‘Well that’s illegal’: Man trying to change his Adobe plan repeatedly met with an ‘error’ message that only seems to pop up when he tries to cancel

A man on TikTok has called out Adobe and vowed to cancel his subscription after he shared a video that seemed to show an error message repeatedly popping up when he tried to change to a cheaper subscription or cancel it. However, when he visited the page to upgrade his subscription, the error message disappeared.

Adobe is considered to be the industry standard for many creatives out there, although it has made some controversial decisions in the past. The creative suite has all kinds of editing software from Premiere Pro to Photoshop. The trouble many customers find is that the yearly subscription to use the products is rather expensive. 

TikToker, “@TallRedBeard,” said that his Adobe plan was set to increase in price to just under $800 come November, and he could no longer afford it. Instead of continuing on the current plan, he decided that he would change to one that is more affordable while keeping the main software he uses. However, when he clicked through to the “Change your plan” page, a little red message popped up on screen that read: “An error occurred. Please try again.”

“I keep getting this error,” he claimed, as he showed himself trying to load the page again. Once again, the error message appeared on the screen. However, when he clicked on the “Upgrade my plan” button, there was no error. 

“I can give them more money. That seems to be really easy to do,” he quipped. The man then tried canceling his plan, and the error message reappeared once more and prompted him to “try again.” While the man didn’t outright say what he was implying, he sarcastically claimed it was “interesting.”

One angry Adobe customer

Unhappy with being unable to cancel his subscription, the man resigned himself to just canceling his card instead. In the description, he asked his fellow video editors, “What are we switching to?”

Some commenters claimed that the error message was an intentional bid to stop Adobe users from leaving: “They 100% did this on purpose,” wrote one; “Well that’s illegal,” added another. In the past, Adobe has come under fire for making it difficult for users to cancel their subscriptions. According to FTC.gov, back in 2024, the Federal Trade Commission took action against the company for deceiving users and hiding the early cancelation fees.

The Adobe website currently has a clear explanation of how the cancelation fees work and whether or not a subscriber should expect a cancelation fee.

While it’s unclear whether the error @TallRedBeard experienced was genuine or not, it seems he and other customers aren’t willing to give Adobe the benefit of the doubt.