Perhaps we should find the email address for

Mark Garrett

Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

and express our concerns over Adobe's pricing policies.

Danr7 wrote:

 

In the meantime, just set up a new adobe ID, with a different email address,and with an Billing address in USA. Then you can pay in USD. You will need to uninstall and re-download apps. Another grumpy customer BTW. Can't even buy in local currency and have to buy in overinflated AUD.

Only if you have an office in US of course ;-).

It may be a bit more involved than that.  The current system is going to require an internet connection, and I am sure that when you would try to do what you are saying that the Adobe system is going to see that tthe purchasing location is not a U.S. location.

When is the Adobe going to answer all those questions here? Please do so.

putting my money where my mouth is. I am not buying this until the US / Uk price disparity is fair.  Rip off Adobe lost another customer

Fair = same price before taxes for US and the rest of the world for the English downloadable version.

I have no problem with the fact that Adobe thinks it's already fair as it is.

My bankaccount also thinks it's fair that my money stays put and does not flow any longer to Adobe, at least not for products where there is a significant difference in price.

I'm curious how many people are doing the same thing. Most people don't voice their feelings on a forum like this, but I hear some talking when I meet other Adobe users. It's quite obvious that Adobe is losing a lot of credit fast in Europe.

If Adobe is fine with that, no problem, at a certain point in time it will open the market for competition.

And meanwhile, they don't get my money.

I'd just like to say that I was surprised a little bit by the price hike but ya know what?  I don't mind all that much.

Let me put it this way you pay less than £600 per year for the whole collection.  Something that would cost you thousands to buy outright and a few hundred to upgrade each year.  Some people have mentioned they have CS3, seeing as that was launched in 2007, using my awesome maths (totally not awesome or researched in anyway) you would have only started to make the saving under the clouds pricing structure after five years.  BUT you are still on a 5 year old version and it will cost you some more to upgrade.  So in that sense even for its UK price, it still makes perfect sense to buy the product.  (This is of course if you haven't pirated the software, and seeing as the statistics say approx. 30% of all adobe software is pirated, someone on this thread isn't being honest at a guess).

You get 2 installs to use, one for home (freelance in my case) and another for work, so being a Creative Cloud member immediately makes you more employable as a designer.  Hell I'm even gonna charge my workplace extra on my invoices if they want me to use my license for them, so I can offset the price difference that way.

Quite frankly, if you can't earn £50pcm using the creative suite then why are you even considering getting the software?

The only thing that discovering that it isn't $49.99 for me as a UK customer has made me do is delay my purchase of the software while I wait 1 week until I get my next paycheque.  Yes it's annoying that it's more expensive here, but so is petrol, house prices, food and pretty much everything!  Oh yeah and the average UK salary is higher than the US.  It's all relative.

Personally I can't wait to get my hands on all this software!

@DA-Design :

1. Are you paid by Adobe or an employee ?

2. Read the title of the discussion : it's about the difference in price between Europe and the US, not about the Creative Cloud being a better deal than the buy-option

3. People who pirate Adobe software will not appear on this thread : why would they. They couldn't care less about the price difference. But I guess that after seeing the difference in pricing, some people who are paying might shift to that group. I'm not, but that's me and I have a feeling that I'm becoming more and more an exception.

4. What makes you think that all people use Adobe software to make money : ever heard about the enormous amount of amateurs that do something with images, movies or websites these days ?

5. The fact that petrol or house prices are more or less expensive in Europe has nothing to do with this. I'm not going to explain something that obvious, since that would insult my and your intelligence.

Seeing as you posted this before I'm going out Ill give you your answers:

1. No, don't be silly.  The fact that that was your first thought above all others says a lot really.

2. Maybe so, I came here because I wanted to see if there was a way to pay the US price (I'm self-employed, so I'll always try to save money where I can)

3. Again maybe so, they would be on this thread to maybe find out if they could get a non-pirated version finally?  The point of this price difference actively making people get illegal copies is a bit silly too quite frankly.  If someone was of that disposition they probably weren't going to pay the £32 or whatever the exchange rate comes to anyway.

4. If you don't intend to use an industry standard software to make money then what exactly is wrong with the open source software?  You can do many things for the web using open source software.  I've been making money from GIMP and InkScape for 3 years since I left university, because I know how to use them effectively.

