David Barnard, on Twitter:
> I haven’t used Photoshop in months and went to cancel my $11/mo subscription… $60 cancellation fee! WTF @Adobe?
This particular comment is about the Photoshop Photography Program, which includes Photoshop and Lightroom. The issue here is the cancellation fee, which represents half of the remaining contract, and the hidden nature of that fee.
Here’s a link to the Creative Cloud pricing page. Where on that page does it say that there is a 50% cancellation fee? I even scrolled through the terms of service, looking for that fee. It might be there, but I was not able to find it.
In hindsight, I do see the implied nature of an annual plan. But a 50% cancellation fee is a rude surprise for a user. Especially when your software seemingly deleted user data without warning.
Adobe, meet Comcast.
Hopefully your credit card that you used has consumer protections against fraudulent charges. Since nowhere is this explained to the customer, I would pursue it as fraud.
I found these:
Terms of Use:
http://www.adobe.com/ca/legal/terms.html
10.1 Termination by You. You may stop using the Services at any time. “Termination of your account does not relieve you of any obligation to pay any outstanding fees.”
and
Adobe – Subscription Terms:
https://www.adobe.com/misc/subscription_terms.html
“Should you cancel after 14 days, you’ll be charged 50% of your remaining contract obligation and your service will continue until the end of that month’s billing period.”
Neither of these mention a fee that could be comparable to the $60 fee mentioned above though.
If you go to actually sign up, when they mention the price it says “If you cancel within 14 days of your order, you’ll be fully refunded.
Should you cancel after 14 days, you’ll be charged 50% of your remaining
contract obligation and your service will continue until the end of
that month’s billing period.“, right above “Accept Terms and Conditions”.
So that’s fair and honest, especially since the descriptions on the $9.99/mo one definitely says “annual plan”.
It just isn’t a monthly plan.
If you’re paying for the the $9.99/month Photographer’s bundle, or any of the other lowest-priced bundles, you are agreeing to a year contract to get the price down from a significantly higher month by month fee. I don’t see how people can be surprised by this. It is clear you’re getting the discount by committing to a year’s term. I can’t fault Adobe for doing this.
I do fault them for subscription service for sure. I pay for things I don’t use. Like the online storage, the vanity social site for designers, and all the other drek they keep adding that holds no interest for me.
But it’s always been clear from the beginning that the $9.99 and $49.99 plans required a year-long commitment to get those prices.
Adobe has some really great software engineers who don’t call the shots on how things are priced or how customers are treated.
Their software is good and capable of a lot. But competitors are getting much better very fast. First it was Pixelmator which is a lot like the old Photoshop LE or Elements. It has everything most people who aren’t working in a print house need from Photoshop and it’s priced way better. (Plus I think it’s faster.)
But now with Affinity Photo and Designer (and soon Publisher) Adobe has competition that can do the vast majority of what Photoshop and Illustrator can do. And in a lot of cases, your work flows for what you used Adobe’s apps for are easier than Adobe’s. I absolutely adore my Affinity apps!
That’s what I thought too, but the way David phrased it, it made me wonder if he had signed up for something else initially.
Good, Adobe needs all the competition it can get. All products do or they stagnate or worse, decline.
One thing that amazes me is how all Adobe’s applications are so different as far as where menu items are, which features one application has and which ones don’t. Like Illustrator having the capability to select same objects based on color or stroke, fill, etc. I know InDesign has find/replace, but for a quick search, the simplicity of “Select” and then “Same” or “Object” can’t be beat.
Exporting pdf’s vs. save as… and on and on.
Adobe needs to collaborate much better between each application and developers within those departments to get them to be more inline with each other regarding similarity of feature sets and location of those commands and features.
What’s confusing and bugs me most is that I’ve been a subscriber for 2 years already. Even Comcast, mobile carriers, etc. waive the cancellation fee after a certain period of time. With Adobe, it auto-renews annually. So if you cancel in the 30 days prior to the annual renewal you aren’t charged a fee, if you cancel the day after the annual renewal, you are charged 50% of the entire next year. That’s absolutely ridiculous.
