Adobe's Upgrade Policy Unfair - Buyer Beware.

I had an early version of Premiere, Version 6.1, from many years ago. I switch to Liquid Edition then, mainly because the DVD authoring was integrated and better. Recently, I decided to go back to Premiere for the AVCHD editing and the Liquid line is being dropped. I purchased the CS4 upgrade on 3/1. Adobe announced in early April CS5. I didn't feel it was fair to ask me to pay another $300 to upgrade to CS5 since I just paid $300 to upgrade to CS4.
I contacted Adobe and they could care less. I could have bought the CS4 upgrade on April 11th, one day before the CS5 announcement, and I would still have to pay another $300 to upgrade from CS4 to CS5.
Be careful when you upgrade - it may cost you more than you think.

Do you really want to belabor this argument? Months ago, adobe stated on their web site that CS5 would require 64 BIT os. Then more recently, they posted videos on their site showing the Mercury Playback Engine on CS5. Then they also told everyone (and posted it on their site too I think) that they were going announce CS5 on such and such a date. And they have been pretty steady with an 18 month release schedule the past few iterations. And they have always had a cutoff date and their has never been a sliding scale for upgrade pricing based on when you first purchased your qualifying product. Honestly, if you did not know any of these things, you did not do much (any?) research before purchasing the product. We live in the internet age. It would have been easy to ask in this forum or several others before your purchase if anyone knew what Adobe's upgrade policies were because you were considering buying CS4. I am sure you would have got as many posts telling you to hold off for a few weeks on that post than you have her telling you that you are full of it.
If you don't know what sour grapes are, it is an expression that we use in the US when someone thinks that they have been taken advantage of or treated unfairly but most others who are more objective and have nothing personally to gain/loose over the issue think that said person should simply upset at their own inadequacies. http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/sour-grapes.html I forget that this is an international forum. Sorry for the US "expression".
The fact is that your post says "unfair policy" and "buyer beware" right in the tidal. These are pretty strong statements. You did not need to beware because the same thing has been going on for years. Adobe's policy has not changed much in this regard. This is much more harse than I don;t like the fact that they don;t have a sliding scale for upgrades. What you are saying in your subject is that you were duped or tricked. this is much more harsh than saying "I would be ok with paying something towards the upgrade, just not the full $300".

Similar Messages

CS5 to CC7: Adobe's Upgrade Policy

Yes, I know there is no CC7 yet, but I was reading about Adobe's upgrade policy and it seems that they've switched to a "one version back" model. When I read the terms, they talk about CS to CS versions, but they don't mention going from CS to CC. Will I be able to go from CS5 to the next version of CC?

The Cloud subscription model (CC version) has no connection to the Creative Suite versions*.
CS6 is the last in the line of Creative Suites.
There will be no CS7. You can upgrade from CS5 to CS6 but that's the end of the line for upgrades.
* CS3-CS6 owners are eligible for discounted pricing for their first 12 months of Cloud membership. After that, it's full price.

What is Adobe's upgrade policy?

Hello folks,
Unless I did not find the correct page, it seems that Adobe does not fully explain upgrade plans very well. For instance, is there any period of time where a customer is entitled to a free upgrade?
The reason why I ask is that I have a purchase order for Captivate 5, however, I also know that version 5.5 will soon be released (not sure exactly when as it is still in beta).
Question:
If I purchase version 5.0 today, and version 5.5 is RTM in two months, am I entitled to a free upgrade? If not, approximately how much will the update cost?
I have also called support and was put on hold for fourty minutes before I ran out of time.
Can anyone answer this question?

Wow, where did everyone go...there has been virtually no activity in this forum in a long time!
Anyhow, got the answer myself.
30 days for free upgrade. There is also a upgrade plan that can be purchased which entitles the user to free updates for two years.

Unfair Upgrade policy

Adobe upgrade policy is unfair. I can not upgrade Photoshop CS3 to CS4 because I purchased it in a collection, Design Standard. I have to upgrade the whole set @ $500. I do not use Illustrator or InDesign and do not want to upgrade them. In this economy people are concerned about their spending. Why should consumers have to pay for the things that they do not use? I purchased the collection because I wanted Photoshop and try the other applications. I was unaware that I would have to upgrade all applications to remain current. I am stretching my budget by trying to spend $200 (actually $199 - common deceptive sales tactic) on upgrading to Photoshop CS4.
In these tough economic times Adobe should be making a difference NOT a killing.
Thanks for listening.

