Support Licence A Fairer System

Envato Authors Theme Authors
1

I have been a member for a number of years and as such have purchased a lot of different products.

Sometimes I will see a product and purchase it but it may be a while until I get round to using it.

What this means is that despite not using the plugin/theme etc the support licence is still running down from the date of purchase.

This can mean that when you decide to try out the product the support licence is no longer valid as it has run out.

So you are trying out a product for the first time and find an issue that you may need help with but there is no support available because of the above reason.

If I am unable to resolve the issue myself due to the lack of available support then I will usually not waste time further on it and thus there is no encouragement to buy other items.

A fairer licence system
What if instead the support licence that is part of the purchase of the product purchased did not start to countdown in time until the first contact for support which would trigger that countdown.

That way you could make the purchase when you see the product and know that you would be able to get support when you got around to using the product for the first time where it is most likely that the need for support would crop up.

It is a fairer system for both customer and seller in that the seller makes a sale and the customer gets to use your product at their convenience knowing that if they needed support it would be available.

This is not a request for an extended support licence for the product you are selling but timing of when the licence time limit is implemented.

2

It would be complicated to activate as authors manage support not envato and while it makes sense in principle it is not entirely fair on the author.

What if 9 months after releasing an item they decide they no longer want to sell it or support it (for whatever reason), then what? Should buyers get a refund because they have not activated the 6 months support? Should the author have to keep supporting an item even after the period that existing support periods would have ended?

Ultimately it places a huge amount of control and benefit to buyers (speaking as a power buyer) whilst leaving authors hanging at their disposal

3

Envato does not care my friend. Same as they don’t care that they are selling Themes and Scripts where the Authors have abandoned the projects.

the have no mechanisms to report mistakes and issues like this. Instead they make you email their support and then after a automated courtesy reply your message gets forgotten.

Just accept that Envato don’t care and move on. Buy a new script or theme and use it immediately.

I have written about this… they don’t even have the common decency to answer me…

Just accept this…

4

I think it’s about the nature of this marketplace + one-time payments.

Unlike other marketplaces there is no subscription model on Envato. That’s a deliberate choice on Envato’s part and when you’re buying on Envato you’re buying a product one-time, with lifetime updates.

You’re not paying $59/year or $99/year or $199/year

5

Good morning Charlie4282,

Thank you for responding on this.

I appreciate your concerns for the author.

“What if 9 months down the line the author no longer wanted to sell the item?”

I understand that if something is not selling they may not wish to continue and so stop and would make sense that they may not wish to offer support.

This already happens now that products are no longer updated and so they expire and become not available to download at some point.

This makes sense in that they no longer are making money on an older defunct product.

Of course there are a number of successful products that are still being updated and there are some that I own in this category such as the Bridge Templates and the XThemes as well as some plugins.

If I bought them today they would still have support built in to the price.

So if I did not use the support then I would have effectively paid for something that I did not use or in my case not have time to use from the purchase date.

As a power buyer Charlie you will know that as you become familiar with certain products there is a good chance that you will not need support on those products due to your knowledge and experience.

But sometimes, including those you may have great familiarity with throw up something where you need an answer but if your support has lapsed this makes the process of finding out the answers you need more challenging.

Of course if the support time count down process did not start until the first time you reached out then you would have the support you needed when you needed it and not when you did not need it.

If the product is still selling then they will still be providing a period of support for purchasers.

They do this to help people get the best experience of their products with a view to perhaps buying more licences or recommending other to pruches them.

If someone did choose to offer this fairer system of support and it was a good product I would give it more consideration.

I do not see things changing here at the moment but other organisation may do so.

Thank you once again Charlie for your response.

6

Hi WebWizardsDev,

I fully understand you point on the subscription point.
The envato approach is much healthier in respect of Authors creating products on the basis that they sell.

This is why the quality of the products have increased over the years and pushing the boundaries.

My suggestion is not to change the amount of support time provided with the purchase of the product but merely that support countdown time could be triggered on from the first time you reach out for help rather from the date of purchase.

Someone will see it adds no more to the present assistance and has they same risk of someone needing more time than others.

The real benefit to the Authors are that they get to respond to their customers needs when they need it and so provide a better customer experience.

My guess it is more wishful thinking at the moment until another organisation puts this into place.

7

Hi Wh,

Thank you for responding.

I get that sometimes projects become defunct and that support stops.

As with any product there is usually a lifespan and as such a newer and better product becomes available.

There are two challenges in this the first is the Author supporting a product that is old and as such not generating any revenue.

The second is that someone has made a purchase and implemented into there project for themselves or even a client and when there is an issue then it may not get the response it needs to resolve something.

My goal is not to keep old project alive that are not up to the standard of newer products but merely to be able to get support on a product that is still being sold.

My request is that the product support count down period does not start until the first reach for help rather than from the date of purchasing.

I know that I could wait until I needed something and had the time to use it whilst the product support was still available.

The downside for an author is that when I did get round to looking again then newer product may be available with more functionality by another author and so that original author missed out on a purchase.

Anyway that is the way it is at the moment.

Thank you once again Wh.

8

While I do see your point - unfortunately envato don’t own these products and it’s very hard, and not really feasible for them to suggest to authors that they have to sit around and wait to offer support as/when the buyer chooses to activate that.

Perhaps if buyers paid more for the ability to do this then it could be achievable, but this is effectively the same as buying extended support using the existing model

9

While I get your point, I don’t think it’s realistic. As an author on Envato, if I had 5000 customers who hadn’t used their support rights, and could do so at any time and flood my mailbox, that’d be a nightmare. There has to be a “statute of limitations” on this :slight_smile: (or make support a lot more expensive, to make it feasible for authors to provide it under the terms you suggested)