I signed up almost 2 years ago, and I’m pretty sure the terms were much less clear at the time. Plus, as I said above: What’s confusing and bugs me most is that I’ve been a subscriber for 2 years already. Even Comcast, mobile carriers, etc. waive the cancellation fee after a certain period of time. With Adobe, it auto-renews annually. So if you cancel in the 30 days prior to the annual renewal you aren’t charged a fee, if you cancel the day after the annual renewal, you are charged 50% of the entire next year. That’s absolutely ridiculous.
I just got hit with this today and am currently trying to dispute it. What the hell! This wasn’t anywhere, not to mention that Cloud did not work for me anyways (I had a fun time with their tech team) and they didn’t e-mail me, like suggested, when they were billing me every month.
Just was hit with the secret adobe cancellation fee 50% of monthly fees based on when the account was created. Usually only their code is corrupt but corruption has worked its way into their billing.
Three years I have had a subscription.
I will never use another adobe product. If I need to open a pdf I will open it in word and covert it to .docx immediately.
F’ing Crooks
I just got out of a lengthy chat argument with an Adobe rep about cancelling my 15-month Photoshop subscription. After offering three free months, then pointing out the contract on the website I was able to get the early termination fee waved, but they resisted pretty hard! But after pointing out I paid on time for over a year and wish to return ON MY OWN TERMS (and asking to speak to a manager) I finally got them to let it go.
I can see maybe locking in the first year to profit, but why risk angering customers by enforcing it beyond that–especially over $9.99 a month?
Had my bank stop the payments after Premier CC kept crashing and was consistently corrupting all my footage. Fuck you Adobe. When my Cs6 Suite is too old il use another software.
Any luck? What did you try?
I have a similar issue. I have the Adobe Creative Cloud student and teacher annual subscription. Adobe first sent me an email saying “Your membership has been transitioned from paid to free” since my subscription ended. After that, Adobe charged my credit card and did not give me any notification about it. I only found out through my credit card statement that they billed me for a whole year of membership – in a price that is more than 50% higher than the price currently advertised on their website. When I attempted to cancel, they said they could end the membership but they would not give a refund of the full year’s amount that I had already paid. I understand that, in the terms and conditions, they can increase the membership price anytime. However, is it not deliberately misleading to email me – twice – that “your membership has been transitioned to free” and then to go ahead and charge me? They never sent me any email afterwards informing me they had already charged me. I wasn’t using the software at that time so I didn’t know that the paid subscription was actually renewed despite what the emails said.
Also, I am looking for a way to cancel the option to auto-renew. I cannot find it. I searched online, and from what I saw, there is no way to cancel the auto-renewal without also ending the subscription that you had already paid for. I saw online that even those who contacted customer support and tried to end their auto renewal also ended up having their current membership discontinued. I also do not see a way to remove my payment information since Adobe requires at least one valid credit card.
I am having the same issue. Extremely frustrated. I cancelled my membership less than 30 mins after they charged the amount – which almost doubled. After waiting 40 min for the worst customer service, they told me they will not refund my money. Even when I cancelled on the day. They told me the 50% refund fee did not apply to renewals – even though it does not state that in their terms and conditions
I have just purchased but found out my company has actually subscripted, so I contacted them via online chat a few minutes ago and told them I would like to cancel. and this is what they replied:
“Chandan Kumar: I see that subscription under your account still in processing stage so there is no option to cancel the plan however I will escalate this case to higher level team to cancel the subscription and our relevant team will contact you with in 2 business days via email.”
“Chandan Kumar: I will escalate this case to relevant team and our relevant team will work on this and contact you via email with in 2 business days. “
Well, let’s see what will happen….
What a scam!!! No other consumer cloud software companies I know charge a cancellation fee. What’s the fee for exactly? Does automatically turning off the charge on my credit card take so much work that Adobe needs $50 to do it? This is exploitation, plain and simple. It reminds me of the exorbitant Blockbuster late charges for video rentals. And where is blockbuster now? Exactly. Cancellation fees and annual contracts are desperate, outdated vestiges of failed service models. It says a lot about Adobe that they are choosing this cynical profits-first model rather than simply trying to make customers love their products.
