Hi There!
Just wanted understand what other authors & buyers thinks about new paid support policy, Where envato is splitting 30% from it. We know that support is completely an authors effort and envato doesn’t do anything for this, nor they provide any solutions, not an interface so for which they charge. There is no infrastructure they have involved for this?
First that was really not needed. Second if we had it, its really cheap and third if we have it now, why envato charges 30% out of it?
Just worked out you get the same money as before, so envato take the amount they specify for support? How does this work?? Why do they get paid, when the author is the one giving the support?
yes no infrastructure at all and no dev team required to build and maintain the system and no ongoing costs. they should just give us more money! sarcasm
Envato is a business, they’re not a charity, we get more money from this than before so there should be no complaints. They’ve got (big) bills to pay to keep things running as they are.
No offense Dave but the way they did is has nothing todo how to run a business. Take 30% and justify the whole idea with “less confusion” and “more balanced marketplace” is just bullsh*t.
The whole thing is more confusing as it was before and a balance is no where as far I can see.
They are already charging us for themes. are not they charging? who has issue with that?
I am talking logical @dtbaker
Hahahaha! Did i say, they should not charge from the original theme sale? Please point me out from my post above. @dtbaker either you didn’t get what i am talking here or you are just in too much love with envato that you can not talk correct. My brother, This is support which we are giving to customers who purchased our plugin. First i am in complete against of this support thing being sold by envato in that cheap rates for us where we are bound to support when sold.
30% split is way too much considering what they are providing authors with. 10% was fair and reasonable. After, this whooping 30%, they even don’t back themselves off saying “We have done this to compensate authors for their work and time” That is what pisses me off.
@crelegant This is the point and question i have. Why they are charging 30%? Except selling this new support package (additional sales & profit for authors). There is nothing else they have done for support, nor they have support forum application, or any sort of application where we use their own system or something to manage and provide support. Nor a support protection or other plan. If we provided support, they have nothing to check/track if customer disputes for refund. They will simply refund based on their own so called fair policy. There is nothing they have done for support except generating/selling support packages.
If you will ask envato or lovers of envato. They can simply give you an answer about why they are charging that too high? They will answer: because they are selling it for you. Its a commision/fee or profit split. Just to sell it. And that too the cost they decided. Theme is a product but Support is a service.
Instead of prioritizing some crucial issues like ratings, product pricing, increasing their own support response time, multi-domain licenses rather they decided to put guns on author’s soldiers and march ahead bringing support packs.
None of the author’s opinion matters here whether elite or power elite. It’s like shut up and keep working the way you been doing. Community driven values come only in things like for eg: Changing the appearance of forums.
Still they decided to bring support packs to compensate for authors hardwork and time, but again with 30% whooping charge. I could have been happier if they charged 10-15% but 30% is way too much.
They keep saying now you will get paid for what you been doing for free. But, they don’t understand, it is better to provide support for free rather to sell our time for price of nuts. Feel the pain of plugin authors.
One thing they did best is that they made support definition more clearer and with an explanatory video. Now, time will play the game.
Hey authors – I would gladly pay for the support I use. Which is like one question a year on average. But I can’t afford to stay in business and pay support on twenty themes - for support I’m not using.
I LOVE AUTHORS. Wish you the best. Would love to buy from you directly and cut out the greedy corporate middleman.
Love entrepreneurs. Hate the system.
Cheers!
Oh BTW - for all the authors who offer support - I am going to advertise them on all my websites and promote them wherever I can. (Not that I’m a big fish. It is just a Karma thing.)
Just buy support pack when you need it. No need to buy support pack if you do not want the support. Any how you are interested to pay $ when you use, wont you use 1 time in a 6 months or 1 year?
My thoughts on the 30% of support pack income to Envato is this:
Envato needed a big cut as they had to put a lot of resources into building the feature…
Envato cover the payment fees which can be as much as $5 per transaction.
Authors will want someone from Envato to look at an issue when they arise… This costs staff time
Envato will be able to invest time into building more onto the feature, including a support system
Envato have costs for this, some already paid for but by charging a premium for the feature they can use the extra income to invest more into the feature, if Envato only charged 10% then there wouldn’t be any profit from the feature so they would be less likely to dedicate time to the feature,
Don’t complain about it yet, give Envato 6/12 months to see what they do with the feature
The benefits of the features are:
Authors are being paid for something most didn’t charge for
Buyers now know they will get support when they need it, rather than buying an item and an author refusing to offer support (it’s rare but does happen).
Support has been redefined so buyers and authors both know what is “available”
To me it sounds win/win and hopefully there will be some improvements to the feature over the coming months.
Win win when every author on marketplace follows the new support policy. No grandfathering for out of the scope requests.
And, there is no guarantee that every author will follow because Envato has no control over the support system as most of the authors use their owns.
Every now and then, there will be buyers who will expect more and more out of the support packs because some authors are not following the new support policy. So, i am still a bit concerned.
Well that is cool to wait and buy when I need support, but if I don’t buy now I lose the discount.
I don’t use any support - ZERO Support - on at least eight sites. I am a very small player. Many of my websites are “model homes” and only my potential clients look at them. Less than 100 visits a year.
It is about Envato changing the rules
** after I setup my business model on the old rules.
People who bought between 2012 and 2015 should get support. Period.
Envato will not go broke keeping their promise to those who supported them BACK WHEN THEY WERE THE SMALL GUY.
Envato is making plenty of money. I am not asking to get something for free - neither should I pay for something I am not going to us. I am a capitalist too, but I play fair.
On the other hand, I totally understand that Authors can’t continue and should never have to support users who do not read documentation, do not know any HTML, use themes to learn WordPress. Those people screwed us just like all abusers in any walk of life (shoplifters, hackers, etc.)
Bottom line - it is about Envato corporate fat cat profit.
If an author promised you lifetime support when you purchased the item, then you have lifetime support.
If the author didn’t mention support was included in the purchase, then you have 6 months support from sep 1st.
If need support post 6 months and believe it was covered in the original purchase, please contact the item author.
This new policy was introduced to stop authors changing support policies all the time and to provide some clear support terms, which were not available previously.
