Actually, you were always required to provide support if you wanted sales success (I havn’t seen a single successful item on TF where the author isn’t providing support within 1 - 3 working days) and there was no clear definition before, this change is good for both parties.
Authors: Your buyers now have a clear(ish) definition provided by Envato of what support is, and what they can expect to receive. Your support is limited to 6 months so you don’t get a huge backlog of potential support customers, and there’s even a little extra income if a buyer wants support over 6 months.
Buyers: Nothing changes! Yes your support is now capped at 6 months, but if you really think about this, are you asking for support over 6 months many times? If yes do you think that a developer should not be compensated for this extra burden? Even better for buyers, supported themes are now very clearly marked, and if support is not provided correctly you can now contact Envato with an easier greivance process (marked support creates a requirement, if this isn’t met you can get your money back more easily).
I’m in full support of this, which isn’t a popular opinion here, but one I’m sure people will come around to once the dust has settled I’m sure both parties will remember that free lifetime support is not sustainable, and in the long run only left both parties disappointed.
Yes, I really does not see that new support will change something for authors or will give you more profit. We have 6000 support tickets before, and only 3-5 from this tickets was from old buyers who purchased theme 6 or more month ago. Nobody need support after 6 month.
The support time is calculated from the time of purchase or from support query raised time?
What happen if i turn off support now, existing buyers can contact me?
Still need to provide support for 1 rated customer’s because they are all in support period?
How i can i react if (already turned off support) customer contact via email or my site contact form?
What happened if a item deleted?
I don’t like to provide support for six month but 2 months is there any option to change the support period?
Some times sales reversal happened so any way to track that customer?
If i posted (support for six month free) because of my situation i can’t provide support for a week or two, will envato disabled the item?
Any restriction on support like support is only provided for live sites only?
[ in my past i have faced this problem a customer asks support for two live sites with single license, because of the Rating factor i can’t do anything ]
More Ever i would like to say to envato PLEASE HOLD THIS NEW SUPPORT POLICY because these all best match with POWER ELITE and ELITE Authors i mean this six month compulsory support.
For most items, probably not. But for sophisticated themes by the elite WP theme developers who constantly update and change their theme, absolutely.
That means the buyer, if they don’t buy the extension up front (which is just absurd anyway given the fact that the buyer just doesn’t know if they will need support for changes that late down the road), will end up paying quite a bit for potentially NECESSARY support.
For a $60 theme, that’s going to cost the buyer $30 (after initial purchase window) or $42 after support has expired. 70% of the original cost is far too high, especially for only 6 months of support.
Developers update, maintain, and support their themes to be successful, create a brand, increase sales, and develop long term relationships with clients. This is basic service, 101.
There are no unsuccessful developers here because of a huge backlog of tickets taking revenue away…that’s nonsense. This was just a “creative” (using an overly, nice phrasing) way for Envato to add to their bottom line, nothing more (as they take 30% of the support revenue).
If you create a product and wish to sell to customers, then simply support that product as long as it is relevant. If it isn’t relevant, remove it from Envato. If you aren’t supporting your own products, then you aren’t earning much if anything from it all and it does not deserve to be on the marketplace.
So for people who upload and abandon themes, these changes are fine as a buyer won’t need support after 6 months, but for those who work hard and provide updates and new features (as in, me) we should receive an extra burden of ongoing support with no compensation? Sorry, this doesn’t make sense to me.
Leaving out the pricing and Envatos cut (which indeed, I do have issues with) I must say that I do indeed fully support my product (my ratings and reviews reflect that) but I must say that my willing to work hard and update my themes with new features and fixes should be rewarded don’t you think?
You mention we should built a long term relationship with clients, don’t you think it’s a bit one sided if we have this long term relationship that really, if we’re talking about just 1 sale, only one person is benefitting from?
I take pride in my work and provide constant ongoing updates and fixes to each of my products, and you get that for free with every purchase of my themes, if you want constant and ongoing support on top of that I must agree with Envato, there is a limit, and beyond that (6 months) a top up is in order. Again, the pricing of which and Envatos cut is up for dispute in my mind, but the fact that it’s there is not.
Even as one of the biggest buyers on here I am 110% behind Tom & (to a point) envato’s changes.
Nothing has changed i.e. core updates & maintenance remains Free for all, & files bought under “lifetime
support” remain as they always were between author & buyers (not envato).
However under the new policies, with greater (& no doubt on going) clarity on expectation & envato now
able to monitor & manage support activity better, buyers get peace of mind & protection that never previously existed, & potentially authors will be better safe guarded against unfair support related ratings.
