The actual shitty thing that people should be complaining about, is that the subscription auto-renews (unless I missed the checkbox) and I couldn't find a way to cancel it pre-emptively, outside of blocking it at the bank level, otherwise it signed me up for another 12 months.
This is not how subscriptions usually work, but with Adobe it is.
With every other subscription I have ever had if I have it for say 14 months or 16 months and then want to cancel I have been free to do so.
But with Adobe when I wanted to cancel after 13 months I learned that I had automatically been committed to another 12 months and would need to pay a hefty cancellation fee.
I like the software that Adobe makes but I hate hate hate the subscription.
When I leave Adobe after my subscription ends this time, I hope to never have to sign up for their subscription again.
If you choose the annual contract, that will run for a full year with you paying monthly installments. If you want to cancel early, you will have to reimburse them. That is exactly the same as phone plans, gym plans (with the exception that gyms often don't allow early cancellation at all), etc. Now if you don't cancel what do you think will happen with an annual contract? Of course it will prolong for another period of time that you chose, in this case a full year again. This is literally hoe contracts work.
If you get a monthly subscription of Netflix, you don't need to manually prolong it every month, do you?
12 months binding is fine. Cancellation fee before the 12 months are up is fine.
Automatically binding your customers for another 12 months every year is insane and extremely hostile and abusive behavior. And I will have no part in such things so even though I love the software that Adobe makes I quite frankly will avoid doing any business with them ever again now to the extent that I am able to.
It's not that terrible, but it certainly is something immigrants like me don't expect. Now I assume it's the case.
If there was a separate box or better, a popup modal/page, that explains this, I'd give Adobe the benefit of the doubt.
The problem is patterning - _a lot_ other companies monthly subscriptions don't have 50% annual cancellation fee or any cancellation fee. So this method of 'lowering the price' is uncommon/against-the-grain.
When faced with an uncommon situation you really need people to understand what they're getting into, otherwise lots of people are surprised when they get hit with this.
- Annual plan, paid monthly: $50 / month
- Monthly plan: $75 / month
Then of course there is going to be a catch to the first one. I cannot imagine anyone being so naive they’d just assume both plans are the same aside from the price...
Tons of people will be so naive as to either not read closely, or just not know that the cheaper one comes with a catch.
People should spend some more time in the community, talk to the old people at the library, do some volunteering. The immense difficulty many people have in filling out a government form is almost traumatic to witness.
Like, some basic due diligence when spending a lot of money is normal right?
Because it’s common sense and practice.
Why would anyone commit to a yearly contract otherwise?
Terms should be easy to read and understand, that is one part of accessibility.
If you have an actual mental handicap that's keeps you from understanding, you are usually not entitled to sign contracts without a supervisor anyway.
> or just tired and not paying enough attention.
Then you shouldn't be signing contracts in that condition. It's like complaining to the police that they caught you speeding and then excusing that with tiredness. I'm pretty sure the officer won't accept that excuse.
> Terms should be easy to read and understand, that is one part of accessibility.
They are. It's your duty as a grown-up to read a contract before signing it.
No major phone carrier in Australia charges cancellation fees on a 12 month contract. None of them even offer a 12 month SIM only contract.
If you have a phone payment attached, you just pay the remainder of the phone which you keep. With Adobe's contract you pay half the remaining amount and immediately cannot use the software anymore.
You sign up for an annual subscription, paying monthly installments.
They give you the option to pay half of it out if you want to cancel, it's no different than a 12 month phone plan in places like Australia.
God I hate Twitter. People on their are so used to only reading 150 characters, that it's started affecting them in their daily life, that they're not reading the paid agreements they're signing up to.
Edit: This isn't defending Adobe. I was stuck in this agreement for a whole extra year than I wanted to be, because I didn't get a notification about it renewing (but that was again, my mistake). Fuck Adobe, they have shitty practices.