Dear Keith, Could you please provide us with some information for us to refer to while in the same chat-concersation with Adobe? Like a reference # of your conversation, or maybe the complete chat you had with adobe?
Sorry, I have no idea where to find that transcription, as it took place a number of months back. There was no special trick, though, as I just argued with the support rep over chat for around 20 minutes, refusing to accept free months of membership, which transitioned to “You accepted the agreement detailed on THIS PAGE…”
I held my ground, pointing out how he was being silly in treating me like this after being a loyal customer for over a year. I was hoping to resubscribe at some point in the future–do you really want to anger me enough over $10 a month that I NEVER come back???
I finally demanded to speak with a supervisor, and they let me go instead.
I wouldn’t accept this because I was pretty sure they were just going to send a blanket email saying the same crap, so I just kept the supervisor in chat until she finally relented. There’s only a certain amount of time they’re willing to waste on communicating with you before they cave. For me it was about an hour and a half. Maybe there is an escalation formula to it. I think may be time, persistence, willingness to keep them having to talk, and then then asking to speak to the next level supervisor. When I asked if I would just receive a blanket email, that’s when they cave. So 1.5 hours saved me 150 dollars. I’m happy with that hourly rate.
I know this post is older but it seems people are still having the same problems. This solution took me an hour and a half (some people may get there more quickly, It amounted to 1.5 hours = $150 saved(earned) and at an hourly rate of $100/hour that made it worth the effort. If you have a lower subscription rate, you might be making less on the hour, but for me it was definitely worth every minute.
Don’t accept no for an answer on this. Keep talking, keep asking questions. I kept them in chat for an hour and a half. When they made me offers I would ask questions, keeping them online longer. I asked for a supervisor, then after about 45 minutes, then I asked for the next supervisor at nearly the hour and a half level. When they said they were escalating it and I would receive contact in 24-48 hours. I asked if would it just be a blanket email saying the same things, and that’s when she caved. An hour and a half chat marathon.
They won’t disconnect. When they say is there anything else I can help you with, you persist. If you bug them enough they will give you the refund. I hate that it comes to this, but it’s the way they work.
A little workaround for all of you – proceed as though cancelling your membership. Adobe will try to reign you back in with all sorts of shiny offers like 2 free months or alternate plans. Scroll all the way over to the cheapest plan ($5.95/month for InCopy) and switch your subscription. You might have to wait an hour or two, but once you receive a confirmation email, you can go into your account and cancel your new subscription with no penalty! Ta-Da!
WTF! @Adobe I went to cancel my subscription and they want to charge me $680 to cancel a subscription! Its a DAMN RIPOFF!!!
Adobe wants to charge me $160 to cancel because I’m under an “annual contract”. This was NEVER made clear to me in any way. If it had been I can tell you I would not have done the monthly. Why would I? If I had the spare funds to go annual, I would have just paid it up front, likely saving some money. This is like some 90s, early Internet shenanigans. Can’t believe a big co. like Adobe pulls this kind of crap.
First rep I chatted with online sent me to “cancellation team” and there I sat for 20 mins with “0 wait time” while no one picked up my chat.
So far a pretty crappy experience. Probably going to be the last time I deal with Adobe.
That is just not fare in my opinion. They provide a service in exchange for a fee, if the service is terminated, the fee should be as well, no questions asked. I don’t care if they give you the heads up, it does feel like their making money while sitting on their as**s. Leonine clauses… hate that. Like someone commented bellow, it’s a shoot in the foot, inspires one the pursue pirated content on 4shared or else.
I encountered the same problem. I was able to get them to drop the early cancellation fee. I was so upset with Adobe’s business model (not software) that I made this website (ironically with Muse) with that has my chat transcript (in case anyone else encounters the same problem.)
Power to the people. Never settle.
http://adobetrickery.businesscatalyst.com/index.html
Fuck Adobe!! These billion dollar pricks will steal all of your money & never let you cancel based on their supposed “terms & conditions”. So illegal. If anyone is interested in filing or joining a class action lawsuit against adobe please contact me. This should be reported to the NYSE & is illegal accounting which is inflating their quarterly earnings by FRAUD !!!
