The Torture of Trying Adobe

[jimmyjamjojo]

You're also still within your 14-day window to cancel and get a full refund. Technically you could have tried it for longer than 1 week as you can still use it within the 14 day period after.

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Even if you're past your 14 day window - You can switch to a different plan, which starts a new 14 day window where you can outright cancel and get a refund. No need to be locked in for a year ever again...

 

[DaelpixPhotography]

I had a very bad experience with Adobe.

When you sign up for a free Lightroom plus Photoshop trial, they tell you you're paying by the month and you can cancel any time. This is deceptive, because they actually bind you to a yearly commitment. The only benefit is that you pay by the month. If you cancel, you still have to give them a lump sum based on the yearly price.

My trial ended today. Yesterday, I went to their site and started to cancel, thinking maybe they would give me a deal. One week is not nearly enough time to get used to this software, so I thought I would see if they would reduce the monthly rate, and I could study the software for another month before making a firm choice.

Yesterday, the site said I still had a day, so I decided to try again today. Then when I tried, Adobe's site blocked my ability to manage my plans. It is literally impossible to do it. I had to chat with some guy in India whose English was extremely poor.

He could not answer a straight question, and as far as I can tell, he tried to swindle me. He said they would give me two free months, which was all right, but he didn't tell me what would happen if I canceled at the end of the two months. Would I pay for two months? Was it free? How much would they be charging me today? He kept refusing to answer these questions, so I had no idea what they were offering.

I kept asking him when the site would remove the block so I could handle cancellation and discounts that way, and I could not get him to tell me. When he finally relented, he gave me a link to the site, which was still blocked.

I finally told him to cancel and give me a full refund, so that is where we are now. It appears I can't learn to use the software without committing to a payment Adobe refuses to specify.

Adobe's business practices are clearly crooked, and that is unfortunate. Maybe I would have paid for a year if they had been straight with me, but I was so frustrated after chatting with their incompetent rep, I just wanted to end the experience.

I think nothing of spending $500 or more for a lens, and I gave DxO over $300 without blinking, but dealing with dishonest idiots on a $200 deal is just too much aggravation. There are a ton of other fine programs out there.

I'm so glad I sacked Adobe and their subscription charges. Never going back.
I went with Luminar Neo. In some cases not that brilliant compared to Lightroom, but it's better than nothing.

 

[CharleyL]

I went to Affinity about five years ago because of Adobe's subscription practices, and their foreign help desk workers who can't speak real English, and laugh at any question asked. It's an insult when trying to get real help. Affinity is cheaper, with no monthly payment requirements or subscriptions and now FREE with some limitations. They offer the companion photo and publishing programs like Adobe too. The Affinity Photo works a bit different than Photoshop, but the learning curve wasn't all that hard if you know Photoshop or other photo editing software. You can do everything that Photoshop can, sometimes even better, but in slightly different ways. Even the editing screen looks much the same. I was an Adobe user for almost 20 years, but became very unsatisfied with their subscription and customer service.

Charley

 

[Rincewind]

interesting comments!
Im no pro photographer, & I spent a long time avoiding Adobe's subscription., but my photography activities have dramatically increased due to having more time on my hands & now pay for LRC & Photoshop monthly., I got a great price deal by speaking with them on chat. Tbh & this is purely my opinion but these 2 programs are simply the best for editing photos. Sure for more casual photographers there are probably cheaper if not free options, but honestly I have never looked back & don't regret signing up for one minute. From a photo editing POV Im on a big learning curve & the knowledge base /information resources out there is just huge & a big deal for me.

its good - no doubt about it - its a steep learning curve - no doubt about it - its not cheap - no doubt about it. I downloaded th elatest Afinity for free, I do a lot of macro and stacking - slime moulds , fungi etc - Afinity beats PS into a cocked hat with a simple select and run - no tweaking, it is vastly superior with its output. But I have yet to try it on other aspects, however as I am no longer a Pro selling any images cost comes in and the best part of £15 a month for PS/LR when I get the same or better from Afinity for free - hmm. The only thing left to firm up my decision will be when I do some printing as to how Afinity handles that, I use lightroom to print and have spent soem time and paper and ink to get to the quality and style I want in LR we shall see how much effort Afinity takes to get the same result

 

[LCPete]

its good - no doubt about it - its a steep learning curve - no doubt about it - its not cheap - no doubt about it. I downloaded th elatest Afinity for free, I do a lot of macro and stacking - slime moulds , fungi etc - Afinity beats PS into a cocked hat with a simple select and run - no tweaking, it is vastly superior with its output. But I have yet to try it on other aspects, however as I am no longer a Pro selling any images cost comes in and the best part of £15 a month for PS/LR when I get the same or better from Afinity for free - hmm. The only thing left to firm up my decision will be when I do some printing as to how Afinity handles that, I use lightroom to print and have spent soem time and paper and ink to get to the quality and style I want in LR we shall see how much effort Afinity takes to get the same result

Yes the macro stacking in Affinity is excellent and easy to use, I tried it a few years ago and found it better than Adobe photoshop, it sounds like its still is
It does everything else that I needed to do in photoshop as well

 

[Sony Corleone]

I went to Affinity about five years ago because of Adobe's subscription practices, and their foreign help desk workers who can't speak real English, and laugh at any question asked. It's an insult when trying to get real help.

This is how I feel. If the customer service hadn't been insultingly bad, and the person I talked to had not been dishonest as well as completely incompetent, I wouldn't care that much about the $20 per month.

I was also annoyed with Adobe to begin with, because I use Acrobat, and now you have to get rid of ads when you try to open a document. I use a free program now.

 

[Annet]

I went to Affinity about five years ago because of Adobe's subscription practices, and their foreign help desk workers who can't speak real English, and laugh at any question asked. It's an insult when trying to get real help. Affinity is cheaper, with no monthly payment requirements or subscriptions and now FREE with some limitations. They offer the companion photo and publishing programs like Adobe too. The Affinity Photo works a bit different than Photoshop, but the learning curve wasn't all that hard if you know Photoshop or other photo editing software. You can do everything that Photoshop can, sometimes even better, but in slightly different ways. Even the editing screen looks much the same. I was an Adobe user for almost 20 years, but became very unsatisfied with their subscription and customer service.

Charley

Absolutely same but with Photoworks as it's just so much easier and works good for my purposes either way. Adobe's plan seems worthy only for those constantly using their stuff AND having some spare money to spend on it.

 

[justa1972]

Interesting read which reflects the position that I’m in. Haven’t taken any photos with my camera for about 6 months and knew I wouldn’t be so cancelled my LR subscription.

Now hoping to get back into using my camera and just aren’t sure what to use - I’ve tried different things but always end up going back to LR.

Has anyone tried On1 photo raw ? I’ve heard it’s similar to LR?