How is it that buyers can still rate an item even after support has expired? This is going to cause all kinds of negative comments & ratings due to the fact that they have to purchase extended support. The ability to rate an item after their support has expired should be removed this is a NO BRAINER.
17 Likes
We already have a lot of angry customers who want to rate our themes low and already provided bad feedback in comments because we said that their support was expired and they canāt submit tickets.
If we will continue to provide free support for expired users - this will be against envato rules. If we will ask users to prolong support - we will get 10 000+ negative reviews from our old customers.
What we should do?
Users who does not have valid support period should not be able to rate items and leave reviews!
9 Likes
Agreed 100%.
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Same here ! Already some bad comments & ratings yesterday ā¦ Whenever, we say to the customer he needs to renew his support. Obviously he got angry as he didnāt signed for that. And we want to respect Envato rules as well. So if this is not another way to make money for you but also a way to improve the Itemās support quality across the marketplace. You need to remove those ratings after support has expired. By the way, who would rate a theme 5 stars after 6 months ? You do that when youāre installing it & itās working fine OR to congratulate supportā¦ Not when you see that you have to do another payment.
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I rate even later than 6months after purchaseā¦ Because not every item I use after buying it. Because I canāt rate item havnāt seen, if it works on next CMS update, are there any support when there is really some problem with theme etc.
TF just has fck-dup all good things TF had. For 2 items I have bought my support has ended even I hadnāt installed themes. So now, if I decide to use them finally, there is bug what me to do? If we look on latest comments on multiple themes, no support - no help. So I am not going even to report bug, because I have no support left and will receive no helpā¦
In long term TF and authors wonāt benefit from this, because I, and I believe lot of customers, will think 10 times before purchase is done and money spent.
But who I am to speak about it, decision has been made by Envato, authors was happy about possibility to earn some bucks moreā¦ I am just idiot who was spending money here 
LOLā¦
1 Like
Youāre wrong here, majority of authors were against it, at least in the form it is now.
Also, you still have access to theme updates, even if your support has expired.
Could not agree more .
I am not sure I follow you - how was it better before?
Prior to the new changes authors could just refuse to support a file or even remove it completely as and when they felt like it - irrelevant of anything which said ālifetime supportā and there was nothing which envato could do about it to help.
The changes do not alter anything related to files bought pre - Sept 2015 and for those under the new policy buyers get a minimum of 6 months peace of mind. Surely the changes are to the benefit of buyers?!
ok, I wasnāt reading forum when this idea was born and ādiscussedā from Envatoā¦ So I believe authors had some doubts and opinion, which hasnāt been heard.
charlie4282, now I know, that I can buy theme only day before I start some project because I will have limited time of support without spending additional $. Before I was buying some items to support author, because item was cool and i believed it will have great support, item upgrade in future and some day I could use it with proper support etc.
Of course, I havenāt done that for authors with one item or just few sales because of reasons you mentioned - I canāt know are there going to be updates and possibility for author to remove item from envato market. But as in life - I knew, that there will be some % of crappy items but I will get support for other ones when I need. Now - same % of crappy items, still no proper refund policy and dispute system and no support after 6 months on all other items after purchase.
In my case - no āsupport purchasesā anymore, no more āpurchases for future, this item can be handyā, ultra triple check for author, all items he had in past, updates in past for them, comments etc., before spending money. So I am quite sure that there will be lot of trouble for smaller sellers and new authors hereā¦
Even I will check 10 times before purchase, because with all envato āqualityā check I had purchased crappy items here without proper documentation, without proper support (Answer to all questions āHi, send me your BO and ftp accessā¦ā). And there is almost nothing you can do about items like that like refund etcā¦ Because envato know, item has been ātestedā, there is a manual and author provide supportā¦ HAA HAAA!!!
So as there are alternative places to look, i believe Envato and authors will see the math after some time. I know, that envato is growing rapidly, everything is fine and so onā¦ but, letās see later how stupid decisions made in last year in long term will affect everyone trying to earn here.
With all due respect I really do not see how this is different.
Today ALL buyers get a lifetime of upgrades and bug fixes - no time limit.
You do only get 6 months free (as it happens I am certain there will be authors who continue beyond this for free too) now but before you got Zero months free.
You are entitled to see it how you feel fit, but Iām just trying to explain that at a time when a lot of people will have questions around this and as one of the biggest buyers on here with a lot of vested interest, that it is crucial to understand for buyers own sake and authors, that nothing has changed regarding old files, and ones since the change have only changed for the good by gaining a guarantee which never previously existed.
I donāt think we are in better situation now. Envato canāt control it now as well. And now we are forced to provide support and WE have to tell our buyers that their support period expired. This feature is completely incomplete.
I recently had a buyer, who was sending me 5-6 support requests every day. Besides questions, he asked me to re-write the whole code, because he doesnāt understand why i did like i did. Before that support thing, i could just ignore his mails, but now i have to answer all of them, because it is āincludedā in the price. Is there a win-win? 
