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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

#581

Post by CrendKing »

bubblethink wrote: post #561
CrendKing wrote: post #495

Earlier quoted context omitted.

About 6-8 years ago, all major credit card companies in US has the virtual CC service: BoA, Citi, Chase, you name it. Passing one period, they all started to shut down the service, saving Citi. I don't know why Citi still has this service, and seems to keep developing it (it used to be a Flash page, and since Flash is out commissioned, they rewrote the whole service into HTML). So if you are in US, get a Citi CC or s…

Does citi let you create any no. of virtual numbers and can you set limits for them ? I sorely miss the BoA flash feature and haven't found a replacement. I would sign for citi if it's the same.

I just tried generating 5 numbers without problem. It seems you can generate as many as you want.

You can set expiration time and daily spending limit for the numbers. Also optionally assign a name for each number.

Note that I have two Citi CC but only one card has this service. So some card may not. The one available to me is the double cash card.

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#582

Post by account42 »

phgn wrote: post #418
gaius_baltar wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> IANAL but if you agreed to a fixed term contract you can't just inform the other party that you are leaving early. Also IANAL, but he whole point is that the user is still in the 14 days "free trial, just cancel", and Adobe is refusing to honor the "cancel" part, right? This approach can be handy, specially in countries where there is a way to send legally valid electronic notification letters.

No, during the first 14 days you can actually cancel for free. This is talking about months later when you discover the "annual commitment" part for the first time. It's a perfectly legal contract, just deceptive.

> It's a perfectly legal contract

Is it? You can't actually just write whatever you want in the fine print and then claim that that is what was agreed to.

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#583

Post by account42 »

dheera wrote: post #341
chongli wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There has been a GIMP plugin for this for a long time - no idea how the quality compares to Photoshop's content aware fill though: https://github.com/bootchk/resynthesizer

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#584

Post by account42 »

kevincox wrote: post #370
peeters wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There need to be laws that you cannot advertise anything as "free" or "introductory price" if it's amortized into a longer contract. A common tactic in Canada is to say "$4/mo for the first three months" but when you sign a contract for $12/mo over a year commitment. This should be treated as straight-up fraud. The price is clearly $10/mo and they're just deferring some payments.

I don't mind too much if the continuing price is obvious. But most of the time the ongoing price is in the fine print or completely missing. I wouldn't mind a law that says the continuing prices needs to be at least as visible as the promotional price.

Really it should be required that the most visible number is the minimum amount you will pay in total if you cancel right away.

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#585

Post by [deleted] »

legalcorrection wrote: post #415
peeters wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There need to be laws that you cannot advertise anything as "free" or "introductory price" if it's amortized into a longer contract. A common tactic in Canada is to say "$4/mo for the first three months" but when you sign a contract for $12/mo over a year commitment. This should be treated as straight-up fraud. The price is clearly $10/mo and they're just deferring some payments.

What if it’s $4 for three months and then $12 in perpetuity, with no commitment.

[deleted]

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#586

Post by FranksTV »

chongli wrote: post #284
2ion wrote: 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.

Sure, but if you are a design professional they are pretty much indispensable.

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#587

Post by distances »

dheera wrote: post #579
distances wrote: post #562

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In any case just set it as your policy that you don't talk to collectors, you only engage with businesses directly. Are collectors so toothless over there? Here a valid collection is an easy win in courts if it's not paid, and then it can be garnished from wages, pension, other income, or your property. Collections absolutely can not be ignored here.

Um, if a business wants to charge me and I disagree with the charge, they need to duke it out with me directly. Over e-mail, which is my official means of contact. Or in court, if it comes to that. I'm not going to engage a collector. They aren't part of the 2-party agreement, they have no rights to any information about me, and I'm not going to give more of my personal information to some 3rd party idiot just becaus…

Sure, I'm not going to tell you otherwise. Just that "ignore debt collectors" might be very bad advice with real-world consequences following people for years. Around here a mark in your negative credit report from courts means you're last in line for rental apartments, can't get a new mobile subscription, and a plethora of other nuisances.

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#588

Post by techshill »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #497
ssss11 wrote: post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn’t you make the free trial useful enough to show off the product, yet _incomplete_ in such a way that continually making new accounts is not viable? An example.. a marketing mail app where the trial only allows you to mail 1 or 2 campaigns with a max of 5 email addresses (recipients) for each. In that scenario you’d see the full capability of the product but couldn’t use it for a full email campaign. Creating m…

But you'd want to test that the mail campaign manager handles large campaigns efficiently, etc.. I guess there's a suggestion here that two trial options should be available a "trial with CC" where you get access to the whole product and a "trial without CC" where you get access to a simulcrum of the product, like you can use Netflix but it only shows the first 5 minutes of all shows or something. I'm moving web/emai…

sounds like a lot of dev work for little to no value..

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#589

Post by dheera »

distances wrote: post #587
dheera wrote: post #579

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Um, if a business wants to charge me and I disagree with the charge, they need to duke it out with me directly. Over e-mail, which is my official means of contact. Or in court, if it comes to that. I'm not going to engage a collector. They aren't part of the 2-party agreement, they have no rights to any information about me, and I'm not going to give more of my personal information to some 3rd party idiot just becaus…

Sure, I'm not going to tell you otherwise. Just that "ignore debt collectors" might be very bad advice with real-world consequences following people for years. Around here a mark in your negative credit report from courts means you're last in line for rental apartments, can't get a new mobile subscription, and a plethora of other nuisances.

Couldn't you just freeze all your credit reports and never give Adobe your real name, address, phone number, and they wouldn't be able to affect your credit.

I see Adobe as equivalent to a grocery store, they're just a business and don't have a legal right to any personal information, I could totally manifest to them as an avatar and pay for services with an anonymous Visa gift card.

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#590

Post by distances »

dheera wrote: post #589
distances wrote: post #587

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, I'm not going to tell you otherwise. Just that "ignore debt collectors" might be very bad advice with real-world consequences following people for years. Around here a mark in your negative credit report from courts means you're last in line for rental apartments, can't get a new mobile subscription, and a plethora of other nuisances.

Couldn't you just freeze all your credit reports and never give Adobe your real name, address, phone number, and they wouldn't be able to affect your credit. I see Adobe as equivalent to a grocery store, they're just a business and don't have a legal right to any personal information, I could totally manifest to them as an avatar and pay for services with an anonymous Visa gift card.

Sure, I don't think Adobe would pursue this and you could just try and stay anonymous to most contracts. But you can't do that to all your payment obligations, so I thought "don't talk to collections" might be a dangerous advice to give out for others. Strictly following that could lead to real negative consequences in some situations.
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