Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

361–370 of 592 posts

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#361

Post by unfocussed_mike »

roywiggins wrote: post #343
unfocussed_mike wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only After Effects doesn't have an all-in-one competitor, really. Photoshop/Illustrator/InDesign, as a linked suite, has a very, very able competitor in Affinity Photo/Designer/Publisher. Given the complexity of these products, expecting more than one fully-integrated competing suite might be too much. You might find this video useful, to see the extent to which it is a competitor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVq…

Last I looked for a replacement for Lightroom I didn't really find anything that worked well for me. Maybe the open source tools have matured in the interim? I've been sticking with my old copy of Lightroom 5 and until I buy a new camera that it doesn't support processing raw files for.

I don't really like Darktable for that job to be honest -- nothing against what it is capable of, because it is clearly capable, it just rubs me up the wrong way GUI-wise. Haven't tried RawTherapee in a long time but maybe?

Because I don't really like working in "sessions" and prefer folders, what I do is use DxO PhotoLab (which now comes in an "Essentials" version when you get it with their Nik tools, which might appeal to you). It's fast enough to cull in, though for really fast culls I use Fileloupe on the Mac.

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#362

Post by schleck8 »

bambax wrote: post #245
oldstrangers wrote: post #229

Graphic designer here: I got hired at an agency recently, signed up using my company's account so I could save $50/m doing away with my subscription and ran into this issue. Very fun. Anyways, the future isn't going to be kind to Adobe. Figma has replaced a lot of my Adobe workflow, it's just infinitely a more pleasant experience. Canva has replaced things that require 3 different Adobe products to do. For serious vi…

Affinity products are really great. Not yet on par with Adobe's but almost there for most tasks, and more than enough for casual users.

I actually prefer Affinity over Adobe in many regards. The UI is nicer with colored icons and everything i've ever needed is there and very polished.

Frequent updates for a single charge of 50 usd is just amazing.

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#363

Post by eps »

cpach wrote: post #68

If you’re on macOS and just want a good and convenient image editor, I warmly recommend Acorn. The Muellers (owners of Flying Meat Software) have put a lot of effort to make it feel like a really solid Mac application. The price is good and from time to time they offer discounts. The whole experience reminds me of using good old Paintshop Pro back in the late 90s (^_^) Other options are Affinity Photo from Serif Ltd…

> Paintshop Pro

Now that's the name I haven't heard in a long time :)

I still have PSP7 on one of my machines and even use it occassionally!

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#364

Post by [deleted] »

toyg wrote: post #94
tomrod wrote: post #81

Earlier 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).

[deleted]

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#366

Post by dymk »

nunez wrote: post #342
chrisseaton wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> close them at any time Closing your card doesn't have any impact on legal obligations you had, or a merchant thinks you had, or any impact on whether a merchant will choose to do business with you in the future.

kind of hard to have legal obligations when you use junk PII (which Privacy accepts; they allow any address and zip to be used)

No, that's just fraud, and it'll get you in way more trouble

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#367

Post by unfocussed_mike »

DangitBobby wrote: post #357
unfocussed_mike wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's a free trial, because you can cancel it. And if you look in the screenshots in the very tweets this item is about, you can see that they tell you this up front, on the third screenshot, including the date by which you can cancel to get a full refund. It's not "fraud". Could it benefit from clearer language -- there are some small tweaks they could do.

Would you say the goal of the setup is to deceive the user into paying for a much longer term than they would agree to if they knew? To me, two things stand out. 1) The fact that they have a "monthly price billed anually" could only be used for deception. Either you bill monthly or annually. Telling me how much per month is not helpful, it's deceptive. That's the billing scheme in my head. I am thinking of monthly bi…

No, not at all. They may not be communicating well enough with the word "annual", which people clearly don't seem to grasp, and perhaps they should use "Yearly".

The one thing I found frustrating when I cancelled after a year is the relatively short window of time you have to actually cancel; well, that and the slightly tiresome retention process I was dropped into -- would you like a free month instead? two months? (I half expected to be offered a kitten).

But generally Adobe think you want this software for the longer term, not for a month, and economically they would be hosed if people could just use, say, InDesign for a couple of months, since a lot of InDesign tasks are annual tasks (brochures, reports, catalogues).

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#368

Post by tgtweak »

Tons of dark design patters in the "Adobe Sign" platform also, formerly free for gsuite users it is now pay only. When you try to send a document out for e-sign it gives you an option to upgrade for as low as $2.99/month. Seems reasonable.

After you upgrade (which is the YEARLY price... 2.99*12 = $36), you find that this plan doesn't have the e-signing... That one is $19.99/mo. But that's the yearly pricing... obviously.

Who in their right mind is paying $240/yr for this? I cancelled 20 minutes after buying the yearly, and they took 10 days to return the funds. In 2022, a refund transaction using the new auth-method is SAME DAY, just like a purchase.

Really terrible design patterns and 0 intention to fix.

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#369

Post by mrtksn »

mthoms wrote: post #353
mrtksn wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes it happens but you get the refund easily. You also get an e-mail before that happens.

Well you don't get the refund at all if you try to cancel less than 24 hours out. As technical users, you and I both know there is no technical reason for this. None. It's designed to catch users off guard, plain and simple. There's also this (emphasis mine): "3 months free. Apple TV+ is included for three months when you purchase an Apple device and redeem the offer within 90 days"[0]. What does included mean in thi…

I got a refund and I know my friends who got theır refunds when they forget to cancel subscriptions in time. It's also well known policy of Apple to refund you right away.

I'm having hard time understanding why are you so bitter about. I got 3 months of Apple TV+ and Apple Arcade trial with my purchase and Apple keeps reminding me to active it because the offer is valid within the 90 days of the decice activation. So what? Where's the deception?

The cancellation policy is not in the fine print at all, it's right there next to the cancel button. Where exactly it needs to be?

Just return the device if this doesn't work for you.

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#370

Post by kevincox »

peeters wrote: post #144
mrtksn wrote: post #64

Just yesterday, on a local streaming platform that has a series that I want to watch I was offered "7 days free". Great, I can watch the accumulated episodes and if I still feel like watching the new ones that come weekly I can keep the subscription, right? Nope, the "7 days free" wasn't a a trail but 7 extra days when you purchase a full year subscription. I was considering to get a monthly subscription to try it ou…

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.
Post reply on HN