Good luck getting anything to change. I once had a buyer give me a 1 star rating because he thought my script did something (that no script of its kind really does and wasnāt mentioned in the listing) and when I asked envato to remove the rating the lazy envato support guy said it was part of the ābuyer experienceā and therefore it would stand.
When I explained in detail how that made no sense he refused to budge (Iām guessing he was simply sitting there copy and pasting emails to meet his targets and got busted). I asked him to escalate the support callā¦never heard of that happening.
Ratings are messed up on envato. Is most probably be the main reason I donāt want to release any new content on codecanyon.
2 Likes
Iād admit that my last post was selfishly from a buyer perspective but only because several recent posts demonstrate that perhaps some buyers do not fully understand the (positive) impact of the changes.
I donāt think for one moment that it is ideal, but like with many changes here where it is impossible for envato to please everyone.
At least from a buyer perspective this removes the misleading ālifetime supportā claims and adds a degree of reassurance. Whilst for authors there is some financial reward (albeit not a huge amount), and by having more defined guidelines making it easier to push back against unreasonable expectations.
I fully appreciate that this in itself raises two more issues being 1) that many buyer never really understood theoriginal policy and 2) the potential for negative reviews if authors (rightfully) stand their ground ā but that is a separate issue and the purpose of this thread so apologies if I took it off track at all.
For what it is worth as a buyer not author I am totally behind authors being protected against unfair support based ratings and feel that with the new policy benefiting buyers that it would only be fair to authors to help them against this.
There is such point in Rating or Review Removal Policy https://help.market.envato.com/hc/en-us/articles/207651633-Rating-or-Review-Removal-Policy-
Whatās not allowed? We will remove:
- Ratings and reviews about item support for items that are not supported
Is it related to ratings, those were placed after support period has been expired? Looks like it must be related.
1 Like
As clients we need to be forced to make a review while the support is working, envato should send emails asking for reviewing the product in the 2nd and 4th month while the licence works. and then the last time, the 6th month a last chance to review the product.
if in 6 months the product developer didnāt gave a good support or the quality of the product is poor, the user / client has the right to rate.
Other special cases, should have different rules, for example a product that disappears from the marketplace, should have the chance to rate the developer, as retiring a product can be very annoying / harmful for clients, the client should have the right to rate authors that have retired products how they believe a retired product should be rated, which probably is not a 10.
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Just one thing: donāt let expired users rate us! Save us Envato! 
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Sounds like a Zombie rating, doesnāt look right
Sounds good but the reality is different. In the real world, everybody is not honest. They donāt have to select āitem supportā when they rate the theme. They can simply say āI donāt like the themeā and give 1 star rating. This rule can not prevent authors from these kinds of people.
Yes, but usually we talk with clients before they place rating, so there is public discussion in comments in such style:
Buyer: - provide me support
Author: - your support period has expired
Silence, and bad rating then.
This is some kind of reason to remove this rating. From pure logic.
On the other hand (much more important, I think) is how envato staff is working with ratings removal. Recently I had discussion with one envato guy about ratings removal according to Rating or Review Removal Policy. Some ratings have strong suspicion on force me to customize the product for clients needs. But from that removal policy this is 100% reason to delete bad rating. No success. Looks like it is absolutely extraordinary thing to remove a rating.
2 Likes
If you are a buyer wich buy only 2 or 3 codes on Envato, than it is not a huge amount. But if you are a buyer like me with that buy historyā¦ It makes a lot of diffrent to buy every half year for hunderts and hunderts dollars support staff.
I do understand ( Iāve bought more than mos to here and have a vested interest in the support thing) that but my point is that:
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when you bought a file before and it said āLifeitme Supportā all that meant was that you could email the author and ask for help.
They could then choose to give you that help (many would) or just ignore the request. If they said no then that was just tough and nothing you could do about it. -
for those many files you may have bought before last September nothing has changed and this agreement still stands.
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what is different and important is that with the new policy is fundamentally different from the old policy e.g. old - no guarantee .v. new - guaranteed by for 6 months at least and has never previously been available.
The only reason buyers are being asked to pay beyond 6 months is two reasons:
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because the āofficial guaranteeā that we are buying is something totally new and a different proposition
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authors will be obligated to continue helping (beyond core fixes which are included FREE of charge for everyone) and rightfully deserve to be rewarded for that.
On a side note (not aimed at you) They most 110% definitely should not be being punished for expecting it with bad ratings.
Itās just like an extended warranty with a car, TV, etc - Thereās nothing stopping you calling up a manufacturer and asking for them to fix stuff but without the official warranty (which costs) thereās no guarantee.
Again I see your point but donāt forget that basic updates and fixes are free for all forever and hopefully above clarifies the other changes