Plugin asks for purchase code for update

This whole elements thing seems good on paper…

I have already thrown in a year subcription in *real euros to you.

10 seconds after I registered, I downloaded my first plugin:

it seems it is also available here:

I added a envato elements project license to that plugin before download.

10 seconds after I have installed the plugin I instantly OF COURSE see the “! Activate” tab in the plugin settings and I instantly realize I will have to not only pay monthly for a whole year for elements, I will also need to pay for every plugin separately once more to get automatic updates.

WHAT?
You write this info in your documents like it is not a big deal.
I DONT WANT TO UPDATE A WORDPRESS PLUGIN by downloading it from some envato site every week because there is a bugfix on the plugin.
I have 20 plugins on every site, I am a freelancer, I have something like 50 sites.
Do you understand how much work it is to manually download plugins all the time when ALL OTHER license based plugins IN THE WORLD has a license KEY that you can ACTUALLY use to update the plugin.
THERE IS NO POINT in having a downloaded plugin that is version 3.52 or whatever.
Version 3.53 is here in 4 days. Version 3.54 is here in one week. And the circus goes on and on and on…

What clever person at your office came up with this stupid business model to just ask for money for stuff that will not work like the rest of the plugins in the entire world.???
I am so irritated I am about to get a stroke… seriously…

Did you just put in a bunch of non-licenced plugins there just to say you “have plugins” in the subscription???

Unfortunately, there is no official system in place to facilitate automatic updates for plugins and themes. Instead, authors have to implement that functionality on their own.

Due to the nature of Envato Elements, items do not come with any form of support from the authors, including access to automatic updates. This is the key difference between buying individual licenses on CodeCanyon and getting them through the subscription. The subscription was intended for those who do not need these things and can work without them.

This could potentially change in the distant future, but there are no plans at this time to change how items are supported through Envato Elements. You are more than welcome to send your feedback directly to the Elements team using their contact page so they can take it into consideration.

3 Likes

Unfortunately unfortunately unfortunately

I don´t have unlimited time in my day to ask for refunds from services that does not tell upfront what I get.

You really think we as customers should have to dig into support forums and fine prints in support documents somewhere on some distant support thread to be able to figure out that your business model seems to be from the 1820´s ?

COME ON, it is soon 2019, can you not figure out a way to just add plugins that has a universal way to work without another purchase via codecanyon?

That explanation you just mentioned is nothing at all that is talked about before purchase, it is all just “amazing” and “perfect” and your guy in the video is talking sooooo smooth and telling us that everything will be fine, then as soon as I pay, everything falls apart and the first thing I try does not work.

Great, thanks for wasting my time and money.

YES I can get a refund but I can never have my time back.

STOP this idiotic thing with “this is something we look into maybe” or “this is not in our plan”.

FIX your services so people can use them THEN charge money for them.

I make websites. I only charge money when the site is done. NOT when it is 50% done and “maybe” will work in the future.

I can´t believe I even have to write this obvious facts in a support forum. How old are you guys? Please grow up and charge for real stuff. IF something is in BETA offer it for free to a test group. When all is ok THEN you charge money for it.
I don´t have time to be your test monkey, I need to run my business.

when customer need support for Item and more facility then customer should go with Envato market. Elements is a subscription base service. Envato Elements does not issue purchase codes
when you download an item, instead, you get an ongoing license for a single, specified use once you register the item for a project. You’ll need to ignore any prompts about entering a purchase code.

From the licence terms page, when
you download an item like a website theme/template, you register it to use in a specific end product. The end product is a customised version of the template, which you’re planning to use for your own/personal website.

How about requiring the authors to hava that “system” you are talking about, before they put the product in that subscription model store.
The “system” is already invented long time ago for other plugins on other store. It is not rocket science. Just seems that you are lazy and want to have as many plugins as you can on the store to increase customers initial interest and have them pay for something that seems to be something but is not.

First, you are right - updating each plugin manually is nightmare especially when you have couple of them on multiple sites. I don’t know will there ever be a system to auto-update plugin which is downloaded from Elements (I am here just a author, not a Envato stuff).

But I want to say something else, how I am looking on all this about Elements and WordPress themes and Plugins. With cheap subscribe (also for just one month is 33$) you get a lot of themes and plugins which you can test, right?

So, let start from beginning. You need let say OnePage WordPress theme and you pay 33$ for Elements and there are for example 25 Themes which are “OnePage” themes. You can try all of them, or let say try 3-4 and you find the right one which you like how it works and which is good for your project. When you get such theme (again, this is my opinion) you can buy a regular license on ThemeForest for let say 40-50$ and you have lifetime updates.

Yes, on start this may be expensive 33$+50$ = 83$ (+ tax) but if chose to use just Elements you will need to pay each year 198$ subscription to keep getting updates for the theme and plugins. With regular license you pay once and you have lifetime updates without extra paying.

That is how I am looking on all this. I think the win-win combination is to use Elements to try themes/plugins and if you find the perfect one which you need, then buy a regular license for them and that is - lifetime updates “for free”. You don’t need to pay 50-100-200$ per month as you said in your post.

I think my point is not getting through. If people are happy using the envato elements at the areas where it is usable then good for them. I was just entering the store in the hope that I could get plugins that needs attention each month from me and from you, by paying each month. I was not planning on paying to different stores and payment models to get the same item. If I want to see how the plugin or theme looks and performs there are usually a live preview or demo on the author site that I can see, for free. I don´t want to pay for that.
Sure testing could be usable but a lot of products have 14 day trials and I believe both you and me can see the common sense in paying for something on a recurring basis. That benefits both you and me. I think it is not fair to pay for something 1 time in my lifetime and then force you to work and improve the very same product for years to come.
If you like that payment model, that´s fine. The same way free plugins does not encourge developers to continue developing, I think there needs to be a better recurring payment model that you would prefer.

There are hundreds and thousands of perfectly fine free themes on the wordpress repository.
If I want to pay for a theme I would like it to be premium.

I was just scrolling through all the 500 premium themes on envator elements. I have yet to see 1 theme that I can recognise from my previous experience with themeforest.

I took 4 themes by random:
9, 152, 111 and 41 sales on themeforest

It just looks like there is little chance for me to find anything in the top 500 items at all that are in the list of available themes on elements.

Any author who has 9 sales on his/her theme will not afford to maintain that for more than 6 months, then th theme will be abandoned, so no updates.