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Tried to Cancel Adobe. Got Ghosted. Now I Owe $500

25 points by lovegrenoble ↗ HN
Adobe raised my subscription mid contract by almost $30/month, then told me it’d cost $500 to cancel. So naturally, I entered the customer support hunger games. I open the chat, pour my soul out and mid sentence they just vanish. Every. Single. Time. No goodbye. No “we value your feedback.” Just a soft digital fart and an empty chat box. I’m not even mad anymore, I’m impressed. I’ve never been held hostage by an app before.

So yeah, I bought Affinity and DaVinci like a recently divorced dad getting into cycling. I’m free now. I export TIFFs recreationally. I sleep with one eye open in case Creative Cloud tries to update in my dreams.

Adobe doesn’t sell software, they sell trauma.

https://old.reddit.com/r/graphic_design/comments/1jvv14h/tried_to_cancel_adobe_got_ghosted_now_i_owe_500/

7 comments

[ 12.7 ms ] story [ 992 ms ] thread
lovegrenoble
Can confirm, Affinity is the best alternative. Fair pricing + innovations.

And Autograph by Left Angle as a free alternative to after effects: https://left-angle.com

sloaken
This why I HATE subscriptions.

Ran into a similar problem in the UK with a cell phone. I called to say I was moving to the US and did not need the phone service anymore. Phones were fully paid for. They would then send me to a 'Handler' who would have me on hold for 30 minutes. Then try and talk me out of dropping the service. WTF I am leaving. Then mid discussion the line would drop. After the THIRD time I decided the easiest method was to CLOSE the bank account the phones were tied to.

LorenPechtel
This is what's driving the click-to-cancel movement. Many companies have engaged in such scummy practices and the result is an overreaction as usual.
nextos
If they are trying to charge you unfairly (I don't know the details) the right way to address this is to fill in a credit card chargeback claim (if you paid with a card, obviously).

Chargebacks are great to punish rogue companies. If your claim is fair, you will eventually get your money back.

Furthermore, after a sufficient number of chargebacks, their credit card fees will be raised. For this reason, rogue merchants usually become a lot more helpful when you mention the c-word.

dpig_
In the cancellation process, take the offer to switch to an alternative Adobe product, then you will be able to cancel that cleanly within a roughly 30-day window as it is considered a new transaction.