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As I write this, I am attempting to reduce the number of licenses allocated in the Adobe admin portal. After hunting through the site, it appears easy to add,

by vz8 6y ago

As I write this, I am attempting to reduce the number of licenses allocated in the Adobe admin portal. After hunting through the site, it appears easy to add, but impossible to remove licenses without going through sales support (instant response with a human), who then transfer you to the "Cancellation Team" which are remarkably hard to find online and have not replied to previous attempts at cancellation. This is my third try, and the wait has been ridiculous. After finally being connected to a member of their cancellation team, they are "reviewing my request" and 1-2 minutes (please stand by) has turned into 15+ This experience has been so bad (on top of many others), that I'm strongly considering moving our entire org to open source tools (aside from InDesign for the publications group, which our partners require).

yabudemada 6y ago
If you do, please be sure to donate (time or money) to the open source projects to help better them! This is how open source can exceed commercial software. At the very worst case, if the projects tumble there's always a possibility to "fork" as an insurance policy.
- vz8 6y ago
  We do, and thanks for mentioning it, it's worth bringing up. We donate to various projects: on Github, FSF, EFF, direct to a developers, and even Patreon in one case. Autodesk had our money for a while, then we moved to use and support Blender and never looked back. ... we even bought a license to WinRAR, I kid you not.
  - MaxBarraclough 6y ago
    WinRAR isn't Open Source. I'm curious though, why go with rar rather than, say, 7z?
    - vz8 6y ago
      On our devices with Windows, we use the built-in tools, 7-zip and WinRAR (on a single workstation). Mentioning WinRAR was a bit of a joke.
vz8 6y ago
Following up: 50 minutes in chat and 5 rounds of back and forth like a used car dealership before they would agree to cancel. Adobe: "Have 3 months free!" Me: "We are no longer using these licenses." Adobe: "But you are on the hook for a year. We have reset all of your licenses to have the same annual renewal date, regardless of when you purchased them." Me: "We are no longer using these licenses. Free months are just a tactic in hopes that we miss the cancellation window and are forced to pay for another year." Adobe: "We highly recommend that you accept our generous 3 months free offer." Me: "That sounds a little ominous. Please cancel the licenses, effective immediately." This is paraphrased, but follows the essential conversation. Adobe, you disappoint me.
- m463 6y ago
  What's worse is the poor employee forced to do this day in and day out.
  - jonplackett 6y ago
    They're getting commission when they succeed.
    - p410n3 6y ago
      Doesn't mean they like it
      - V-2 6y ago
        Sure, but such cognitive dissonance usually gets resolved in the long run, and the easiest way is to somehow convince yourself you're doing the right thing after all.
        reaperducer 6y ago
        That sounds like every excuse-making Facebook and Google employee on HN.
      - 6y ago
danpalmer 6y ago
If you're doing what I think you are, this is not possible except in the month that your yearly contract renews. I went through the same thing. You've most likely got yearly licences that you pay off monthly, which means you can only modify on a yearly basis, so they don't let you modify most of the year.
- cheschire 6y ago
  So adobe has taken the healthcare approach to subscriptions? Wait for “open season” to adjust your cancellations.
yarcob 6y ago
Holy shit that's awful. I thought the advantage of subscription software is that you don't need to pay an expensive one time fee if you need software just for a short project. But if they make it hard to cancel, that really sucks. I'm so glad I moved away from Adobe...
c0nsumer 6y ago
Moving tooling is Hard, and the OSS stuff frankly sucks in comparison. Give the Affinity [1] suite a serious look. It's not Photoshop or Illustrator, but for many users it really is a functional alternative and much of the tooling works similarly enough that it's usable (unlike much of the OSS stuff which just gets maddening). Pricing is also very sane. [1] https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/ https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/
- fragile_frogs 6y ago
  I was a casual user of Illustrator but got tired of the monthly subscription and it wasn't really worth the money since I would only use it like 5 times a month. I moved to Affinity designer about 4 years ago and I love it.
- danhodgins 6y ago
  I use Affinity Designer for Mac (an Illustrator alternative). (90 day free trial, and then $40 one time after that - for lifetime ownership). So done with Adobe - their software is a total system hog, and they are now sketchy as an organization.
trashcan 6y ago
This is exactly how Spectrum and SiriusXM are as well. Easy to buy/upgrade, hard to cancel.
wildrhythms 6y ago
Truly disgusting. Why is it normal to be able to sign up for a service (such as internet service) completely self-service, with no human interaction, but as soon as I want to cancel the service, I have to call a 1-800 number and interact with a human? Comcast/Xfinity does this. Anti-consumer at best.
mhuffman 6y ago
Adobe also charges 3 (I think) months penalty if you cancel CC. I have recently learned that if you reference covid-19 they immediately process anything you want with no penalties. I suspect they don't want to end up on the wrong side of a crowdsource shitlist for penalizing people during the pandemic.

