Fed Up with Envato Support

#1

As of late, I really question the support, To give you context: look at this image: https://i.imgur.com/WOHxsNz.png

To which still to this day the author has gone silent, refuses to acknowledge me.
So I put it in refund request, again author ignores.
After 5 days I raise a dispute.

To which i get the response (eventually):

Thanks for your patience. I understand that it is your personal decision to avoid themes that requires activation before it unlocks the full feature.

However, this is not a valid reason to refund your purchase. We’re sorry, we will have to resolve this in favour of the author.

Regards,

Ernest

This has to be an oversight and makes me believe he didn’t really investigate this - It should be pretty black and white and ICPEN (international consumer protection) covers this (albeit case to case)

IF i buy a car from you and you tell me it’s got a gear lock and alarm and when i receive it, there isn’t, surely its a pretty clear cut dispute, really as a customer on Envato for 3 years, I’m slowly reaching the end of tether.

“get rich quick without recourse” kinda mentality to not aknowledge a supported customer and the recourse cannot acknowledge law and distinguish invalid and valid disputes - How is that meant to make customers feel protected.

Points to aknowledge

  • No proper response from Author (Support dispute)
  • Refund request ignored (Support dispute)
  • Queried pre-purchase to which upon installation feature exists (Item not as directly described)

Shake my head…

#2

Just out of curiousity, why do you avoid activation?

How else can an author provide you better services and incentivse the sale as opposed to you getting a pirated copy?

This is good for both you and the author. Anyway, if you disputed and Envato support refused it as well, it only means you do not have a valid claim to a refund. They are not going to change their mind and the theme is not broken apparently so insert your purchase code, activate the theme and move on.

The code is good for the life time of the product anyway and you only need to activate it once.

#3

Blockquote Just out of curiousity, why do you avoid activation?
Personal preference, have had problems time and time again with this especially when building on local to transfer to live

Blockquote How else can an author provide you better services and incentives the sale as opposed to you getting a pirated copy?
Lets be honest, The support here is dismal to non-existent at current so this is a moot point

Blockquote Anyway, if you disputed and Envato support refused it as well, it only means you do not have a valid claim to a refund.
You arent following the initial reason, I ASKED the author, DOES THIS HAVE ACTIVATION" turns out it did, he ignores me in comments.
So therefore i was told something that actually differs to what it is… Easy as that.

#4

Hello @MatthewMurdoch

I am sorry to hear about your experience.

Some theme authors implement the “activation based on the purchase code to get the full features” to prevent situations when a buyer uses the same license of a theme on multiple websites (which not allowed by the standard Envato license)

I understand you want to install the theme first on localhost and then move everything on a live server.

I’m speaking now as a simple Envato author: I already did this in the past and all I had to do after finishing the website on localhost was to contact again the author to help me change the code to point to the live server instead of localhost. In fact it’s quite easy and I’m sure the theme author will help with that. Wouldn’t this be easier than refunding?

Also, I can assure you that Envato Support Team is doing his best to help customers, but the reason you mentioned is not part of refunding policy: https://themeforest.net/page/customer_refund_policy

Once again, I’ve read the comments of the theme author on his page and I am definitely sure he can help with moving the license from localhost to the live server afterwards, maybe this could be the solution?

#5

Why didn’t you screenshot the part where you asked the presale question and received confirmation that indeed there is no license activation? This is what you should have mailed to support when you had the chance, now it’s too late I’m afraid but next time consider doing this.

#6

Yeap, all we have to do is to reset the code. It take like 2 secs, still depend on the author customer support reacting time.

#7

@Typps

Unfortunately I purchased the theme a month before using it and didnt think it would of been a false statement

@hevada
The problem is that should i rely on this method, my entire business would go down the toilet as for the most part I wait days/weeks for responses from authors meanwhile the client gets impatient, its not practical, hence the solution of avoiding themes who do this.
The reason mentioned is not part of the refund policy but saying something to me then it turns out to be false and an author ignores me, in practice is “not as described” and Customer International Consumer Protection will cover.

#8

You are mentioning “is not as described”.
Where is the theme author mentioning that his theme does not require a purchase code for activation? It does not appear in the screenshots. No need to reply here, just asking…

But anyway, all this discussion should continue with Envato Support Team, who has exactly this role, to mediate disputes between authors and customers. Discussing this in these forums can’t help with such dispute unfortunately.

#9

I have asked someone senior at Envato Support to raise this issue.

It’s just a shame really, chasing away people by the lack of… well everything, makes me really question purchases or even wanting to do so via this platform.

PS: Yes it does not show in the screenshot as it was purchased a month before and my own stupidity I would of thought the author would of been upfront with me, guess not (I keep my email inbox quite clean)
. But as you can see in my screenshot, I mention it directly to the author.

#10

Please allow me then to tag in @KingDog

#11

Yes our Help Team will be happy to assist. Thanks for opening a ticket.

#12

request (1158489) @KingDog

Thats the ticket num

#13

Thanks! I’ll check it out and mark it as urgent.

#14

You don’t deserve a refund - all you want is to spread the theme to your dozen of clients and only paying for one licence.

It’s cheap already why people do this. It’s absurd as well - like I’ll buy the mercedes but I want a refund because it has the logo of mercedes-benz on it.

Get real, if you’re fed up I’m curious where you’ll find the quality and diversity of Envato. (+so competitive pricing)

#15

That’s a big assumption, I actually don’t.

Do I need to send you a screen shot of my envato library, I’ll even go as far as to mention every domain I built the themes on.

Don’t make accusations you can’t backup

#16

Where did you get that from?

#17

Just occurred to me @crivion is an author on envato. Just wow.

#18

This is a public forum for Envato Authors & Customers as well.

Everyone gets to tell his opinion on things the moment you open a thread.

That’s my mine, if you get offended its your problem.

I am not a theme seller but the main reason to lock it is to avoid spreading it . It’s as simple as that, I don’t get it why would someone make so much noise for nothing.

If the theme wouldn’t work I would be with you. If the theme is fully functional you don’t need to find the needle in the haystack to be unhappy.