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Ask HN: How to cancel Adobe CC subscription without paying a “cancellation fee”?

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Re: Ask HN: How to cancel Adobe CC subscription without paying a “cancellation fee”?

#41

Post by jbverschoor »

mjrpes wrote: post #10
detaro wrote: post #2

AFAIK you only pay a cancellation fee if you want to cancel a subscription early (E.g. you booked a yearly plan and then cancel it a few months before renewal), which of course is legal. At some point there was the hack that you could switch your subscription to a offer they throw at you when you try to cancel, and then that counted as a new subscription, which you could cancel within the first 14 days. Not sure if t…

It is of course legal, but it's possible OP got deceived into an annual subscription when they thought it was monthly, as discussed 7 months back on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30222165

It’s not as a consumer in the Netherlands. This is what gyms used to do. Now you can have a 1 year contract, after that, you’re able to cancel anytime

Re: Ask HN: How to cancel Adobe CC subscription without paying a “cancellation fee”?

#42

Post by exolymph »

hey2022 wrote: post #25

I did exactly that around 4 months ago. Luckily I subscribed using PayPal, so when Adobe charged me the cancellation fee I immediately contested it. My guess was that Adobe won’t bother to deal with a contested fee of around $100. They didn’t, so PayPal refunded me the fee. Edit: I replaced Photoshop with Pixelmator Pro, which is an excellent piece of software. Most other needs are covered by Sketch/Figma. Haven’t fo…

+1 to Pixelmator Pro, the price is super reasonable

Re: Ask HN: How to cancel Adobe CC subscription without paying a “cancellation fee”?

#43

Post by d23 »

gervwyk wrote: post #27
d23 wrote: post #18

Thanks for the heads up. I just checked, and apparently I got scammed into an annual plan by a customer support agent without realizing it. Even better, they don't appear to have a way for you to delete your old credit card information, even after adding a new one. Time to finally look for Adobe alternatives.

As a dev touching so design things every few weeks, I can only say good things about Affinity Designer.

Thanks, I’ll take a look. The other big one for me is audition, believe it or not. I find myself really liking the spectrum analyzer and noise reduction features.

Re: Ask HN: How to cancel Adobe CC subscription without paying a “cancellation fee”?

#44

Post by iLoveOncall »

flaxton wrote: post #11

Pay the cancellation fee and learn from it, to read the terms and conditions before you buy. Then in the future, depending on your needs, use alternative applications, like many of the excellent Affinity programs such as Affinity Photo (vs Adobe Photoshop), Affinity Designer (vs Adobe Illustrator), etc. that are an affordable one-time purchase. Likewise Luma Fusion video editor (on iPad) instead of Adobe Premiere Pro…

> to read the terms and conditions before you buy

No need to go that far, you just have to read the very obvious part that says it's an annual subscription. This thread is baffling.

Re: Ask HN: How to cancel Adobe CC subscription without paying a “cancellation fee”?

#45

Post by daniel-cussen »

NLPlatypus wrote: post #7
AlbertCory wrote: post #5

Use privacy.com and give them a temporary credit card. Close the card when you want to cancel. Is this ethical? You're not using the software anymore, so you're not getting something for nothing. Rather, you're avoiding paying something for nothing.

But he received a discount on his monthly rate when he agreed to subscribe for a year at a time.

Oh that's what this is about?

Re: Ask HN: How to cancel Adobe CC subscription without paying a “cancellation fee”?

#46

Post by synicalx »

bognition wrote: post #21
AlbertCory wrote: post #5

Use privacy.com and give them a temporary credit card. Close the card when you want to cancel. Is this ethical? You're not using the software anymore, so you're not getting something for nothing. Rather, you're avoiding paying something for nothing.

This won't stop Adobe from sending collections after you

For small amounts (hundreds of dollars), it's often not economical to do this. And if they do end up doing it then its even less economical for an agency to do anything other than automated collections activities (emails, robo-calls etc) which can safely be ignored.

Re: Ask HN: How to cancel Adobe CC subscription without paying a “cancellation fee”?

#47

Post by synicalx »

Cancel your card, the fee is small enough that it won't be worth their time to actively pursue you for it.

EDIT: I should append this with "It Depends"/YMMV/Do this at your own risk. Based on my years working in and around the collections space, I can say with a fairly high degree of certainty that you will most likely not be pursued in a meaningful or enforceable way for a small amount like this. But then again Adobe might sell your "debt" to someone who will choose to pursue you heavily for it in the hope that they can find a court to agree with them.

Re: Ask HN: How to cancel Adobe CC subscription without paying a “cancellation fee”?

#48

Post by muzani »

AlbertCory wrote: post #5

Use privacy.com and give them a temporary credit card. Close the card when you want to cancel. Is this ethical? You're not using the software anymore, so you're not getting something for nothing. Rather, you're avoiding paying something for nothing.

I would say it's unethical as long as the seller doesn't consent to it. But legal. I see it as similar to pirating it, though piracy is illegal as well.

Are the seller's terms unethical? Perhaps. I don't think that justifies being unethical in response, though.

Arguably the PayPal trick is more ethical because they decide it's not worth chasing the cancellation fee.

Re: Ask HN: How to cancel Adobe CC subscription without paying a “cancellation fee”?

#49

Post by Shadowed_ »

hey2022 wrote: post #25

I did exactly that around 4 months ago. Luckily I subscribed using PayPal, so when Adobe charged me the cancellation fee I immediately contested it. My guess was that Adobe won’t bother to deal with a contested fee of around $100. They didn’t, so PayPal refunded me the fee. Edit: I replaced Photoshop with Pixelmator Pro, which is an excellent piece of software. Most other needs are covered by Sketch/Figma. Haven’t fo…

Maybe CorelDraw could be a good replacement for Illustrator. Disclaimer: I did use CorelDraw but not Illustrator (at least not significantly), so maybe I'm missing something.

Re: Ask HN: How to cancel Adobe CC subscription without paying a “cancellation fee”?

#50

Post by ipaddr »

muzani wrote: post #48
AlbertCory wrote: post #5

Use privacy.com and give them a temporary credit card. Close the card when you want to cancel. Is this ethical? You're not using the software anymore, so you're not getting something for nothing. Rather, you're avoiding paying something for nothing.

I would say it's unethical as long as the seller doesn't consent to it. But legal. I see it as similar to pirating it, though piracy is illegal as well. Are the seller's terms unethical? Perhaps. I don't think that justifies being unethical in response, though. Arguably the PayPal trick is more ethical because they decide it's not worth chasing the cancellation fee.

Ethical is not a word you can use to describe any aspect when having an interaction with a company. A company is not a living person following common social morals.

Trying to generalized actions are unethical or ethical or more or less ethical is completely subjective based on your understand and acceptance of the society rules you have been exposed to.

Company work with objective laws with judges deciding disputes.

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