Adobe Creative Cloud Renewal

PhoenixFlames

Adobe Creative Cloud do not have a means to toggle off auto-renewal. You have to cancel which we missed by one day. We cannot find ANY email at all advising us that it was due to renew. If we cancel now we have to pay 50% of the remaining year term AND we lose access to the service. Basically £140 to get nothing at all.

Yes, we do now have a huge alert set for next time to cancel in the last month of the subscription. However I do feel we were misled - because the page that explains plan cancellation shows this

And then below there is this text:

No mention of a potential fee in this section titled "cancellation fee". You in fact have to click a link that says it is about a "refund" to then find these terms. As we were paying monthly, I would not have been looking for a refund, just to cease. They seem to be using "refund" to refer to whether or not your obligation continues. I'd argue most people consider refund to be a return of funds, and not removal of the requirement to keep paying it.

There is currently an investigation by the CMA into Adobe for precisely this kind of thing but its not going to help now.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cma-investigates-adobe-over-concerns-about-cancellation-fees

In the meantime, any advice or thoughts would be welcome on an effective argument I could use with their support chat (I've read some people have had success getting this fee waived). They've just been fined $75m by the DOJ as well, I don't know if this makes them more likely to agree to the request, or dig their heels in!

Worst case, we suck it up, but anything we can do to lessen the sting would be nice.

MattMattMattUK

Unfortunately, your last sentence, suck it up.

user1977

The cancellation part you quoted refers to your initial purchase, not renewals.

Undervalued

I agree with the above posts. Also, I assume with a full Adobe CC subscription (£280 per year) you are using the software at least partially for business purposes? If so then consumer rights wouldn't apply as a B2B transaction is basically a contract between two businesses on pretty much whatever terms were agreed.

Lots of people don't like the ever growing move to subscription based software, which is fair enough if they can find software adequate for their needs available for outright purchase. If going down that route you do need to clearly understand how long "free" updates will be available and when you are likely to be forced to upgrade to run on the latest operating system.

If you are a business then your current subscription is a tax deductible 66p a day and many of the extensive moans you see online seem to fail to keep a sense of proportion.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6661008/adobe-creative-cloud-renewal

Initial purchase is when you first bought it, at that stage you had a cooling off period to ensure the software met your expectations etc. You didnt make an initial purchase the other day, instead you renewed your contract, you dont get a cooling off period on renewals because you already know what the software is like so could decide beforehand if its right for you or not and therefore not renew if its isnt good for you.

Did you actually speak (phone or chat) to them? I missed the cancellation and noticed on the day of its renewal. Mine was only a monthly contract so no way near as bad but when I spoke to them on the same morning as the renewal they without a fight agreed to cancel it with immediate effect and refund all the monies (£15)

PhoenixFlames

No, it is not a business purchase. It was a student account they rolled into a full blown standard one on renewal and doubled in price (still a student). We were happy with the product at the previous price. We would not have purchased it at the current rate. The £140 50% fee reflects that we are now several months into the back and forth over this.

I guess it would feel less egregious if when you cancelled and had to pay the 50% you could continue to use it for 50% of the remaining time.

And yes, we did speak to them and were met with standard "nothing to be done" responses. I know for some services that an upgrade triggers another cooling off period, and was hopeful this would be similar.

MattMattMattUK

It depends how you cancel. You can cancel and it will continue to function until the end of your paid period, I have done that a few times moving around between offers in the past.

PhoenixFlames

They've told us that cancelling now will trigger loss of the product at the next billing date (aka first of each month) and the penalty will be applied with no further use of the product available. This is also the text we get when going through the process. It does offer to lower the cost to retain you, but this triggers another full year which easily negates any savings. And well, I'm extremely keen to just move far far away from them.

Now they've thrown on 3 free months as well and extended it and won't confirm if:

a) the cancellation has to be made in the last paid month - and we then lose the free ones (aka they are not really free, they are conditional on continued subscription)

b) cancellation can be made in the last month of the entire term (aka during a "free" one) and if this prevents yet another renewal taking place

They instead keep referring to information on the main site - these are marked as US terms and conditions only reflecting changes made after the DoJ settlement.

For the sake of certainty, (if we don't get any further) we will simply cancel in the last paid month.

I have other SaaS subscriptions and the like and have for years. None of them behave like this at all. Easy to renew, has a toggle to prevent it happening automatically etc. Valuable lesson learned here for sure.

PhoenixFlames

Update in case useful for others:

Moving to a different plan triggered a new agreement with the 14 day cancellation option again available - or you can of course remain happy with it. It also allowed for the edu pricing to be applied again.

Check carefully however when doing this to make sure it states a refund will take place (with an amount reflecting the remainder of the month), as some people have been charged the 50% of the old one and then locked into the new. There are no clear guidelines as to what will and won’t count for the purposes of this so you need to try a few.

The explanatory links as you go through the process point to pages that state they are for the US only. Support were not able to give information that related to the UK or Europe. If you are insistent on this specific matter (rather than asking for help) they will however action it for you if asked and confirm no 50% will be levied.

We now have a page confirming that we hold NO paid subscriptions at all (printed out just in case). Great relief.

Now purchased a useful, complete piece of software where the only yearly charge is if you choose to purchase the new upgrades made available, but is not obligatory. It will continue to work without them.

Jumblebumble

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81942794#Comment_81942794

Glad ypou ignored the advice to suck it up

I always ignore such advise because I take the view that the "advisor" does not know what the company involved will actually do and I have been proved correct many many times