We already have a lot of angry customers who want to rate our themes low and already provided bad feedback in comments because we said that their support was expired and they can’t submit tickets.
If we will continue to provide free support for expired users - this will be against envato rules. If we will ask users to prolong support - we will get 10 000+ negative reviews from our old customers.
What we should do?
Users who does not have valid support period should not be able to rate items and leave reviews!
ok. I’ll be angry (because most of items has very low quality manuals attached, and even after major theme upgrades and feature additions aren’t updated), buy support, get help and leave you 1star rating with very nice comment at the end on comments. Does these additional bucks and ultra stupid innovation by Envato will make your life easier?
I agree and disagree with this new policy adopted.
I understand that often the free support is something very stressing for some authors, and that sometimes the lost time should be rewarding, ie paying.
But the question itself is that for example, I bought several items where at the time the description was like watching “Free support forever.” Now I need to inform the author of the error, and even ask for support, I have to pay for it. But wait there was not free forever? This policy for more to come benefitting the authors, the old buyers are affected and what is not correct for user who is a long time.
In my view, this policy should apply only to new purchases and not to the old.
I was very upset when I checked in my system the items you already bought, everyone has a short period of support and to continue to ask for help, I will have to pay for it. Today unfortunately, due to the time zone, my questions have a longer response time author.
That’s my opinion about it, and I believe that most buyers should also be thinking the same as me. It’s not fair to anyone who is an active user and has old products, it has simply changed all of a sudden.
That’s exactly what is happening and you have nothing to worry about.
The new policy is a fundamentally different thing (enforced official by envato) from the old one (unenforceable and between author and buyer).
You always had to do this and as @tansh and various other posts said this has not changed at all.
the only thing envato has done is introduced a new ‘official support’ policy which benefits buyer son a different level. It has zero impact on previous files or the terms they were sold under.
That’s exactly what is happening and you have nothing to worry about.
a) Is apply to the old purchases/customers too, but if the authors have claimed that will provide lifetime support, than the old purchases/customers will still receive free support.
b) But if the author hasn’t claimed that will provide lifetime support, than the old customers will need to purchase and extend support in order to get more support from the author.
Thank you for answering me. Still I did not have to use the stand after the period expired, but should it be a problem with any author, warning you, because as I said in the post, is not fair to those who bought at the time that this new policy was not yet in force.
I could be wrong but as I understood it authors are able to provide free support for anyone (assuming they choose to do so) but they are not allowed to advertise that or make claims of lifetime or free support as previously (because envato cannot enforce that).
Previously authors could just refuse to support files (or even remove the file completely) at any time and irrelevant of if they stated ‘lifetime support’ and envato could do nothing to help so it is not much different.
At least with new files you get 6 months free peace of mind and the ‘option’ to pay for this guaranteed support in the future.
Saying that isn’t “isn’t nice if you get an author who refuses”, si quit out of … and more when it comes from a moderator and from a person like you / a customer that supports a lot of authors.
The old customers, have received 6 months for free that has started on 1 of september of 2015. Confusing the customers like that will result in = more “1 stars” for the authors, with all due respect.
If you read again the emails sent by envato in september and you read the support terms now, you’ll understand.
YES, the authors can offer free support if they wish( is not recommended at all ), but if they don’t want that in order for a more sustainable business (support and more updates/features for an old item), saying “isn’t nice, isn’t the way to go”.
I would think you purchased an extended license for the product, and so the quoted price for the support renewal is based on the extended license. Also, when buying extended support at the same time when you purchase the item itself, the cost for the extended support is heavily discounted.
Since you purchased two licenses of the product already, I would assume that both licenses were extended ones, as I would hope that Envato would use the standard license cost as basis for the support renewal (if you in fact purchased a standard license).
In your case, I would think it is totally legit to simply purchase another standard license of the product and use that license to obtain support for the next 6 month. Although, your assumption is wrong: The standard license of $26 will give you 6 month of included support. You can extend that for another 6 month by spending another $6 at the time of purchase. So, at best, for $32 you will receive 12 months of support, but NOT 18 months for $26, as your mockup indicates.
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This user can’t create ticket in my support forum because support was expired. And now begin to report problems like bug. But there is no bug exist on the system. This user requesting support under BUG name.
What should we do now?
If I say “I can not help you without create ticket and please purchase support extension” then I will get a 1 star rating 99%.
First and foremost I have no objection to authors being remunerated for additional support services but I believe that it should be the authors choice to do so and not an imposition imposed by “Envato”.
Do you have the best interests of their authors at heart? Not likely, its purely a commercial decision on your part to screw additional revenue from me and and many other customers.
