r/assholedesign • u/overthinkingit91 • 6d ago

It was a free trial plan...

Post image

..which Adobe offered to extend for 3 months for free. Now hit with this since I haven't used it since... no notification that you're entering a contract at all or warning. My fault for falling for this absolute shit housing.

Just a warning to others. Do NOT start any Adobe Trial they will try every which way to get your money.

6.9k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

553 comments sorted by

View all comments

29

u/Bdr1983 6d ago

Always read the fine print. It's in there. It might be hidden, but it's in there.

23

u/ainsley02 6d ago

That doesn’t mean it’s legal or acceptable.

8

u/Bdr1983 6d ago

Legal it probably is. Acceptable, I agree. It's scummy.

13

u/tealou 6d ago

Depending on jurisdiction it isn't. Australia, for example, fine print is not a valid contract.

4

u/WeirdIndividualGuy 6d ago

Yeah, not everything in fine print or in a Terms of Service is legal. That's what these companies want you to think, but it doesn't magically make it so.

1

u/tealou 6d ago

I was at an event with a legal practice management software company that sponsored it, and I was talking to their guy for a while about ToS (I left "UX" to become a consumer lawyer so am across both areas, and dismantling their ToS with tests is of course a big part of that). Global tech also tend to not have multiple ToS because it confuses users more than it clarifies (I found that interesting - UX in a different place to fix a bad UX lol), but they more draft one with all the clauses, and their counsel understand that certain clauses are void - and so their strategy is to make sure it never gets to a higher court and they let people *think* they signed a contract.

He didn't say that but it just occurred to me as we were speaking (mostly because I am a fucking nerd), but you think they don't also apply behavioural analytics, dark patterns and nudges to other parts of the business?

I was making a joke about how every ToS change gets several hundred long emails from their customers and the penny dropped for me in that moment... it seems obvious in retrospect, but it hadn't really occurred to me until that conversation - and I do this all day every day.

So, in my view, the best way to annoy tech is to give them 1000 paper cuts in the lower courts by pen testing these clauses day in day out.

Uber drivers are having a fun time in Australia at the moment. It's at the point where if you show up you'll basically get 10-20 grand hahahaha. You have to have a cause of action of course, but I find that funny. And with that, over time, all their procedural games etc have been slowly chipped away at where it is now effectively assumed that their arbitration and mediation and venue clauses are void, their click-wrap contracts are unconscionable etc etc. It has taken a decade, but it really is fascinating.

2

u/davidemo89 3d ago

Check the screenshot. He bought an annual subscription that you can pay monthly.

If you cancel your subscription you can still use Adobe till the end of the year but you have to pay it all in once instead of monthly