Adobe Support Con?

Zack Maxwell

So I contacted Adobe support today to cancel my Creative Cloud subscription, and this is what happened.
Either at best they tried to weasel an extra $5 out of me just because they could, or at worst they may have been trying to get an extra half year worth of payments for nothing (new annual contract at half remaining rate). Either way, not cool. I censored the name of the rep just in case. Don't know what the rules are on that.

You are now chatting with '----'
----: Hello! Welcome to Adobe Customer Service.
----: Hi Zack.
Zack Maxwell: Hello
----: I am sorry to hear that you want to cancel the subscription and I will help you in this issue.
Zack Maxwell: Thanks
----: May I know the reason why you wish to cancel this subscription?
Zack Maxwell: I've been primarily using Photoshop for texturing game assets, but my new workflow no longer needs it.
----: If you would be willing to continue through annual commitment then I can give you one month free subscription so you will not be billed till Oct 11, 2014.
Zack Maxwell: I've basically found alternatives that fit my particular needs more effectively
Zack Maxwell: Like I said, I no longer have any need for it, so that would be unnecessary.
----: Alright.
----: Please allow me a moment.
----: I have checked and I am sorry to say that there would early termination fees if you cancel the subscription now.
----: So in this case I will suggest you to come after Sep 12, 2014 so we can cancel without any charges.
----: You can also stop through your Adobe account in the last month after Sep 12, 2014 if you do not have enough time to come back on chat again.
Zack Maxwell: wait, but I would be charged an extra $10 if I come after the 12th. What are the termination fee charges?
----: You will be billed at 50% of your monthly rate for the remaining months in your annual contract.
Zack Maxwell: Wouldn't that only be $5?
----: Yes.
Zack Maxwell: So it'd be better to cancel right now
----: Alright, I will go ahead and cancel and the total charge is $5.3.
Zack Maxwell: Okay, thank you.
----: So you will not be billed anymore.
Zack Maxwell: And that'll be charged automatically just like the regular billing, I assume
----: Please allow me a moment.
----: Yes you will be charged now.
----: Thank you for staying online, I appreciate your time and patience in this regard.
----: I have forwarded your request to our appropriate team to deduct the cancellation charge and you will be notifed via email within 3-5 days.
----: Is there anything else I can help you with?

Justin Meisse

Buy a victory sandwich with those well saved funds.

Zack Maxwell

I never said $5 was much. It's just messed up that they were trying to con me out of it at all.
Plus as I said, it's possible after the 12th that it may have rolled over into a new annual contract, at which point I'd actually owe them $60 for the cancellation instead of a mere $5.
There's no way of really knowing, since I was using month-to-month payments and started my subscription in January, but he claimed I had one month left on my "annual contract". So I have no clue how they determine when that contract cycles over.

Justin Meisse

I'm sure it was just the call center support person's two goals of trying to keep you subscribed plus trying to prevent a customer freak out from early cancellation charges.

I've worked support before so I have a lot more sympathy for the crap they have to deal with.

Zack Maxwell

Yeah, I suppose it's possible he just phrased things very poorly, and there may not have actually been an annual contract at all. I still can't understand what justifiable reason there would have been though to have me wait 'till after the next billing period.
In fact, if there was no annual contract, that would mean I'd have to pay the $10 plus the $5 termination fee if I'd waited.

KeithC

If it makes any difference; it sounds easier than cancelling a Comcast account.

Justin Meisse

Reading it closer now, he said to come back and cancel on Sept 12 to avoid an early cancellation fee, so you had 2 days left on this month's subscription. You chose to cancel anyway and got charged an extra 15 days.

How to cancel Comcast easily: "Hello, I'm moving to Ecuador in a week so I no longer need your service"

WarrenM

Justin Meisse wrote: »

How to cancel Comcast easily: "Hello, I'm moving to Ecuador in a week so I no longer need your service"

Haha, nice. I like that...

Justin Meisse

I used to work at a small town computer shop, calling customer support to return defective parts & computrs was a daily task. I've been forged in the fires of dealing with Packard Bell phone support.

One of my proudest achievements was calling up Mars Chocolate support to get a replacement for a defective bag of M&M's.

Zack Maxwell

He didn't correct me though, either when I said coming back on the 12th would require me to pay for the following month or when I said that cancelling now would be cheaper.

EarthQuake

Well, it sounds like you signed up for a yearly contract or something, and then tried to cancel it before your contract was up? If that is the case I'm sure the terms of the contract were clearly spelled out to you and you agreed to them (even if you didn't read them), so, I'm not sure what the issue is?

Afaik Adobe offers monthly commitments so you wouldn't have to deal with this sort of issue if it was a concern.

AtticusMars

Justin Meisse wrote: »

Reading it closer now, he said to come back and cancel on Sept 12 to avoid an early cancellation fee, so you had 2 days left on this month's subscription. You chose to cancel anyway and got charged an extra 15 days.

How to cancel Comcast easily: "Hello, I'm moving to Ecuador in a week so I no longer need your service"

Maybe I'm reading this wrong but it looks like if he had waited until the 12th just to avoid the cancellation fee he would have had to pay for another month of Photoshop CC. Basically he'd be paying $10 to avoid a $5 cancellation fee...

RobeOmega

Justin Meisse wrote: »

One of my proudest achievements was calling up Mars Chocolate support to get a replacement for a defective bag of M&M's.

Defective M&M's? How so I am interested now.

Zack Maxwell

It's also possible based on Justin's explanation that it was just negligence rather than outright deception or manipulation.
Either way though, I suppose the moral is; be careful when dealing with customer support.
Should I have known that already?

Justin Meisse

I seriously doubt he was trying to screw you, typically if you cancel a subscription on the day it ends you don't get charged the next month. If you're chatting online you are probably dealing with someone who speaks English as a second language and is communicating through hot-keys that spit out prescripted dialogue. So rather than try to explain why waiting would avoid a late fee he just moved onto the subscription cancellation script.

Roboemega: I opened a bag of M&M's to find them covered with a white, waxy substance. I had just finished up returning a bunch of defective hard drives so I joked with my coworkers that I was going to call support for the candy. They egged me on so I did, the support person was very nice and explained that if the M&M's were too old they would begin to "sweat" out their cocoa butter. She ended up mailing me out 2 coupons for free Mars Chocolate products.

kaptainkernals

Well looking at the pricing plans of CC:

https://creative.adobe.com/plans

For a single app, it's $19/mo if you agree to an annual plan ($29 on a monthly plan)

And judging from the conversation, whereby 50% of your monthly is $5, leads me to believe that you took the photography package, which is $9.99/mo - and the only plan options there are, annual prepaid ($239) and annual monthly ($9.99).

So yes, you cancelled your subscription before the annual plan had reached it's maturity. So i fully understand there being a cancellation fee.

You were paying an annual subscription on a monthly basis, not a month to month subscription Ala UE4. A monthly subscription Ala UE4 is only available for complete or single app, and that is from $29 upwards.

So no, he wasn't trying to con you, or rip you off. He may not of communicated as clearly as he could've, but i don't think there will any ill intentions