by vz8 6y ago

yabudemada 6y ago

If you do, please be sure to donate (time or money) to the open source projects to help better them! This is how open source can exceed commercial software. At the very worst case, if the projects tumble there's always a possibility to "fork" as an insurance policy.

vz8 6y ago
We do, and thanks for mentioning it, it's worth bringing up. We donate to various projects: on Github, FSF, EFF, direct to a developers, and even Patreon in one case. Autodesk had our money for a while, then we moved to use and support Blender and never looked back. ... we even bought a license to WinRAR, I kid you not.
- MaxBarraclough 6y ago
  WinRAR isn't Open Source. I'm curious though, why go with rar rather than, say, 7z?
  - vz8 6y ago
    On our devices with Windows, we use the built-in tools, 7-zip and WinRAR (on a single workstation). Mentioning WinRAR was a bit of a joke.

vz8 6y ago

Following up: 50 minutes in chat and 5 rounds of back and forth like a used car dealership before they would agree to cancel. Adobe: "Have 3 months free!" Me: "We are no longer using these licenses." Adobe: "But you are on the hook for a year. We have reset all of your licenses to have the same annual renewal date, regardless of when you purchased them." Me: "We are no longer using these licenses. Free months are just a tactic in hopes that we miss the cancellation window and are forced to pay for another year." Adobe: "We highly recommend that you accept our generous 3 months free offer." Me: "That sounds a little ominous. Please cancel the licenses, effective immediately." This is paraphrased, but follows the essential conversation. Adobe, you disappoint me.

m463 6y ago
What's worse is the poor employee forced to do this day in and day out.
- jonplackett 6y ago
  They're getting commission when they succeed.
  - p410n3 6y ago
    Doesn't mean they like it
    - V-2 6y ago
      Sure, but such cognitive dissonance usually gets resolved in the long run, and the easiest way is to somehow convince yourself you're doing the right thing after all.
      - reaperducer 6y ago
        That sounds like every excuse-making Facebook and Google employee on HN.
    - 6y ago

danpalmer 6y ago

If you're doing what I think you are, this is not possible except in the month that your yearly contract renews. I went through the same thing. You've most likely got yearly licences that you pay off monthly, which means you can only modify on a yearly basis, so they don't let you modify most of the year.

cheschire 6y ago
So adobe has taken the healthcare approach to subscriptions? Wait for “open season” to adjust your cancellations.

yarcob 6y ago

Holy shit that's awful. I thought the advantage of subscription software is that you don't need to pay an expensive one time fee if you need software just for a short project. But if they make it hard to cancel, that really sucks. I'm so glad I moved away from Adobe...

c0nsumer 6y ago

Moving tooling is Hard, and the OSS stuff frankly sucks in comparison. Give the Affinity [1] suite a serious look. It's not Photoshop or Illustrator, but for many users it really is a functional alternative and much of the tooling works similarly enough that it's usable (unlike much of the OSS stuff which just gets maddening). Pricing is also very sane. [1] https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/ https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/

fragile_frogs 6y ago
I was a casual user of Illustrator but got tired of the monthly subscription and it wasn't really worth the money since I would only use it like 5 times a month. I moved to Affinity designer about 4 years ago and I love it.
danhodgins 6y ago
I use Affinity Designer for Mac (an Illustrator alternative). (90 day free trial, and then $40 one time after that - for lifetime ownership). So done with Adobe - their software is a total system hog, and they are now sketchy as an organization.

trashcan 6y ago

This is exactly how Spectrum and SiriusXM are as well. Easy to buy/upgrade, hard to cancel.

wildrhythms 6y ago

Truly disgusting. Why is it normal to be able to sign up for a service (such as internet service) completely self-service, with no human interaction, but as soon as I want to cancel the service, I have to call a 1-800 number and interact with a human? Comcast/Xfinity does this. Anti-consumer at best.

mhuffman 6y ago

Adobe also charges 3 (I think) months penalty if you cancel CC. I have recently learned that if you reference covid-19 they immediately process anything you want with no penalties. I suspect they don't want to end up on the wrong side of a crowdsource shitlist for penalizing people during the pandemic.