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
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