Parting ways with Adobe

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TLDR: Adobe was willing to rob me, so I threw a fit. Also, may need Inkscape help in the future

As you may know, Adobe offers an educator price for their creative cloud. I have had that for over 5 years now. When I originally signed up, the annual price worked out to $29.99 per month. I found out a couple days ago that that was a first year price only(should have read the fine print originally) and that after a year, that went to $39.99 per month. So I’d been paying $120 per year more than I thought for 4 years. Again, my fault for never paying attention.

However, this year, I was charged $843 (their normal price for everyone) for the year. That I noticed. I looked through my emails they had sent (I was getting so many ad emails from them, I just ignored most stuff from them) and I found an email saying I had to reverify my educator status. I immediately did that, and waited for it to be accepted to receive my refund of the overpayment.

After a week or so with nothing, I contacted them via chat, and after 20 minutes of stupid AI bot, I got a live rep. I explained the situation and they said the only thing they could do was cancel my plan, give me a refund, and I could apply for educator plan again. So I said okay.

That was when they informed me of the $39.99 per month price, which I had been paying already anyway. I told them that now that I was aware this is what I had been paying, I wasn’t ready to commit to that price, and after negotiating (them making a couple of offers) they asked what it would take for me to stay. I told them I would stay for the $29.99 price but only if it was permanent, so it wouldn’t just push the same issue down the road a year. They said they could offer me that price, but only for a year, when it would automatically renew at the higher price.

So I told them I’d rather just cancel altogether, they warned me I would lose my cloud files, to which I said I saved important docs locally anyway. (That was the only thing I was told I would lose). They said fine and canceled my account and asked if I had any other questions. I asked when I could expect my refund to which I was told refunds are only good for 14 days, and my account was over 5 yrs old, so I wouldn’t get one.

So I told them they couldn’t cancel my account because I had paid them over $800 just 14 days ago and they said it was too late my account had already been “cancelled per my request”.

I asked for a supervisor and they said one wasn’t available, so I threw a fit and they finally checked with the “back end” people, and finally agreed to my refund.

Still haven’t gotten it (they said maybe a week), so I just wanted to post this as a warning to others that they might subject to some shady business dealings if they don’t fight for themselves and their rights.

Also, I may have Inkscape questions in the future. :wink:

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Wow yeah I don’t blame you.

I suspect you won’t have all that many questions about inkscape, you have tons of experience and most of it will translate. It’s just a matter of figuring out the options in new menus.

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Good for you. Inkscape can do pretty much everything AI can, and (for me) is far more intuitive - raw, so to speak.

If you can’t figure out how to do something in Inkscape, just ask Google. You’ll find it - very often a video from Logos by Nick, which I HIGH recommend watching. He has a very cheap membership but I’ve never needed it.

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Logos by Nick is fine but I hate learning by video so I actually prefer written instructions. I learned everything I needed to know from tavmjong bah.

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Thanks for that, had never heard of that site.

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Gah! You are far from the first person I’ve heard with issues with Adobe, but that is particularly egregious :face_with_symbols_on_mouth:

I love Inkscape, especially as (if you’ve ever read through an Inkscape question thread here you know) there are often multiple ways to do things so you just memorize the one that makes sense to you!

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This reply was a harsher than I intended it to be so I’m deleting it.

I’m sure you’ll enjoy Inkscape, a lot of people do and it is much cheaper than Adobe.

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I got fed up with Adobe more than a year ago and switched to Affinity Designer 2 (a one-time price, good forever)…

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I have the version 1 Affinity software and decided not to upgrade when they came out with the new stuff. I like their software too and several people on the forum use it. If I ever decide I don’t want to afford Creative Cloud I’ll take another look at Affinity again.

I really like their DTP program sinceit reminds me of Pagemaker back in the day. I was able to pick it up with very minimal effort. It just works.

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I’ve been on the edge of jumping into affinity(the whole suite cause why not) due to the :pirate_flag: adobe im running is old enough I can’t open the newer canon r10 raws in it. Just took a bunch of RAW Fullmoon pics a few minutes ago so that just might be enough of a push to finally leap. Anyone know about annual sales coming up soon?

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I really like Affinity Designer. It’s frequently on sale for $35–50 but even at full price ($70) it’s a bargain. It doesn’t do everything that Illustrator does (or Inkscape, for that matter) but it’s easy to use and does most things well. They have a free trial available so you can try it before deciding whether or not you like it.

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Big Inkscape fan! It has everything you need and more at a great price. Maybe drop a note to your friendly press outlet telling them the story. There is a guy at the NYTimes they chases these things down, I don’t think it is only airlines they poke at. Sure, nothing is likely to happen, but you never know.

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I have had an adobe teacher price since they switched to a subscription so basically forever- I pay $29.99. I always have. Just double checked…. still $29.99.

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I’d cancel too. That’s just too much with all the alternatives available these days. I’m on a legacy Adobe Photography Plan for $9.99/mo that comes with Photoshop, Lightroom and GenAI credits. If they ever stop honoring that price I’ll move on as well.

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Grrrr. Oh well, I can get by without it, I am sure.

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Switch to the Affinity line of products. Pay one time and get a great bunch of apps. You won’t regret it!

I “was” the biggest Adobe fan on the planet. I’m a professional visual designer who has worked with Adobe since their meager beginnings. I remember when Illustrator first came out. To give some reference, I’ve worked with clients like Lexus, PayPal, Walmart, Old Spice and more with global agencies so I know a thing or two about what I’m talking about. I’ve seen apps come and go too, Pagemaker anyone? Fireworks? Dreamweaver?

After I learned they were stealing artistic property from users of their products to train their AI I cancelled my ridiculously priced Adobe Suite. I’ve since moved to the Affinity line of apps and haven’t regretted a second.

Takes a bit of time to learn the intricacies of the Affinity apps especially if you’re familiar with the Adobe keyboard shortcuts. You can change the keyboard binds in the Affinity apps so that helps.

Adobe is another greedy corporation who have clearly lost sight of who their products were for. Now their stock value has dropped dramatically. Serves them right.

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I dumped Adobe the moment they went to a subscription model.

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Hi there and welcome to the forum. We’re glad to have you here.

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