Auto-Renewal Trap and Heavy Cancellation Fee! Why am I being penalized?

[Guest]

Dear Adobe,

I am writing this request on behalf of my Creative Cloud student account; a0115744@u.nus.edu as I cannot reset my password due to my student email deactivation by my school after my graduation. I was using the Creative Cloud Membership when I was a student for my school work as well as for my internship purposes. The student membership is an amazing tool for me as I would not be able to afford these great applications at the regular prices. My membership expired in June-2017 after my graduation. I had no idea about the auto-renewal as I did not receive any up-front notification until I noticed I was being charged SGD40.00 a month on my bank statement. I was extremely appalled and utterly shocked. Hence, I immediately contacted the customer support through telephone regarding this matter. The customer support was even worse, instead of being “supported”, I was only being penalized for not cancelling the membership earlier. I was told I had to pay a heavy cancellation fee despite repeatedly telling them (and even pleading) that I had no idea about the auto-renewal and the cancellation fee. The customer support assistance did not seem to be bothered by my situation and insisted that I either cancel or continue my subscription. As I was already burdened with my job applications and taking care of my family, I did not what to do at that point of time and decided to leave the matter be.

The past few months was extremely painful for me as I was being charged for a membership that I stopped using completely after graduation. Furthermore, given my family’s financial constraint, this monthly subscription fee was being a significant burden on my finance. I accepted my fate until I came across a forum thread on Adobe website (https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1662158). I found out there were many others who are facing the same issue as I am; Adobe trapping fresh graduates in a year long subscription. This is a terrible business practice and an even horrible experience for students who just graduated as they would be in a financial constraint and suffer from this expensive monthly subscription. I believe I have suffered enough and I shall be warning my friends and family regarding this trap Adobe has set up and stay away from Adobe memberships. I truly hope Adobe understands the situation people like me are in and change their membership policy. Until then, I am completely stepping away from Adobe.

I would also like to kindly put up a request to cancel my membership and refund the membership fee as I have not been using Creative Cloud since graduation and do not have a need for it currently. This will help to ease my financial constraint. I sincerely hope you understand my situation and consider my request. I will greatly appreciate your assistance.

Sincerely,

Lee Hui Jun

[John T Smith · Accepted solution]

I am sorry that you did not read the Subscription Terms https://www.adobe.com/misc/subscription_terms.html where it discusses the auto-renewal and the early termination fee

To Cancel https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/help/cancel-membership.html

[benj15193790]

If you keep pressing them and say you've seen forums that show they've waived the cancellation fees they will do it. Just post a link to the forum on your chat. [Locked] Cancellation Fee and Auto-Renewals!! Interesting this forum is LOCKED.

Definitely some deception going on. The first chat was unsuccessful and they offered me first one month free, then 2 months free - after the computer system had offered me three months free before I initiated the chat. I was able to get them to waive the fee for cancelling illustrator but remained in the photography program which i've been paying for for 2 years and paid them $60 for three months of illustrator but hardly used it. They wanted $90 to cancel. I honestly never noticed that it was a one year contract. I just quickly added it to my plan because I needed it for a project. I assumed it was month to month. Especially if you're already a paying loyal customer...

[nostaljist]

Same situation here... In the middle of the last year I've requested them to cancel my yearly plan and they've said if I cancel it at that moment I had to pay half of the yearly payment price as cancellation fee / penalty. So I've decided to continue until the end of 2017 but I've missed the renewal date and unfortunately there wasn't a "don't renew" option on plan / account management screen to prevent the unwanted renewal.

They just say they're sending an email which states yearly plan will be renewed in a month. So, in that short period, if you've missed the renewal date because you didn't see that email somehow (as me) they force you to pay the unfair and unreasonable cancellation fee / penalty. I don't want to / can't say this membership model is a fraud but it's obviously unfair and also sickening. So I had a chat with customer service short time ago and tell them again to cancel my plan. This time I'll pay the cancellation fee.