Hi Everyone, I know this topic has been discussed before but I feel that Envato needs to do more to protect its members from authors who remove items from the marketplace.
I purchased a Wordpress theme in 2018 and now the theme breaks if I update to WP 5.6. I recovered my site by reverting back to 5.5. https://themeforest.net/item/reda-hotel-restaurant-wordpress-theme/20017567
I read Envato help article and some moderator messages stating that this is the norm. Why has my item been removed? – Envato Market Help Center
I understand that authors may remove items for so many reasons and that we agreed to Envato’s terms. But I feel that Envato should do more to help it’s members.
Many of us who purchase a theme spend several hours getting our website online. This is time and money that is wasted each time an author removes an item. The author in turn gets paid and there is no penalty for them taking off an item from the markeplace.
I feel that Envato could do one of the following to help its members. None of these ideas require a refund!
- Before purchasing a template, I always check an authors portfolio to check their ratings on past templates. It gives me an idea if they are going to provide me with support and the reviews also help to identify the quality of the themes.
Currently, Envato does not display the authors removed items in their portfolio page. I feel they should so we the members can identify if the author is constantly removing items. This is the least that Envato can do to protect the members since we cannot leave a review on removed items.
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I am not sure if authors have to commit to support their items for a period of time? If they don’t? I recommend that they should for a minimum period of 3 years.
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Lastly, most tech companies (Google, Microsoft) share with their users when they are going to stop support. I suggest that all authors should send out an alert 3 months prior if they are going to stop updating the theme and or remove them from the marketplace.
At the minimum, we should get a notice that the item has been removed.
I hope this message makes it to the right department and thank you for reading my post.
In an ideal world it would all be great suggestions, however, realistically this is just not feasible.
(Speaking as a buyer with into the thousands of purchases - noting that your account also has a lot of purchases to it) we do invest time in a website, but if we are willing to pay less than $100 for something worth thousands then it is not unreasonable to accept this comes with potential risk.
Among many other reasons -
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Envato not own the copyright so cannot control how/when an author removes items and cannot display information that an author withdraws.
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Would you commit to 3 years worth of worth for under $50?
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You can’t compare some author teams who are 1 person to Microsoft.
A notification that an item is removed is one that is more realistic but I don’t know about the technical complexity of making that work.
Unfortunately, this issue is a downside to the model that Envato operates which on the flip side is the very same reason that they are so successful and able to offer the quality and quantity that they do.
Hi Charlie,
I do not understand the comment “cannot display information that an author withdraws” because of copyright? Envato owns the marketplace and displaying the items that are not supported has nothing to with copyright.
Also, we get emails each time there is an update so why do we not get emials when the item is no longer available?
Regards,
Franc
Actually, if the author chooses to remove their item from the marketplace then Envato have no right to use any assets/artwork related to that. Copyright covers the item as a whole as well as just the distribution.
There may be a technical reason why this can’t be done with the way that item and portfolio pages are currently constructed.
Again, I agree buyers do get the update email also presumably there would be a way to do the same for removals - that’s one you would need to discuss with envato and their devs.
In reading this topic from @crossfuze and the excellent replies too from @charlie4282 my only observations would be (as in my own case too) that I purchased a theme in October 2020, with the agreed 6 months of support from the author, then less than 3 months later that theme has been withdrawn.
In that case I do wonder if Envato should be in some way liable when for one reason or another if they remove the item and not the author.
Having said this, I agree that all we can do is look at comments on themes, see how long an author has been around, and make a decision based on some sort of trust and hope they are professionals rather than a chancer selling something on this marketplace.
So in the case that your purchase is less than 6 moths oldI imaginethat envato would refund it if the author removes and an item and in non-cntactable for support etc. The original post relates to a purchase from 2018.
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@charlie4282 thank you but in my own case personally, it was what it was, and as you say rightfully, it’s not thousands of dollars we are speaking about on items for sale. Myself personally, I think this is the BEST MARKETPLACE for themes so I accept that at times, there may be “hiccups” 
I am confused! Envato already displays a message on everyone’s download section stating that the item has been removed. Why can’t Envato use the same image on the authors profile? (see below)
Also, how can I contact Envato or devs to request email message.
Envato REDA|690x165
Your best option is to ask support for any official clarity Envato Market Help and Support
The themes maybe less than $100 but it takes between 3-5 weeks to get a website online. It takes time to install and configure the theme and upload the all the content, testing, etc. Depending on the size of the website it can be a couple of thousand of dollars.
In the case of the REDA theme, the template broke with WP 5.6 update. I was able to resolve the issue by downgrading WP and I posted the fix in items comment section.
Instead of updating the template the author decided to remove the template from Envato and took all the comments offline. All the folks that purchased the template are going to face the same problem and will have to spend hours trying fix their websites. That is another couple of thousand of dollars down the tube.
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@crossfuze
I understand. I don’t know if you’re aware of this link?
https://manual.puruno.com/blog/docs/reda-wordpress/support/
It might be a useful.
