Got 1 today. But i want to ask one thing - what the hell is going on? Why are you processing reversals for a sale which was on August, 7 only now, in the middle of October? You are saying that those accounts are banned, but they were able to use the item 2,5 months. Or is this another “we-ignore-everything” story?
And another question - could you please clarify, how payment made with credit card can be reversed? Disputed or no positive balance? Or right after purchase user called to the bank and blocked his card?
I had 1 sale reversal today as well. Something strange happens, but please do not tell us about blocked accounts and other stuff, because it makes no sense - buyer already has our items, and you know it! This is wont help both for authors and envato! And this is not kinda answer we are looking for.
I would like to mention that I did not have any similar problems on other stock/production music libraries so it seems like Envato issue at this stage…
envato can’t do anything about sales reversals as the customer would have gone straight to paypal or their card provider and marked the transaction as fraudulent, unfortunately it’s part and parcel of selling online, it happens on eBay, Amazon etc as buyers have the full right to reverse any charge they deem fraudulent within 6 months usually.
It could be a mistaken purchase, someone trying to steal the item(s) (but their provider will stop them if they keep putting in fraud cases) or they had their card stolen and used without their knowledge. The number of these will be in the very tiny % of the total number so i wouldn’t worry about it too much as there isn’t a lot Envato can do about them.
Guys. Let’s top trying to make conspiracy theories and get this part understood.
Refund a request made by the buyer, through Envato to get his money back for a purchase he made. Reversal a system / payment gate / staff / detection of a fraudulent transaction resulting in the immediate lock of that account and the money being removed from all parties. ( i.e. credit card company blocks a transaction for Envato / a buyer raises a dispute to PayPal, etc , those accounts get locked instantly, and the “sale reversal” appears.
This is not a conspiracy theory ; it’s obvious that there are some people making a living with this.
1 - They buy a product
2 - Download the product (and god knows copied hundreds of times)
3 - Then raise a “dispute” (I love this word, really)
4 - Take their money back.
5 - Author gets nothing, they get a pure hardWork of months for free.
why? envato lose out too, they lose their cut, no one wins from this in the end, Envato used to cover these chargebacks but as Envato grew the costs became too much and now envato and the author share the burden.
We also had a sale reversal yesterday, the first one for us. It was made in 1-2 minutes after the purchase. I don’t think it had enough time to raise a dispute :))
I would like to know if these bulk reversals are going to continue in the next days as well, because with the low sales this month this is what was missing for the authors…
They don’t get their money back. Bedros, you’re very paranoid lately mate, and I say this without absolutely any intent of insulting you.
Do you honestly believe Envato works like that? You get a file, raise a dispute, and voila, you win? Envato has a legal team and legal terms of service you sign up to. Once you initiate a dispute with PayPal, even if you are right, they will still ask you to go through the company, meaning Envato, which has terms and they and only they decide if you get that refund.
And yes, meanwhile, they have the item, you have they money, and they can’t get support / updates or access to the account.
And again, I have absolutely NO intent to insult you by calling you paranoid mate, but if Envato would work as you imagine them, me and most authors would be broke and out of business.
There is an entire team working on these things, and believe me, they are working their hearts out to keep everything in line. Why do you think the terms include so much legal wording? Just for fun and for us to scratch our heads not understanding the wording? It’s to aid these legal processes when their needed. So relax mate. Fraud can happen, but it’s been significantly reduced and refunds are not that easy to get. Buyers can get legitimate refunds or if they try to game the system they can get disabled as per terms. Sale reversals, are a totally different thing.
@milodesigns that was an automatic discovery of a fraudulent attempt, automatic disabled account and sale reversal. Sales get processed instantly, but accounts can be held for investigation
I’ve known you mate for almost 7 years on the forums and you always had such wonderful insights and ideas that you gave, don’t lose that part! It’s amazing the ideas you come up with, but focus on what matters, and that’s the loyal, truthful customers. Every business on the planet is plagued by fraud and every business on the planet is constantly evolving to deal with it. We as authors should deal with what we’re good at, and considering the markets are growing, more elites appear each day, it means Envato’s doing it right for now!
Being an author and a community moderator, you can be sure that I won’t stand behind Envato if I feel they’re doing it wrong. But I talk to staff, raise your community concerns, and they already read them, they are fighting with them and believe it or not, Envato is in a very tight balance between customer and author.
I honestly praise their ambitions and can only say they’re doing a great job given the circumstances, and this is why I’m saying, keep giving great advice mate! Criticizing things is always easy, bringing solutions to problems is a bit harder
Cheers Bedros! Hope to see you here in the next 7000 years too!
As for your question. The answer is there is no money. A fake account generates a fake sale with fake money. Envato or the payment gate caches that and removes the transaction. No money to Envato, no money to the payment gate, no money to you, because there wasn’t any because of the fake transaction. These usually get caught instantly, for example, you make a sale and 3-4 hours later you see the sale reversal in your statement. It appears in the statement with a delay, but that transaction was locked from the moment it was processed (clicked buy now).
Thanks for your answer.
It does, but fake money is a bit vague term for me. I need to google it.
I guess this article should be updated then with your information provided, because lots of authors (include me before your message) do not see difference between reversal and refund.
- Wish you the very best.
