[jamestimmins]

This seems like a common misunderstanding. Lots of SaaS have cheaper annual pricing. IIUC Adobe lets you get the cheaper annual pricing and then pay for it on a monthly basis. If you cancel early, you have to pay out the rest of your annual plan. This is no different than if you'd paid for it up front, and prevents people from signing up for the annual plan to get a cheaper monthly price and then canceling early.

[chrisandchris]

My last interaction with Adobe is a few years back, what I recall is:

I got tricked into the "pay monthly for annual subscription" (it was probably written there, just hidden very good). I then cancelled my subscription and instead of telling me "it runs anyway another 10 months", they let me cancel early, charging me a cancellation fee (which I only realized after it was too late) which was _higher_ than the remaining months.

Now I will never ever buy something from Adobe again.

[jamestimmins]

Cancellation fee higher than remaining months is extremely shady.

Very possible that the current pricing/wording is the result of being sued by the DOJ.

[j45]

There's seem to be a lot of reports for Adobe continuing to charge a credit card 12-18 months after confirmed cancellation and no recourse or anyone to access for help because the account is closed.

Sucks to say because I do like their software.

[beowulfey]

It is a misunderstanding because Adobe deliberately obfuscates that fact when you purchase such a plan

[Spooky23]

It’s the dumbest argument ever. Find a perpetual software license or 12 month subscription that allows for cancellation for convenience.

I get why some folks are angry, it was easier to pirate Adobe back in the day. If people don’t want to pay, there’s all sorts of competition in different segments of the market as well as open source.

[hansvm]

The problem is that the 12 month contract is (a) pulled out of their ass and not reflective of the real costs for either party, and (b) until very recently not even disclosed (even in recent months, there are plenty of reports of cancellation fees from people with screenshots of having correctly chosen the monthly version). The very highest cancellation fee that makes sense is the delta between the monthly rate and what the annual rate projected on to the number of months of payment would be. If an annual subscription is cheaper because of risk or the time value of money, even that delta is a vast overestimate of Adobe's damages, and the fact that they're asking for 10x-20x is a blatant abuse of power.

> Find a perpetual software license or 12 month subscription that allows for cancellation for convenience.

All of them with Canadian customers, for example. It's a product with incremental costs and incremental value, so cancelling it (neither paying incremental costs nor forcing the service provider to do the same) makes perfect sense.

> It was easier to pirate back in the day

That's not the problem at all. Gimp is way better than the piratable photoshop ever was. It's not useful to ad hominem people who don't want to be abused.

[vladvasiliu]

I don't know about Canada, but here in France many things come as a long-term contract with monthly payments and cancelation fees. Most common which come to mind are mobile phone plans and ISP subscriptions.

Many companies still have 12 or 24 months plans, and you're on the hook for some form of penalty if you cancel before the term. And no, I'm not talking about buying a plan-subsidized phone, even "naked" plans have this.

Since some years ago, companies have started offering monthly-only plans, so you can cancel anytime. But, for some reason, there still are cancelation fees, which are fixed. What's funny, is that they also usually offer rebates if you switch providers, which usually cover those fees.

I'm not saying this is a good thing, but, at least where I live, the Adobe scheme is fairly common.

[beowulfey]

No way. I have no problem paying. I don't even mind the price. When I signed up last time I chose the monthly option because thats what I was used to for nearly every subscription. I didn't do the math to notice it matched the price of the annual subscription and not once was the cancellation fee mentioned. I was totally caught off guard by the fee and was lucky it was close to the end of the contract.

It's the same shit internet providers used to do in the US that thankfully they can no longer do. I cannot understand anyone defending Adobe on this if they actually used that plan the way they explained it. Maybe it's better now, but it absolutely was shady as hell a few years ago.

[jamestimmins]

If you look at their plans (https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/plans.html), and select "Annual, billed monthly", it pretty clearly says "Fee applies if you cancel after 14 days."

[jchw]

This might have something to do with that:

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/06/...

[kranke155]

It’s completely counter intuitive because most other monthly subscription software does not work like that.

Also considering you need to pay for Adobe software to work in certain industries, it is absolute evil.

[gnarlynarwhal42]

It isn't a monthly subscription. Its an annual subscription broken up into 12 payments.

I understand that there was a lawsuit and all that, I read through part of the Adobe thread from the other day. I am not defending Adobe in that regard.

If you only want the software for 2-3 months, the month-to-month agreement is available, but if you have a longer-term need for the software you get a discount for committing to a year's worth. If you take the discount, pay the cheaper monthly cost and then cancel before the end of the commitment, a penalty seems fair.

Again I am not defending whatever obfuscation of terms that led to the oft-mentioned lawsuit, just that there seems to be some confusion about monthly and annual commitments.

[kranke155]

I had no idea a monthly subscription was even available. You have to ask the website in my region for “more details and more plans” to even see the monthly subscription.

Also because they offer “a discount” on the first year here, it’s 38€ month/yearly plan or 104€ a month/monthly.

I don’t know. If you’re going to allow Adobe to buy its competitors and monopolise entire regions of our economy, this seems a bit shit.

[wolpoli]

Yes, it is really up to Adobe's marketing team to make sure that customers are not misunderstanding the plan. If the misunderstanding continues, then the government might end up stepping in.

[drivingmenuts]

Ahahahahahah! Not this government, that's for sure.