I'm not sure if you can call $1,700 a steep discount if you add up individual applications they come to $2,000. That's $100.00 per application ($600 vs $700). If I would have purchased Photoshop as a point purchase it would save me $300.00 per upgrade for things that I do not use.
Yes,It WAS hard to make my initial investment in Adobe software. Maybe your business isn't affected like mine is but $300 to upgrade all the applications (that I do not use) takes food from my family's mouth.
I understand that I am just venting to users and that Adobe doesn't care about me or my business. Adobe has closed my case, so now I have to fight them just to get my $199 back from my credit card for the upgrade that I can not use.
No compassion? Try walking in my shoes.

Leaving Adobe products because of upgrade policy

My spouse and I spent big bucks for the creative suite CS3 a few years ago and now cannot upgrade and need to buy new to get the latest version. OK we got a few years of use for our bucks but even if we had CS5 we could'nt upgrade! Wow!
And if we buy new now we will need to spend money again in 2 years or have to buy new again after that.
We are double-income-no-children and could afford to spend money on an upgrade. But we don't like feeling taken advantage of. We are not professional photographers, so this is pure discretionary spending.
My spouse already has Nikon Capture (we have the money to buy Nikon) and just downloaded Gimp which should be good enough for a hobby.
We will deal with a little less convenience and quality in the software rather than be insulted by obnoxious corporate behavior.
Inputting in the forum seemed to be the only way to communicate since the web site does not seem to favor user interaction exactly beyond what it wants.
You have lost us as customers.

Your advice could be useful if I wanted to invest in cloud computing but I just made the choice to invest in a PC tower with a graphic card. I don't feel comfortable with paying cloud computing yet. I love it for MOOCs. But it sort of makes you a permanent ($) client and your performance is hostage to what they want to give you in the cloud. The cloud is a technical achievement but it is also marketing.
For your info, I am not kidding about Gimp. Here is the Syllabus of a MOOC class I am enrolled in on Coursera, the median section being about Photoshop... or Gimp as an alternate (https://class.coursera.org/cdt208-001/wiki/view?page=syllabus). All exercises can be done with Gimp. I wanted the upgrade for HDR but Gimp has a plug-in for that. I don't know how well it works though.
Perhaps I will still buy Photoshop if I can get it at a competitive price, maybe through work. Of course Photoshop is better. I do think there is a valid point about the upgrade policy. Adobe is saying we have a monopoly. I'm an IT programmer not a pro photographer or graphic artist, so people like me count and it's my money.

News: Adobe cuts "three versions back" upgrade policy for CS6

Thought you all would be interested in this news just out:
Adobe cuts "three versions back" upgrade policy for CS6

Thought you all would be interested in this news just out:
Adobe cuts "three versions back" upgrade policy for CS6

"Limited Warranty" is useless - buyer beware!

