Adobe faces big fines from FTC over difficult subscription cancellation::Adobe could face hefty fines related to its overly difficult and costly subscription cancellation practices due to an ongoing Federal Trade Commission Probe.
We used to use frame.io which is now owned by Adobe. We had been with frame.io since the beginning so we were on one of their older business plans which they no longer offer to new customers, but throughout the years as we have been expanding we have purchased extra seats and storage when needed.
Earlier this year they came to us and said they are getting rid of the business plan completely for all existing customers. So either we upgrade to their enterprise plan which will cost us about $12k per year more, a 300% price increase. And of the enterprise features we would gain from upgrading, we won’t even use in our current workflow. Or downgrade to their teams account which maxes out to 15 users only. We needed 22 for our current team so we physically couldn’t downgrade to that plan.
Basically for the size of our business. We were too big for the teams account and not big enough to justify an enterprise account. There was no longer a plan to cater for business of our size.
And we had about a month to make a decision. As our yearly plan was coming up for renewal.
And the way the Adobe sales team approached this was terrible too. They kept emailing everyone on my team wanting to meet up and help ‘optimise’ frame.io into our workflow better. The way it was worded everyone thought it was a scam email at 1st. I eventually replied to see what they wanted as I’m the account manager and normally deal with frame.io for account renewals and what not, and straight away their call turned into a sales call telling us we needed to upgrade to enterprise.
We went looking for an alternative as we knew we couldn’t use frame.io any more. And luckily came across krock.io which is a very similar video review platform which actually has some really nice features frame.io didn’t have. And priced at a reasonable price with unlimited users. So if anyone wants to get away from adobe/frame.io. I encourage you to try out krock.io and see if that fits your video review needs. They have a free trial to try it out. Hopefully more people can get away from adobe/frame.
I long for the day when people who think about doing this kind of shit worry about jail time, not just slap on the wrist fines.
At a minimum they should have their business license suspended for a period of time.
Let’s see how many customers a business gets when there’s the risk that said business gets shut down for a month.
With the requirement that all staff below management still get paid regular salary.
They’ll keep doing it until we start taking the problem of monopolies seriously
This why we have regulations and why we NEED it
This is exactly why you have corporate politicians screaming about “government oversight” and they’re adamant about taking away all the corporate teeth from the FEC, FTC, CFPB
So their donors can get away with shit like this
Suck it Adobe. Never buying a product from them again.
Steal their products or use open source alternatives, fuck adobe
Piracy is not stealing.
It would be pretty cool if it was though.
I always try to buy subscriptions with PayPal for this reason. Because buried in their UI you can go turn off the automatic payments to that payee. They usually cancel the subscription themselves if you stop paying them.
Privacy.com is what I use. It lets you generate virtual cards to use so you don’t need to hand over your actual debit card. You can also set a maximum per day/month/transaction.
Capital One does this with a browser extension. It’s great. I can use a temp card for a one month sub, and then just delete the card.
I was an Adobe customer years ago, but due to things like the above, they inadvertently pushed me to Open Source alternatives and I have not looked back. So I guess, Thank You Adobe is in order. Hope the fine is actually big as they really played dirty.
Same here.
I remember suggesting alternatives like GIMP to photography pros years ago simply because I could see where Adobe was heading when they changed to the subscription model.
Don’t get me wrong, they were innovative a long time ago however now they are structured purely on greed and add nothing deserved my of their services nowadays.
Agreed. Plus if you know Photoshop, you know GIMP as they are very similar and GIMP can even open Photoshop files. I use GIMP and Blender 3D daily.
GIMP and Blender are good, but what’s a good alternative for video like Adobes Premiere Pro?
Last I looked (Admittedly years ago) the open source offerings for video editing/production were quite behind
That is an easy one. The free and superior DaVinci Resolve. Not open source however but it is very very good. Many have switched to it. https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve
Not surprised. I have been using Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher for 5 years and don’t miss Adobe at all. People should check them out if they haven’t found their own good alternatives already.
Paid for by people who can’t cancel.
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I cancelled my credit card which incidentally was used for a photoshop and lightroom subscription I had used for an intro period. They sent me threatening emails for about 4 months before they gave up.
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It was a real card. I cancelled it because of fraud. The service worked until the end of the period.
How do you get one of those?
A lot of the newer online-only banks offer virtual cards. Revolut, N26 etc.
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I have used privacy.com for this in the past. Don’t know if there are better options.
Sadly the fine won’t be greater than the benefits this practice brings to Adobe so they’ll keep doing it.
What if people used burner cards in order to avoid the difficulties canceling?
What kills me, and it doesn’t happen often but I’ve seen it, is when they can detect the burner card as a ‘prepaid’ (Privacy particularly) and are like “Sorry we don’t allow prepaid cards. Credit or debit only!”
If they don’t accept PayPal that’s a red flag for me.
How do you get burned cards? I want that for Sirius
Privacy.com or your credit card provider
Alternate headline: Adobe faces cost of business fee to dupe users out of money
It’s getting easier and easier to use free alternatives to Adobe products.
Fractions of pennies compared to what they’re taking in. This isn’t a fine, it’s racketeering.
For this reason I have never and will never buy an Adobe product. I’m an anti Adobe activist in all decision making conversations around their product suite and services.
I’ll never change my mind.
