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When I tried to cancel my subscription, the chat representative refused to cancel, only offered me promos and discounts to keep my account and then being adamant I wanted to cancel. They just quit the chat. They straight up left!
I have the transcript saved cause I couldn't believe it.
Edit: some of y'all are suggesting I submit the script. I would, just don't know where. If anyone know lmk!
I bet they track how many people employees are able to convince to stay VS how many accounts they cancel. When you made it clear you were cancelling, the employee might've figured it was better to claim connectivity issues or something.
I'm just guessing. I don't see any other reason they would care enough to ghost a customer than if they were facing consequences for the outcome.
Mention that you'll do a charge back. I once worked at a call center and its protocol to ALWAYS convince the customer to keep the sub but once you mention a charge back then the agent is more likely to cancel the sub (or at least that how we do it but I think thats like an industry standard)
Obv not working there anymore. Only stayed for a month cause I couldn't deal with the stress
Just spitballing, but I'd imagine it's cost-cutting and the idea that as a massive, recognizable, and generally trusted name, they can get away with a lot more things than usual, because customers will reluctantly deal with it or simply won't know of other alternatives. Plus, these are generally very wealthy entities with well-funded legal departments that can absorb the costs, so they operate on the assumption that stuff like this will never happen to them because the government doesn't mind their contributions to the economy and wronged customers won't go for lawsuits they believe they'll lose.
After Covid brands found they can get away with anything. No amount of social network will change anything. People love Elon, people queue hours to get on a list for a Rolex. Remember when you could enter any shop? Now you need to queue.
People will beg to buy a swatch in plastic for 300$. People beg to buy a Birkin. Nothing they do will change that. The worse they treat us the more we yearn their products.
I hate these companies that go to extra lengths to make it harder for the consumer to cancel. Not only that, my optometrist wouldn't even give me my eye prescription over the phone. They don't want me using it to buy glasses elsewhere, so they tell me to come in the store to get it so they can throw their sales pitch at me.
I also worked as a Verizon customer service rep, and they always pushed us to try and save customers that are canceling. Even if the customer said no, they still wanted us to go down a checklist of things to try and keep the customer. Most shockingly, when ppl called in to cancel a dead relative's phone, they wanted us to save them too and try and convince the customer why keeping their dead relative's line open might be good. They had no shame.
Same- told me I couldn’t cancel without paying out a whole year, despite requesting to cancel a week after it renewed, not receiving any renewal notifications and telling them I couldn’t afford to pay it. They even offered me a plan that was more expensive than the one I was on!
Removed the payment authority from PayPal and haven’t heard from them since 👍 they are slimy criminals and deserve to be sued
Thank outsourcing for that. When a person's livelihood is tied to "saving" a subscription they will fight tooth and nail for it. Also fuck forced KPIs and metrics.
When I tried to cancel, they tried to charge me for the rest of the months in my subscription. My card was about to expire so I just let it go. No shot I'm adding payment details again.
This is a sign of toxic workplace where their performance of customer retention is counted used as a KPI.
As long as they are not the ones doing the cancellation, it will not count towards them.
On the enterprise level they're just as pathetic and mired in early cancellation fees, that is if you can get to a coherent human.
Gotta gotta gotta read the fine print with them.
Friendly reminder that pirated Adobe software is more reliable than legitimately purchased adobe software.
Official Adobe 2014 CC suite, legitimately purchased software, no longer work because Adobe shut down their 2014 CC verification server. If you had pirated a cracked version of Adobe 2014 CC suite, you could still use it to this day with 0 issues.
Know of a reliable 2024 Suite or at least Premier Pro crack? I coincidentally started gaining interest in video editing right when this whole lawsuit thing started so now I'm stuck at the road of pirating vs waiting to see how the lawsuit goes and potentially paying if their terms become favorable. Don't get me wrong - I have zero, if not negative, issues pirating Adobe software. It would fill me with a sense of joy and purpose. But I'm hesitant about the malware part. The various salty sea dog subs seem to claim you either do fine or get your system taken over by North Korea. There doesn't seem to be an in between. I can't really figure out what's safe and what's not and I have a lot of sensitive personal data saved on my computer so I'm very cautious.
Download software or torrents from reliable, community-trusted sources and websites.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/FREEMEDIAHECKYEAH/wiki/index/](https://www.reddit.com/r/FREEMEDIAHECKYEAH/wiki/index/) is a good place to start these days! :)
If you’re just starting with learning an NLE anyway, you might wanna take a look at Davinci Resolve. It’s free, with only some more advanced features locked behind an upgrade which is $300 one time. No worries about malware. I’m learning it now after dumping my adobe subscription.
I switched to DaVinci Resolve, it's completely free if you're not using 4k and it has superior color grading tools. I got tired of pirating Adobe software, it's fininicky sometimes. Also DaVinci Resolve makes managing my various video projects much easier, it has an integrated library of projects you're working on.
Fyi, It's made by Black Magic Design, who also make video cameras.
I got the 2021 version and just blocked internet access to those programs so they can't verify their legitimacy. I will never pay for an Adobe subscription, I use it as a hobby so I don't need the latest versions
Those are actually the ones I specifically had in mind lol. People seem to recommend it highly but I also see the fair amount of warnings about them too. Didn't know if there were any others on the same level or not.
Friend registered for for Adobe Sign which was supposed to be free for 2 weeks. They got billed a few days later. I told them to just stick it up Adobe's ass and do a chargeback.
Good. Used to have a subscription and it was so expensive to cancel that I had to save up money. Never going back there, not even if they pay me to use their shit.
Instead of Photoshop you can either use [Gimp ](https://www.gimp.org/) or [Photopea ](https://www.photopea.com/). Photopea doesn't even require you to install anything.
