Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract • Hacker News Board

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#571

Post by salamandersauce » Sun, Feb 06, 2022, 4:25 PM UTC

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #570

somat wrote: post #528

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PDF editor? I have always regarded pdf as a terminal file format, the place data goes to die. Only half joking but pdf was always the final form from some other program, the internal editable data was never pdf. I have never seen a program works on the pdf directly, Probably because I have never had that much exposure to adobe software. the few times I have needed to do so I had to use a pdf programing library. If yo…

thank you for the link, never came across scribus before! When I deal with government documents, visas, etc. I frequently need to produce 200-page PDFs that contains bank statements, utility bills, or other documents that arrived as PDF or were scanned into PDF. Some of those were scanned upside down, and then you might need to compress or split the resulting doc because of file size limit. So I need serious PDF edit…

If you don't need to edit the actual text or content of the document there's a lot of tools like pdftk and ghostscript that can flip, resize, compress and split PDFs.

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#572

Post by unfocussed_mike » Sun, Feb 06, 2022, 4:56 PM UTC

_dain_ wrote: post #430

unfocussed_mike wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which products do you feel truly have no alternatives, and which features define that for you? The only one I can think of is After Effects, which appears to do a broader set of things than any other single package (but I could be wrong). The rest, well I am not convinced, though there are some edge features in each package that undeniably would sell them to a few people, and that is, I guess, in the right way of thi…

GIMP has no CMYK support; that isn't an edge feature, it's a core need for working with print.

Indeed -- a problem. I think Bloom did but they seem to have disappeared?

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#573

Post by AlfeG » Sun, Feb 06, 2022, 8:20 PM UTC

AlfeG wrote: post #256

bambax wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or you can just block the recurring payments and wait for them to come at you? Anyway a "free" trial that asks for your cc number is obviously not free. Better to stay away of those to be on the safe side.

There are stories when Adobe charged for several missing years as soon as credit card were linked.

https://twitter.com/controlflow/status/1469253842109968385?t... Finally managed to find source

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#574

Post by hdjjhhvvhga » Sun, Feb 06, 2022, 11:25 PM UTC

This information seems useful[0]:

"I fell into this trap also and my state's bureau of consumer affairs was able to help, resulting in a refund and no cost contract cancelation. I encourage everyone in the US with this issue to do the same. Find your office here[1]"

[0] https://twitter.com/trevorgoodyear/status/149000854626786509... [1] https://www.usa.gov/state-consumer

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#575

Post by Handytinge » Mon, Feb 07, 2022, 3:04 AM UTC

I had exactly the same issue about a year ago - missed the fine text. Adobe refused to reduce or remove it on contact, however the moment I mentioned I was happy to take this to consumer affairs to review, they were very quickly fine to cancel it without fee.

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#576

Post by musicale » Mon, Feb 07, 2022, 6:37 AM UTC

josephcsible wrote: post #396

bambax wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or you can just block the recurring payments and wait for them to come at you? Anyway a "free" trial that asks for your cc number is obviously not free. Better to stay away of those to be on the safe side.

> Anyway a "free" trial that asks for your cc number is obviously not free. There is a legitimate reason to do that: to keep people from making a bunch of accounts and getting free trials with them forever.

Virtual credit card numbers where you can set a low limit + early expiration date can be useful for avoiding the dark pattern of "free" trials that you can't cancel.

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#577

Post by patmcc » Mon, Feb 07, 2022, 6:38 AM UTC

unfocussed_mike wrote: post #563

patmcc wrote: post #521

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could easily mean "we will bill you monthly 12 times, for one year, and then stop billing you". It's not immediately clear that it means "we will bill you monthly forever, if you cancel within a year you owe us big money".

Annual typically implies recurring. Annual in APR (Annual Percentage Rate) etc. An annual plant flowers once a year, not just once, etc. If it said "one year", that would match the meaning you have.

For plants it's exactly the opposite, actually. An annual completes its life cycle fully in a year - germination to death. Perennials come back year after year.

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#578

Post by SevenDucks » Mon, Feb 07, 2022, 7:04 AM UTC

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #570

somat wrote: post #528

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PDF editor? I have always regarded pdf as a terminal file format, the place data goes to die. Only half joking but pdf was always the final form from some other program, the internal editable data was never pdf. I have never seen a program works on the pdf directly, Probably because I have never had that much exposure to adobe software. the few times I have needed to do so I had to use a pdf programing library. If yo…

thank you for the link, never came across scribus before! When I deal with government documents, visas, etc. I frequently need to produce 200-page PDFs that contains bank statements, utility bills, or other documents that arrived as PDF or were scanned into PDF. Some of those were scanned upside down, and then you might need to compress or split the resulting doc because of file size limit. So I need serious PDF edit…

[dead]

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#579

Post by dheera » Mon, Feb 07, 2022, 9:18 AM UTC

distances wrote: post #562

dheera wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most online services just terminate your service after a couple warnings and don't bother with collections. In any case just set it as your policy that you don't talk to collectors, you only engage with businesses directly. Send Adobe a written notice of termination of the agreement, stop payments, and I believe that's all you need to do, but IANAL.

> In any case just set it as your policy that you don't talk to collectors, you only engage with businesses directly. Are collectors so toothless over there? Here a valid collection is an easy win in courts if it's not paid, and then it can be garnished from wages, pension, other income, or your property. Collections absolutely can not be ignored here.

Um, if a business wants to charge me and I disagree with the charge, they need to duke it out with me directly. Over e-mail, which is my official means of contact. Or in court, if it comes to that.

I'm not going to engage a collector. They aren't part of the 2-party agreement, they have no rights to any information about me, and I'm not going to give more of my personal information to some 3rd party idiot just because they asked for it.

Pro tip: Never give private businesses your real address or phone number. Make sure they only have your e-mail address. They aren't the police, and don't need to know where you live. If there is a dispute they must engage with you directly by e-mail. If a business needs your credit card billing address, change the street address, as long as the city and zipcode are correct it will usually work.

Re: Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract

#580

Post by Corrado » Mon, Feb 07, 2022, 9:20 AM UTC

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #570

somat wrote: post #528

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PDF editor? I have always regarded pdf as a terminal file format, the place data goes to die. Only half joking but pdf was always the final form from some other program, the internal editable data was never pdf. I have never seen a program works on the pdf directly, Probably because I have never had that much exposure to adobe software. the few times I have needed to do so I had to use a pdf programing library. If yo…

thank you for the link, never came across scribus before! When I deal with government documents, visas, etc. I frequently need to produce 200-page PDFs that contains bank statements, utility bills, or other documents that arrived as PDF or were scanned into PDF. Some of those were scanned upside down, and then you might need to compress or split the resulting doc because of file size limit. So I need serious PDF edit…

If you're on a Mac then the built-in Preview app works pretty well for this type of thing. The only problem I've had with it are accessing signed PDFs from AWS SOC2 attestations.