You are right about needing to update & about building relationships…
I would add that it is a 3 way street between buyers, authors & envato based on mutual respect & consideration. This cannot be the case if buyers (who let’s be honest are already getting an insanely good deal) were further rewarded with a lifetime of personalised support & protection by envato for free.
Updates effect everyone & are a basic fundamental - hence why they are being enforced for all. However the new policy is a guaranteed service which is completely different to previous support. It requires extra effort & resource from both envato & authors to help in far more specific ways than just a ‘blanket solution’ update across all buyers.
I genuinely believe that once the initial confusion & nerves (from both buyers & authors) clears up that this will long-term benefit the marketplace.
Sales will drop off quickly due to a lack of support and receiving a low rating. Buyers consider the quality (and existence) of support when they provide a rating, and ratings directly influence sales.
If an author is out to make a small, quick buck, offering a no-support product is the way to go. If an author is out to be more successful, have lasting customers and stronger sales, they offer support.
That essentially, is the way it was pre-changes.
How is continued success, continued sales, loyal customers, recognizable brand in the market, etc…NOT a reward?
The author benefits from additional sales from other buyers and repeat business with the same (due to some products requiring multiple licenses for multiple projects) buyers.
[quote]
I take pride in my work and provide constant ongoing updates and fixes to each of my products, and you get that for free with every purchase of my themes,[/quote]
ONLY for 6 months. That’s not “ongoing.”
That’s saying “Buy my product…but sorry…I’m only going to support it for 6 months. If something happens down the road, SOL or pay me more money.”
That’s crappy service IMO. I certainly don’t run my business that way.
I subscribe to the idea that every customer/client is a VIP. If I cannot or do not want to consider my customers/clients VIPs, then I shouldn’t be in business. I subscribe to the business practices and philosophies of Ken Blanchard, Tom Hopkins, Ziggler, Brian Buffini, etc.
There’s a difference between being taken advantage of (which I’m not suggesting) and simply offering high quality service and products. I do not consider forcing customers to pay for assistance with changes made to a product later down the road, quality service.
[quote]
I would add that it is a 3 way street between buyers, authors & envato based on mutual respect & consideration. This cannot be the case if buyers (who let’s be honest are already getting an insanely good deal) were further rewarded with a lifetime of personalised support & protection by envato for free. [/quote]
How were buyers getting an “insanely good deal”? And there’s a difference between getting support and protection. Protection OUGHT to be offered, but it’s understandable that there’s a limit. Authors aren’t going to continue to update/support their products forever, that’s unrealistic.
What should be done, is that unsupported products simply be labeled as such and it be noted that there is no protection given with that product (other than it works as advertised w/ the stated software/hardware requirements at the time).
Items that are not offered support ought to be discounted. It makes no sense to charge the same amount for a different value/quality of product.
[quote]
Updates effect everyone & are a basic fundamental - hence why they are being enforced for all. However the new policy is a guaranteed service which is completely different to previous support. It requires extra effort & resource from both envato & authors to help in far more specific ways than just a ‘blanket solution’ update across all buyers.[/quote]
How so? I’ve read it, I don’t see anything different that the author will have to do. Perhaps I’ve missed something.
If an item is not supported, then obviously the buyer wouldn’t get any help with those issues…and that’s fine! It’s not supported. But those who supported their products prior to the change, helped with those very same issues.
So what kind of issues are they addressing now that they weren’t doing before?
While i agree that customer satisfaction is key (and for what it’s worth as a customer of Tom above he already goes above and beyond) can I ask …
Let’s assume you have 100 clients (that’s a conservative number compared to many authors here) all who have bought and paid for a website from you.
Then one day you were told that you now had to support them all with individual requests, even those lacking in experience and potentially editing the site for themselves. All for free and on demand.
If you don’t or these customers are not satisfied with response time or solutions then they can publicly criticise your work and reputation.
This is obviously a lot more work and time which means changing priorities or employing more staff or less time off and so on.
So you are happy with these obligations all for free and don’t expect to be compensated in any way?
I am not arguing that customer satisfaction is important but as I said it is about mutual respect.
It is still a business and irrelevant of satisfaction of the logistics prevent a business from making money then that defeats business 101 and will cause the business (or author) to cease to exist. Then buyers are going to get a VERY nasty shock when they get quotes for agency built sites let alone retained maintenance.