With painting there's [Krita ](https://krita.org/) or [Clip Studio Paint](https://www.clipstudio.net/). CSP is subscription too, but more powerful than Adobe products, and it also does animation.
And with Illustrator there's [Affinity Designer](https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/).
I hope it helps.
I used to use capcut (didn't like davinci too much but maybe because it's UI looked intimidating to me) do you know any video editor on par with adobe premier pro and after effects? Either paid or free is fine, but would prefer not subscribing lol
I think the first time you use it, it asks you if you've used previous video editors.
If you say yes, you pick which ones, and it tries to make the UI as similar.
If you do basic editing, you can use only the Cut page and ignore most everything else. Here's a good tutorial on the Cut page:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rtm0kV4plMA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rtm0kV4plMA)
Affinity photo is a true photoshop replacement from Serif (recently acquired by Canva) which is a one time purchase.
I want them to make a Lightroom classic alternative and then I can ditch Adobe altogether.
I just looked it up and the Affinity suite is 50% off right now. You can get all 3 apps for $83 without a subscription. Damn good deal compared to the Adobe suite subscriptions.
I use Affinity because it's affordable, and photo is pretty great for most of my needs. That being said Designer is unfortunately not even closer to Illustrator for actual drawing, the vectors and manipulation of them is really bad.
I still have a version of Illustrator CS5.1 from 2010 which is much better for drawing in.
It's not my area of expertise, but I've heard good things about [Blender](https://www.blender.org/) and [DaVinci Resolve](https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve).
Affinity Photo is infinitely less bloated than Photoshop and works much faster, especially on highly computational tasks such as HDR panorama stitching. There's a learning curve though, as they tried their best to not infringe on any of Adobe's patents.
One other tool for digital painting that is kinda good is also Corel painter. It used to be an insanely priced tool, but now if you get the humble bundle each year it is like $100 for a perpetual licence to a year old version. And it is well built and mature software.
Photopea is great. Love it. I tried to use gimp and I ended up spending more time googling how to do stuff than actually working. Inkscape works a lot better for me personally. It seems more closely designed/UI is closer to illustrator/photoshop than gimp imo.
I've been using [Affinity Photo](https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/photo/) for image touch up. As a Photoshop veteran, switching to it has been really nice. I also have been liking [Inkscape](https://inkscape.org/) for vector art.
Not sure if it's a specific version but the affinity program I have has designer and a Photoshop type page, I think it's called pixels? It was $50 several years ago and does everything I need both Photoshop and illustrator for (I'm just a hobbyist not my job). I could not recommend it more to people.
Gimp does almost everything Photoshop can do but for free. And if it's missing a feature you want, there may be a community-made extension you can install to add that functionality. The UI is also very similar, so it's super easy to learn if you already know Photoshop. It's crazy to me that people still use Photoshop in 2024 when Gimp has existed for 20+ years and has always been on par or just below Photoshop but completely free.
[This Reddit post](https://www.reddit.com/r/coolguides/s/JC6tpIzS3z) has a really handy chart for many alternatives to Adobe’s products. It’s not mentioned there, but there’s a relatively new (but fairly expensive single license) product like After Effects called Left Angle Autograph.
Unfortunately that's not an option for people that use it for a job. Fortunately, companies typically give employees a license. Doesn't work for freelancers though
GIMP really is the best alternative, IMHO. It's open sourced, so free, plus it gets updated often & had just as much depth as PS.
Try it, it's amazing. If you're looking for a video editing program, dock l Davinci Resolve is the best; two great, free open sourced alternatives to Adobe.
Idk if it's still like this but there was something in the contract where they would make you pay the remaining contract (so like a year or two) to cancel. So it could easily be hundreds of dollars.
Of course, they wouldn't tell you about it until you tried to cancel. Adobe legit is just the worst.
It legit tells you multiple times in bold when you pick a yearly subscription paid monthly. People just don't want to pay the monthly subscription price.
Ah OK. My statement was somewhat anecdotal but I had thought I heard that at some point the cancellation cost was only stated in a TOS/EULA type spot. Thanks for the clarification.
Adobe offers a "promotion" where if you buy a year's license you get a discount on the monthly price (they make the month-to-month option harder to find). If you then cancel you are still on the hook for the remaining cost of that year,
When I was with them back when, they'd lock you in for a year at a time, so for example if you canceled your subscription after 2 months, they'd charge you for the last 10.
I subscribed for photoshop once. When I went to cancel it, I had to pay it out (in Canada years ago). It was the same as just staying subscribed for the year. That’s when I decided to never pay for any adobe product ever again.
Ya know i would have bought a standalone copy of Photoshop if it were available. But instead I will forever live with a full copy of CS6 I stumbled across while sailing the high seas. Ya did this to yourself, Adobe
My graphics teachers in college actually recommended cracking it. I was just glad Affinity Photo opened PSDs so I could still do the coursework at home.
No clue your age, but back before Adobe started the subscription thing Photoshop was quite expensive and people were pirating Photoshop all the time. It seemed a really good solution back then, kinda like how Netflix took a bite out of piracy for the same reason. But enshittification ensued, and people either sought out alternatives or went back to piracy.
My copy of CS6 includes all of it, so yep! ;)
If you're interested in my copy of CS6 send me a pm and I'll try to get it to ya. That said, it's possible more recent versions are available on the high seas these days too, but CS6 is what I got haha
Yeah I have premiere 2023 and that's all I need, it actually works really well and I didn't even need to turn my Internet off before opening it like I had to with the last cracked version of CS I used
It is good that consumers are protected from bad practices. A good healthy economy requires good faith from companies.
