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Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

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Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#81

Post by PurpleFoxy »

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.

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.

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#82

Post by paxys »

slaymaker1907 wrote: post #17
johnsocs wrote: post #6

When you sign up you agree to the fee being broken up in installments. I think they have spelled it out pretty clearly, actually one could consider it ‘free’ financing in a sense. While I don’t like what they have done I don’t see what the big deal is with it.

It seems like even the original post isn't suggesting that what they are doing is illegal, just scummy. I think it straddles the line of false advertising since it is pretty clear by looking at the market of subscriptions that there is a decent premium for a monthly vs. a yearly subscription. As a point of reference, World of Warcraft offers about a 10% discount for their 6 month subscription plan compared to the mon…

I don't understand what's scummy about this. Every service out there offers discounted prices for longer-term contracts since they are guaranteed a sustained future income. If they didn't have a penalty for breaking the contract then everyone would just game the system.

What should they do instead? Not have the annual payment option and screw over all the people who do want to pay for the entire year and are happy with the discount?

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#83

Post by gnicholas »

tadfisher wrote: post #74
gnicholas wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I'm worried about a charge, I use a virtual number generator that my bank offers. It allows me to put a time limit and dollar limit on any charges. Switching banks frequently can mess with your credit score, so I'd try not to do that too much (especially if you're considering buying a home/car/etc.).

That's not quite accurate. You average account age for credit lines affects your credit score. Banks do not report depository accounts to the credit bureaus because they are not lines of credit, they are liabilities. They do report to a separate group of risk-scoring companies, but this is mostly to gate fraudsters. Frequently switching checking/savings accounts will have no bearing on your ability to make large purc…

Sorry for not being clear — I was just referring to switching banks with whom you have credit cards. I don't know if GP was referring to "banks" in the context of credit or debit, but it seems most people in the US who are savvy about such things use credit cards because of the available rewards.

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#85

Post by 8128js8121 »

paxys wrote: post #69
tzs wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the screenshot in the Tweet, it looks like cancelling incurs the fee and causes you to immediately lose access to the apps. If it were merely making you pay what they were contractually owed for the remaining months of your current year, you should retain access to the apps for those remaining months too.

The cancellation fee is 50% of what you still owe on your contract.

It should be 100% of the months you have used that year. e.g. if non contract is $20 and contract is $10, and you used the service for 5 months you owe $50

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#86

Post by lolinder »

petee wrote: post #58
marshmallow_12 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Justified or not, I personally take a dim view of cancellation fees in general. Evidently i'm not alone either.

I'd say especially when it's not costing Adobe anything to cancel your subscription, it's just a money grab. There are some exceptions where a fee is ok like when it's actually putting the business out financially, like Garmin & Iridium satellite service agreements, Garmin has little choice...but clearly not the case for Adobe

The whole idea of offering annual pricing is that the income stream is more consistent, so the price can be lower. It does hurt Adobe (not much relative to their income, but still some) to have that income not materialize.

If you're not happy with a cancellation fee, that's what the monthly pricing is for—you pay more month to month but can cancel any time. It's a very normal trade-off. The only real alternatives Adobe has to a cancellation fee are to only offer monthly pricing or forbid cancelling an annual contact at all.

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#87

Post by paxys »

8128js8121 wrote: post #85
paxys wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cancellation fee is 50% of what you still owe on your contract.

It should be 100% of the months you have used that year. e.g. if non contract is $20 and contract is $10, and you used the service for 5 months you owe $50

So if you have used 10 months and want to cancel you should pay $100 instead of $10?

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#89

Post by greggman3 »

stochtastic wrote: post #78
paxys wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds generous. If I cancel my lease I have to pay 100% of the remaining balance.

FWIW, landlords often include unenforceable terms with respect to lease break fees [1]. This is a common pattern [2]. In my only experience with breaking a lease, my lawyer advised me to inform my landlord that I was aware of California state law, and then wait for them to negotiate. They initially counter-offered that I pay 2.5 months to break the lease, and ultimately agreed to 1 month. Probably harder to do during…

Maybe it depends on where. AFAIK you're obliged to pay the entire lease with a few exceptions that might help you get out earlier. One being a nice landlord (so not a law)

https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/free-books/renters-r...

AFAIK what you linked to only says a landlord is required to try to find a new renter. In SF that's probably easy to find but any many places it could easily be several months all of which you'd be required to keep paying.

Re: Adobe charges subscription cancellation fee

#90

Post by crossroadsguy »

paxys wrote: post #79
Mandatum wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

To me this is a very intuitive presentation of pricing, so not sure what you are referring to as a dark pattern. There are 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) You pick one of the three options and check out. Where exactly is the confusion?

That's exactly the dark pattern is - the convoluted pricing and terms. Also, not everybody is a uckin lawyer, that's another problem.

The customer has already been paying more than they'd have paid if they went for a long duration contract.

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