This may work in the US (does it, really?) but mostly not in Europe. If the service provider thinks you are a subscriber and don't pay, you will eventually end up in collections. You can't just "stop paying", that will not terminate your subscription.

It mostly work though, although it might not be legal, most companies will drop your subscription after some time if you stop paying. You might receive some letters from collection agencies, but as long as the sums in question are an order of magnitude lower than what is worth bringing in front of tribunal, they will stop after some time.

I don't know where you live, but I know people who've gotten court summons due to non-payment of subscription services. In this case a travel ticket subscription and not Adobe's cloud stuff, but the escalation method is there and used in any case.

Does Europe not have credit scores? Would these sorts of things not end up as derogatory events on them?

Depends on the country, but mostly no, and thank fucking $deity. Credit score systems are an abomination that go against privacy and are used to entrap people into debt and keep not knowledgeable people poor. I find it ridiculous when Americans speak about the Chinese social score system - judging people on debt management and spend is marginally better than on communist-aligning speech. Especially when it's done by for-profit companies that have zero incentive to get anything right.

In most EU countries when you want to take out a loan, the bank takes a look at your current status ( employment, expenses, family, etc.) and debt history stored by the central bank ( which is basically you had a loan of 10k for 5 years, don't own anything anymore) and judge based on that if you're credit worthy or not.

You're saying it's OK to order stuff and not pay for it, as long it costs less than the cost of going to court?

No, it's okay to subscribe to something, stop using it and stop paying it. When your access is cutoff due to non-payment, what's the problem?

> No, it's okay to subscribe to something, stop using it and stop paying it. When your access is cutoff due to non-payment, what's the problem?

Let's look at it from a different perspective. If a coworker and I build a service in my garage from the ground up where I let users pay $100/mo month-to-month, $75/mo for a six month agreement, or $50/mo for a twelve month agreement, you're saying it's fine to agree to the twelve month term, get the 50% discount for a few months, and then cancel your card even though the only reason I offered such a steep discount in the first place is because you promised you'd pay me for twelve months?

Yes. You can always demand 12 * $50 up front.

Just to be sure there's no miscommunication here, you believe it's alright to default on an agreement purely because the person you're doing business with is letting you finance it (at a steep discount and without interest of any kind) instead of demanding a lump sum?

Their argument (and to be clear, how much I agree with it depends on the nature of the product/service, and the amount), is that your subscription had an intended duration, and was priced accordingly, and that you received discounts from the "on-demand" pricing that you would otherwise not have been entitled to.

Yes, there are things like credit scores, e.g. "schufa" in germany. Also, collecting via court order ("gerichtliches Mahnverfahren") costs around 20 Euros in fees and isn't that complex, you hand in 1 form in triplicate and wait for the money.

this is not true i have a default for £40 for a phone sim that they charged me for for 6 months after i cancelled.

I do not owe them the money yet they sold the debt. Nobody cares ... I now have a default on my credit reference.

The whole industry is crooked

Yup, I didn't update my card details and forgot to cancel hosting with a UK provider and they sent a collections agency after me for £16.

Why would you use your real name/address for a cloud subscription trial? I know with my disposable card provider, pseudonyms are a-ok. Sir Donald Mallard IV may have a ding in his credit report, the old chap, but I still can sleep and night somehow.

This is true, but Most of the time it doesnt make a difference.

You can make up any persona on the account and they wont know who to pursue.

The account name and address can really be anything... and this is also true for the CC on file.

Although this is true and will work. It also amounts to some degree of fraud.

I would agree that in most cases this is true.

But we are talking about really deceptive sales practices by Adobe. Fighting fire with fire in this instance seems particularly reasonable.

That aside, engaging this tactic on transactions with merchants with reasonable cancellation terms would be borderline fraud. If you use the services and they satisfied your needs, you really should be paying for them.

How about not giving money or mindshare to a company you think is scummy?

True. But any refill that doesn't state the fact upfront is also fraud. If a company is transparent that you will be automatically charged every year, and has an easy way to cancel before the date, well then that's on me. I've paid those obligations even if I'm not using the product. But if the rebill terms are hidden during the marketing process, and buried away in fine print....good luck collecting from Sammy Davis, Sr, Dirtbag Co.

Another option is to ask your state's attorney general's office to send them a letter. Companies do not like letters from the government.

Fraudulently avoiding being defrauded? Poetic.

Does it really come as a shock that you don't have a blanket right to lie about your identity to protect yourself from possible exploitation?

Capitalism and the machine usually wins.