Changes to the refund, dispute and ratings system on ThemeForest and CodeCanyon

Hey @DistinctiveThemes,

This is an unusual one! I can see why you’re in a pickle. Strictly speaking, we don’t really have functionality which allows an author to revoke the refund once they’ve opted to accept it. I’d say in this edge case your best bet would be to contact support and explain the scenario. Be sure to document the discussion between you and the customer.

I appreciate the response. In this case it transpired that the customer client didn’t want to try new hosting so it worked out the in end. I doubt I’ll be in that position again any time soon :slight_smile:

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Thats what is going on, i am feeling like after every 10 Sale one refund request its like user like to play with author.

It’s the biggest joke I’ve ever seen

System abuse can be prevented in a simple manner.
Disable option for item review if the refund request has been made for all reasons except for the item bug.That’s it,abuse can be decreased for 90%

Hi All,

The second part of this initiative ‘Public Reviews’ has been launched. Check out the announcement here: Public reviews and ratings

I’m sorry but this is really not working out. We’ve started getting refund requests because we don’t respond to tickets on weekends.

Regarding “changing their minds” - these are downloadable items. Once you download one, that’s it, there’s no “changing your mind”. Our plugins have always been pirated on shady sites, but now what’s stopping anyone from buying our plugins, downloading them, and then immediately asking for refunds for “changing their mind”? They know we will refund them, otherwise we’ll be stuck with 1-star ratings apparently.

I understand giving refunds when things don’t work out (plugin not working properly, bugs we can’t easily fix, and so on), that’s completely fair, but I’m afraid that this system is too easy to abuse right now.

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Is there any reason that it has not been refunded and the review also has not removed after we approve the refund? it has been around 1 hour. can you please tell me if you have any same experience? thank you,

I had this complaint before, and Envato said even after a refund is done, the rating cannot be removed.

I know, is non-sense :frowning:

It has been removed and refunded.

it was not about the wrong version, it was about the fraudulent behavior, system abusing and blackmailing and finally envato staff admit it and removed rating and review provided by that buyer because that was blackmailing.

A customer of ours is asking for a refund even though he bought the product 2 years ago

This is ridiculous.

Your refund system should implement some time constraint to prevent asking a refund after a certain amount of time.

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Guys. how do you handle “purchase by mistake”?
I have an issue. http://prntscr.com/b8mfyg ( hide username…). this user said he purchased by mistake. when we checked he didn’t download (it was NO) at first and he downloaded now.
he is saying he didn’t know that. but he could obviously see the theme name when he purchased and when he downloaded.
This is 2nd refund request purchased by mistake. It should not be refund. but care about low rating which envato doesn’t accept to remove.

Any advice?

A buyer can request a refund only 1 time for each items?
I thnk we have 5 days to decide. what if we want to give a refund after 5 days? is it possible?

Thank you for your time.

@javothemes this morning I woke up with the same case and the item has been downloaded so I declined the refund request. Rules are rules. No matter what buyer rates I don’t care. I’m not gonna let myself robbed against these fraud people.

Recommend all fellow authors to do same. If we act together maybe at some point Envato hear this ridiculous scenario.

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I have got already a refund request with It was a mistaken purchase, the item was downloaded, and request from a British customer, as he is from EU, now I don’t know what to do?
Refund Policy says give everything: http://themeforest.net/page/author_refund_policy#not-downloaded7

Additional obligations to EU buyers

If any of your buyers are located in the EU they may have additional rights over and above these baseline standards. We encourage you to seek any further information required directly from the website of the European Union Commission and consult with a professional advisor if necessary. As a guide, for those additional EU rights to apply, the buyer must be located in the EU and purchased your item for personal use only and not in connection with business, trade or commerce. If the buyer meets this profile, then we strongly recommend a mistaken purchase refund be provided for a period of up to 12 months from the date the customer receives your item, even if they have downloaded it

He has bought the item before 15 days, also downloaded the theme and now says - sorry it was a mistake…

What now am I give his money back?? and say “Thank you for test my item. Even you can keep using after refund. Please do it to me again. I will be wait for you.”

What is this Envato ? We are talking about 15 days. Not 1 or 2. Also item downloaded.

Additional Info : User has 2 ticket and already replied and solved.

After hitting the decline button, this is my standard response:

Hi,

Thank you for taking the time to contact us.

While we are fully aware that mistakes can occur during a purchase, the item appears to have been downloaded. As per our refund policy and that of Envato, we do not provide refunds in this case.

Best regards,

You just need to be honest and offer refunds when the request is genuine :thumbsup:

Envato themselves outline in the knowledge base that there is no need to provide refunds for mistake purchases (especially if the item has been downloaded).

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The EU directive says you have 14 days to decide whether or not to keep your bought item.

As for digital downloads, it could be easy, Envato must only point out that the right of return expires with immediate download. See article 16 (m) of the Consumer Rights Directive (2011/83/EU – “CRD”)

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Ok then lets buy an item download and request support for 14 days and then refund. Don’t worry about updates because you can do this again and again an again. Any time you want.

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Not if Envato implements what the Article 16 (m) CDR suggested.
The EU buyer must be informed before the download begins that all rights for refund are lost, once the download is started.

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If envato rating support team assist to remove unfair ratings because of refund, then we can reject the unfair refund. if not, it will keep hurting our reviews in a far-fetched way.