Here’s my version. I had the all apps subscription for my web design business for a couple years. I missed the auto renew by a few days (didn’t receive an email notification), and then got hit with the 50% cancellation that others have seen of $300. I chatted with Adobe on two separate occasions and managed to get six months free CC subscription. I would have rather them cancelled it since I wasn’t using the software anymore, but I figured this bought me some time without paying money.
Now at the six month mark, I tried to cancel again, and they wouldn’t budge on the $150 cancellation. I didn’t do the supervisor routine that others posted. Maybe that would have helped. But they were practically rude and the person even “hung up” on the chat at one point. That’s just bad customer service no matter what the situation.
So I chatted with someone else, and tried a different tactic. When you cancel, the website tries to give you these other offers like $42 for Photography plan that normally costs $9.99. (because THAT makes financial sense) I actually do have some use for Lightroom and Photoshop, so I just tried asking to reduce my $52/mo. plan to $9.99. They said yes! I know this might not be ideal for everyone who wants complete cancellation, but essentially I’m getting the two pieces of software I might actually use for less than the cost of cancellation, spread out over a year.
I hope that’s helpful info. I still think the idea of an annual contract/cancellation fee for a 20-year Adobe user is obnoxious. They should just offer month-to-month and take better care of people who feel locked into things they don’t want.
I just went through this too. I had the all apps Adobe CC subscription for my web design business in the last couple years before I sold it. I missed the auto renew by a few days (didn’t receive an email notification), and then got hit with the 50% cancellation that others have seen of $300. I chatted with Adobe on two separate occasions and managed to get six months free CC subscription. I would have rather them cancelled it since I wasn’t using the software anymore, but I figured this bought me some time without paying money. Why would a business keep paying for something after it ceased to exist?
Now at the six month mark, I tried to cancel again, and they wouldn’t budge on the $150 cancellation. I didn’t do the supervisor routine that others posted. Maybe that would have helped. But they were borderline rude and the person even “hung up” on the chat at one point. That’s just bad customer service no matter what the situation.
So I chatted with someone else, and tried a different tactic. When you cancel, the website tries to give you these other offers like $42 for the Photography plan that normally costs $9.99 (because THAT makes financial sense). I actually do have some use for Lightroom and Photoshop, so I just tried asking to reduce my $52/mo. plan to $9.99. They said yes! I know this might not be ideal for everyone who wants complete cancellation, but essentially I’m getting the two pieces of software I might actually use for less than the cost of cancellation, spread out over a year.
And THEN I saw Alicia Adams’ awesome comment about just switching to a low price plan and then canceling from there. I went back in to cancel my new Photography plan, and I got two options. 1) Cancel the plan and get refunded. 2) Get 60 days free if I stick with it. Folks, I think this is the magic workaround, whether you do it through the cancellation form or talk to someone to reduce your plan.
I hope that’s helpful info. I still think the idea of an annual contract/cancellation fee for a 20-year Adobe user is obnoxious, especially for businesses that close. They should just offer month-to-month and take better care of people who feel locked into things they don’t want.
I just had that very experience, never got an email to give me an alert that I would be signing up for another year with that cancellation fee… I love Adobe products but this greedy BS is killing them…
does this actually work?
did you do Alicia’s route of canceling your subscription and did it work?
It worked for me when I wrote this originally. The cheapest plans don’t charge a cancellation fee.
As far as I can tell, there were no lingering costs. I was even refunded for the remaining month’s balance since I cancelled before the end of the billing cycle.
Good luck!
It still works, I was able to do this today. I had about 6 months left to go, so I changed to the Photoshop/Lightroom plan. Waited about 30 minutes and then was able to cancel the new plan. I’m out.
does this work?
Yes. I was able to do this yesterday.
I did not cancel my subscription since I decided I wanted to actually keep Lightroom, and they were offering me 60 days to stay. But I was given the option to cancel, so I’m sure that would have worked too.
So this is the end of my discussion with Adobe. Only about 20 minutes. This was after they offered me 60 days on my Stock subscription.