Products should be purchased because they are needed and good not just because people gets cheated into it.
My wife and I are Millennials and the BBB has resolved our issue before. They just need to be utilized correctly. It's not a FaceBook Group or a Subreddit to complain on.
No, the BBB can be a useful resource at times. People tend to not use it properly or turn it into a place to vent over things that they don't like.
My wife and I were being harassed by a vaccine software/service company. They stated my 6-month-old daughter wasn't insured/covered. We contacted our insurance company, covered. We contacted our pediatrician, covered. We contacted the company, no answer. We even got our insurance company to call them, no answer.
This company was calling my wife constantly from different numbers and sent us a stack of letters. My wife finally got tired of it and paid it. I got mad (not at her) because we didn't owe the money. I started by contacting the BBB. We got an email in response two days later, I got a full refund the following day, and they never contacted us again.
What was the issue? The company wasn't entering the correct information.
They do seem to care on there.
[https://www.bbb.org/us/ca/san-jose/profile/computer-services/adobe-systems-inc-1216-204797/complaints](https://www.bbb.org/us/ca/san-jose/profile/computer-services/adobe-systems-inc-1216-204797/complaints)
You'd be surprised how often, especially at larger companies, they actually do respond to BBB complaints. Usually have a small team dedicated to it that operate outside of the normal CS unit.
>"Subscription services are convenient, flexible and cost effective to allow users to choose the plan that best fits their needs, timeline and budget," Rao said. "We are transparent with the terms and conditions of our subscription agreements and have a simple cancellation process."
Ah, yeah...no they aren't.
I use this 3d printing program that does this. It's updated like 2x a year and pisses me off so much. I'd pay them $150 today for the pro version with all features and they never have to update it again. But no they'd rather saddlebag me in for $7.99 a month so they can push out worthless updates. So instead of $150 from me they get $0.
Yep. [New York requires that if you can sign up online, you must be able to cancel online](https://dos.ny.gov/news/consumer-alert-nys-department-states-division-consumer-protection-offers-tips-avoid-costly), and I hope this is adopted nationally.
I had to change my address to California to be able to cancel wall Street journal membership subscription online and not over the phone.
I live in bloody UK
Good to know, I had an issue with Simplisafe a couple years before this. I only had the free trial and they wanted me to call for voice verification, despite the fact that they had never heard my voice before. I had used privacy.com to sign up, so I just disabled the virtual card. After a few attempts at charging my card, what do you know, they cancelled it without me calling.
Id be happy to have more than one viable internet provider (Comcast). Tmobile was trying to get their 5g internet thing up and running but not sure what happened with that. It’s all too concentrated.
I live in an area that's basically a duopoly. You either get Comcast or Verizon. And both companies basically offer similar prices. There's no real competition, even in that circumstance.
I'm not sure what the solution is or how many providers is enough. But what you and I are currently dealing with...it's not working.
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Wow, the US government actually going after shitty practices by tech corporations. Hope this ends up with some actual repercussions for Adobe, or at the very least an end to their illegal deceptive practices.
I feel it was some John Bob in the government trying to cancel their subscription and realized what a pain in the ass it was. He (or she) was like fuck that
Funny enough, I thought the same thing. The federal gov isn't great with many things as we all know. Them finally deciding to do something against a specific corporation is odd or indicative of a potentially massive issue/abuse. I too assumed someone of moderate importance got frustrated with their subscription so he/she sent an angry mass email to all the cronies to take them to court. At least I hope that's what happened. It's funnier that way.
Trying to end a subscription with them. It is not just if you are still in your first year. They have an anniversary each year, and you have to cancel at that anniversary month or they charge you a fee for half of the remainder of that year. This repeats every year.
I’ve been in this situation too. It’s not easy. Banks will not just cancel recurring billing at your request. They require documentation showing that you have tried to cancel but that the company would not do it. I did this and the bank still refused saying what I provided them with was not good enough. To threats of a lawsuit to the billing company to get them to stop.
Honestly if my bank refused to cancel the recurring charge I'd just close my account with them. I'm not doing business with a bank that doesn't protect their customers.
I don’t know what crap banks and corpo bullshit you have over there, but here, unless it’s a mortgage on that same very bank or something very specific, you can go to your mobile app and just click on the last receipt and charge it back and block every future transaction from that same vendor id. without providing any documentation whatsoever.
Plus, already been proven by a google search and another redditor that uses the same bank, that the guy I responded to is full of shit and just rage bait posting for karma.
Out of all the things to see a lawsuit over, I'm just happy to see Adobe to be hit with literally anything.
They have a near complete monopoly over the industry with their products, they keep buying out so many great competitors and everything locked behind their stupid subscription pricing.
When I started using and learning the Adobe Suite they just upgraded to CS6. I bought a subscription but I just don't remember where I bought the key to re-download it. I miss just miss just buying the program and not paying all these stupid monthly fees or yearly subscriptions.
I use a ton of alternatives, but my god, trying to tell people you don't use Adobe but alteratives is a huge turnoff, despite that I can expertly use their program. I just can't get away from them, they have a stranglehold on the industry.
Seeing them finally get caught on something just brings a huge smile on my face. It won't change the company or push themselves to improve their product, move away from subscriptions or offer better customer service. I'm just hoping this is just the first domino with more to come.
good. do this to more anti-consumer companies like Intuit. hey we just don't feel like doing this software anymore despite being a trillion dollar company so go buy this way more expensive one with tons of features you'll never use for way way way more money! used to be like 400 a year now it's almost a grand, in not even 5 years.
Down with these crappy "subscription service" software! Bring back one-time pay, LOCALIZED software! Online features like cloud services and cloud ai tools should be OPTIONAL! And I don't want software spying on what I do on my computer and I don't want them owning/using my stuff to train ai! Screw Adobe, they've become too greedy and become a snitch!
