• answersplease77@lemmy.world
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    17 days ago

    these cocksuckers were charging my 70-yr-old computer-illetrate mom nearly $80 a month because “she wanted to be able to open pdf on her laptop”, and then once I found out and tried to cancel this pro subscription which she had, they forced us to pay a $200 cancelation fee which amounts to 50% of the remaining months until the end of the year. Adobe came pre installed and all she did was click on yes, yes, yes after the triall period finished. It’s a predetory behavior from a scummy company. I will never forgive them for this.

    • ripcord@lemmy.world
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      17 days ago

      How did it get her credit card info if she only clicked “yes” boxes? Or was it linked to some other payment system that was set up on her system somehow (MS or Apple App Store or something)?

        • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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          17 days ago

          People on Lemmy, who kinda are on the upper echelons of technical aptitude, forget that the average user is really fucking dumb. Work a stint in level 1 IT and you will get the absolute wildest head smacking issues ever.

          And companies capitalize on that by making it incredibly easy to give them money.

          • answersplease77@lemmy.world
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            17 days ago

            My sister who is stupid with computers is a successful consultant with phd in her field lol.

            I’m not exaggerating to say 90% of people in the world treat PCs as non-intresting tools do their job. They have privacy-nightmare settings on their phones and never change the default apps or settings on their PC. That’s how tech companies earn their billions

        • xavier666@lemm.ee
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          17 days ago

          Adobe is worse than scammers. Scammers at least have the self realization that they are scamming. Adobe will steal your money and huff on the fumes that they are providing a valuable service by letting people open PDFs.

          I recently downloaded their PDF reader (because it’s the only app which allows for digitally signing a document with a visible cryptographic signature) and it’s 400 MB in size. In no world should a PDF reader be that large.

  • Jesus@lemmy.world
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    17 days ago

    It’s so refreshing to actually have my tax dollars starting to fund consumer protection again.

    If Trump gets in office again, it’s back to backsliding. Because apparently consumer protection is “big government” or some such shit.

  • ForgottenFlux@lemmy.worldOP
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    17 days ago

    Summary:

    • The US government is suing Adobe for allegedly deceiving customers with hidden fees and making it difficult to cancel subscriptions.
    • The Department of Justice claims Adobe enrolls customers in its most lucrative subscription plan without clearly disclosing important plan terms.
    • Adobe allegedly hides the terms of its annual, paid monthly plan in fine print and behind optional textboxes and hyperlinks.
    • The company fails to properly disclose the early termination fee, which can amount to hundreds of dollars, upon cancellation.
    • The cancellation process is described as “onerous and complicated”, involving multiple webpages and pop-ups.
    • Customers who try to cancel over the phone or via live chats face similar obstacles, including dropped or disconnected calls and having to re-explain their reason for calling.
    • The lawsuit targets Adobe executives Maninder Sawhney and David Wadhwani, alleging they directed or participated in the deceptive practices.
    • The federal government began investigating Adobe’s cancellation practices late last year.
    • Adobe’s subscription model has long been a source of frustration for creatives, who feel forced to stay subscribed to continue working.
    • Recently, Adobe’s new terms of service were met with backlash, with some users interpreting the changes as an opportunity for Adobe to train its AI on users’ art.
    • The company has also faced regulatory scrutiny in the past, including antitrust scrutiny from European regulators over its attempted $20 billion acquisition of product design platform Figma in 2022, which was ultimately abandoned.
  • Cyrus Draegur@lemm.ee
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    15 days ago

    Ha good fucking luck charging an early cancellation fee to the VIRTUAL CARD I GENERATED AND DESTROYED THE MOMENT I DECIDED TO STOP PUTTING UP WITH YOUR SHITTY “SERVICE”! FUCK you, Adobe. You get NOTHING from me.

  • kescusay@lemmy.world
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    17 days ago

    I remember when Adobe was a cool company that built art tools. Now it seems like the art tools are an afterthought, tacked onto a money-siphoning scheme.

    • CurlyWurlies4All@slrpnk.net
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      17 days ago

      Did they ever? They bought PageMaker in 1994 and Photoshop in 1995. They bought Macromedia in 2006, GoLive, Live motion, Typekit, Behance… Is there anything they’ve ever bought they haven’t slowly ruined with financialisation or just outright shuttering what would have been competition?