"It's easy to dunk on Adobe software quality, I know. But I hit "Save" in Illustrator and got this hilariously huge cloudsell."
The total annual cost was hidden. The 50% cancellation free was hidden. The clickwrap agreement text was much smaller than the sales text (e.g. "£0.00", "Start free trial"). The cancellation terms were hard to find. Should this be permitted?
Adobe is running the exact same dark pattern, even now. It's just too much free money, at the expense of people who think $54.99/month means $54.99/month, and not "commit to an annual plan and pay 12x$54.99/month (or terminate for a massive penalty)." This should not be legal.
Dark pattern from @adobe . There’s no option to skip the trial and just use the free version, so the burden is on the user to remember to cancel.
Every year, Adobe sends me an email notifying me that they will increase the price of Creative Cloud from €29,99 to €52,06 per month (+44%!). And every year, I take the same steps to keep my old price: I pretend that I want to cancel my plan, stating it's "too expensive," and in the end, they offer a "special deal" for €29,99 for another full year.
Guess what the billing period is for this Adobe license, as displayed on this "review your order" screen that appears before you commit? If you guessed "annual", you'd be correct, for some dumb reason. Adobe have really weaponised dark patterns in a truly user-hostile manner.
"3 minute walkthrough of the Adobe deceptive subscription cancellation experience (aka dark patterns) by @harrybr The part about Adobe starts at 3 minutes in."
"Adobe Swears Its Not Training Its A.I. on Your Photoshops BUT Adobe has not made any changes to its ToS making this claim effectively worthless."
"Them: "I can give you 2 months free" Me: "No, I did not knowingly sign a contract. I want it cancelled with no charge" Them: "No I can't do that" Me: "If you charge a cancellation fee I will take Adobe to small claims court in the UK and the court can decide....."
"I got caught out by the adobe stock "annual plan paid monthly" DP. I definitely did NOT intend to sign up for an annual plan. Curses."