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

Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

451–460 of 603 posts

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#451

Post by bmsleight_ »

stuaxo wrote: post #428
metafunctor wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The seller decides on the price, and labels the goods accordingly. Whatever "recommended retail price" may be printed on the box is of course covered with a sticker with the actual price. It's about consumer protection. Buyers must know exactly how much they will need to pay to purchase an item BEFORE they pay. It would be unfair to expect consumers to calculate these things.

In Europe and the UK that won't fly. If it came with a price printed on the box, that's the price they should sell it at.

Not a lawyer not legal advice.

Not correct. The price on the 'Box' is the invitation to treat [0]. The price you pay in the UK is the verbal Offer at the checkout. They may/should sell it a the RRP, but it is not correct in law.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invitation_to_treat

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#452

Post by cbmuser »

sherry-sherry wrote: post #406
maccard wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> All of this could be solved by saying "You are agreeing to pay a total of $923.88 over 12 months at $76.99 per-month. If you cancel, the minimum cost to you is $461.94 (50% of the total Annual plan), this decreases evenly each month. And presumably this must be on primary pricing page, not below the fold, have different options for with and without vat, and they must display this for the up-front annual sub, pay-mo…

> And presumably this must be on primary pricing page, not below the fold It just has to be before you commit to the contract. > Yes, they do. [1] clearly says No, that page shows no prices whatsoever. Your minimum commitments should be shown before you agree to the contract. People keep making it out like it's some huge imposition on companies to tell customer how much money they'll pay. Here's an example of a more…

> No, that page shows no prices whatsoever. Your minimum commitments should be shown before you agree to the contract.

There were screenshots in the Twitter thread that showed that this is actually the case.

Adobe would be outright crazy not to present the total costs upfront as it would be super easy for any customer to sue them over deception for that.

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#453

Post by pbhjpbhj »

bregma wrote: post #419
987yghj wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if this would have been enforceable. Just because their contract says something does not mean it holds up in court.

All it would take is your fleet of lawyers against Adobe's office towers full of lawyers. If you have the resources to back that, be a sport and make the sacrifice for the rest of us.

If that's how it works in your country then it seems likely your country is also broken/corrupt and is effectively 'in on it' (helping the likes of Adobe to steal from you).

Not sure what one can really do about it.

I think also the whole "you'll need an army of lawyers" idea is probably born from confirmation bias (settled cases get NDAs). I wonder if we shouldn't require registering a settled case, if there was any court action (arranging a date, say) then settlement details would be published? I guess it might encourage frivolous suits.

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#454

Post by yamakadi »

alias_neo wrote: post #319

I got hit with this a few years back. I signed up for Ps CC for a month (I thought) to create an anniversary gift for my wife. I used it ONCE. Tried to cancel and they told me I had in fact signed up for a year, and that if I didn't cancel now, they'd give me two months free. I didn't want it at all! Anyway, I sucked it up, got on with the remainder of the year, because they wouldn't let me put the cancellation in ea…

I had this exact issue. I specially chose the more expensive monthly options and read all the fine print, but apparently the cancellation fee snuck by somehow. My solution was removing my credit card, adding a “you don’t deserve to get paid” prepaid VISA charged with ¥200, and canceling anyway. They tried to charge me on and off for about a month — and a random charge attempt 3 months later.

Having to do this is a terrible felling and I feel like a bad person, but I at least put the cancellation fee I would have paid to good use by buying Affinity Designer.

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#455

Post by pbhjpbhj »

dorkwood wrote: post #416
jrockway wrote: post #395

The downfall of Adobe is interesting to watch. New releases get more expensive every year, but they aren't really adding features. I had to switch to Affinity to get an iPad version, for example. 21,000 employees and they can't port Photoshop to ARM? I think at this point, they're just coasting on brand recognition alone. They certainly aren't adding much value; all they can do is rent you their software at higher an…

Can you really call it a dying company when their annual revenue has tripled over the last seven years? This isn't the downfall of Adobe. This is the most successful they've ever been.

What jrockway describes is a common pattern; it's not necessarily the end of the company IME, but it's the end of the spirit of that company, whatever made them great is gone, they're riding on their laurels (relying on past 'wins').

Cadbury is a brand like this, as soon as they started smoothing corners on their chocolate bars to save a few percent volume and making the chocolate waxy they died. I expect under Kraft/Mondelez the brand is making more money than ever though.

I suspect there's a transition from R&D/development spending to marketing spending that marks the change.

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#456

Post by yanderekko »

michaelt wrote: post #387
unixhero wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although this is true and will work. It also amounts to some degree of fraud.

Fraudulently avoiding being defrauded? Poetic.

Does it really come as a shock that you don't have a blanket right to lie about your identity to protect yourself from possible exploitation?

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#457

Post by yanderekko »

jle17 wrote: post #388
distances wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This may work in the US (does it, really?) but mostly not in Europe. If the service provider thinks you are a subscriber and don't pay, you will eventually end up in collections. You can't just "stop paying", that will not terminate your subscription.

It mostly work though, although it might not be legal, most companies will drop your subscription after some time if you stop paying. You might receive some letters from collection agencies, but as long as the sums in question are an order of magnitude lower than what is worth bringing in front of tribunal, they will stop after some time.

Does Europe not have credit scores? Would these sorts of things not end up as derogatory events on them?

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#459

Post by minikites »

onion2k wrote: post #415
8fingerlouie wrote: post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adobe isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Yes there are alternatives, Affinity, Pixelmator, etc, but all that's being taught in educational institutions is Adobe, and it's what the industry uses. Private/small business users are a very small part of their business, but one that requires as many (if not more) support resources as large customers, so if anything they're probably happy to see them go elsewhere. And no, i…

Adobe isn't going anywhere anytime soon. DEC, Commodore, Novell, SGI, Cray, Lotus, and Acorn would like you to explain how a computing companies last forever.

The industry back then was a fraction of the size it is now. Studebaker and Pierce Arrow are gone too, but that doesn't mean Ford can vanish overnight.
Post reply on HN