Adobe used hidden fee to trap people into paying for subscription plans, FTC says (2024)

Thank you!

This is really excellent info.

This is happened to me excatly. I ended up having to pay $215.90 in February.

Thank you for the excellent work you are doing; and, yes, the automatic charging of bank accounts and credit cards for hard to cancel "subscription" services are a growing problem. We must think too of the problem for heirs trying to cancel subscriptions for deceased relatives.

THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE FELL FOR ADOBE TRICKERY AND FAILURE TO BE REPUTABLE.

This is something I have been looking for regarding a monthly subscription that is hard to cancel.

Home delivery for prescriptions.
I opted into this, and when an order came up missing, I then tried to opt out, this situation is totally still going on.
The home delivery system for pharmacy is: in my opinion, messed up!
Finally exhausted trying to cancel because, they keep texting me and emails never stop, even if you call them, it never stops.

The FTC should enforce consumer protection laws on the books. Can it in this case?

Thank you so much. I subscribed in 2021. You are absolutely necessary. Thanks for all you do. IRS agent told me my account was sold on black web. Canon sold me via Walmart, an pixma MG 3620 printer that cannot be used with any newer Apple IOS. Mine is 17.5.1, iPhone 13.
There was no way to know except to buy it

I just spent an afternoon on the phone with Adobe after they were double billing me for a high end monthly/yearly subscription that I never signed up for and was noted in their accounts as "never used." The Adobe policy is "they will only go back six months" on billing issues; I received some of my money back but since they were pulling from my PayPal account, funds were taken from almost all my credit cards for close to two years. $34 a month with double billing for close to two years is no small chunk of change that they won't refund to my credit cards. On top of the financial loss, this is Adobe...everyone uses them. They are supposed to be a trusted company. In the past, there were certain companies that a consumer knew they could trust, and it was shocking when there was a diversion from the trusted practices, ex. Wells Fargo. These days I'm shocked when I hear you can trust anyone...any vendor or retailer. At what point do we create a true checks and balances holding companies accountable for this "integrity theft." That's what this is...integrity is defined as telling the truth when no one is looking. When a consumer sits at their computer alone and signs up for a product and isn't told the entire truth or the "extra" truths are on a separate page connected to a tiny link at the bottom of the site, this is integrity theft. It's your word against theirs and no one is really looking at specifics. When will this be confronted and then addressed? I work with clients every day that pay huge fines, receive felony charges and go to jail for much, much less. Maybe Adobe's executives need to lose a weekend to a cement cell and baloney sandwiches; maybe if we begin to hold the people accountable for the decisions made in companies, we might see a return to decency, integrity and respect for the consumer and truth in advertising. This is just one person's opinion, but it is worth consideration...Thank you, FTC, for validating my concerns over a company that I wish I never had to use again but have to use almost every day. Best, Mickie Lewis

Thank you for helping us fight those big corporations,

Great information!!
Thank you FTC
Sonny

Thank you for this valuable research and good news!
It's horrible that a well-known company would resort to this sort of trickery.
We're encouraged to read all the terms and conditions, but companies tend to bury things in fine print, and it becomes overwhelming. You'd think one could trust an established company like Adobe, but then this news underlines that no company can truly be trusted. I'm glad that the FTC is being more aggressive on behalf of all consumers.

I signed up for a free trial and canceled within the indicated time frame, then was charged a cancellation fee. Waiting to see if another charge appears on my bank account.

Thank you.. very informative!

Exactly what happened, plus this year I thought I was paying for Adobe Pro, getting basic adobe.

Thank you. I was told 3 free months and was charged the same month. It is scandalous.

It happened to me. Now I'm on the hook until Feb 2025 @$19.99/mo. Canceling now (Jun 24) would cost me an early cancellation fee of $69.99 in July. I called to cancel my annual subscription at the end of the term in Feb 2025, and was told that I would get a notice by email in Jan 2025 that I should cancel or renew. Do you believe them? I don't. It's now on my own calendar to contact Adobe to cancel. I feel ashamed at 63 years old to have been talen like this. Shame on you too, Adobe!

This behavior has become more and more aggravating and you are constantly auditing. It is illegal and now credit cards do not always wish to back it up. Grear

Yes! Thank you! This is unethical and I’m so thankful that it’s being investigated and Adobe has to answer for their deceitful business practices.

I have fallen into that trap! I signed up for a seven-day free trial. A day or two before the end of the trial, I went online to cancel and was told that, if I wanted more time to decide, I could sign up for a month-to-month plan and cancel at the end of the month if I no longer wished to subscribe. NO MENTION of a penalty if I did so. Now, I've come to the end of the one-month and signed in to Adobe.com to cancel and was informed that I would be charged $109.95 as a fee for doing so. I have one day remaining on my month. Adobe's salesmen make used car dealers look like saints!!! Please add me to any lawsuit being pursued against Adobe.

Thank you

I have experienced this as an admin for my customer's Adobe accounts. Adobe makes it impossible to cancel a business account online or remove licenses for users that have left the company. You have to call Adobe to cancel which takes additional time and they will stall you and try to sell you a new subscription even though you have told them that you need to cancel the account for very clear and obvious reasons, i.e. the company is closing. I am grateful for this news and hope that it prompts Adobe to make changes.

They have been doing this for decades. This happened to me about 12 years ago. I had been a loyal customer since the early 1990s but no longer use Adobe products because the issue made me so mad.

Thanks. I was about to sign up, now I will be sure to check the correct box!

Excellent work! Thank you for taking the time to defend innocent people!

Too clever for their own good Adobe crooks playing gotcha with customers just because they think ethics only apply when they are legal statutes. This speaks volumes about their lack of character. Some people will do anything for a buck.

Thank you.

Same thing happened to me! I tried to cancel, and they told me I was not able to. So, I am paying a monthly fee for something I don't even use anymore.