After one somewhat helpful email exchange with HP desktop tech support (which did not solve the issue) and two thoroughly frustrating phone calls to HP, I'd like to give a caveat emptor for HP peripheral products, especially flash drives.
I purchased an HP c320w 1GB flash drive in July 2008. A couple of weeks ago, I tried to open an Excel spreadsheet that I had saved to the drive, and got an error that the file was corrupt and unreadable. I then copied all of the files from the flash drive to my laptop hard drive, and tried to open every file I copied, to find about a dozen that had been corrupted, scattered across multiple folders, combination of MS Office, Adobe PDF, text files, etc. were damaged.
So I entered a support request on the HP website. HP Desktop Support responded & told me to try formatting the flash drive (they sent me instructions that looked much like a Google search hit, not an official HP document). I tried the instructions and got a Format Failed error. When I emailed the error message to HP support, they told me they could not help me any further, that I needed to call HP peripheral support.
I kept the original receipt and packaging for the flash drive. The packaging states:
"Two year limited hardware warranty from date of purchase. For additional warranty/product information and optimal performance, check the HP website and apply the latest software and/or firmware upgrades: visit www.hp.com/support"
Believing that, like OCZ, Corsair, and others, HP would simply RMA the drive under warranty and send me a replacement, I called 800-474-6836, and spoke with Kumar, who politely took my contact information, and made me aware of HP's privacy policy. I explained my problem with the drive, and he asked for the model # and serial # of the flash drive. I have the model # (it's on the packaging) but there is no serial # on either the drive or the packaging; there's only a bar code # which is apparently not the serial #. Kumar told me that he had to have a serial # to fill out the support ticket. I explained to him once more that there was no serial #, and offered to scan an image of the original package and email it to him to verify. He made no reply to my offer.
After 5 minutes on hold, Kumar told me that free email support is my only option. I told him I had already tried free email support, and they were the ones who told me to call. I reminded him of the 2-year warranty statement printed on the packaging. He put me on hold to speak to his supervisor. 10 minutes later, Kumar told me that his supervisor says the same thing, that free email support is my only option. I asked to speak to his supervisor.
That started a 52-minute on-hold process, punctuated a couple of times by Kumar apologizing for the long wait, and asking if I wished to continue to hold. At about the 50-minute mark, Kumar asked again, and in less than 2 minutes on hold HP hung up on me.
After a 10-minute break from the action, I called the 800-474-6838 number again. This time I spoke with ?Anna? (I'll call her Anna). I told her I didn't have a support ticket # but gave her my phone #. She confirmed my email address, and I explained the problem to her, told her the last support call hung up on me. Told her the model #, explained it had no serial #. After a few minutes on hold, Anna asked me for the purchase date of the drive, and whether I had purchased an Extended Warranty. I said no, the packaging says 2 year limited warranty from date of purchase, so I'm well within the 2 years, since it's February 2010. She asked again for the serial #, I explained again that it had no serial #, and gave her the barcode #.
After 13 minutes on hold, Anna asked me if I was interested in purchasing a new flash drive? I told her that if I don't get a warranty replacement for this failed drive, then I would have to buy a replacement. She said let me check prices and I'll get back to you and put me on hold.
3 minutes later, Anna asked me what size drive I would be interested in purchasing, 8GB, 16GB, etc.? I said wait a minute, I don't understand, I have a flash drive with a 2 year warranty, I expect that I would receive an RMA replacement, and you're telling me the only option I have is to purchase a replacement? She said yes, the flash drive is not supported, only free chat support is available. I said "What possible interest would I have in purchasing another flash drive from HP if HP will not honor the warranty on the drive I've already purchased?" She said it's only a 1 year warranty, and only has chat support. I asked to speak with her supervisor.
After another 11 minutes on hold, I gave up.
So. I have wasted nearly 2 hours on the phone with HP. I have an unusable flash drive. And a chapped, red a**.
By contrast, I recently had an OCZ flash drive do something similar. After a single email exchange with OCZ's support, who sent me a useful utility to field-test their drive, which indicated an over-the-threshold number of bad memory cells on the drive, immediately gave me an RMA # and an address to send the failed drive, for an exchange.
I would love to hear feedback, especially from anyone who was actually able to get HP to honor their printed warranty.
Dave Singleton
[email removed for privacy]

I can totally agree. I purchased a Pavilion Notebook last August. Was told by salesman that BestBuy would repair it onsite if something should happen... NOT!!! I had issues and took it to them, where they said they could send it out to HP for me. I tried the authorized service centers that HP gave me but 1 # was disconnected, and another told me they don't work on HP anymore as they didn't get reimbursed. The other was BestBuy where I bought it. They said they would send it to HP for me. I then took it to CompUSA where they found it to be a bad hard drive. They fixed it and it cost me a total of $216.18 which HP told me I was out of luck in trying to get reimbursed. Lesson Learned. Never again will I buy an HP Product. I do not feel they have a consumer friendly warranty, as I for one can't go without my computer for 2 weeks as they tell you it will take.
So, BUYER BEWARE!!!!! Don't let a salesman BS you about the warranty....

Adobe CS3 Upgrade

I purchased Adobe CS3 Upgrade at an auction with the intent to sell. I contacted chat support and they said the seller (auction) needs to transfer the license o me and then I can sell and transfer the rights to a buyer. I can't get back on chat to ask any follow up questions. Chat support said they'd put a case number in my profile and I can't find it anywhere.
help!