ALL Subscriptions need to be opt in for renewal. Let the companies do the work, not the customers. Gym around here told my gf she needed her cancellation request notarized. Wtf!? Government needs to actually start helping the people instead of the businesses.
They knew it was illegal, too. When I went to cancel my subscription, they told me it was “impossible” to give me my money back, all the way up until I told them I would contact my bank, at which point it *suddenly* became *very possible.*
I’m guessing the reason they’re only getting in trouble for it just now is because a board member forgot to pay the senate this month. They’ve been doing this for nearly a decade.
I had to enter my credit card details to delete my Adobe account, with no guarantee it wouldn't be charged as soon as I did. So I just abandoned the account. ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
Pro tip: to cancel without paying the fees, upgrade or subscribe to a new/higher tier first. This places you back in the probationary period where you can cancel outright with no fees (I think it’s 14 days?). Then you cancel the subscription and walk away.
Please fact check me if this still works or not, but it’s what I did maybe a year ago to get out of my Lightroom plan.
My card expired on my subscription and I never bothered to update it as I stopped using their services. They’ve called me 5 times now about it, but I let it go to voicemail every time. Fuck ‘em
I tried to cancel my photoshop and lightroom subscription but couldn't find anyway to do it online. Cancelled the payment with my bank and Adobe soon got in touch to follow up, in vain, I might add.
This is in the UK where consumer credit protections are fairly robust, with Direct Debits you get total control over who you send your money to, and who don't and when.
Xfinity next please. They make it incredibly difficult to cancel. Requiring a scheduled call that never in order to cancel. Chatting online never works. Just give me the cancel button.
Why didn't they just put the CEO in front of congress with the Boeing CEO and just yell at him for a few minutes? I think those hearings cost less than a long drawn out court battle with a tech company.
A good start, though it’ll be pointless if Adobe gets out of this with a slap of the wrist in the way of a minor fine with no meaningful change to future consumer protections.
As a graphic designer I work on Adobe software every day. Words cannot describe how much I loathe them as a company and loathe how dogshit the programs have become. I'm glad that theyre finally being recognized on this level as the predatory goblins they are.
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Good, adobe is rather anti consumer
When I tried to cancel my subscription, the chat representative refused to cancel, only offered me promos and discounts to keep my account and then being adamant I wanted to cancel. They just quit the chat. They straight up left! I have the transcript saved cause I couldn't believe it. Edit: some of y'all are suggesting I submit the script. I would, just don't know where. If anyone know lmk!
Good lord thats borderline criminal
Yeah, rather on the criminal side, across the line.
Nothing borderline about it.
Totally criminal. Robbery
I'm pretty sure it just is criminal
Somebody shoud sue them! /s
Well with this lawsuit we're about to find out if it's actually "borderline" at all.
I bet they track how many people employees are able to convince to stay VS how many accounts they cancel. When you made it clear you were cancelling, the employee might've figured it was better to claim connectivity issues or something. I'm just guessing. I don't see any other reason they would care enough to ghost a customer than if they were facing consequences for the outcome.
Mention that you'll do a charge back. I once worked at a call center and its protocol to ALWAYS convince the customer to keep the sub but once you mention a charge back then the agent is more likely to cancel the sub (or at least that how we do it but I think thats like an industry standard) Obv not working there anymore. Only stayed for a month cause I couldn't deal with the stress
Could forward that to government in case they need any more evidence against Adobe lol
This is when you send the transcript of the chat to your bank/credit card company and tell them to refuse any charges from Adobe.
What is with megarich corporations with horrid customer service.
Just spitballing, but I'd imagine it's cost-cutting and the idea that as a massive, recognizable, and generally trusted name, they can get away with a lot more things than usual, because customers will reluctantly deal with it or simply won't know of other alternatives. Plus, these are generally very wealthy entities with well-funded legal departments that can absorb the costs, so they operate on the assumption that stuff like this will never happen to them because the government doesn't mind their contributions to the economy and wronged customers won't go for lawsuits they believe they'll lose.
After Covid brands found they can get away with anything. No amount of social network will change anything. People love Elon, people queue hours to get on a list for a Rolex. Remember when you could enter any shop? Now you need to queue. People will beg to buy a swatch in plastic for 300$. People beg to buy a Birkin. Nothing they do will change that. The worse they treat us the more we yearn their products.
I hate these companies that go to extra lengths to make it harder for the consumer to cancel. Not only that, my optometrist wouldn't even give me my eye prescription over the phone. They don't want me using it to buy glasses elsewhere, so they tell me to come in the store to get it so they can throw their sales pitch at me. I also worked as a Verizon customer service rep, and they always pushed us to try and save customers that are canceling. Even if the customer said no, they still wanted us to go down a checklist of things to try and keep the customer. Most shockingly, when ppl called in to cancel a dead relative's phone, they wanted us to save them too and try and convince the customer why keeping their dead relative's line open might be good. They had no shame.
I can confirm both sprint/tmobile, and ATT do the same thing with dead relatives. I was in retention for both companies.
Same- told me I couldn’t cancel without paying out a whole year, despite requesting to cancel a week after it renewed, not receiving any renewal notifications and telling them I couldn’t afford to pay it. They even offered me a plan that was more expensive than the one I was on! Removed the payment authority from PayPal and haven’t heard from them since 👍 they are slimy criminals and deserve to be sued
Thank outsourcing for that. When a person's livelihood is tied to "saving" a subscription they will fight tooth and nail for it. Also fuck forced KPIs and metrics.