If the information is correct 30% of the support fee goes into “Envato’s coffers so to me it’s pure GOUGING.
At least for the time being we are still free to write comments.
If in future(unlikely! Other Portals out there you know just like yours) that I may consider purchasing another theme with the extended support CON’ I’ll give the “Theme” a 1
Below
A couple of comments from an authors comments page (the blame games started)
Dont I get to access your support forums any more??? What the hell??? I dont mind not getting support because of Envato 6 month thing. But the forum, come on??
I am asking for access to your forums on your site. Not email support. I want to read some articles about setup etc… If you as theme developer block people out of this then this is a downhill spiral of bad news. Just to read a forum. REALLY BAD AND I AM PISSED OFF.
You can use Online Documentation instead of support forum. Sorry but if your support extension is expired then you should renew it. This is not my rule. Please check envato’s announcement above link.
NOT Looking good to me at all…! This is a full joke from envato. Is this really, REALLY for seller and buyer or they just care little more money in thier pocket? Do they really think it’s positive for us? I am sorry but I doubt it.
Im with Envato from begginning, when you had only one project and before you grew into multi-milion company. Your company grow up, because of people like me who joined you from beginning. You had my sympathy for years but now I lost my sympathy. Your recent turn with so called “support policy” really upset me big time. I understand its nice to earn couple of more millions this way, but guys…money are not everything. Arent you already rich company with rich owner ? Arent already milionaires amongst power sellers ? Forcing users to pay HALF price of theme /product every 6 month for support is ridiculous.
Luckily there is many developers who simply continue free support on their help system for all - and thanks to them Am still on Envato, because if such developers not exist here I would shut down my account and dont use envato anymore after you released your new support policy. I think every developer should decide if they wanna offer support or not and if and how much they charge for support period or if they want continue with free support.
SO… even if you did that move with support expiration you should leave right to offer free support without expiration on developers.
Your new policy completely changed WHOLE ENVATO. Problems appear on many themes when for example WP theme updated and something stop work, so time to time some elemntar and simple questions to theme developers always appear. Now buyers are basicly FORCED to regulary renew and renew support licenses . This makes endless money pitt for sellers to make thousands and millionas of dollars on support. IM really frustrated by this move and seriously wondering to shut down my envato account after all that years I have been with you. Most positive things on whole envato system was support as part of purchase. I checked in item description if item is supported or not and than buy only from developers who had declared support. Now this most important advantage of Envato is gone.
I think this is really bad bad move for entire community because before every buy I will ask developer if he continue with support even if official period expire - if he say not I simply dont his item.
The most ridiculous thing is that in this forum you instruct and strongly encourage developers to NOT offer free support even if they want to !!! When I saw it I thought its some kind of joke…
Some devs simply restrict user on their support site after 6 months - so I cant access video tutorials, forum, faq, changelog…I cant simply access anything !!! If I ask for anything dev say pay 44 USD. This is really total frustration and destroying of whole envato market., So before I had for example smooth good support from dev for certain item for 3 years already now I dont have any support because it expired and cant access anything on his support site - even videotutorials and forum !!! This is total downgrade. When I bough my items my main motivation was support which now I dont have… If I knew this happen I never buy that items…I feel totally cheated…
So that second thing - When I bought my items this feature dont exist. Its not fair to me now, because continouous free support was the main thing why I bought certain themes.
Envato saying - we done this (support expiration) as a we wanted grant buyer some period of support we can enforce so now its much better for buyers. IN reality buyer dont gain anything, buyer loose big time. Most buyers in past was buying from authors with top rating, several years history on envato and also buyer explored comments of item to see if item is supportred and how author support it. Because of this I had items where I always get an help or answers from author team and continuous unlimited access to his support site - this was great !!! Now I dont have anything, after 6 months author simply close my access to his support site and dont react to quastions in item comments. So please guys can you tell me what I as a buyer gain by your support policy other then Im forced to pay half of item price every 6 months ?
of course , many people also might give u 1 star now because they are pissed off from that envato super feature so this way can protest so your concern is actually very real. I can say straight. The whole thing u write about is real. How would not too experienced user identify if its bug or not ? He cant release ticket but think its bug, or not think its bug but will do it on purpose . This whole new support expiration would never happen - as its probably silliest thing I saw in my life cretaing many problems to everybody here…
You do realize that you would be hurting the authors with giving ratings like that, and not Envato? Authors did NOT ask for the new support policy, and in fact railed against it. So, instead of punishing authors for something they have absolutely no control over, you should direct your grievance against Envato, who is actually the entity responsible for your “anger”. Envato doesn’t care about the individual ratings on items sold on any of their marketplaces; those ratings only affect the authors, which again, are the wrong person for you to punish here.
