It hasn't been a good couple of weeks for software giant Adobe. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is suing the company for violations of U.S. consumer protection laws, what it deems "hidden termination fees" and an overly complicated process to cancel your Adobe services. The complaint centers around Adobe's Creative Cloud offering, which bundles various software products.
Earlier this month, Adobe was getting hit hard by vocal customers who claimed the updated Software Terms of Service from Adobe gives the company the right to view any work that goes on Adobe Servers. That led to many creatives quitting Adobe altogether, and advising others to do the same.
At the same time, disgruntled Adobe employees leaked their criticisms of Adobe communications strategies with its customers.
Adobe plans to start charging users for using its AI features, with an allotment of credits per month. That's not going down well with many users as well.
In the current lawsuit, the government alleges that Adobe "hides" the terms of its annual, paid monthly plan in the "fine print and behind optional text boxes and hyperlinks." As a result, the company fails to properly disclose the early termination fee incurred upon cancellation "that can amount to hundreds of dollars," the complaint says.
People who call to cancel allegedly get the runaround, have to talk to people who aren't native English speakers, or have their calls cut off. Others thought they had cancelled and are still being billed.
The FTC says that these practices break federal laws designed to protect consumers. The lawsuit is the result of an investigation the FTC started last year, centering on Adobe cancellation practices.
The FTC says that these practices break federal laws designed to protect consumers. The lawsuit is the result of an investigation the FTC started last year, centering on Adobe cancellation practices. Adobe says it will fight the lawsuit.
We are transparent with the terms and conditions of our subscription agreements and have a simple cancellation process, said Dana Rao, general counsel and chief trust officer.
Adobe's subscription model has also been controversial. It began charging monthly fees for its products back in 2012.
You can read the FTC complaint here.
Finally...
This is what you get when CEOs are divorced from their workers, customers and products and care only about profit maximization to the exclusion of everything else.
Good, they have had record revenue for a long time and I see them as a crack dealer. The Industry has established them as the "standard" tools then they go to the subscription pricing model and have added features with glacier-like speed.
For Adobe to get the attention of the FTC tells me they are not contributing enough money to the right politicians. Always follow the money if you want the truth.
It was not enough to pay every month to use something you will never own.. You have to pay even if you do not want it anymore, for a full year !
It must be a tale of two Adobes because it took a few clicks to end my subscription. However, this reminds me of cable TV. I went through this two decades ago with the cable TV provider and due to their heinous reprehensible behavior I haven't had cable TV since maybe 2002. Never looked back. So there is a consequence for this behavior, IMO. Kudos to Netflix for making it easy. Making it easy to end a subscription means a happy former customer who will easily become a happy future customer (as I have dropped and renewed my script with them multiple times), unlike cable, satellite radio and gym memberships from companies that made it a huge PITA to leave. The bigger the pain to leave, the less inclination to ever return.
In the case of Adobe, for my part, it is the cost of subscribing anew that is the impediment now.
This is nothing compared to the "we spy on you" unless you opt out nonsense that Adobe tried to pull with its AI. A number of clarifications didn't really help this PR disaster. And despite claiming it fixed the problem, a careful reading of the Ts and Cs won't make you feel much better. And forget the difficulty cancelling your subscription. Just try to remove it from your computer. To do it effectively you need Adobe's own removal tool and in the case you are with Apple, the diligence to go into the library and manually delete some folders.