Adobe Exec: Early Termination Fees Are 'Like Heroin' (theverge.com) 24
Longtime Slashdot reader sandbagger shares a report from The Verge: Early termination fees are "a bit like heroin for Adobe," according to an Adobe executive quoted in the FTC's newly unredacted complaint against the company for allegedly hiding fees and making it too hard to cancel Creative Cloud. "There is absolutely no way to kill off ETF or talk about it more obviously" in the order flow without "taking a big business hit," this executive said. That's the big reveal in the unredacted complaint, which also contains previously unseen allegations that Adobe was internally aware of studies showing its order and cancellation flows were too complicated and customers were unhappy with surprise early termination fees. In response to the quote, Adobe's general counsel and chief trust officer, Dana Rao, said that he was "disappointed in the way they're continuing to take comments out of context from non-executive employees from years ago to make their case."
Rao added that the person quoted was not on the leadership team that reports to CEO Shantanu Narayen and that whether to charge early termination fees would "not be their decision." The early termination fees in the FTC case represent "less than half a percent of our annual revenue," Rao told The Verge. "It doesn't drive our business, it doesn't drive our business decisions."
Rao added that the person quoted was not on the leadership team that reports to CEO Shantanu Narayen and that whether to charge early termination fees would "not be their decision." The early termination fees in the FTC case represent "less than half a percent of our annual revenue," Rao told The Verge. "It doesn't drive our business, it doesn't drive our business decisions."
Repeating posts, also like heroin (Score:5, Informative)
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Deja vu - I've seen this before. (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Dupe? Or Doop [youtube.com]?
Re: (Score:2)
Dupe = dope
Dupe (Score:5, Informative)
Dupe [slashdot.org]
Re:Dupe (Score:4, Insightful)
Posting dupes is 'like heroin' to Slashdot editors.
Worthless half a percent (Score:2)
"It doesn't drive our business, it doesn't drive our business decisions."
I see so the decision to use confusing and unpopular early termination fees was driven by brain slugs and not by the paltry amount of money collected by the practice.
So little money, they're supposed to donate it to orphaned brain slugs but often it just goes straight into the trash, that half of a percent, not worth anyone's time.
Re: Worthless half a percent (Score:2)
The revenue from the fees is not the point, the revenue from keeping people paying for subscriptions to avoid the termination fees is. For most businesses it is easier to justify the $50/month than a single $200 cost even if you continue to pay 6 or 8 months.
so the etf does work. (Score:2)
The % being low doesn't mean anything, it just means people don't terminate and it could be due to the fees or not.
dana rao (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
+1 Nice move; I'm giving you "check" for that.
Dana, your move.
So you're saying these fees are not important? (Score:4, Insightful)
...then stop charging them.
They haven't charged me personally anything. (Score:2)
Re: They haven't charged me personally anything. (Score:2)
There is no ETF on the Adobe photography plans, which include Photoshop. These are $10/month.
As to what worthwhile apps Adobe has, for me, it's Lightroom classic . Each of its features exists in other programs . But not integrated into program. While it's possible to do separate tasks, it it more complex, and takes more time.
Even though I'm not using any cloud features, I pay the Adobe rental fee for this reason. If I stop, I can no longer make most edits to my photos. Not even crop them to print them. The
Re: (Score:2)
The integration of the various products is one of the standout features.
For example, you might be editing a video in PPro. One of the audio tracks needs tweaking - you can right-click and export it to Audition, then return to PPro. Once it's linked like that, you can edit it another time and the edited version will be returned to PPro the next time it's opened. Same for AfterEffects, etc.
And the metadata that follows every element from capture to import to edit to render to release.
The difference all of tha
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If you actually work, for real, in an actual industry that produces actual publications then maybe you would have a different opinion.
Illustrator I use once a week or so. Indesign is definietly used for serious layour jobs where the copy-editors are split fromm the layout, photo and art because they work in a team and Indesign separates the content and layout of the product. Try that with Word or whatever free Linux junk you are peddling.
For things like CMYK with color-accurate production flows from PS/Illu
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The revenue from the early-termination fees is not important for Adobe. But their existence is, in order to lock customers in.
Half-percent is not an inspiring reference point. (Score:1)
They think that "less than $1 out of every $200 comes from early termination" (i.e. less than half a percent) is reassuring? If about $1 out of every $200 of revenue came from early termination fees, that would be staggering. I just checked, and at the moment Adobe Creative Cloud (all apps) advertises $35.99/month for individuals annual paid monthly. That's $432/year. In other words, a single year long individual subscriber shells out over $432/year in revenue. So to get the "$1 out of every $200" figure, t
Re: Half-percent is not an inspiring reference poi (Score:1)
I think I made an error, the calculation should have had 1/(4n+1) to include the cancelation revenue in the denominator. Still, n ends up close to 50, more like 199/4.
Re: (Score:3)
Interesting analysis.
I would add that low revenue from early termination fees is evidence that they work to trap customers. Kind of like ... oh, say ... heroin.
Lie by omission (Score:2)
The early termination fees in the FTC case represent "less than half a percent of our annual revenue," Rao told The Verge.
And how much would the subscription dues from people who decide not to cancel due to the exorbitant early termination fees account for?
early cancelation fees should be banned in most ca (Score:2)
early cancelation fees should be banned in most cases- unless the company can show that they are losing money if the client terminates early, they should be banned.
If it cost $100 to provision a service to someone, then sure, use the early cancelation fee to offset that cost. But how much does it cost to provision a license for a user on adobe?
Their profit went up 21% while revenue only went up by 10%.... cry me a fucken river for not fucking with your clients and having dubious business practices. I've h
Nothing less than PREDATORY!! (Score:1)