5. Yes I know what you're getting at there.  My point was merely that the UK is a more expensive place to live, while most of those extra costs are down to government tax rather than foreign countries seeing the UK as a cash cow, it still stands to reason that any business operating outside of the UK is going to use what the UK consumer expects to pay for any product or service, which is noticeably higher than the US.  Why shouldn't someone make as much money as they can?  Whether it's an individual or a company?

I was excited about creative cloud at first and thought "I could live with those prices for some short term jobs, finally something I could afford" ...until I saw the European pricing. Next though was "what a joke, 'alternatives' it is then".

So here's one who would be willing to pay a reasonable price, but seeing as I would be getting screwed over, not a chance.

Adobe is, of course, free to put whatever pricing they want for their products, but they should know they're pushing people to alternative solutions due to unfair pricing (our salaries are less than US and living costs are higher). I just recently had a discussion with a handful of colleagues, and most of them said they would have bought PS if they could get the US pricing. None of them use PS now (we all use alternative solutions). Anecdotal evidence, I know, but this wasn't the first group who have said the same thing, and probably will not be the last.

Oh yeah and BTW where is the Adobe staff reply? This is how much they care to do business? Oh yeah, forgot they're pretty faceless when it's about their monopoly but when it's their freaking seminar the tweets are like I'm getting them from my best friends.

I'd like to know which alternatives are you using?

@JSalmela

My understanding of David__B's vague attempts at explaining and rationalizing his employer's practices was not so much that the costs of doing buisness in Europe (allowing you to download a file) is higher for Adobe. If I got him right, they actually have the audacity to suggest that the cost of doing business in Europe in general is higher for you than than for the folks in the US of A and therefore you should have already gotten used to being ripped of and happily hand your "European-tax" over to the behemoth. That's how I got this which, needless to say, only makes it worse and sadder.

jbregar wrote:

 

There are other costs of doing business in the European Union other than just the cost of translation and the shipping cost to get a bunch of plastic discs over there. To act like downloadable delivery suddenly makes those other costs go away isn't going to make it so.

 

Adobe is a US company. That means the cost of doing business here is already rolled

into every product they sell everywhere in the world. When they choose to serve another market, they'll need to recoup the costs of doing business there as well.

 

There are taxes to be paid, support personnel to be paid, infrastructure for downloadable content to be built. All that stuff isn't free. They could skimp on it, but then you'd be on here shouting at them for crappy support or the fact that it takes 24 hours to download CS6.

1. What taxes exactly are there for Adobe to pay? I'm really curious, please enlighten me (no, really).
2. I'm perfectly fine with English-speaking support, thank you.
3. The infrastructure is provided by Amazon, Akamai and possibly other major content-providing players. There are no Adobe guys being sent by plane with servers to deploy: one under the Eiffel's tower, another by the Brandenburg Gate, etc., you know? And here's the kicker: internet packets actually do cross and don't really care about country boundaries! Who knew?! I've just done a quick geo-lookup against two IPs my Adobe Application Manager connects to. One is from Washington, another one from Massachusetts. Those were both US states last time I checked. But don't be sad - this whole internet thing got me confused too at first.

jbregar wrote:

 

The truth is, the price is what it is and the best way to fight it isn't complaining on here, it's to not buy the product. I'm guessing the number who consider CC reasonable even at the EU price number far greater than the vocal minority on here. While that sucks if you don't agree, the market will speak and that's what Adobe will listen to.

And guess what, I'm doing exactly that - not buying the product. And your point is? "It sucks that I don't agree"? Did I hurt your personal feelings? What is the real point for your... ekhm... "contribution"?

Currently the UK price is exactly 150% of the US price. I know there are tax discrepancies but this difference is unacceptable and I will not be subscribing to the Creative Cloud. I have used adobe products for years and have always bought downloads whenever possible. I have never engaged with any retailer about adobe products, and the argument about retail costs simply does not apply to the cloud.

This is simple rip off and Adobe should be ashamed of themselves.

You are very much missing the point Xeos and your attitude simply encourages large business to continue to discriminate under the guise of achieving business outcomes - maximising profit. Of course that's why businesses exist, however it's the unethical targetting of customer groups - in this case, by geographical location - that makes people angry and emotional.

