[LOCKED] Cancellationon Fee

[Guest]

@Adobe please remove this from your cancellation screen "Sometimes you just need to call it quits. We get it." because you don't get it. I'm a casual user who wanted to check out the Adobe programs for a month or two and see if it's something I want to use more. I was not paying attention and you caught me in the cancellation fee trap. Touche. I will pay up, it's on me. But don't give me this [OFFENSIVE LANGUAGE REMOVED BY MODERATOR] that you "get it". You scalped me and I will not forget, nor will I forgive.

[LinSims]

I've never heard of a commercial software program that gave you a "month or two" to try it out. Technically, Adobe gives you 7 days before converting the trial to a subscription, but you actually have 14 days from sign-up to cancel before you get charged a fee.

[Guest]

@LinSims I wasn't addressing you, it was a message for Adobe. But since you decided to step in, under which rock have you been living? ALL online services that allow you to pay monthly allow you to unsubscribe without a cancellation fee. This cancellation fee is adopted from TV and mobile contracts where there are installation and equipment related costs, so they have some justification. What Adobe are doing is just scalping naive people like me who think it is a serious company, because there is no equipment, and no installation related costs.

I am not a designer by trade and looking to design things as a hobby. I am busy and have other things to do. In 14 days I can spare only a few hours to evaluate the software. I'm more than happy to pay for a few months, no need for free trials. But hitting me with a cancellation fee is basically stealing my money. Like I said. My bad for not spending hours carefully reading the terms and conditions. Expensive mistake, but now I know what kind of company Adobe is.

[LinSims]

If you're addressing Adobe, this is the wrong place. This is a user-to-user forum and rarely visited by Adobe employees, none of whom have the power to make changes to subscription terms or the website.

Adobe is not providing a subscription to cable services, internet services, or mobile services. It is providing access to use of a software, and the conventions that apply to the others do not apply to software as a service. I repeat, I have never seen a commercial software provider allow more than 2 weeks of a free trial, and it's more usually 1 week.

Although it's not as clearly worded as I'd like, Adobe tells you up front that there is a fee if you cancel after the trial period. It even gives you a date after which the fee kicks in.

If you wanted to try the programs out for a couple of months, there is an option for purchasing Month-to-Month rather than for a full year paid monthly. It's more expensive, but it does let you cancel at any time. I believe the break-even point is 6 months. If you think you'll use it more than 6 months, it's cheaper to get the annual plan even if you cancel 7 months in.

If you'd clicked on the Subscription and Cancellation Terms link, you'd have seen the following, which takes about 2 minutes to read and is not hard to understand.

[Guest]

I don't remember seeing the more expensive option for a 'monthly plan'. I was impression that that is what I was getting into, otherwise that is what I would have chosen. I do that for all subscriptions that I have. It wouldn't be the first time I pay more to have the option to unsubscribe when I choose to. I never said I expected a few months of free trial, not sure where you get that from. I wanted to pay for it for a few months while I try it out on my own terms.

I didn't record my screen while purchasing to prove it (to you or myself) that I was not given the anual monthly vs monthly monthly option. And I admit I didn't read the T&C, but that doesn't make this less of a slimey tactic. Look at how they word it "Cancel anytime" in bold and only after, no bold, "avoid a fee". It's clear they don't want you to clearly know up front what you are getting yourself into. I don't understand why you stand up for them and do their work for free.

If they choose to not listen to their customers its their problem. I was going to cancel the plan now, but I was intending to buy it again in a few months when I will have more free time to use the apps. Now I'll never want to deal with Adobe again, and I'm more than happy to share my experience with other people, on other platforms, so that they don't fall into the same trap. 

[LinSims]

I'm sorry this has soured you on Adobe. Many customers, including most of the ACPs, have been agitating for clearer explanations on a bunch of things on different parts of the websites.

Believe it or not, the text I showed you on the sign-up page is an improvement on what they used to have, although I agree that it could be better phrased. Up until last December, it didn't have the information about "cancel within 14 days to get a complete refund", nor did it tell you what date you had to cancel by. I was utterly gobsmacked when that first appeared.

And I must have misunderstood you about the trial period, so I apologize for that. I thought you had said you expected to be able to use the programs for a few months as a trial, but now I think you're saying you thought you were paying for a few months in order to check it out and chose the wrong subscription option because you weren't aware there was more than one. (Only a few Adobe subscription plans have the month-to-month option, so unless you were getting one of those, such as the All Apps, you might still have been stuck with the fee.) I think they should change that page to use radio buttons instead of a drop-down list, but it's not like anyone's listening to me about it!

[Guest]

I went through the purchase journey again using an icognito browser. See below how the pages show up to me (UK customer). The first page has absolutely no indication it is a year contract. It's all cheerful, you get 7days free then a monthly subscription. Then on the second page you can see its an anual plan if you look very carefully, but the first page already puts you in the monthly mindset so it's easy to miss. Then the small text says you can cancel to avoid a fee, but in this case you are mislead into thinking you avoid the fee of the first month kicking in. The text in your screenshot is a bit more clear in explaining the fee.

For this to be fair, the second page should clearly show you that you are paying £599.28 in 12 instalments of £49.94. I think I might stand a chance in court with these screenshots because this kind of consumer misleading is unheard of in Europe/UK. However, I was able to reduce the plan to Lightroom, which I'll never use, for about £10/month (I screenshotted the entire process and read all the fine print) and now the damage is too low to go for a lawsuit.

[LinSims]

What did you think "Annual plan, paid monthly" meant? Would "Annual plan, paid in installments each month", or something similar, work better? (Not that I think that'll happen, mind you. They do like to keep things short and forget that can get in the way of clarity.)

Also, I see that this page does give you a date by which you have to cancel to avoid a fee. 

And yeah, they could definitely make it more clear that these are user-to-user forums and not a way to talk to Adobe employees directly. If you want to talk to an Adobe employee, you have to use the chat or phone options.

[Guest]

I probably didn't see the "annual" word to be honest. Se below an example of how they must display such a plan and what I was expecting to see for an anual agreement. Note that there is no way of mistaking that you can pay only a few £14.24 instalments, you are clearly shown there will be 11. You are also shown the total for the year, which in my opinion is obligatory to display for a yearly contract, because you entre an agreement to pay that full amount. You can't argue they are hiding this detail for simplicity. Showing 12 x £49.94 and a total of £599.28 in the table of payments is sufficient. That does not take more space or does not clutter the page much more than it is now.

[John T Smith]

As has already been said, this is not Adobe... address & telephone number are

Adobe, 345 Park Avenue, San Jose, CA 95110-2704 USA Tel: 408-536-6000 Fax: 408-537-6000

[Guest]

It says adobe.com in my browser address bar, with a valid and verified certificate. I now understand that the company does not give a damn about its users so their employees never look here. But this website is Adobe's.

[Guest]

Also, you get forwarded here when you follow a link to get support and talk to "real people". Hilarious.