Adobe Student All Apps Plan - Hidden Annual Contract Scam

Hi there,

I'm just writing this post to alert other people that might be researching to get the Student Plan that provides access to all apps. Not writing this to provoke any bad feelings; just hoping that if someone googles the plan this discussion will come up so they will be aware of the fine print. 

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Adobe advertises this as an amazing discount to students that gives them access to all the apps for just $20 a month. And that is a great deal! Until you realize what is actually going on. 

In my case, I have never used Adobe. I was considering using Photoshop for some light photo editing that I wanted to experiment with. I went on to just purchase a Photoshop plan, but as I was looking they advertised that if I was a student I could try ALL the apps for just $19.99. The Photoshop was $19.99 a month VS all the apps for $19.99 a month. I thought, well hey isn't that cool. I'll probably only ever use Photoshop but it would be fun to maybe give the other apps a try if it's the same price. So I purchased the all apps plan. 

I have a screenshot of the plan below: 

To the average person looking at this, this says that you get all the Creative Cloud Adobe apps for $19.99 a month for the first year, and then after that the bump it up to $29.99 a month. However there is nothing on this page that says or implies that you are in an annual contract and if you try to cancel you will get charged. 

I went ahead with the plan. I played around with it for a little over a month (and did indeed only use Photoshop) but ultimately decided that this wasn't quite for me. At this point I had paid $19.99 for the first month and $19.99 for the second month. I logged into my account to cancel it and clicked "Cancel". Then a screen shows up and told me that I am in an annual contract and then if I cancel they will charge a $89 fee for "Early Cancellation".

This is very frustrating as again this was never stated on the signup page. I have no doubts that it is burried somewhere in a hundred page contract that you have to click on a link to get to, but this type of information should be very clearly stated when you hit the "Buy Now" button. For both the benefit of consumers and Adobe's benefit to avoid issues. It should not be advertised as "$19.99/mo" as this makes any normal person think they are signing up to be charged monthly without some type of annual contract.

In my case, I just wanted to play around with Photoshop for a month for some light editing. I didn't know if it would be a thing that would last. Since all apps were the same price as photoshop, of course I'm going to buy all apps. But since I did, the contract now requires me to stick around for $12 months, which means I'm paying $240 for a month of photo editing. When I tried to cancel, the early cancellation fee is $89. So now $89 + $40 = $130 for light photo editing. 

This was a very frustrating situation and this type of marketing is very scamming and misleading on Adobe's part. It is sad that they think they can trick people into giving them more money. 

Therefore, for anyone considering this plan (or probably any plan with Adobe), be very careful which one you pick and realize that you might be getting into an annual contract even if it doesn't state you are. So just be careful. 

*** The Resolution

This might not work for everyone if you have found yourself in the same boat, but this is how I managed to get out of this unfortunate situation: 

I reached out to Adobe support via chat. I advised them of the situation, sent them a picture of the signup page I had used, and told them that there was nothing there about an annual contract. I asked them to cancel my plan and waive the cancellation fees. They responded and said unfortunately it was annual contract so the fees would be charged. I advised them again that that is not appropriate and asked for them to cancel it and waive the fees. They replied and said they can switch me to a different plan that only gives me Photoshop that is a little cheaper ($9.99 vs $19.99 a month for a year) but there is still an annual contract. I told them I'm not using Photoshop and do not need access. I asked them again if they could  cancel the plan and waive the fees again. They told me that I signed a contract for a year so I am stuck in it, and that they were being nice to me by offering me this other option. They advised me to pick the cheaper plan or go ahead with the cancellation and get charged the fees. I told them again that there marketing is deceptive and that again there was nothing on there that said I was in an annual contract. Again they told me that I agreed to a contract and to pick to either go to the cheaper option or cancel with fees. I then asked them if they did not have the option to waive the fees entirely. And then finally they changed, said they'd cancel the entire plan, waive the cancellation fees, and said thank you for being a customer and hope I come back.

I am glad that they did end up doing the right thing in the end and I appreciate that, but it is very sad that this was necessary. And it is sad that I had to fight with the Adobe chat person back and forth before they finally agreed to truly help, even though it is very obvious that their marketing is deceptive. I makes me lose any trust in Adobe if this is how they operate as a company. I probably will never edit photos or anything again, but if I do unfortunately I'll never use Adobe as this was a very dishonest and misleading situation. 

[Moderator moved the thread to the correct forum]