Sorry, you’re incorrect here. The new support policy limits “support”, in a ticket based system, that would be the ability to post new tickets. The new support policy does not limit updates & bugfixes, so my point stands, everyone of my customers gets these for the lifetime of the theme.
It’s not a case of being “rewarded” it’s about support being sustainable and worthwhile for both parties, don’t believe me? (or Envato) go checkout everywhere else that sells WordPress themes, WooThemes etc. all have support limits, this isn’t a new idea.
Additional sales from other buyers have nothing to do with the support availability of the first buyer, now quality of support would indeed produce sales from other buyers, that’s why you’ll notice all my items are either 4.5 or 5 stars, thanks to the quality of my support and support team, and guess what? Buyers who buy multiple licenses automatically get a full 6 months for free on that extra license, so there’s no issue for them either. Buyers who buy the theme once however and then expect support forever after that, this is why the new policy was created, it’s not sustainable, it’s not practical.
On the mention of support team, do you know I spend $30k a year on a fulltime support team providing free support? This is why Envato created this policy, because just like every other theme retailer out there, it’s being realised that unlimited lifetime support is a falicy, and that if everyone just calmed a little, they would realise that these changes affect almost no-one, apart from someone who buys a theme once and expects to be looked after for the rest of their websites lifetime, all for the cost of $38 - $64.
I treat my buyers like VIPs and most of them treat me exactly the same, I’ve yet to have even one of my buyers who is not understanding of my support of this policy, and I intend to keep it that way.
[quote=“charlie4282, post:12, topic:3704, full:true”]
Then one day you were told that you now had to support them all with individual requests, even those lacking in experience and potentially editing the site for themselves. All for free and on demand.
If you don’t or these customers are not satisfied with response time or solutions then they can publicly criticise your work and reputation.
This is obviously a lot more work and time which means changing priorities or employing more staff or less time off and so on.[/quote]
There’s a difference between me deciding to offer a product for which I will support…and offering a product that is sold as-is. The decision I make there, is my own decision, not anyone else’s.
If it is the case that I’m told I must support or must not support a particular product, then there may be an issue.
However, if I’m wanting to be successful, build my brand, remain competitive, I will support my products and services.
Support for a product or service is a standard, not an exception.
[quote]
So you are happy with these obligations all for free and don’t expect to be compensated in any way?[/quote]
What “obligations” exactly? Don’t authors have the choice as to whether or not they will support a product?
If someone cannot support their own products, then they have the option NOT to support their own products. The marketplace will then react to the products which are and are not supported. Those products which are supported will see more traction, those that are not supported, will fall.
Sorry, you’re incorrect here. The new support policy limits “support”, in a ticket based system, that would be the ability to post new tickets.[/quote]
Is the ticket based system using Envato’s system then?
What will happen to all the elite authors out there, many of whom use their own forum system or own ticket system? Will they no longer be allowed to use them?
Take THEMECO, they are an example of how it’s done right. They provide a forum where customers can get support. The thread is viewable by other members. This is important because the same questions are often asked by multiple customers. Customers can find these issues and view these discussions through an easy forum search, often preventing the need to start a new thread or email the author.
In addition, it allows fellow customers to assist other customers. It’s building a community, it’s building a following, it’s creating a brand that is customer-centric and is one of the key reasons why they are among the top here at Envato.
How is that going to impact the community and standard they have created? Seems to me that THEMECO and every other author who uses this style of support (they aren’t the only ones you know) will have to close down their support forum in order to comply. There is no way that they can support both their forum AND an Envato ticket based system (if that is what Envato is requiring).
That…or they will require a new api at the end of the buyer’s current support phase…which means no more community support, buyers no longer allowed to ask the community for non-technical advice or questions, no more simple searching and finding solutions to already solved issues, etc.
[quote]
Buyers who buy the theme once however and then expect support forever after that, this is why the new policy was created, it’s not sustainable, it’s not practical.[/quote]
How many buyers do that where it has become some “epidemic” that Envato must respond to?
Would just like to say as a Buyer, I mainly only buy scripts’ But some scripts, When first submitted take months and months to meet standards and request’s, What i need to know is, If 6 months has lapsed and there has been several updates, Can i still download the script after 6 months? Can someone clarify this, Or is this just about contacting the Author? Bit Confused Thanks in Advance
Yes, you’ll always be able to download the updated script. If you find bugs in it, you can notify the author and they should take care of it (assuming it is officially supported). But if you have any questions outside of found bugs, then you’ll need to pay for the additional support time.