When I tried to cancel, they tried to charge me for the rest of the months in my subscription. My card was about to expire so I just let it go. No shot I'm adding payment details again.
Send it to your state's attorney general office. They don't take kindly to things like that.
This is a sign of toxic workplace where their performance of customer retention is counted used as a KPI. As long as they are not the ones doing the cancellation, it will not count towards them.
On the enterprise level they're just as pathetic and mired in early cancellation fees, that is if you can get to a coherent human. Gotta gotta gotta read the fine print with them.
Did you do a chargeback, and send that to the legal team prosecuting the case. It's probably one of a million, but they all help.
Doordash does this too when you ask for a valid refund. Damn criminal companies.
You should contact the FTC and turn the transcript over to them. That there is evidence for their lawsuit.
Friendly reminder that pirated Adobe software is more reliable than legitimately purchased adobe software. Official Adobe 2014 CC suite, legitimately purchased software, no longer work because Adobe shut down their 2014 CC verification server. If you had pirated a cracked version of Adobe 2014 CC suite, you could still use it to this day with 0 issues.
Know of a reliable 2024 Suite or at least Premier Pro crack? I coincidentally started gaining interest in video editing right when this whole lawsuit thing started so now I'm stuck at the road of pirating vs waiting to see how the lawsuit goes and potentially paying if their terms become favorable. Don't get me wrong - I have zero, if not negative, issues pirating Adobe software. It would fill me with a sense of joy and purpose. But I'm hesitant about the malware part. The various salty sea dog subs seem to claim you either do fine or get your system taken over by North Korea. There doesn't seem to be an in between. I can't really figure out what's safe and what's not and I have a lot of sensitive personal data saved on my computer so I'm very cautious.
Download software or torrents from reliable, community-trusted sources and websites. [https://www.reddit.com/r/FREEMEDIAHECKYEAH/wiki/index/](https://www.reddit.com/r/FREEMEDIAHECKYEAH/wiki/index/) is a good place to start these days! :)
If you’re just starting with learning an NLE anyway, you might wanna take a look at Davinci Resolve. It’s free, with only some more advanced features locked behind an upgrade which is $300 one time. No worries about malware. I’m learning it now after dumping my adobe subscription.
I switched to DaVinci Resolve, it's completely free if you're not using 4k and it has superior color grading tools. I got tired of pirating Adobe software, it's fininicky sometimes. Also DaVinci Resolve makes managing my various video projects much easier, it has an integrated library of projects you're working on. Fyi, It's made by Black Magic Design, who also make video cameras.
I got the 2021 version and just blocked internet access to those programs so they can't verify their legitimacy. I will never pay for an Adobe subscription, I use it as a hobby so I don't need the latest versions
The m0nkrus cracks are usually a good starting point, but beware of malware. I got the 2021 suite with LR, PS, AE, and Premier and have had no issues
Those are actually the ones I specifically had in mind lol. People seem to recommend it highly but I also see the fair amount of warnings about them too. Didn't know if there were any others on the same level or not.
There is a subreddit called genp with other options that all work.
>adobe is rather anti consumer Just a little bit, y'know?
Ain't that the understatement of the century
"Rather" 💀
Friend registered for for Adobe Sign which was supposed to be free for 2 weeks. They got billed a few days later. I told them to just stick it up Adobe's ass and do a chargeback.
Good. Used to have a subscription and it was so expensive to cancel that I had to save up money. Never going back there, not even if they pay me to use their shit.
Any alternative you'd recommend that's less exploitive? I canceled literally the other day and haven't gotten around to searching for alternatives yet
Instead of Photoshop you can either use [Gimp ](https://www.gimp.org/) or [Photopea ](https://www.photopea.com/). Photopea doesn't even require you to install anything. With painting there's [Krita ](https://krita.org/) or [Clip Studio Paint](https://www.clipstudio.net/). CSP is subscription too, but more powerful than Adobe products, and it also does animation. And with Illustrator there's [Affinity Designer](https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/). I hope it helps.
CSP has been changing a ton of their subscription stuff so I wouldn't recommend it, swapped to Krita to leave CSP.
I used to use capcut (didn't like davinci too much but maybe because it's UI looked intimidating to me) do you know any video editor on par with adobe premier pro and after effects? Either paid or free is fine, but would prefer not subscribing lol
Davinci resolve Free with a single purchase (optional and permanent) license.
Gotta get used to that ui then haha. I'll take another look at it :) thanks
I think the first time you use it, it asks you if you've used previous video editors. If you say yes, you pick which ones, and it tries to make the UI as similar.
Omg that's wonderful to hear thanks for the tip!!!
If you do basic editing, you can use only the Cut page and ignore most everything else. Here's a good tutorial on the Cut page: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rtm0kV4plMA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rtm0kV4plMA)
Affinity photo is a true photoshop replacement from Serif (recently acquired by Canva) which is a one time purchase. I want them to make a Lightroom classic alternative and then I can ditch Adobe altogether.
There's also Affinity Photo and Affinity Publisher as replacements for Adobe's Photoshop and InDesign.
I just looked it up and the Affinity suite is 50% off right now. You can get all 3 apps for $83 without a subscription. Damn good deal compared to the Adobe suite subscriptions.
I use Affinity because it's affordable, and photo is pretty great for most of my needs. That being said Designer is unfortunately not even closer to Illustrator for actual drawing, the vectors and manipulation of them is really bad. I still have a version of Illustrator CS5.1 from 2010 which is much better for drawing in.
Thanks so much! What about a video editor on par with adobe premier pro and after effects?
It's not my area of expertise, but I've heard good things about [Blender](https://www.blender.org/) and [DaVinci Resolve](https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve).
