Ridiculous Price increase without notification in Australia

[aude.au]

The Creative Cloud' price has increased from $29.99 to $49.99 & now to $63.79 within just a couple of years. That is over a 100% increase & ridiculous. Furthermore Adobe' doesn't seem to notify customers, when there is a price increase, they just take it off the Account. They say that emails have been sent, but I've checked all the emails & no such notification. They don't have email records from their side either.

[Ned Murphy · Accepted solution]

What is the value of the Australia currency as compared to the US dollar (aka: the exchange rate)?  If I check for myself I see it is .77 US to 1.0 AUS, which means you are paying $49.19 US where anyone in the US has been paying $49.99 since the cloud started.  You shouldn't be complaining, but are certainly welcome to.

The increase from 29 to 49 sounds more like a startup offering... that should be looked upon as a gift.

[aude.au]

So will the price come down when the value of the Australian dollar increases? I don't believe so... I spoke with Adobe customers service this morning & was advices that there's been a price increase late last year, which I was not notified of. I should have received a very clear email notifying me of any increase. Overall, this is becoming too expensive for my liking.

[amyh95139256]

I received the notification at the end of Last year, went from $49.99 to $59.99. I thought that was disappointing but reasonable. But today I've received notification that it will be going up another $20 per month! This has taken it to $79.99 which is becoming unaffordable! I don't believe the Australian Dollar has gone down that much, how is the price rise justified?

[ProDesignTools]

amyh95139256  wrote

I received the notification at the end of Last year, went from $49.99 to $59.99. I thought that was disappointing but reasonable.

Note that the increase in December was not due to Adobe raising rates for Creative Cloud. It was due to Adobe being required to now collect GST for online purchases on behalf of the Australian and New Zealand governments. For more details, see:

Here’s Why Some Creative Cloud Subscription Prices Are Changing

Note that all annual subscriptions renewing in Oz/NZ throughout 2017 will see this tax begin to be collected at the time of renewal... So, for example, if your CC subscription renews every May, you will only begin to pay the GST starting in May 2017.

[CVdesignLTD]

Now they are putting it up another 20% to $75.89 a month. WTF . . . And to blame exchange rates is total BS. If you take the existing exchange rate, which on average has only marginally fluctuated in the last 2 years, it should only be $67.49 not $75.89. WTF are you doing Adobe this is board line criminal. Not even to mention that you pretty much have a monopoly of the market. Price gouging anyone???

[peterw73603888]

They just did the same to me. Sent me an email today stating price was going up to almost $80/month from $43. I checked my account and they started charging me the higher rate 2 months ago and we didn't notice... not very honest...

[kellys62815911]

And another price increase just received today.   Nearly tripled in price but the tools have improved about 2%, plus a whole bunch of rubbish hardly anyone will use.   Subscription models will be the death of a lot of greedy companies whose products aren't any better than the alternatives.   Resolve is already being used more that Adobe for us, might be time to cancel.

[brads38004417]

The annual price in Aus is now $76.99 which I believe is more than the US$49.95.  This price seems to increase every billing cycle.

I am getting fed up with an annual price hike.  The email they send tries to justify this price hike with new product releases.  While I acknowledge that Adobe is releasing new products, the majority of these I have zero use for (and they don't offer subscriptions that just cater to my needs).

I would also like to acknowledge that Adobe has also cancelled products (such as Adobe Muse) which has cost my business money and I have had to spend on other company's subscriptions to retain my customers.

Is this going to be an annual price hike, or is this going to be the long-term pricing?  Day by day there are more alternatives to Adobe products being released, and I am finding the barriers of leaving Adobe as a customer much easier to overcome the more I feel screwed as a customer.  I can live with inflation being added yearly, but if it keeps going up I'm gone.

[ProDesignTools]

brads38004417 wrote:

The annual price in Aus is now $76.99 which I believe is more than the US$49.95.  This price seems to increase every billing cycle.

Hi Brad,

The current exchange rate is 0.71 AUD to 1 USD, which is near 15-year lows unfortunately...

The current price on the Creative Cloud "All Apps" plan in Australia is A$76.99/mo. as you mention – however (importantly), this includes GST imposed by the Aus. government. The same thing happens in Europe with VAT.

The convention in the U.S. is different. Prices for everything are never quoted with state/city/local sales taxes included. These can range up to an additional ~10% added on top.

Doing the math:

    A$76.99 – 10% GST = A$69.99 before taxes

    A$69.99 x 0.71 rate = USD $49.69

The current monthly rate in the U.S. for Creative Cloud "All Apps" is $52.99 + taxes.

So in fact, comparing on an apples-to-apples basis, the current price in Australia is actually lower than the current cost in the U.S.

One way to possibly lower the overall cost (whether in Australia, or the U.S., or anywhere), is to prepay the Annual plan instead of paying monthly.