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Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

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Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#141

Post by lolinder »

spsful wrote: post #138
CodeIsTheEnd wrote: post #136

I'm on the side that this isn't so outrageous; you get a discount for making a longer financial commitment. What IS frustrating is that some of their products don't offer a monthly plan. I want to use Lightroom about once a year, after going on a big vacation, but there's no cheap plan that just includes Lightroom. There's a $10/month annual Photography Plan that includes Photoshop and Lightroom (exactly what I want)…

Am I wrong to say that they could just cancel their credit card and.. move on?

It's been said over and over again in this thread, and the reply is always the same: you signed a contract to pay monthly for a year. Canceling a card doesn't legally excuse you from that obligation. Yes, odds are they wouldn't send it to collections, but they'd be within their rights to do so.

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#142

Post by bobthebuilders »

lolinder wrote: post #141
spsful wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am I wrong to say that they could just cancel their credit card and.. move on?

It's been said over and over again in this thread, and the reply is always the same: you signed a contract to pay monthly for a year. Canceling a card doesn't legally excuse you from that obligation. Yes, odds are they wouldn't send it to collections, but they'd be within their rights to do so.

Good luck getting money from a stone!

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#143

Post by lolinder »

II2II wrote: post #131
greggman3 wrote: post #50

Is this really a cancellation fee or is it just honoring your contract? AFAIK it's very clear on Adobe's page that your options are (1) Annual plan paid monthly, (2) Annual plan prepaid, and depending on the product (3) Monthly plan at usually 150% higher price. https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/plans.html If you signed up for a yearly plan paid monthly, the cancellation fee is finishing your contract. If you didn'…

The problem is that an annual plan charged monthly is there to entice people to spend money they do not have. If the point is to encourage people to pay for an annual plan by offering a discount, they should ask for the money up front.

They do that too, for a steeper discount. The annual contract option is good for someone who wants to pay monthly (less cash out of pocket right now) and knows they'll be using the software for at least 12 months. I would be surprised if that's not the majority of Adobe's customers, who work in a field that requires their use of Adobe software.

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#144

Post by michaelmrose »

NovemberWhiskey wrote: post #49
maldeh wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does a yearly installment plan even mean in the context of a cloud subscription-based service, as opposed to one for which one has already received goods? And first of all, as the OP noted in the twitter thread, they believed they were doing a monthly subscription as advertised; the "yearly plan" interpretation is Adobe getting creative in the terms of service.

You subscribe to Creative Cloud on an annual basis. Please take a look here by clicking into the pricing for the plans or the "buy" option: https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/plans.html ... from my perspective, it is clearly written "annual plan". You can choose to pay on a monthly basis, or in a lump sum. There is no "monthly subscription" or similar. Now it's possible that this page has changed since the OP subscr…

It says

All Apps

US$52.99/mo

with a button that says buy now. It says its an annual plan billed monthly in the item description after you put in in the cart for one screen prior to you paying for it with the description in small print off to the side wherein most users will see the form they are supposed to fill out and the brightly colored button below "continue to payment"

They get more clicks by not listing it as n dollars a month in one page, putting the description in small print on the side in another page, and mentioning the fee vaguely faded 6 point font on a third page.

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#145

Post by lolinder »

jeswin wrote: post #119
greggman3 wrote: post #50

Is this really a cancellation fee or is it just honoring your contract? AFAIK it's very clear on Adobe's page that your options are (1) Annual plan paid monthly, (2) Annual plan prepaid, and depending on the product (3) Monthly plan at usually 150% higher price. https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/plans.html If you signed up for a yearly plan paid monthly, the cancellation fee is finishing your contract. If you didn'…

There shouldn't be an "Annual plan, paid monthly" option. Software vendors shouldn't be in the credit and loans business. Pay monthly for monthly plans, and pay annually once for annual plans.

Is this any different from AWS offering reserved instances? The pricing structure is the same: you pay by the month but commit to a year. Reserved instances seem perfectly fair to me: what's different here?

