I have loathed Adobe for this for years. Even worse, Adobe was supposed to make all of their products available under this single subscription, but now they want to charge users a separate additional subscription to access Substance Painter/Designer which they recently acquired.
Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract
121–130 of 592 posts
Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
In general, they can and do send this sort of stuff to collections since you did sign up for the terms and it's a non-trivial amount of money owed. Gyms do it for far less, so I don't see why Adobe wouldn't.
They can send it to collections all they want, but ultimately if the debt isn't valid as per the law then you're all good. If the merchant is using bad-faith tactics to trick you into a contract (or outright lies as in my case) it is very unlikely to fly in court.
Until when you go apply for a mortgage and the underwriter makes you resolve all outstanding credit issues, which in many cases results in you paying the collection agency otherwise it could hold up your home purchase.
Theses systems were built by the creditors not the consumers.
Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
> privacy.com Not for those of us who don't live in the US unfortunately.
Where are you located? Privacy.com were first to bring this feature to the mainstream as a product but it exists as an add-on in various places. For example, in the UK it’s offered by Monzo and offered by Revolut in the many countries they operate in. If you want to use virtual cards, it should be possible where you live.
Wise (formerly Transferwise) also offers virtual debit cards. I don't think you can limit the amount or merchant, but it still works if all you need is to be able to cancel a card on-demand.
Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
In other words, they are hopelessly broken and you have to social engineer a loophole?
No, they are purposefully evil but not competent enough to close all loopholes (or leaving it open on purpose to have an escape hatch for the most litigious customers).
Agree. It is a constant wonderment why Adobe is not called out ‘evil’ more often like its other SV brethren.
They are not even good at software engineering and UX.
Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're just defending the right of a giant corporation to communicate poorly in a way that enriches them at the expense of customers, who are often struggling artists. > "Annual plan, billed monthly" is about as easy as it's going to be in four words on a button or by a button. It's absolutely insane that you think Adobe has fulfilled their obligations to communicate to the customer what they're getting into by putti…
> It's absolutely insane that you think Adobe has fulfilled their obligations to communicate to the customer what they're getting into by putting "annual plan paid monthly" in a drop-down next to a button. "Annual plan, paid monthly" seems pretty clear to me too, so help me approach this with a new perspective. Is there a SaaS provider using the "annual plan, paid monthly" who does this "right"? Are you against this…
I reject the idea that everyone should know from these words that they will be subject to an enormous early cancellation fee if they forget to cancel before the 7 day trial period is over.
Adobe has a moral obligation to explain that up-front, so that consumers who cannot easily pay the fee are adequately warned of the danger they are getting themselves into.
Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract
#126This isn't a solution and doesn't excuse Adobe's shitty behavior, but I use privacy.com which gives you single-purpose cards. That way, I can just pause the card and subsequent charges will fail. Then let them try to get their money. Pull-based payments are such a bad idea, implemented even worse. Privacy.com at least gives you per-merchant controls and limits, even though this really should have been a Visa default.
You're right here, they won't be able to charge you automatically via the credit card, but you're still legally obligated to pay for the subscription since you have agreed to the terms of service during sign up. Depending on the action that they would take, you could easily end up paying a higher amount than the original subscription price if they put additional charges on you...
Technically but enforcement’s another matter. Many subscription services are just going to cancel your plan and paywall you
Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract
#127This is why I sail the high seas.
Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract
#128I think customers are a bit to blame for such shady companies. So many good alternatives to Adobe ecosystem exists but customers are mostly unwilling to switch to them and as result Adobe doesn’t have to worry about keeping customers satisfied.
Eh, this one's a little tough. Both my wife and I extensively use Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign on a frequent basis, and we're not even designers, we just like to make stuff. I've tried alternatives like Gimp and Inkscape, but they really don't even come close. I've never found an alternative to InDesign at all. There are some applications (especially photo editing apps on Mac) that are nice, but still don't r…
The most fully featured free and open source alternative to Adobe InDesign is Scribus. It's available for Linux, macOS, and Windows:
- Website: https://www.scribus.net
- Download ("Development Candidates" recommended): https://www.scribus.net/downloads/unstable-branch/
- Flathub: https://flathub.org/apps/details/net.scribus.Scribus
- Source: https://www.scribus.net/websvn/listing.php?repname=Scribus
Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
What a staggering battery of distortions. Company credit card? You're just assuming that everyone doing this is spending someone else's money? Everything you've written functions to blame the victim and leave Adobe harmless here.
> You're just assuming that everyone doing this is spending someone else's money? To be fair, you're also assuming that starving artists are paying for Photoshop. A quick "Adobe" search on your BitTorrent tracker of choice may change your mind.
Plenty of low-income people do their best to follow the law out of conscientiousness. I know some of them personally.
I object passionately to the idea that, when people misunderstand communication that's designed to be maximally misleading, subject only to the constraint of legal defensibility, they are entirely to blame for falling into the trap.
Adobe should be very clear and upfront about their early cancellation fees.
Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
Eh, this one's a little tough. Both my wife and I extensively use Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign on a frequent basis, and we're not even designers, we just like to make stuff. I've tried alternatives like Gimp and Inkscape, but they really don't even come close. I've never found an alternative to InDesign at all. There are some applications (especially photo editing apps on Mac) that are nice, but still don't r…
Have you tried the Affinity suite? They even have an Indesign alternative (Publisher) and at reasonable prices. Sometimes they even go sale. Free updates too. Of course if you need EVERY feature of CS nothing else will do but there's some good stuff out there that's significantly more affordable.
> They even have an Indesign alternative (Publisher) and at reasonable prices.
Scribus also looks like an interesting open-source solution. (Anybody here have an "InDesign vs. Scribus" perspective?)