Fun fact: If you use your bank to threaten adobe, they will waive the cancellation fee ( imgur.com )

Not mine but this is actually what I did too.

I said I plan to charge back on my credit card. They threatened that if I did that, they can't promise my account wouldnt be flagged.

I said "bet" and they removed the cancellation fee and cancelled the service.

Moonrise2473 ,

Not victim blaming nor defending Adobe because fuck them, but... It's not a cancellation fee and they're actually nice to let you cancel earlier.

I explain: when you sign up, you can choose between monthly commitment or yearly commitment. Yearly commitment has a much lower monthly fee because they want to discourage occasional usage, but many individuals wouldn't like to pay the huge yearly sum in a single payment, and in this case they offer a yearly plan with monthly installments. (For a big company instead is the opposite, they prefer paying the huge sum and get a single invoice instead of 12 invoices - less work for the accounting dept). Yearly plan with monthly installments isn't the same of a monthly plan.

So, technically, the user agreed to a 1-year contract and they're even nice to let you go out earlier by just paying back the discount that you got in the meantime, like if you subscribed monthly. If you think about it, it's almost unheard. With most yearly contracts, there's no possibility of early cancellation. Even Amazon, that label themselves "the most consumer friendly company" doesn't easily give partial refunds to unused Prime subscriptions.

Regarding the chargeback, in my country all the banks except American express would reject it as you got the service as stated in the contract

Now that I almost defended Adobe, fuck them and always try to find an alternative to their products before giving a single penny to them

A_Chilean_Cyborg ,
@A_Chilean_Cyborg@feddit.cl avatar

Defacto is, and that's everything that matters after all.

Wahots ,
@Wahots@pawb.social avatar

This is why I use Privacy.com. Never use your credit card to go bareback on stuff like memberships or subscriptions. You can still cancel ahead of time, but if they put up any fight, you can walk away at any time.

Nintendo, patreon, bluehost, linkedin premium, adobe and Spectrum. Fuck all of y'all. Your dark patterns hose people.

Gregu ,
@Gregu@lemmy.ca avatar

Can I use Privacy.com outside the US?

sylphrin ,

Their support article says no, unfortunately
https://support.privacy.com/hc/en-us/articles/360050917053-Can-I-use-Privacy-if-I-live-outside-the-US

Wahots ,
@Wahots@pawb.social avatar

I don't think so. Canada does have similar services through some banks, IIRC.

Guest_User ,

Does it hit your credit if an bill or fee goes unpaid because the virtual card no longer exists?

Wahots ,
@Wahots@pawb.social avatar

I don't believe so, because it never reaches your credit card. You spoof your credit card with a fake number. It can make the payments to privacy. Privacy hands the money to the sketchy client.

It's basically a self-imposed Man-in-the-middle attack.

Ehen you destroy the man in the middle, your bank and the sketchy client have no means of communicating or can even "see" each other. Your money goes to privacy first.

PythagreousTitties ,

Well yeah, there isn't a company in the world that likes charge backs. Just be aware that by doing it you're cutting off any possibility of doing business with that company in the future.

Your bank isn't a fan of them either. So if you go on a charge back spree they'll notice and could stop issuing them for you.

EvacuateSoul ,

They may cancel your credit card or refuse to open new ones for you, but they can't refuse to charge back transactions you dispute.

PythagreousTitties ,

Half true. They will refuse charge backs if you keep doing them. I've seen them be refused on customer orders before.

EvacuateSoul ,

How can that comply with federal law that customers are not liable for fraudulent purchases on credit cards?

PythagreousTitties ,

No idea, man. I'm just providing my experience with it from when I saw it happen all the time at work.

skizzles ,

I would imagine that it's exactly because of the word you used. Fraud.

If someone is going on a chargback spree it's going to look fraudulent from the customers end. So their would likely need to be some kind of evidence or back and forth with the credit card company. Since they are now the middle man taking money from companies and putting it back in a lowly plebs pocket.

Potatos_are_not_friends OP ,

Your bank isn't a fan of them either

Fortunately there's THOUSANDS of banks and Credit unions.

PythagreousTitties ,

... And most of them share a black book.

