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Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

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Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#341
post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a good idea if you, in the future, may actually need Adobe's services again.

At this point I intend to avoid Adobe's services for the rest of my life. If I ever feel like I need Photoshop or Illustrator I'll find an alternative. There are a lot alternatives to these, both open source and proprietary from small businesses.

I use Linux but I'm mostly content with Gimp and Inkscape.

I know Photoshop have some "content aware fill" and things but that's just their re-branded name for neural networks that are already open source, it's just a matter of time before it's available in Gimp. I might even consider writing those plugins too but my time is limited.

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use privacy.com for throw-away cards and you can set spending limits and close them at any time.

> close them at any time Closing your card doesn't have any impact on legal obligations you had, or a merchant thinks you had, or any impact on whether a merchant will choose to do business with you in the future.

kind of hard to have legal obligations when you use junk PII (which Privacy accepts; they allow any address and zip to be used)

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#343
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Only After Effects doesn't have an all-in-one competitor, really. Photoshop/Illustrator/InDesign, as a linked suite, has a very, very able competitor in Affinity Photo/Designer/Publisher. Given the complexity of these products, expecting more than one fully-integrated competing suite might be too much. You might find this video useful, to see the extent to which it is a competitor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVq…

Last I looked for a replacement for Lightroom I didn't really find anything that worked well for me. Maybe the open source tools have matured in the interim? I've been sticking with my old copy of Lightroom 5 and until I buy a new camera that it doesn't support processing raw files for.

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, and a software provider hiding a non-cancel clause somewhere in a dozens of pages after the deal "contrat" doesn't impact on your legal obligations either.

I would guess that ‘annual plan’ is presumed to be clear enough, you didn’t have to read the contract.

[deleted]

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#347
post #336

Is it really a trick when it says right in the subscription term selection that it's an annual subscription? I hate Adobe's insane subscription prices and the fact that they don't give any reminders that your subscription is going to renew is evil, but nothing seems wrong about the 1 year subscription. If anything, it's a courtesy[1] that they're letting you cancel in the middle of the subscription term at all. Imagi…

>Do you really expect to get any portion of your money back if you cancel?

Yes I do. I stop using their app and service so I expect to stop paying for their app and service. I have cancelled several annual subscriptions from other vendors and they all refunded the prorated balance. Sometimes there was a small cancellation fee, but in all cases I received the vast majority of the balance.

Your analogy is flawed. In your example, I still have the thing so of course I have to fully pay for it. In the software case, the company can turn off the license and I no longer have it available to me. Refusing to turn it off is just bad customer relations policy. When you do rude crap like that you get (deservedly) written up on HN and other sites. Plus, you eliminate the possibility of a future customer relationship. It is just ugly and stupid on their part.

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#348
post #68

If 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…

Photopea is also a great ‘alternative’. Free, online, and written by one guy. Quite amazing feat. https://www.photopea.com/

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#349
post #241
post #58

For anyone stuck in this dark pattern here is a trick I've used in the past: Adobe won't let you cancel without paying the remainder of your subscription fee however you can switch to a different plan. As soon as you switch you'll have the ability to cancel your "new" plan within 14 days. If you cancel after 14 days they'll charge you the early termination fee.

Or you can just block the recurring payments and wait for them to come at you? Anyway a "free" trial that asks for your cc number is obviously not free. Better to stay away of those to be on the safe side.

A person meeds to have a cc where transactions are disabled. ( My bank via its online customizer accounts - allows a person to turn this on / off for security )

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#350
I had this problem many years ago and that was when I decided to never, ever use or recommend Adobe products to anyone for that very reason. A bunch of people at work wanted me to green light purchases of Adobe subscriptions for Premiere but we decided to go with Apple instead. Never in my life will I install another Adobe Cloud software on any of my machines again.

And that's in addition to the fact that once you decide to install their software they'll install about three hundred different things that are somehow needed and are pretty much impossible to easily remove. I really hate Adobe with a passion.

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