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Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

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Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#231

Post by renewiltord »

lolinder wrote: post #113
hellbannedguy wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Digital products should be exempt from cancellation fees period. Adobe lost me at Lightroom 1. I bought it, and was happy for a year. They then got cute with subscriptions, and honestly overly complicated software. I believe most product/services should not have late fees, or cancellation fees. Every business I have ever worked at used them as steady income. In college I managed a mini storage. The owner told me he w…

Adobe offers annual pricing that is cheaper than the monthly pricing. How do you suggest they avoid the cancellation fee for annual plans while still offering a discount? Would that not effectively turn their annual price into the de facto monthly price, if people could cancel at will with no repercussions?

Presumably one could outlaw discounts (defacto by guaranteeing cancelations at any point without any fee) like that and only permit annual rebates. So Adobe would charge you the same both ways but you get $x back if you fulfil a full year.

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#232

Post by cbmuser »

d110af5ccf wrote: post #176
wpietri wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canceling at will sounds great. Why should they be able to charge you for things you don't use?

Because they gave you a discount on that basis! How is it ethical to receive a discount from someone and then go back on your word?! They also offer a full price monthly option (ie no cancellation fee) if that's what you want. The "cancellation fee" is because you are breaking a contract which you agreed to in order to receive a discount . If you are actually given a meaningful choice (which I feel quite strongly tha…

> The "cancellation fee" is because you are breaking a contract which you agreed to in order to receive a discount.

Exactly. And it’s perfectly legal and practiced by a lot of companies, even the public transport company in Berlin does that.

There seem to be a lot of people in this discussion on HN who seem very inexperienced in signing business contracts.

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#233

Post by sellyme »

fastball wrote: post #203
dorkwood wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"See more details" isn't the primary call to action --"buy now" is. If you click "buy now", you're taken to a page that doesn't show the three options side-by-side, and if you're not paying attention you could miss the new "annual plan" text that's been added.

I'm firmly in the "if you don't pay attention when purchasing something it's your own damn fault" camp.

I'm firmly in the "If your advertising materials are systematically designed to trick people, you should be in gaol" camp.

These are not necessarily mutually exclusive viewpoints.

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#234

Post by dmingod666 »

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.

I use this plan, I don't want to pay upfront and I am happy with the lower monthly payments.

This is what you do when you rent a house, 1 year contract monthly payments.

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#235

Post by cbmuser »

PurpleFoxy wrote: post #81
JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I cancel my lease, the penalty is one month's rent. It doesn't seem unusual to charge a cancellation fee. But for a company like Adobe, they don't have to find a new tenant to take your spot, as a landlord would. So the claim of the cancellation seems less legitimate.

Usually these companies offer two plans, a monthly and a yearly deal. The yearly deal is cheaper because in the long run they profit more. When you cancel early you essentially pay all of the discount you got per month back.

And that practice is perfectly common. Even public transport companies have the same in their TOS.

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#236

Post by hoektoe »

Mandatum wrote: post #61
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'…

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…

I also initially thought I was in the wrong with the monthly but yearly. Thanks for screenshots

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#237

Post by thirdsun »

inetknght wrote: post #200
lolinder wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> if a debt goes to collections that ends up on your credit report Once it's on the credit report it can then be disputed. Good luck getting a court to uphold a contract where the terms weren't clearly understood by both parties.

As mentioned by other users already looking at Adobe's pricing page makes the terms very clear.

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#238

Post by cbmuser »

angry_octet wrote: post #214
docuru wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Legally, companies can do things like this. But I think it's a sure way to spread negative image, and never got those users again. They should think and act as building services to help the users, rather than extracting money. Even though part of a business is extracting money.

Depends upon the jurisdiction. Under Australian legislation this is likely to be considered misleading and deceptive conduct toward retail consumers, and Adobe could be subject to significant financial restitution. It's past time that consumers in the US realized their utter lack of power as individuals against corporations, and their collective might. The 'dark patterns' in online commerce, car loans, mobile payment…

> Depends upon the jurisdiction. Under Australian legislation this is likely to be considered misleading and deceptive conduct toward retail consumers, and Adobe could be subject to significant financial restitution.

I‘m pretty sure, it isn’t.

Go check the TOS of any public transport yearly subscription models and they will certainly have the exact same clause.

I had to pay a penalty fee for terminating my yearly public transport subscription in Berlin early.

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#239

Post by angry_octet »

upbeat_general wrote: post #197
Aeolun wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dunno, if someone presents me with two options: - Annual plan, paid monthly: $50 / month - Monthly plan: $75 / month Then of course there is going to be a catch to the first one. I cannot imagine anyone being so naive they’d just assume both plans are the same aside from the price...

This comment is so tone deaf. Tons of people will be so naive as to either not read closely, or just not know that the cheaper one comes with a catch.

It's an example of "this thing you complain of doesn't affect me, a working age adult, a university educated and highly paid white male, living in a rich area, so it couldn't possibly be of merit."

People should spend some more time in the community, talk to the old people at the library, do some volunteering. The immense difficulty many people have in filling out a government form is almost traumatic to witness.

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#240

Post by dmingod666 »

JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #62
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'…

If I cancel my lease, the penalty is one month's rent. It doesn't seem unusual to charge a cancellation fee. But for a company like Adobe, they don't have to find a new tenant to take your spot, as a landlord would. So the claim of the cancellation seems less legitimate.

Try going to a shop, negotiate the price for a dozen of something. Get a discount on the price because you're buying 12 of them and then try to buy only 1 quantity of that product for the discounted price.
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