Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee • Hacker News Board

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#521

Post by tobr » Tue, Apr 13, 2021, 1:57 PM UTC

bjornjajayaja wrote: post #462

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…

Honestly, you signed up for the annual subscription so it’s on you. They give a decent cost discount for yearly subscription—it’s only fair to them that they get their end of the bargain. Important takeaway: only buy month to month plans when testing out services. EDIT: I’m not a huge fan of subscription models in general. Software doesn’t need to change at the rate it is these days, but it does work wonders for the…

There’s always someone in these threads who wants to put all the blame on the individual. The fact is Adobe is misleadingly making it look like just a monthly subscription. Proper consumer protection laws would not allow them to do this.

Adobe deserves all the badwill they are getting in this thread, it’s 100% on them.

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#522

Post by gruez » Tue, Apr 13, 2021, 1:58 PM UTC

Gustomaximus wrote: post #394

walrus01 wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like Adobe hired some executives from the cable TV or satellite TV industry, where the fine print on some packages locks you into 24 or 36 month contract terms. They know exactly how to do it with the minimum legal amount of notice to the customer when signing up, and how to write the terms of service for acceptance to make it ironclad. Same with 2-3 year terms on cellular carriers with a "free $0!" new samsun…

Australia brought in some consumer law business that didn't have costs or you don't use, could not lock you in. So for example a phone on a plan is fine as there's a capital good but a gym isn't.

There's two possible outcomes for this.

1. adobe waives the cancellation fee for australian customers

2. adobe eliminates the discounted annual plan for australian customers

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#523

Post by cptskippy » Tue, Apr 13, 2021, 2:01 PM UTC

walrus01 wrote: post #336

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…

Sounds like Adobe hired some executives from the cable TV or satellite TV industry, where the fine print on some packages locks you into 24 or 36 month contract terms. They know exactly how to do it with the minimum legal amount of notice to the customer when signing up, and how to write the terms of service for acceptance to make it ironclad. Same with 2-3 year terms on cellular carriers with a "free $0!" new samsun…

> Same with 2-3 year terms on cellular carriers with a "free $0!" new samsung phone.

I really like the moves T-Mobile has done to change this. They very transparent that you are financing the phone on your monthly bill and then receiving monthly credit to off set the monthly payment.

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#524

Post by tobr » Tue, Apr 13, 2021, 2:01 PM UTC

FireBeyond wrote: post #516

alexvoda wrote: post #468

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their website actively tries to trick you into falling for it.

Honestly, not so much. Perhaps it did before. It isn't great, but I wouldn't go so far as to call it a dark pattern. It does list the "Best Value" plan, but when you go to "Buy", it presents a shopping cart with the following text (no fine print, no other tricks), and even uses the word "commitment": "Commitment: Annual plan, paid monthly: US$52.99/mo." Even at that point, the above is in a drop-down, and you can cha…

How is it not a dark pattern? If they are confident in the value of the subscription, why not print out the whopping minimum total of $635.88 everywhere they mention the price? They do it this way because it is misleading in a way that benefits Adobe.

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#525

Post by johnsoft » Tue, Apr 13, 2021, 2:03 PM UTC

mavhc wrote: post #510

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…

Paying for things is a sucker's game. Pay for movies, DRM breaks it Pay for software, it's discontinued

Pay for food, you'll just be hungry again tomorrow

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#526

Post by pc86 » Tue, Apr 13, 2021, 2:03 PM UTC

alisonkisk wrote: post #490

pc86 wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why any time there is anything with a date associated with it more than a week or so out I go into my work calendar and add a reminder. Depending on what it is that may be on the date, or a week or even month prior. If it's super important I'll add it to my Google calendar which I don't use for anything except alerts like this that a year+ out where I may not be at the same job but still need to remember.

Why not your personal calendar?

Only because I have Outlook open most of the day, and I don't really use my personal calendar for anything.

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#527

Post by sirbotsy » Tue, Apr 13, 2021, 2:09 PM UTC

How many SaaS companies discount a longer commitment purchase? Pretty much every single one, especially in the enterprise. And this is better for customers that want a cheaper monthly rate in exchange for paying upfront.

As a few folks noted below: This feels like a pretty intuitive presentation of pricing, with three clearly laid-out options: 1. No contract, pay monthly 2. Annual contract, pay monthly (cheaper than 1) 3. Annual contract, pay in one go (cheaper than 1 & 2)

The soundbite of "oh they made me pay to cancel" is so easy to virally hate on, but the fact is that purchasers chose an annual contract. That being said, would be nice to see a confirmation message along the lines of "Early cancellation of a massively discounted annual plan results in an early termination fee." Always room for improvement.

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#528

Post by michaelt » Tue, Apr 13, 2021, 2:12 PM UTC

yanderekko wrote: post #465

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #453

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>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). How does this get settled in a non-broken/corrupt country? You lodge a complaint and the government launches a fleet of lawyers on your behalf? I'd be surprised if that's a routine response to consumer complaints anywhere.

Scam victims complain to legislators

Legislators ban scam in consumer protection law

Subsequent victims just get the credit card charges reversed, or a trivially easy court victory.

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#529

Post by doublerabbit » Tue, Apr 13, 2021, 2:17 PM UTC

5560675260 wrote: post #511

doublerabbit wrote: post #481

Earlier quoted context omitted.

However in this case there is no death. Adobe is the de-facto for drawing to photo manipulation. While there may be open-source alternatives however Adobe is kept alive via media & enterprise where there is no alternative. edit: downvoted?

> de-facto for drawing I don't think that this is still true - most artists switched to CSP, Procreate, various other programs. There isn't really an industry standard any more.

> There isn't really an industry standard any more.

It is utilized heavily within Animation. Universal, Disney, are all heavy users of Adobe, unless that's changed in the past two years.

source: I had a gig for an medium sized animation studio, a large amount of artists all wanted and used adobe.

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#530

Post by DamnInteresting » Tue, Apr 13, 2021, 2:22 PM UTC

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…

I have no love for Adobe, they have some scummy business practices, but:

1) There is an iPad version of Photoshop, and it's fine.

2) They are adding new features (at least to Photoshop), including some interesting and useful machine learning features like "select subject" and "enhance."