Many of our personal levels of honesty, integrity and ethics are compromised by the catchcry of 'doing business'. Would people with your views feel the same if Adobe (and other US multinational businesses) chose instead to discriminate (price-gouge) by charging black-skinned people more than white, muslims more than christians, females more than males ????    No ..... I didn't think so.

No-one believes Adobe's claim that their costs are higher everywhere other than the US, to the tune of up to 50% !

They unethically discriminate against non-US customers and they should be ashamed.

Had to come back after seeing some of the nonsense sitting in my inbox (i finally decided to open them up and see after several months).

Ok, let me just start by saying I have Adobe Creative Cloud and am extremely happy with it!

Now then let's address some points shall we?

Price difference.  This isn't so much to do with currency exchange rather than the power of a currency in its OWN country.  I tried to explain this before, and granted there is an element of Adobe adding extra to make some more profit but I don't see anything wrong with that, as long as it isn't ludicrous which in my opinion, it isn't.  Just because Adobe operates as a multinational company doesn't mean all of its consumers are only operating within their own countries.  If I was to get an American customer, my prices would seem outlandishly high to them due to the cost of living in the UK being higher, this is a natural thing occuring.  Now while in reverse, I should technically get the software cheaper, Adobe doesn't operate exclusively from the US, they have offices and employees in a lot of countries, the UK being one of them and those overheads have to be accounted for.  How Adobe goes about doing this is beyond me but it may go someway to alleviating the rage flying around at the moment.

Other Software.  There is plenty of Open Source software out there to get you started if you think that this is too expensive for you to buy.  I've used Gimp & InkScape for a number of years and they were able to do the job, though it took a bit more nouse than using Adobe Software, but you get what you pay for really.

I could go on and I may come back to add more points to this proverbial Hornet's nest, but as of right now I have to get back to work

In conclusion though,  moaning about how expensive Creative Cloud is when it costs a tiny fraction of the only other option Creative Suite stinks of hypocracy.  You're all here because you have used Adobe Software in the past or even currently, you've posted on this forum because you actually really want Creative Cloud but are not sure whether to invest or not.  You moan about the price difference between the US and Europe because you're looking for an excuse that blame's someone other than yourself for not taking a step further in your design career.

Seriously, it's that obvious!  No one posts an angry comment about a product unless they either want to buy it and can't, or have bought it and were unsatisfied.

As a final note, I've made nearly £500 from using Creative Cloud since I bought it 2-3 months back.  Not enough to pay the bills by itself but considering I have a full-time designer job on top of that it's some of the easiest money I've ever made.  Thanks Adobe!

Well I guess DA-Design can add thoughtless arrogance to his design skills! He entirely misses (chooses to miss?) the point that most European subscribers need no European based support, they are happy to pay in US Dollars and deal exclusively with the US vendor for support and updates. This is the way many early adopters organised their purchases before vendors opened overseas offices and added layers of management. The cost of doing Internet business differs little no matter where the supplier and customer are located, with the exception of VAT/Sales tax, which can be a moot point.

I deal with Cisco in the US, I deal with SAP in Germany, why should I have to deal with Adobe in Britain? What does Britain bring to the party apart from additional cost? A few seminars that I can watch online? If I pay for the Cloud subscription with a US issued card, then I pay US prices (I might have to use a US proxy, but if you are involved enough in this business to need Adobe product then you'll know all about that).

DA-Design's final rant about looking for excuses rather than blaming one self for not taking one's design career further, makes no sense and is an arrogant assumption on his part.

So —let me get this straight— anyone who has the temerity to think the current pricing structure is unreasonable should just STFU so people who can't figure out the "Stop email notifications" link can have a cleaner inbox?

If I think Adobe's UK pricing is unreasonable and I'd like to let Adobe know about my opinion, where would you suggest I say this so your delicate sensibilities are not offended? Adding my support to a prominent thread on their discussion forums may not be ideal, but probably carries a little more weight than a personal email to some anonymous support bod. Customer opinion may often be ignored, but it is sometimes taken into account - it can be a worthwhile exercise.

I also have Creative Cloud and I'm happy with it. I can also afford it in my business overhead. None of which is at all relevant to whether I think the UK markup is reasonable or not. I could afford it and be happy with the product if the markup was 5 times as much - the specific price is not the point. The point is the difference between regional prices is markedly larger than any economic considerations would explain and it seems like they're taking the piss.

If you have no problem with being shafted based on your region then fine, don't subscribe to this thread.