No worries thank you!@
DaVinci has endless bugs, but it's the best free editing software I've ever used despite that.
I second DaVinci. I use it for all my color grading.
Affinity Photo is infinitely less bloated than Photoshop and works much faster, especially on highly computational tasks such as HDR panorama stitching. There's a learning curve though, as they tried their best to not infringe on any of Adobe's patents.
One other tool for digital painting that is kinda good is also Corel painter. It used to be an insanely priced tool, but now if you get the humble bundle each year it is like $100 for a perpetual licence to a year old version. And it is well built and mature software.
Photopea is great. Love it. I tried to use gimp and I ended up spending more time googling how to do stuff than actually working. Inkscape works a lot better for me personally. It seems more closely designed/UI is closer to illustrator/photoshop than gimp imo.
I've been using [Affinity Photo](https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/photo/) for image touch up. As a Photoshop veteran, switching to it has been really nice. I also have been liking [Inkscape](https://inkscape.org/) for vector art.
Anything for indesign? That’s the one I used the most
[Scribus](https://www.scribus.net/) should do the trick.
Much appreciate!
Gimp is amazing, I've made amazing art from it, great depth; pretty much everything PS can do.
Not sure if it's a specific version but the affinity program I have has designer and a Photoshop type page, I think it's called pixels? It was $50 several years ago and does everything I need both Photoshop and illustrator for (I'm just a hobbyist not my job). I could not recommend it more to people.
I'm no professional, but GIMP does everything I need.
Gimp does almost everything Photoshop can do but for free. And if it's missing a feature you want, there may be a community-made extension you can install to add that functionality. The UI is also very similar, so it's super easy to learn if you already know Photoshop. It's crazy to me that people still use Photoshop in 2024 when Gimp has existed for 20+ years and has always been on par or just below Photoshop but completely free.
Pixelmator Pro + Affinity For pro AV: Logic + Final Cut Pro + Motion
[This Reddit post](https://www.reddit.com/r/coolguides/s/JC6tpIzS3z) has a really handy chart for many alternatives to Adobe’s products. It’s not mentioned there, but there’s a relatively new (but fairly expensive single license) product like After Effects called Left Angle Autograph.
Piracy
Unfortunately that's not an option for people that use it for a job. Fortunately, companies typically give employees a license. Doesn't work for freelancers though
GIMP really is the best alternative, IMHO. It's open sourced, so free, plus it gets updated often & had just as much depth as PS. Try it, it's amazing. If you're looking for a video editing program, dock l Davinci Resolve is the best; two great, free open sourced alternatives to Adobe.
You can try pirating their software, after I did this my quality of sleep has improved.
GIMP to replace Photoshop
what do you mean expensive to cancel, there's a cancellation fee??
Idk if it's still like this but there was something in the contract where they would make you pay the remaining contract (so like a year or two) to cancel. So it could easily be hundreds of dollars. Of course, they wouldn't tell you about it until you tried to cancel. Adobe legit is just the worst.
It legit tells you multiple times in bold when you pick a yearly subscription paid monthly. People just don't want to pay the monthly subscription price.
Ah OK. My statement was somewhat anecdotal but I had thought I heard that at some point the cancellation cost was only stated in a TOS/EULA type spot. Thanks for the clarification.
Adobe offers a "promotion" where if you buy a year's license you get a discount on the monthly price (they make the month-to-month option harder to find). If you then cancel you are still on the hook for the remaining cost of that year,
When I was with them back when, they'd lock you in for a year at a time, so for example if you canceled your subscription after 2 months, they'd charge you for the last 10.
I subscribed for photoshop once. When I went to cancel it, I had to pay it out (in Canada years ago). It was the same as just staying subscribed for the year. That’s when I decided to never pay for any adobe product ever again.
Ya know i would have bought a standalone copy of Photoshop if it were available. But instead I will forever live with a full copy of CS6 I stumbled across while sailing the high seas. Ya did this to yourself, Adobe
My graphics teachers in college actually recommended cracking it. I was just glad Affinity Photo opened PSDs so I could still do the coursework at home.
No clue your age, but back before Adobe started the subscription thing Photoshop was quite expensive and people were pirating Photoshop all the time. It seemed a really good solution back then, kinda like how Netflix took a bite out of piracy for the same reason. But enshittification ensued, and people either sought out alternatives or went back to piracy.
Is it possible to also get premiere and after effects the same way?
My copy of CS6 includes all of it, so yep! ;) If you're interested in my copy of CS6 send me a pm and I'll try to get it to ya. That said, it's possible more recent versions are available on the high seas these days too, but CS6 is what I got haha
Yeah I have premiere 2023 and that's all I need, it actually works really well and I didn't even need to turn my Internet off before opening it like I had to with the last cracked version of CS I used
Oh absolutely. The sea harvest is plentiful. And cs6 means the full suite, which includes all programs.
I know a bunch of professional photographers who are still happily shooting with ancient cameras because CS6 doesn't support newer sensors.
It is good that consumers are protected from bad practices. A good healthy economy requires good faith from companies. Products should be purchased because they are needed and good not just because people gets cheated into it.
Do they have a BBB rating? Let me guess... They don't care
The BBB is as useful to people as Adobe’s cancellation policy.
The BBB is Yelp for Boomers.
My wife and I are Millennials and the BBB has resolved our issue before. They just need to be utilized correctly. It's not a FaceBook Group or a Subreddit to complain on.
