I don’t use Adobe’s products, so I don’t have an opinion, but I suspect many do.
“Adobe trapped customers into year-long subscriptions through hidden early termination fees and numerous cancellation hurdles,” Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement. “Americans are tired of companies hiding the ball during subscription signup and then putting up roadblocks when they try to cancel.” The federal government began looking into Adobe’s cancellation practices late last year.
I wish they would go after the cable company for doing much worse with excessive termination fees.
A lot more consumers have suffered for years but that’s not a trendy target that fits the “let’s get tough on big tech” agenda of the current administration?
Understanding Adobe subscriptions is the easy part compared to actually using Adobe’s Lightroom and Photoshop software.
Full disclosure: I pay $10 a month for a subscription to Adobe’s Photography Plan, which gives me access to Lightroom Classic, Lightroom in the cloud (mobile, web, and desktop), Photoshop, Bridge, and a free website. Seems like a good deal to me.
The are two issues here, widely applicable, not just to Adobe:
A large number of consumers hate subscriptions, but want the service itself. A basic conflict that can never be resolved.
A large number of companies have onerous policies and subpar customer service. Some actively deceive customers and think hiding their real prices or terms of service / contractual arrangements somehow lets they grow more / make more money than being direct and honest.
I will leave it to others to delve into specifics, if needed.
Much of the consumer’s dealings with large corporate entities has passed into enshitified relations a long time ago.
While I like my AT&T Fiber connection I detest Telecomm companies being able to snow people into thinking that their lack of choice regarding hardware gateways is ideal for consumers. Standards based TCP/IP has been time tested for decades. It’s not difficult to make compliant hardware. Yet I’m stuck with a Gateway with has Wifi that I don’t need, a battery that I don’t need and has a 4A 12v Power Supply. What on God’s green Earth would an internet gateway need a peak 400 watts of power?
On Father’s Day I was going to take my sons to see Mad Max Furiosa and as I saw the Malco $4.53 charge for processing and clicked off. I run a business as well there’s few “Processing fees” that entail anything close to 4$ per transaction. #Cashgrab.
What are you wanting to know? I don’t think it is a secret that Adobe makes it very easy to add seats (self-serve) but hard to remove them. You have to call and persuade a retention specialist to let you make the change. With the right person from the agency, often a busy principal. You will ultimately prevail if you don’t hang up, but it’s enough deterrent to keep many accounts paying for too many seats.
I have a love hate relationship with Acrobat. It’s the nicest PDF reader I’ve used but could never justify the full price. I’ve learned through they will knock 50% off the year pricing, no questions asked, if you say the $220 is too much. I do it every year.
I love adobe and have never found a better suite of apps that are more supported with constant updates. In fact, there are few single apps that are supported better than adobe products. Just a reminder that the subscription not only covers the apps but you get access to Adobe’s training and tutorials. If one signs up for a year subscription divided up in 12 payments, one signed up for a year, not a monthly plan. Finish out the year, and hit the cancel button before it renews. As Vader says, “All to easy…”.
…but the government isn’t solving the monopoly, or telling them they can’t charge the prices they charge. They’re just quibbling over how the fees look on a bill.
I can’t imagine that the cable companies are suddenly going to take a revenue hit because they’re not allowed to charge “junk fees.” I would imagine that the junk fees disappear, and their regular rates increase proportionately.
From everything I’ve read, this is a “truth in advertising” sort of claim rather than a “you’re overcharging the customer” issue.
