How Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract.
Thread.
The homepage starts with a very clear offer. "Starting at £49.84/mo". Let's click the "Free trial" button.
The next page has very little information on it. "7 days free, then £49.94/mo". Let's click the "Start free trial" button.
This page seems innocent enough. "7-day trial"... "Due now £0.00". ... Recurring billing starts only after your 7-day free trial ends".
That sounds nice. Most people will think "Gee that's great, where's my credit card?"
But what does "Annual plan, paid monthly" actually mean? Let's fill in our email address and press continue. Maybe that's explained on the next page.
By clicking "Start free trial", we're tied into a clickwrap agreement (though you'd be forgiven for not noticing the tiny writing).
"By starting my 7-day free trial, I am beginning a subscription and I agree to the subscription and cancellation terms and Terms of Use"
We're now venturing into territory where most people probably don't go. Let's click the "subscription and cancellation terms" link.
What's all this tiny grey writing? Funny how the heading "Enjoy your 7 day free trial!" is so big, yet this text is so very small and feint.
Blah blah blah. Nothing remarkable here. But wait! What's that at the bottom, "Cancellation Terms:"
Can I scroll?
Ooh, I can scroll. That was not obvious at all.
"Should you cancel after 14 days, you'll be charged a lump sum of 50% of your remaining contractual obligation and your service will continue until the end of the month's billing period"
What does this mean? It took me a while to get the facts, but it turns out that by clicking "Start free trial", we are tied into an annual contract.
It's just shy of £50 a month. £50x12 months = £600.
If we want to leave, we have to pay 50% of the outstanding ANNUAL BALANCE!
E.g. If we want to leave in the first month, we're on the hook for ≈£300. Plus, our access to the products get cut off at the end of the first month.
After a bit of googling I found this article on adobe's website that explains it a bit better.
helpx.adobe.com/manage-account…
Let's recap:
1. The total annual cost was hidden
2. The 50% cancellation free was hidden.
3. The clickwrap agreement text was much smaller than the sales text (e.g. "£0.00", "Start free trial")
4. The cancellation terms were hard to find
Should this be permitted?
Here's a (now deleted) thread from last year that can be found on the internet archive wayback machine:
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