You should get back in touch with chat support if you have unfinished business with them.
Here is some info regarding reselling Adobe software that might answer your questions...
Reselling Adobe Software
http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/transfer-product-license.html

Understanding the upgrade policy

I came to the forums for the first time in quite awhile to ask a question about a laptop. Have had little time the past months to work in Photoshop. Now I find there out about the new upgrade policy and find different opinions on what the new policy is. (I've also discovered that the forums have a whole new look!)
I have CS5. Is it true that I can wait untll the end of 2012 to upgrade to CS6 to get the upgrade price of 199.00, (or maybe Adobe will change that also?)
I think I understand that I can't skip 6 and wait for 7 to upgrade. I don't really mind as long as I can wait until the year's end because I don't like to be an early upgrader. I might have skipped this upgrade, because this time there seems fewer features of interest, but I have always found some new and useful things each time.
Anyhow, I am thinking of auditing a college class in art this year (an accredited college.) so I think that means I could get a copy of InDesign, CS6, Illustrator and Acrobat. I've wanted Indesign, but as an amature coudn't justifiy it. The price wouldn't be much more than upgrading CS6. (With the cost of the class it will be quite a bit more.) But then I am unable to transfer my license (sell) the bundle later? My current CS5 might or might not be saleable? (not if Adobe can find a way to stop it.). So if I can't work on my PC anymore (age) or die (my heirs) are stuck with useless software?
Would I be able to sell/give my current copy of CS5 if I buy the educational bundle?
It's all so confusing. I will likely get CS6 anyhow, but maybe will stop then and just use what I have which I haven't begun to learn all of anyhow.
Hope I made the quesions clear in my chatter. Especially: do I have until the end of 2012 to decide? And can I not sell my current CS5, or the educational bundle at any time if I join the class and buy the package? Did I miss anything - there is so much new!
Thanks, I guess I'll ask my other question now.

You seem to have a confidence in Adobe that is not supported by their recent record.
John Waller wrote:
…If they did in fact "do a Quark" (take their customers for granted and stop developing)…
Adobe suits have taken their customer for granted for quite some time. Take their disastrous outsourcing of customer and tech support to India, and the contempt with which they treat us there and even in these forums. Their recent record of pushing unripe, buggy software out the door is nothing short of appalling.
John Waller wrote:
…competitors would no doubt swoop with another compelling offering and gladly usurp their customer base…
Who are these "competitors" of whom you speak? I'd love to be "usurped" by them —rather than continue to be screwed by Adobe.
John Waller wrote:
…I'd like to think that Adobe is wiser than that and that the Cloud exit strategy will become more mutually beneficial over time.
Adobe has been innovating since it began so it's deeply embedded in their DNA.
Here you speak of the Adobe of the 1980s, which no longer exists.
During the Bruce Chizen era they degenerated into a third-rate corporate raider, as evidenced by their ill-thought "acquisition" of the Macromedia white elephant which in reality turned out to be the Macromediatization of Adobe into an unresponsive bureaucracy. Just like Macromedia had acquired Fontographer only to let it languish, the macromediatized Adobe bought out Visual Infinity only to kill their unequaled suite of film grain management, GrainSurgery 2. For these reason alone, GrainSurgery 2, I will continue to run Photoshop CS4 until I give up the ghost.
Nobody needs to be reminded of Freehand, part of the Macromedia merger and a casualty abandoned by Adobe.
The innovators are now irrelevant to the Adobe bureaucracy.

Infinity line checker - buyer beware

Long way from the exchange? Fed up with that slow connection? Thinking of ordering Infinity? I have just gone through over a month's worth of problems trying to get Infinity connected as promised by BT, and want to share my experiences with other rural users.
My exchange - Calder Valley- was one of the first to be upgraded to fibre. In September I had recently contracted to Talk Talk and to be honest wasn't getting good service, so idly checked BT's website and was astounded to find infinity available. I phoned immediately and asked for confirmation that my rural location would be able to get the upgrade. The line was checked and yes, I was told the line registered 39.1Mb download, 15Mb upload. I signed up on the spot. I was given a date for engineer install, but then heard nothing. When the equipment failed to arrive I phoned and was told my order had been cancelled. This was blamed on an internal error, the order had not been properly placed by the BT operative. I re-ordered. The line was rechecked as part of this process, same stats. This time I got all the confirmations you would expect. Great. The order tracker showed a message to say my engineer appointment was no longer required, but when I phoned I was told this was an error, ignore it. I got a text to reconfirm the engineer appointment. Equipment arrived, but having waited in all day the engineer failed to show. No contact, just failed to show. Before the end of the day I phoned, and was told there was a problem moving the line back from Talk Talk. I would have a phone line, but would have to wait for Infinity. I was contacted a couple of days later and told that Infinity could not be provided after all, that I would have to revert to a standard package. I was told the speeds promised earlier were based on a postcode check.
I have problems with the service I've received from BT on many levels.
Given what I know now, I would defy BT to deliver Infinity to anyone with my postcode. Its a rural location.
At no point in the order process was there any qualification or note of caution from BT that they might not be able to deliver the speeds quoted. When I ordered I was told I was told that would be roughly what I would get, subject to the normal variations for traffic etc. This would indeed form BTs side of the contract. Given my location I pressed this point on more than one occasion.
On the basis of the line check I was mis-sold the infinity product not once but twice. I severed my contract with BT's competitors on the back of very dubious information, which was sold as factual.
The individuals I have spoken to at BT have all been decent people, very sorry for my troubles etc. But try to get anyone technical, or anyone senior who can take responsibility and actually sort things out. Impossible.
I typed my details into the line checker again today. Click on 'I've got a BT line' which I now have once again - speed prediction 512k. Click on 'I'm not with BT', speed prediction with Infinity 40Mb. Buyer beware!