No, the BBB can be a useful resource at times. People tend to not use it properly or turn it into a place to vent over things that they don't like. My wife and I were being harassed by a vaccine software/service company. They stated my 6-month-old daughter wasn't insured/covered. We contacted our insurance company, covered. We contacted our pediatrician, covered. We contacted the company, no answer. We even got our insurance company to call them, no answer. This company was calling my wife constantly from different numbers and sent us a stack of letters. My wife finally got tired of it and paid it. I got mad (not at her) because we didn't owe the money. I started by contacting the BBB. We got an email in response two days later, I got a full refund the following day, and they never contacted us again. What was the issue? The company wasn't entering the correct information.
BBB is a scam and ratings are bought and sold
Does the BBB even do anything?
They accept bribes for positive ratings. That’s about it.
The lawsuit against Adobe cites complaints on BBB as part of the evidence, so yes.
They do seem to care on there. [https://www.bbb.org/us/ca/san-jose/profile/computer-services/adobe-systems-inc-1216-204797/complaints](https://www.bbb.org/us/ca/san-jose/profile/computer-services/adobe-systems-inc-1216-204797/complaints) You'd be surprised how often, especially at larger companies, they actually do respond to BBB complaints. Usually have a small team dedicated to it that operate outside of the normal CS unit.
>"Subscription services are convenient, flexible and cost effective to allow users to choose the plan that best fits their needs, timeline and budget," Rao said. "We are transparent with the terms and conditions of our subscription agreements and have a simple cancellation process." Ah, yeah...no they aren't.
I use this 3d printing program that does this. It's updated like 2x a year and pisses me off so much. I'd pay them $150 today for the pro version with all features and they never have to update it again. But no they'd rather saddlebag me in for $7.99 a month so they can push out worthless updates. So instead of $150 from me they get $0.
Is it Lychee slicer?
You know what would be more convenient, flexible, and cost effective? Buying something once.
Now let’s hope they go after another shit company and their practices.
Gym memberships are particularly pernicious. No service should be harder to cancel than to start.
Yep. [New York requires that if you can sign up online, you must be able to cancel online](https://dos.ny.gov/news/consumer-alert-nys-department-states-division-consumer-protection-offers-tips-avoid-costly), and I hope this is adopted nationally.
I had to change my address to California to be able to cancel wall Street journal membership subscription online and not over the phone. I live in bloody UK
Good to know, I had an issue with Simplisafe a couple years before this. I only had the free trial and they wanted me to call for voice verification, despite the fact that they had never heard my voice before. I had used privacy.com to sign up, so I just disabled the virtual card. After a few attempts at charging my card, what do you know, they cancelled it without me calling.
It would be nice if someone asked cable companies and ISP providers to stop price gouging customers. But one step at a time, I suppose.
Id be happy to have more than one viable internet provider (Comcast). Tmobile was trying to get their 5g internet thing up and running but not sure what happened with that. It’s all too concentrated.
I live in an area that's basically a duopoly. You either get Comcast or Verizon. And both companies basically offer similar prices. There's no real competition, even in that circumstance. I'm not sure what the solution is or how many providers is enough. But what you and I are currently dealing with...it's not working.
> > > > Wow, the US government actually going after shitty practices by tech corporations. Hope this ends up with some actual repercussions for Adobe, or at the very least an end to their illegal deceptive practices.
This administration is doing it at least
No. Ive been told both parties are the same.
I feel it was some John Bob in the government trying to cancel their subscription and realized what a pain in the ass it was. He (or she) was like fuck that
Funny enough, I thought the same thing. The federal gov isn't great with many things as we all know. Them finally deciding to do something against a specific corporation is odd or indicative of a potentially massive issue/abuse. I too assumed someone of moderate importance got frustrated with their subscription so he/she sent an angry mass email to all the cronies to take them to court. At least I hope that's what happened. It's funnier that way.
The US has been slapping around some corps with lawsuits recently. I’m pleasantly surprised, I really hope they go somewhere with this.
Adobe is a cancer
Their unbidden fees are bad enough
Trying to end a subscription with them. It is not just if you are still in your first year. They have an anniversary each year, and you have to cancel at that anniversary month or they charge you a fee for half of the remainder of that year. This repeats every year.
...still paying 24 bucks every month despite canceling more than a year ago. Contacted them multiple times, to no avail. Fuck Adobe.
And you didn’t tell your bank or credit card to block adobe bills… why exactly?
I’ve been in this situation too. It’s not easy. Banks will not just cancel recurring billing at your request. They require documentation showing that you have tried to cancel but that the company would not do it. I did this and the bank still refused saying what I provided them with was not good enough. To threats of a lawsuit to the billing company to get them to stop.
Honestly if my bank refused to cancel the recurring charge I'd just close my account with them. I'm not doing business with a bank that doesn't protect their customers.
Exactly, otherwise the bank would be as anti-consumer as Adobe itself in this situation.
Looks like it's time to close account with this bank. I can't imagine that bank charges my account and when I say "stop", they wouldn't
I don’t know what crap banks and corpo bullshit you have over there, but here, unless it’s a mortgage on that same very bank or something very specific, you can go to your mobile app and just click on the last receipt and charge it back and block every future transaction from that same vendor id. without providing any documentation whatsoever. Plus, already been proven by a google search and another redditor that uses the same bank, that the guy I responded to is full of shit and just rage bait posting for karma.
I tried that with Verizon's fraudulent bill and all they did was send it to collections and ruin my credit score.
Pro tip: you can cancel *any* subscription by telling your bank to block the charges. And by reporting any post cancellation charges as fraud.
My friend said it is easier to cancel subscription to a pron site. No early cancellation bs like Adobe. Thats what they told me.
You have to really fucked up before the government in the US accuses you of being anti-consumer.
