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

Here is what message we got in our support ticket system after we deny the refund for a change of mind reason / you don’t have that feature and i want it.(item bought 2 moths ago)

"…I would check again on getting us a refund otherwise I hope you are prepared for numerous negative comments…never being purchased from again and other outside blog comments with exploiting your not helping at all and the truth … "

So , @andrewfreeman please guide me - should i go with the refund to not take the 1 start ? will you guys remove the 1 star if i just give you the prove it’s a blackmail ?

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@crerem if you’re sure your theme is working fine and you provide support with explanation how to use theme features then you should not give refund. Or you can if you want to work for free. If you do that it will just continue and be much worse. We have to draw line somewhere no matter of consequences. Like I said it is not worth worrying about this anymore.

edit: btw that style of blackmail sounds familiar to me…I had similar situation, sent email to support with blackmail emails and they couldn’t help me because they won’t look at nothing but review comment. In case comment is “in Envato terms … whatever”, it won’t be removed.

My only concern is the 1 star review you get for bs reasons. We have very good ratings so far and we prefer to keep it this way. I also would not mind giving refunds to “honest cases” but we do mind and we are getting abused.

I’m amazed that Envato is not capable to build it’'s own ticket systems for authors. Where tickets are posted in private, files and passwords can be exchanged and threads like this can be addressed with a simply flag - like on the public board.

Also i realize that Envato is not getting the money from us, the authors, so it would not give us too many favors- but common …

Also we decided to post tickets for every single abuse - even if i know i would get the same useless answer. Maybe someone at Envato will realize that it will be cheaper to fix this system rather than keep answering tickets.

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They take 70%-30% of your sale, so yeah, they are getting money from us

Its just another way which Envato want to have there cake and eat it - pushing more and more and more over to the authors, whilst they cant even get there $hit together to keep basics like the review queue in order.

Its a shame, iv thought about blogging about the state on Envato but in the end, when they have proven time and time again that they just dont care/dont listen - I may as well just be pi$$ing in the wind.

They are actually getting the money from users not from us, the authors - If you decide to leave Tf somebody else will take your place - so no loss for Envato . If buyers decide to buy from some other platform they will close the shop - so naturally they favor the buyers since they are the ones with the money.

Who doesn’t want to keep good ratings? But if there is more and more authors who are caught in blackmail and become slaves of this system there will be more and more abuse, no escape from that circle. Only if most of authors decide to not allow to be blackmailed no matter what, something may be done, since Envato doesn’t care, their credit is not refundable, this or that theme sold, doesn’t matter to them.

I agree that you should post ticket for every abuse and other authors should do that.

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Ah yes, totally see what you mean now :slight_smile:

Today I got another 1 star rating from a buyer who had purchased my item a week ago. I’ve spent 45 mins. to fix his low level GODADY hosting issues to be able to install theme at once and I delivered the job as it suppose to work. In return the buyer thank me for the service I provided. So all was good so far and today BUMM!

Guys this is getting ugly and ugly day by day. Buyers are abusing our precious times and effords. I asked Envato to remove this rating upon unreal case. I’ll be really surprised if they do it. What do you think?

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When Envato decided to split the price between the item + support, the buyer expectations increased with this tricky change, even when the most of support is provided for free (no matter what envato says - except when somebody buy extended support for a few dollars).

I completely understand your frustration.

I’ve found this: http://themeforest.net/page/item_support_policy item support policy, under title “Hosting, server environment, or software” there is actually explanation that authors are not responsible for third party software that are not included with theme, including server environment as well.

Try use that argument when asking for one star removal. And for demanding customers.

@rayoflightt thanks mate I’ll do that. However I got my answer from beloved Envato says :slight_smile:

As stated in our Rating
or Review Removal Policy:

Ratings and reviews that aren’t about the item or author but
that focus purely on someone else (us, for example!). “Item” here
refers to all aspects of the item including but not limited to its perceived
value, listing, documentation, etc. as well as any support services provided
for that item even if the item was sold as “unsupported”, the services
were provided outside a valid support period or the services were above and
beyond those set out in the Item Support Policy

My theme has awarded SITE OF THE DAY on a css site yet being punished by a reason not even related to theme. Fantasticooo!

Good point. but we had these issues. installation problem cuz of server issue ( solved after he changed server. but he spent few days to talk to his hosting manager) and after that he asked us to remove “bootstrap js” files for his 3rd part plugin conflict. in fact, our theme is built by bootstrap. lol we told him it’s not possible to remove. wrote long explanation. but he gave us 1 star… saying no help and not easy to install.

We talked to envato with many screenshots to prove we did our best. but not possible to remove the 1 star with serve issue and the 3rd part plugin issue. they said it’s user experience and the user didn’t break any communication guild line… etc. this ( http://themeforest.net/page/item_support_policy ) was not working at all.

I hope it gets better :slight_smile:

Before a time I was asked to make a refund for a theme.
I gave the refund, but this person is still using my theme. What we do in these cases?

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@fbtemplates If is hard that Envato remove a low rating after a refund is granted, imagine how helpful they can be in this case :frowning:
Authors needs more protection.

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Wow, that’s just wrong. I bet that this is not a singular case.

I am really scared after reading the post on this thread…

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So that’s it? Envato is just going to ignore the cries for help from their hard working authors?

They are doing that for long time :frowning:

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After opening up the refund and review I started to receive refund requests without any reason given. When I deny refund people do not argue, so it means that they just want the item for free.
I really disappointed by Envato. The take 50% from the author and do not provided services you usually expect from marketplaces like moderation of negative reviews. At least forcing buyer to provide some details, and not just saying that the items sucks.

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I got 2x1star rating because I don’t provide PSD with included images so they can use without inserting images (which is clearly against the copyright policy). I asked Envato support to remove these 2 ratings when he blackmailed me that he acted accordingly as I didn’t do that. I got a NO, he said this is an buyer experience, …although I sent them the email he sent.
Now the review, comment are public, it’s good for you to let other know the hidden story but if you won the customer, it is not really a victory. YES, so it’s OK, just ignore and do what you’re good at, comfortably.
IMO, take your precious time for better customers who know the real values you bring through your items quality, they deserve to take more time of us than “you-know-who”. PEACE!

Any freedom comes with responsivity. If Facebook did not monitor its groups, the company would find itself in the Court vey soon.

There is a US law about Making false statements https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Making_false_statements

I wonder if a customer does a false statement about the product and Envato refuses to remove it, should Envato be responsible for violating this law?

I am really get very frustrating by such behavior of Envato and would be happy if we could build the legal case against it.

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