! understand that you would like me to remain, and it may be something that i would come back to in the future. But as it is, I don;t use the images now. I have 29 downloads available that I haven’t used. I would rather just cancel the subscription and save all the money for the next 9 months. Honestly I didn’t even realize I signed up for a yearly contract.
No, I’m not going to pay a cancellation fee. That’s ridiculous.
I had the same issue just then. Signed up for a year contract and decided to cancel once that was over.
Spent about 30 minutes talking to an Adobe person and managed to get the $175.40 cancellation fee waived. I got offered heaps of free months (1, 2, 3) and then a smaller packaged. I stood my ground, even after the chick told me that it was policy and I signed up to it. I then told her that I would also cancel my government work subscription (which is true, but she didn’t ask for proof so feel free to use this) to which she promptly told me that she had cancelled it.
I received a cancellation email within the minute.
Hold your ground and don’t let them steal your money!
Just cancelled my annual subscriptions also. When I was signing up I
honestly didn’t see anywhere saying it was a year commitment. If it
would I would never even sign up for that as I have my own Adobe product
at home and just purchase this service for work for couple of months.
When tried to cancel was bumped with a cancellation fee of $60 or 2
months free of charge. Started a chat , they didn’t want to cancel, was
hard on me saying everything is there in terms , I’ve signed it, I have
to and so on. Then they offered me a month free (instead of 2 that I saw
before…), I said that the only option is to cancel and my fee waived.
Said that if it would be me there wouldn’t be so many people with the
same problem and they wouldn’t file a law suite against Adobe. After
those words they said ok, as a one time exception we will wave your fee
and cancelled the membership.
Where do you select the InCopy option? It’s not there for me, just Photoshop/Lightroom for $10/m
THANK YOU.
No problem, glad it worked!
Just choose the cheapest option
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Thank you so much! I was gonna have to pay a $135 cancellation fee, but I did what you suggested and didn’t have to pay any cancellation fee for the old plan and got a refund of $25 and got a refund of $10 from the new plan for Photoshop/Lightroom! Thanks so much! <333
I’m glad I could help!!
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This still works!! Thank you so much for sharing this, it’s saved me an incredible amount of money from Adobes sneaky practices.
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so your saying if you stop it after 14 days of paying your monthly bill it will make you pay half of the yearly subscription..
if so ima flip cause heres the thing im only 13 and i dont get that much money if it makes me pay that ohh boy
This was 2 years ago. I suggest you contact Adobe and make sure. Mentioning your age can’t hurt either. They don’t want to piss off new users.
It also seems if you confront them, reasonably, about this they will waive the fee. If the fee still exists.
Its a scam. You need to justify why you charge a fee, and there is no justification for it. Its unscrupulous business practice. No wonder people use other sources for Adobe products.
Just got caught in this trap…. but thanks to the info on this page I was able to escape!
As others have said:
1) Go through the motions of cancelling – an option appears to get 3 months free – accepted in my case.
2) When the 3 months are up change to the cheapest possible CC plan.
3) Wait 30 mins or so until you are able to edit your new plan details – then cancel – simple as that.
It worked for me..Thank you so much Alicia<3…
I’d be interested.
THANK YOU! You’re still making peoples’ days after Adobe’s bringing us down. Customer “service” would not budge!
thank you so much it still works!
I’m glad to hear that!
Awesome!
Just did this and I think I’m all good! Thanks soooo much(I don’t have to pay over $100 of cancellation fees).
I’m glad this helped!
I tried the free trial then canceled it since I didn’t really use adobe but 2 months later and I find out for some reason it placed me in a annual plan and was charged 10.59. I went and canceled it again but now I think it will charge be an early cancelation fee since 2 months have passes since I tried the free trial
I realize this thread is old, but I just did this and it seemed to work! I had a termination fee of about $112. I switched plans, and then once I was able to, I cancelled the new plan with no mention of a termination fee.
So does this mean I am not obligated to pay that original $112 termination fee from the previous plan? I just paranoid it’s gonna sneak up on me at a later date…
That’s right! Unless they have changed some policy of course. I was able to get a refund – I kept expecting a charge at a later date or for Adobe to “realize their mistake,” but it never came. I think you’re home free!