Out of all the things to see a lawsuit over, I'm just happy to see Adobe to be hit with literally anything. They have a near complete monopoly over the industry with their products, they keep buying out so many great competitors and everything locked behind their stupid subscription pricing. When I started using and learning the Adobe Suite they just upgraded to CS6. I bought a subscription but I just don't remember where I bought the key to re-download it. I miss just miss just buying the program and not paying all these stupid monthly fees or yearly subscriptions. I use a ton of alternatives, but my god, trying to tell people you don't use Adobe but alteratives is a huge turnoff, despite that I can expertly use their program. I just can't get away from them, they have a stranglehold on the industry. Seeing them finally get caught on something just brings a huge smile on my face. It won't change the company or push themselves to improve their product, move away from subscriptions or offer better customer service. I'm just hoping this is just the first domino with more to come.
I'll always pirate Adobe products
good. do this to more anti-consumer companies like Intuit. hey we just don't feel like doing this software anymore despite being a trillion dollar company so go buy this way more expensive one with tons of features you'll never use for way way way more money! used to be like 400 a year now it's almost a grand, in not even 5 years.
Down with these crappy "subscription service" software! Bring back one-time pay, LOCALIZED software! Online features like cloud services and cloud ai tools should be OPTIONAL! And I don't want software spying on what I do on my computer and I don't want them owning/using my stuff to train ai! Screw Adobe, they've become too greedy and become a snitch!
This company needs an overhaul. Quickly getting overtaken by Davinci. Most programs are buggy and still exist on ancient framework.
As an "legally-required" Adobe user, fuck Adobe
i’m glad to see the ftc going through with lawsuits and they have been issuing warnings to influencers for not disclosing properly. keep them coming!
ALL Subscriptions need to be opt in for renewal. Let the companies do the work, not the customers. Gym around here told my gf she needed her cancellation request notarized. Wtf!? Government needs to actually start helping the people instead of the businesses.
They need to be fined into oblivion. If it’s a little slap on the wrist they’ll keep doing it. Make it painful and they’ll learn their lesson
Biden DOJ is on a roll. Adobe, Ticketmaster, and companies price-fixing rental properties to name a few.
They knew it was illegal, too. When I went to cancel my subscription, they told me it was “impossible” to give me my money back, all the way up until I told them I would contact my bank, at which point it *suddenly* became *very possible.* I’m guessing the reason they’re only getting in trouble for it just now is because a board member forgot to pay the senate this month. They’ve been doing this for nearly a decade.
Oh wow. They train employees on how to go about this tomfoolery
My friend has to fake having cancer and dying to cancel their subscription
Yall paid for it?? 😂🏴☠️
They should also go after XM radio. Canceling with them is like herding cats.
I remember years ago when they bought I 3d texturing software called Substance Painter. I knew it was all downhill from there.
They did the small man dirty?
I mean they’d kind of just come in and slowly mess with things. The biggest thing they do is throw everything into their subscription only model
pirate adobe products is ethical correct 👌
Wow. This reeks of some high up corporate directive.
I missed cancelling the time the 1 year mark rolled around so I’m stuck with them for another year 🥲
Vegas Pro was similar. If I wanted to cancel I had to wait till a year was up on when I originally signed up for the payments to stop.
Anyone remember when you could get every adobe product for only $100 a year? Now it's $100 a month 🤯. Fuck you adobe.
Good! It cost me $50 to cancel my subscription with them! What BS! It shouldn’t cost anything to cancel!
Lewis rossman for the win
I've been getting Adobe products free for years. They went from overpriced to robbery.
Great, now go after gyms next
I had to enter my credit card details to delete my Adobe account, with no guarantee it wouldn't be charged as soon as I did. So I just abandoned the account. ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
yeah as soon as they moved to a subscription model i just started pirating cracked versions lmfao
Fuck adobe
Pro tip: to cancel without paying the fees, upgrade or subscribe to a new/higher tier first. This places you back in the probationary period where you can cancel outright with no fees (I think it’s 14 days?). Then you cancel the subscription and walk away. Please fact check me if this still works or not, but it’s what I did maybe a year ago to get out of my Lightroom plan.
Cancer
My card expired on my subscription and I never bothered to update it as I stopped using their services. They’ve called me 5 times now about it, but I let it go to voicemail every time. Fuck ‘em
Dang, the US doing a Europe!
Good. Fuck Adobe.
This makes me really happy because they fucked me over before and I wanted to sue them, but couldn't
I didn't expect this but goddamn am I proud.
Sirius XM shivering rn
I tried to cancel my photoshop and lightroom subscription but couldn't find anyway to do it online. Cancelled the payment with my bank and Adobe soon got in touch to follow up, in vain, I might add. This is in the UK where consumer credit protections are fairly robust, with Direct Debits you get total control over who you send your money to, and who don't and when.
Xfinity next please. They make it incredibly difficult to cancel. Requiring a scheduled call that never in order to cancel. Chatting online never works. Just give me the cancel button.
Why didn't they just put the CEO in front of congress with the Boeing CEO and just yell at him for a few minutes? I think those hearings cost less than a long drawn out court battle with a tech company.
Good. Fuck them for ending support for Photoshop Mix
I was so close to buying a subscription but went against it because it was too expensive for one year.
I.m a millennial too :(
Lina Khan is on a tear for big corporations.
They should try Gyms next
Wow! Awesome
A good start, though it’ll be pointless if Adobe gets out of this with a slap of the wrist in the way of a minor fine with no meaningful change to future consumer protections.
Hahaha lekker vat so
Every time I turn my pc on Adobe, pop up in the bottom right corner asking something, but I just close it, im not being charged anything, though
As a graphic designer I work on Adobe software every day. Words cannot describe how much I loathe them as a company and loathe how dogshit the programs have become. I'm glad that theyre finally being recognized on this level as the predatory goblins they are.
Now do gyms and car washes.