lately we are getting higher number of clients demanding images to be included with the theme. We have this stated on our item descriptions. But people buy the theme then request images and when we say that they are not included as stated they demand a refund or in some cases directly rate 1 star and with that extort us for a refund or images. Now i had absolutely no luck with envato support to remove those ratings in the past, despite the proof i included.
Now my question is how do you manage this. We have tried to contact some clients back trough review reply, but no luck in most cases.
This is happening because the certain top selling theme authors have been including images for over a year. They do so by buying the license that grants them redistribution rights. Such licenses are usually available via custom deals and cost between $300-500 / image depending on the number of images you require (we checked with few of the large stock sites). These are called multi-user/multi-seat, or simply redistribution licenses. With the economies of scale, it’s a sensible investment for top authors - not so much for others.
The alternative is to use public domain images (not the typical Creative Common, but CC-0 license).
Yep public domain, or better yet go out and take your own photos.
An advertisement that says “all images included” is much better than “no images included in purchase”. Go with the better one. Find new images.
To say to them to better read theme description next time. Also that it is not forbidden to visit demo site and take images they like on their own responsibility.
