I now obsess over cancellation policies before subscribing. Yesterday I signed up for Peacock premium so we could watch the Winter Olympics and beforehand made sure I’d be able to cancel anytime. $10 per month and I can cancel easily whenever I like - but they still go out of their way to extract every cent of worth by selling all your personal information, and had to go through a rats nest to opt out.
Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract
131–140 of 592 posts
Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
For future reference, just tell the vendor "I did not authorize this charge. Please refund me". Don't engage them further. When that call fails (or, if they don't pick up the phone in a reasonable amount of time), call your credit card company and say "I want to issue a charge back". They'll ask if you tried to work with the vendor. Answer "yes", full stop. There should be a phone number associated with the charge on…
And what if they then send you to collections? Now you’ve got bill collectors after you and your credit affected.
I used a virtual card (and froze it) for adobe. They haven't gone to collections.
I get emails from them making offers to get me back on creative cloud. Nothing about the unpaid cancelled account.
Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract
#133If you’re on macOS and just want a good and convenient image editor, I warmly recommend Acorn. The Muellers (owners of Flying Meat Software) have put a lot of effort to make it feel like a really solid Mac application. The price is good and from time to time they offer discounts. The whole experience reminds me of using good old Paintshop Pro back in the late 90s (^_^) Other options are Affinity Photo from Serif Ltd…
Convenience link: https://flyingmeat.com/acorn/
I also loved this bit from their FAQ:
Does Acorn use a subscription?
Nope! We have a simple philosophy- you buy a thing, you get a thing.
Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract
#134The worst part of this stuff is you can bet the PMs and others working on this feature have some BS terminology that helps them feel like this is not actively hostile toward their customers.
Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract
#135Just yesterday, on a local streaming platform that has a series that I want to watch I was offered "7 days free". Great, I can watch the accumulated episodes and if I still feel like watching the new ones that come weekly I can keep the subscription, right? Nope, the "7 days free" wasn't a a trail but 7 extra days when you purchase a full year subscription. I was considering to get a monthly subscription to try it ou…
The main reason why I used Netflix (despite not having most of the content I want to watch) is how straightforward the cancelling is!!
Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract
#136It's one of the reasons for why I intentionally avoid Adobe, despite often contemplating using their products. I wonder if these kind of tactics are really worth their while, leaving stung customers from ever coming back.
Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract
#137Use a virtual card if you can, delete that card once you start the 'free trial' then cancel after the trial, or within 1 month to not get charged. Thats some hoops to go through just to get a 'free trial' to see if the products actually work for you! At least back in the CD days you got 30 days to actually try it out, then either buy it, crack it, or stop using it!
That stops the money being automatically taken, but you'd still be legally responsible to pay the contract, no? Reneging seems like a great way to get yourself sued for the balance, possibly the costs of recovery and even having your credit score ruined in the fight.
They are welcome to sue, but they'd have to justify their shenanigans to the court, which I'm sure would take a very dim view of intentionally tricking the user into signing up to something they didn't understand.
The business model relies on most people not escalating it there and making noise about it. If they start getting hit by chargebacks or start clogging the legal system with these cases it will end pretty badly for them.
Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract
#138I've been working at detangling myself from the Adobe lineup of products. I really like (or liked) Adobe AfterEffects, it's been very helpful for me in compositing trailers for my computer game business, but it's totally been replaced by the free version of Davinci Resolve. Which I've also found is an excellent replacement for Adobe Audition, which I was using for editing the Voice Over and raw Sound Effects for, aga…
That's the problem. Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and After Effects have almost no competition and they know it. Even if there were, companies can't just jump to different tools because they would lose ability to open all their past work files. The migration will be slow.
AutoDesk (CAD/BIM/etc) is also getting like this. Maybe not totally Adobe yet, but they too also basically have a lock on their industry. Just like with Adobe, some alternatives exist and a few might be good enough, but AutoDesk bought so many competitors and/or companies that most of the time they are the only game in town.
Bentley (not cars) is another company I loathe, but I've already gotten off topic.
The professional software industry is a cesspool across all industries.
Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
> you're still legally obligated to pay for the subscription since you have agreed to the terms of service during sign up Except they didn't agree to them, because they didn't know about them, and they might not be legally obligated to pay, depending on the jurisdiction. It's pretty clear that there wasn't a "meeting of the minds" in most of these situations. I don't use Adobe but if I got bit by this I'd definitely…
> because they didn't know about them I want to agree with this, but can't in strict terms. "Annual plan, paid monthly" item description next to the price is hard to defend as something unreadable. Maybe it's just me, but anytime I see "annual plan", I know I'm signing up for a year, and that commitment pretty much always comes with advantages (less total price) and disadvantages (cancellation fees) compared to short…
I think this is a question of fact, but isn't consistent with OP. Either Adobe tricked them and they genuinely didn't know and it's a dark pattern.... or it isn't a trick/dark pattern and they did know.
But if the part of the agreement that talks about canceling is above the fold and the part that says there are liquidated damages of half the remaining annual payments is hidden behind invisible scroll bars, I know which way I would be likely to rule if I were the judge.
Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can't people contact their credit card provider to inform it as fraudulent charge?
It would not qualify as a fraudulent charge.
Disputes are not just for fraud. If you got tricked into paying for something or didn't receive the promised goods/services it's also a valid reason for a dispute.