (which will always do better HDR than Photoshop)

iTunes (hey, you did say all gadgets that start with an 'I' are essential.

OziExplorer (once got me out of deep trouble in a whiteout on top of a Scotish mountain)

Yes.  I don't have any trouble seeing why they're doing it.  I just hope they don't choose to go exclusively to the subscription model any time soon.  Some of us still prefer to pay once, then not have to worry about it.  If for no other reason, life is too complex already!

-Noel