Thanks Hamish, I appreciate that this is not one for forum advice as such. When I first looked at infinity and wondered how BT could claim to deliver 39Mb to my location I found the forum a useful source. I posted to add to that information pool.
Although I doubted that it would be technically possible to deliver Infinity to me I went ahead on the basis of 'What's the worst that can happen?' Well now I know. I am constantly amazed that a behemoth corporation like BT can provide such p**s poor disjointed service and get away with it. They are not alone unfortunately.
I understand that Calder Valley was selected to pilot Infinty rollout into rural areas. Not much cop so far. I hope others have a better experience, good luck to them.

Adobe stops upgrades for CS2, 3 & 4 Users

Adobe’s recent announcement of structural price changes will mean that only CS5 and 5.5 customers will be permitted to upgrade when CS6 launches, unless they take action before 31 December 2011.
Click here to read the announcement. Whilst it will only affect a few users to this forum, the combination of Lightroom and PSE10 suddenly becomes more attractive. However this decision has caused a good deal of controversy, especially among 70,000 NAPP members, such that Scott Kelby has published an open letter on his Photoshop Insider blog.
I picked up this information by chance over at Elements Village where Wendy, one of the regulars says: I just worked out ... skip 3 versions, buy the full version and its not much difference in price. Guess that will be the new way forward !!

An update to my earlier posting. Good news for all those Elements users who also have CS3 & CS4 Adobe has taken on board the groundswell of user opinion and extended the upgrade path to 31st December.
http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/faq/upgrade-policy.html

Does the end of the year upgrade policy also include just Photoshop?

I understand CS3 and CS4 are eligible for upgrades to CS6 until the end of the year, but what about upgrading from PS4 to PS6? I normally upgrade to every version, but due to being layed up for 8 months with a knee injury money is extremely tight, so I was planning to wait and upgrade from CS4 to CS6. I heard about the new (now old) upgrade policy so I upgraded to CS5 a few days ago. Now I see that Adobe changed the upgrade policy again. Now I'm wondering if I can return CS5 and wait to upgrade to CS6 later in the year when I have more cash flow.

Hi Coldrake
Yes, all CS3 and CS4 products, whether they're a suite or stand-alone product, like Photoshop, as a one-off arrangement this year only, can wait 'til December 31st 2012 to upgrade directly to CS6... of course, we don't know how much that will cost!
Thank you, pf22, that answers my question perfectly. I'd love to keep PS5, especially with the discount, but as I said, after being off work for so long, money is extremely tight at the moment and will be for the next couple of months.
Of course we also have the "Grace Period" coming up where you could purchase the CS5 upgrade and get CS6 for free
It looks like it's going to be a few months before PS6 will be coming out, so I may be able to swing that, thank you for an excellent suggestion.
Thank you Noel for covering all the bases! I don't have the suite, just Photoshop.
Thanks for both of your replies, they are greatly appreciated.
Larry

Upgrading policy for future Creative Suite products

Sorry if this topic has been addressed elsewhere. Has Adobe announced what policy will be in place when CS7 and 8 are released? Will we need to be one version back in order to take advantage of upgrade pricing or will they allow you to be able to upgrade from 2 versions back? I'm debating whether or not to go the subscription route or to skip CS6 and wait until CS7 to upgrade.

