"Power Elite Authors" who are fraudsters.

I attempted to send this message via the refund form, knowing full well that a refund wont even be a thing. But, something has to be done about this marketplace. In the least, other buyers need to be made aware of this situation. So, here goes my whole message to the Themeforest people :slight_smile:

I purchased a theme back in 2022 believing that a “Power Elite Author” could be trusted. I had every reason to believe that Themeforest would not be giving out “Power Elite Author” badges to random people.

But, when I purchased it, I realized that the author had not been providing updated 3rd party licenses that were packaged with the theme, like the plugin ACF Pro. So, I made a formal complaint to the author. No reply. So, I escalated the complaint to themeforest. No reply.

Because I was already invested in this theme, I decided to invest my own money in purchasing the license for ACF Pro myself. This way, the theme could be used while I waited for the author to be forced to act.

He was listed by YOU as a “Power Elite Author” afterall. Surely, I thought, he would sort this out and update the theme.

I got no reply from you. And, one day, this theme was simply pulled from your website. This happened a mere few weeks after my purchase. This left me empty handed and empty pocketed. I tried to get a reply from you but got nothing!!!

However, this morning, I happened to check on the site, and I notice a huge red footer stating “Site is using a trial version of the theme. Please enter your purchase code in theme settings to activate it or purchase this wordpress theme here”. I do have a license, of course, as stated above.

So, I start by visiting the author’s site pinsupreme.com and it is redirecting to another site. I cant tell if this author sold his site or if its been hacked.

I emailed the author. As expected, no reply.

And then, I go to check this author’s profile on your site. Incredibly, you still list this guy as “Power Elite Author” and he still has a bunch of old themes up for sale.

How is this even acceptable?
What do I do now? If I wanted to keep this theme, after spending so much money and time on it, I would need to hire a techie to help me take this footer notification out. But NOBODY will do that because it seems like I stole this theme.

What do I do? Its obvious you’ll wash your hands and won’t give me a refund. But, HOW DO YOU JUSTIFY STILL HAVING THIS FRAUDSTER LISTED AS A “POWER ELITE AUTHOR”??? That makes you accountable for this guy’s fraud. FYI, this is not the only theme that was pulled. He had another theme pulled from themeforest soon after for the massive amount of complaints from other buyers. Yet, he’s still a “Power Elite Author”.

How are buyers like me supposed to trust themeforest or codecanyon again??

Here’s my license details :

Licensor’s Author Username:
Osetin

Item Title:
Pluto - Personal Masonry Blog Theme for WordPress

Item URL:
https://themeforest.net/item/pluto-clean-personal-wordpress-masonry-blog-theme/7950280

Item ID:
7950280

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Sorry to hear about the challenges you’re facing. If an author decides to remove their item from the marketplace, Envato no longer retains the right to use any assets associated with that item.

A “Power Elite Author” on Envato is a title, indicating that the author has reached over $1 million in sales on Envato Marketplaces.

Have you tried reaching out to the author through their support ticket system? https://osetin.ticksy.com/.

Thank you for your interest. Yes, I did send a message and tried also to his direct email. No reply, as predicted.

At this stage, I just dont have any confidence in purchasing anything more from this marketplace. Its expensive, time-consuming and the owners of this marketplace dont provide any recourse. Because, let’s face it, this author should be banned.

Are you asking it now?

Authors are not entitled to provide license for 3rd party plugins, it’s part of Envato agreement as well as authors are not allowed to provide license…

Contact Envato support.

The item has been removed already by the way. Authors are not entitled to provide support for the items those been removed ( especially after 2 year )

The only bit where your answer is somewhat helpful is when you say “contact envato support”. Like, where is that??? I cant find a form to reach them.

All the rest of your answers are seemingly based on you not reading my post or not knowing how the sale of themes that work based on 3rd party packaged integrations.
So, kindly move on.

From what I read, there’re things you’re not telling. Themes usually don’t get “reset” unless it’s a re-installation. Here’s the link to contact support:

You are not allowed to include premium third-party plugins, such Elementor Pro or Advanced Custom Fields, unless you have written permission from the plugin author to do so.

From CodeCanyon only:

Your “Things you’re not telling” line - kindly explain what that means. Their site pinsupreme.com has been compromised, which meant that none of their customer licenses are active now. In fact, if you had bothered to do a quick search, you would have noticed a bunch of other websites using this theme are now also displaying the same message in their footer. So, if you dont want to help, please go away.

If I understand correctly, the item was removed about few weeks after your purchase, right? If you had contacted Envato at that time, they would likely have issued a refund without issue. However, after so many years, it may now be challenging for Envato to process a refund, as it would require them to cover the cost directly.

It appears the author hasn’t been active on Envato for several years. Normally, Envato removes items that aren’t updated, but due to their recent acquisition by Shutterstock, there seems to be a delay. Envato already has a program in place to remove outdated items, and If you have any concerns about the author, you can reach out to Envato directly through this URL. - https://help.market.envato.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

We did reach out to the author and then to Envato. We stuck it out, as I said, because we believed the author would act after our official complaint to Envato. Like I said, we waited. But then the theme simply got taken down. A ton of people were complaining that he was not keeping the theme updated and, i guess, he decided to just delete the theme. He did the same with another theme he had called Neptune. From what I saw in the comments, a ton of customers complained there too.
We did our bit.
And this wasnt years ago. This was circa early-mid 2023. I believe.

It’s not my responsibility to help you but to offer few suggestions but again, there’s noone here to solve your problem. The support is being provided ( if available ) by the item author and if you cannot solve the problem with Envato, you can take the case to the court.

Authors are not entitled to provide life-time support as well as they have right to remove the item ( or by Envato ) If you don’t want to change the theme, as there’s not other option at the moment, you should find a freelancer to get the issue fixed.

I saw your post with the solution and I am grateful you tried to help. Whoever decided to flag your post should get on this thread and justify that decision.

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