Potatos_are_not_friends OP ,

Man you are really sucking the financial industry dick

You get a kickback for defending big banks?

PythagreousTitties , (edited )

Am I, how? By being poor af and having experience dealing with banks personally and professionally?

Edit. I'm just letting you know how the shit works. You not liking it doesn't mean anything. The banks don't gaf about your inexperience.

Peruvian_Skies ,

Don't shoot the messenger. They're telling you how it works (and they're right btw), that doesn't mean they like it, much less that it's their fault.

PythagreousTitties ,

Thank you.

grue ,

Sounds like a job for antitrust law.

PythagreousTitties ,

Banks make the world go round. I doubt stopping them from communicating will happen. I like the thought though.

Fleppensteijn ,
@Fleppensteijn@feddit.nl avatar

Wow, I had no idea Acrobat Reader still exists. They charge €15,72 per month now apparently.

pineapplelover ,

I just open pdfs in the (firefox) browser. Does most of what I need.

Appoxo ,
@Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

My company pays for it so we can edit pdf forms.
Sadly not many capable tools for that exist. Open for suggestions (Windows) though

ramble81 ,

Reader has always been free. This is for Pro which allows you to do manipulation of PDFs, not just viewing them.

Fleppensteijn ,
@Fleppensteijn@feddit.nl avatar

I vaguely remember (but can't find it right now) that the PDF format became open source at some point and free alternatives came out for PDF editing. And that was already back in the 2000s when people still printed documents (which is what PDF was originally meant for).

In modern times, every browser/OS can read PDF, every text editor can export to PDF, nobody prints physical documents and there are free alternatives – so why do they still exist and who is paying?

Dinsmore ,

If you have a business like a law firm where it is VERY IMPORTANT that a PDF has certain qualities, free tools for PDF creation can be a big gamble, especially if you have to open a PDF that someone else has created and do changes to it. And the cost is pretty trivial compared to the cost of messing up.

Moonrise2473 ,

For a professional, what Acrobat pro can do is not available in any other program and (don't tell Adobe!) only 50 cents a day is an incredible deal

For example you can scan a sheet of paper, it does OCR on it and creates a font that matches exactly the one on page, then you can change words and sentences without changing the look of it.

Trim pages, remove elements, edit embedded images and vectors with other programs (doesn't need to be made by Adobe but it works better if it is). Change margins, fonts, colors, flow text differently, change the line spacing. Have a preview how color will change when printed, see if spot colors are used and change them in different ways. Edit transparencies, use plugins for extended repetitive work. Convert the fonts to outlines if the font has some kind of DRM and doesn't allow embedding, resulting in visual difference between other computers.

The nerfed standard edition at 10 euro per month instead isn't worth anything

shortwavesurfer ,

How about switching to infrastructure where you have to push money to these companies instead of them pulling money from you? Use Monero.

tja ,
@tja@sh.itjust.works avatar

The best thing is that you do not need some crazy cryptocurrency for this functionality. You can just use bank transfer.

InfiniWheel ,

Can't like, both banks involved 100% see the transaction tho? That's different from Monero where no one knows that

Peruvian_Skies ,

You can only revert a transaction if it leaves a paper trail.

InfiniWheel ,

Maybe I'm too dumb for this, but doesn't it very much leave a trail? Enough for one party to at least go to their bank in a fake panic saying "help I accidentally sent money to this person please revert this". Note that hasn't ever happened to me or anyone I know so dunno if its even possible

Peruvian_Skies ,

Yes, they leave a trail. That's why you can revert them, because the banks know that the transaction actually happened and how much it was for.

teletext ,

Use Monero.

Are you actually that lazy that you won't learn even the most basic features any and every bank overs that you rather shill crypto crap?

shortwavesurfer ,

Not at all. I just don't trust the banking system.

mrfriki , (edited )

It's been roughly 8 years since I last paid for an Adobe subscription. The subscription period was over and yet they renewed it unilaterally. A whole year nonetheless.I called my bank, explained the situation, alleged scam and asked for a refund and to forever block any attempt from Adobe to charge my credit card. No only they agreed right away (which actually surprised me). They said that they have received a lot of similar request from other customers, all coming from Adobe.

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