Bob Levine wrote:
First let's be clear. I do not work for Adobe and at this point have no
inside knowledge of roadmaps.
That said, Adobe publicly announced one year upgrade cycles so you can
safely assume, if they hold to that, that you will see CS7 in the
spring. When that happens, only CS6 owners will be eligible for upgrade
pricing so there's no more skipping versions and getting an upgrade.
Based on that, it is my personal opinion that Adobe wants everyone on
Creative Cloud. It assures them a steady cash flow and quite frankly,
for a professional, it's a no brainer. You get every tool they sell for
$50/month and you get the new versions when they become available. This
is cheaper than upgrading and the first year is only $29.99/month.
Bob
Bob,
Thanks for your insight. I know when you compare the retail price of a Creative Suite the monthly Cloud does work out, but when one has been upgrading and is a small non profit user of the apps it is hard to justify the $50/month (approx. $600/year - which I agree is half of the Suite retail). A decision I don't have to make right away, although the $29.99/month first year is tempting. A close friend was surprised I had CS6 as he was still using CS3, since we're not professionals and both work in the non profit arena and fund our own software (99% at least). I told him I've been lucky to be able to work out the costs via upgrade prices - although I have to "go without" for a bit to cover it competely. We'll see what the future brings. I agree that most likely the future will be Creative Cloud - I can see the writing on the wall.
Tom

Why and how does Adobe Store's policy deliberately impede Least Developed Countries from developing?

Hi there,
My name is Dr Eric Mousset. I currently reside in Cambodia, having the privilege to serve as (international) Technical Assistant to support a Government project that is co-funded by the Royal Government of Cambodia and the World Bank, and purposed to Higher Education Capacity and Quality Improvement.
My mission implies conducting a survey on skills demand by employers and skills supply by Higher Education Institutions, in order to better inform further policy development.
Among the expected policy outcomes: a more effective alignment between skills supply and job market needs.
Among the desired policy impacts: providing the Cambodian economy with the HR skills that are required for its growth and diversification.
I am impressed by the combined capabilities of Adobe Acrobat XI Pro and Adobe Forms Central. And until this morning it was on top of my shortlist of surveying tools.
Unfortunatley, while attempting to upgrade to FormsCentral's "Plus" plan, I have received the following reply from Adobe:
Unsupported Country
Thus here is my question:
Why and how does Adobe Store's policy deliberately impede Least Developed Countries from developing?
Yours sincerely,
Dr Eric Mousset

Hi;
I can't speak to the business decisions that lead to which countries we enable purchasing subscriptions in the store, but I can guarantee you that it is not to impede anyones development.
A credit card with an address in any of the supported countries can be used for purchasing the subscription, this has enabled many to get around the issue, but that is the only way to subscribe.
Thanks,
Josh

Rediculous upgrade policy

I'm a long-tome AT&T client (Costigan business client thru my Corporation). I was given an Apple gift card to upgrade from the iPhone 3G to the 3Gs. The Apple representative told the purchaser that I DID qualify for the upgrade and sold him the gift card. When visiting the Apple store to obtain the 3Gs phone, I was told that I had several months left before I qualified for an upgrade (but, of course, I could pay twice the price and upgrade early.) The Apple rep pointed me to AT&T to complain. I did. AT&T pointed me back to Apple. Other than sending an email to AT&T to complain, are there any other recommendations regarding this rediculous policy?

I guess it can be argued that AT&T's upgrade policy is ridiculous, but the same applies with every carrier in the U.S. I'm a former Verizon subscriber - I switched to AT&T before the original iPhone was released after being a Verizon subscriber for 6 years or so. I didn't qualify for upgrade pricing for a new phone with Verizon until within the last 3 months of an existing two year contract. With AT&T, I qualify for upgrade pricing for a new phone within a year and a half of my existing two year contract, but this can be different for each subscriber depending on several factors.
Not sure why AT&T customer service points you back to Apple in regards to not qualifying for AT&T's upgrade pricing with a new phone at the present time, which is entirely up to AT&T. Apple cannot override this on AT&T's behalf.
Your complaint lies with the Apple rep who provided the gift card buyer incorrect information about you qualifying for AT&T's upgrade pricing with a new phone. Not sure how this information was provided incorrectly since it is obtained from AT&T. You should voice your complaint to the Apple store manager regarding the Apple rep at the store that provided the gift card buyer incorrect information. Unless AT&T is willing to make an exception on your behalf allowing for you to qualify for upgrade pricing with a new phone now, there is nothing Apple can do to change this. Since incorrect information was provided by an Apple rep, maybe the Apple store manager will reimburse you for the gift card. If not, keep the gift card for several months and use it to purchase a 3GS when you do qualify for upgrade pricing with AT&T.

Adobe's Upgrade Policy Unfair - Buyer Beware.

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