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#146

Post by maxerickson »

jeswin wrote: post #119
greggman3 wrote: post #50

Is this really a cancellation fee or is it just honoring your contract? AFAIK it's very clear on Adobe's page that your options are (1) Annual plan paid monthly, (2) Annual plan prepaid, and depending on the product (3) Monthly plan at usually 150% higher price. https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/plans.html If you signed up for a yearly plan paid monthly, the cancellation fee is finishing your contract. If you didn'…

There shouldn't be an "Annual plan, paid monthly" option. Software vendors shouldn't be in the credit and loans business. Pay monthly for monthly plans, and pay annually once for annual plans.

A single annual payment is a larger liability (for both parties) than the installment plan.

The way they show the prices is problematic. If 12 payments are expected, it should be reflected anywhere that price is shown. But I think it's fine if they are willing to offer a discount for agreeing to make 12 payments vs 1 payment.

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#147

Post by lolinder »

bobthebuilders wrote: post #142
lolinder wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been said over and over again in this thread, and the reply is always the same: you signed a contract to pay monthly for a year. Canceling a card doesn't legally excuse you from that obligation. Yes, odds are they wouldn't send it to collections, but they'd be within their rights to do so.

Good luck getting money from a stone!

I'm not sure what you mean, but if a debt goes to collections that ends up on your credit report. It's not like you can just ignore it forever.

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#148

Post by dunnevens »

sk5t wrote: post #114
deathanatos wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first screenshot in the comment you're replying to says the price is "$52.99/mo". A reasonable person would look at that and conclude that if they purchased the product for 1 month, they would pay $52.99. But it seems (from the other, subsequent screenshots) that the actual cost Adobe would charge is $635.88. (That $52.99/mo, for a year.) It is only on subsequent screens that the bait and switch becomes visible.…

Automobile leases, apartments, and the like are listed with monthly rates, but your commitment to pay is longer than one month. What's the difference?

When you lease an apartment or a car, the monthly rate stated is usually the actual month-to-month cost. They don't demand a full year in advance to get the stated cost, or increase the monthly cost because you didn't pay for a year upfront.

That's why this pricing feels dishonest, even if it's technically true. Other companies handle it much more fairly. If you want to subscribe to World of Warcraft, Blizzard makes it clear that it's $15 per month. With discounts offered if you pay for 6 months at a time. That type of pricing feels honest, with a reward for paying for multiple months. Makes the customer feel better than Adobe's presentation, even though it's essentially the same type of pricing scheme as Adobe.

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#149

Post by stochtastic »

greggman3 wrote: post #89
stochtastic wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, landlords often include unenforceable terms with respect to lease break fees [1]. This is a common pattern [2]. In my only experience with breaking a lease, my lawyer advised me to inform my landlord that I was aware of California state law, and then wait for them to negotiate. They initially counter-offered that I pay 2.5 months to break the lease, and ultimately agreed to 1 month. Probably harder to do during…

Maybe it depends on where. AFAIK you're obliged to pay the entire lease with a few exceptions that might help you get out earlier. One being a nice landlord (so not a law) https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/free-books/renters-r... AFAIK what you linked to only says a landlord is required to try to find a new renter. In SF that's probably easy to find but any many places it could easily be several months all of w…

Agreed, my experience is CA-specific (though it also appears to be true in some other metros like Boston). The thing I was surprised about is that it's pretty normal for specifics in leases to not be legally enforceable, if not outright illegal.

Normally I'd have had a cordial discussion with my landlord, but in this case the landlord was a giant corporate REIT whose boilerplate lease was largely unenforceable (no doubt they know this, and have figured out that people assume leases are legally binding regardless of the terms).

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#150

Post by Mandatum »

chillfox wrote: post #117
Mandatum wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is disingenuous at best, and fraudulent at worst - and I know ACCC in Australia will take a very dim view. Take the main page for instance, the one you linked - it lists monthly prices. No mention whatsoever of "annual pricing paid monthly" - it's JUST monthly mentioned. Pic: https://imgur.com/sZPfFDI When you click "See plans and pricing details" it gives you the Annual monthly and ACTUAL monthly prices. Pic: h…

So are you going to report them to the ACCC? They are also advertising their Lightroom cloud storage as a backup, but it does not meet the Macquarie Dictionary (Australian English) definition for backup.

I would if I was their customer.
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