Very strange decision. 1 simple point adding to all above…
Although I’ve seen mention by Envato that the number of transactions using credit has been falling as a proportion of the total, I’d be interested to know what proportion of the total value of sales came from transactions using credits.
Many of the comments from buyers suggest that those who have been most affected by this change are high volume users so the potential damage to income may well be bigger than would be indicated by the simple count of the number of transactions.
If the intention of Envato is that this move will encourage the buyers to use Elements this puzzles me on commercial grounds (as the amount being spent by the buyers who do shift may well go down) and it also doesn’t seem to take account of the much more limited range of items available to buyers on Elements.
As I said many times before, Envato is gonna go down one day if they don’t stop this mess.
Now It’s really clear that you just want money, not customers or authors opinions.
Since 2016, a lot of stuff was added, changed, that made the market like a Sunday Bazar.
I suggest you guys to look again into your managers, and high team members. I don’t think those are the CEO decisions. As on the past 10 years, nothing happened that really effected the market like those past 2 years.
Nothing positive, everything is negative.
Since it the elimination of Envato Credits has still not been officially announced to customers via email, and given the unanimous negative customer reaction on this thread, here’s an idea that might allow the mid-to-high level manager who spearheaded this decision to save face:
Instead of canceling Envato Credits, Rebrand it.
Call it Envato ID (Instant Downloads), Envato On Demand, VIP Access, Preferred Customer Program, Coupons, whatever…
You can give the customers the convenience they need while still “technically” eliminating Credits.
This is another issue. I didn’t even know about this issue until yesterday when my credits ran out. I assume there are still a lot of other people in the same boat that don’t yet realise that this is how the system now works. Ridiculous.
I’m just one data point, of course, but I figured I’d share my experience rather than just dropping away silently, on the off chance they are monitoring this and might change their mind on this awful decision.
This change has caused me to remove Envato for my workflow. I’ve cancelled my Elements subscription, and I won’t be purchasing any future themes (my main use by funds, second in usage) or graphic elements (my secondary use in funds, but primary use in terms of how many items I buy) after I burn through my remaining credits. It looks like I spent $1200 on credits this calendar year, and $1400 on credits last calendar year. So I’m not a huge spender, but I definitely made up part of the ecosystem.
Everything about this just rubs me the wrong way – it feels like double dipping, and it strongly penalizes my workflow. Yes, I use Elements some, but mostly I come on, find a $2-$10 graphic template or item I like, and buy it. The surcharge therefore hits me unduly hard.
I’ll be suggesting to the main theme producer I buy from, @artbees (I have 24 licenses for Jupiter), that they move away from Envato as well, or look towards offering direct sales. Otherwise I’ll just use my remaining licenses with them and then find another theme to use as a framework that I can buy direct or through a different marketplace.
This whole thing has felt incredibly poorly handled, and definitely has turned me off of the marketplace as a whole. There are other options out there, so I don’t feel a need to stay in this ecosystem.
Yep same here.Had no indication of this until I went to buy an item. And guess what - I didn’t buy it.
I have to add my voice to those outraged over this money grab by Envato.
Also they a have a habit of offering stuff at an amazing price using marketing slogans but when you click on the buy button, suddenly the price is doubled with an added $2 transaction fee and $10 tax on top. So that tantalising original price they originally dangled is a joke!
So I didn’t buy it!!
I’m out of here, once a company starts going down this route its the beginning of the end.
Yes I come here for quality but I am not going to take it up the a…
I’m just stepping in to clarify, that the taxes are a legal obligation and should not be accounted for as Envato’s way of increasing prices. Envato must collect certain taxes as obliged by law.
I know that taxes are part of the price.
I think you are missing the point I was making about the marketing of a product at a price they present/claim is cheap but then when you go to buy it, they then tell you; "Oh! by the way thats not the actual price, its actually double that! " What I wanted to point out is the misleading marketing, they should declare the REAL price from the beginning like most sites. I hope that clarifies what I was saying.
Not missing the point at all mate, sorry if it seemed that way, I was adding that piece of information to the mix because the forums are a place where certain folks read between the lines, I just wanted to clarify that statement for future “in between the liners” to be sure it doesn’t turn into “Envato added 12$” situation.
All good mate! No offence intended whatsoever. Just making sure facts are clear to avoid confusion! Cheers!
What a joke!
Given my credits have now been used I had to suffer the pain of purchasing a track and pay the $2 fee.
Now, rather than a monthly entry in my accounts I will have around 20 to 30 entries. That’s 20 - 30 $2 fees, 20 - 30 35p back charges and an accounts folder that will be full of Envato paperwork rather than invoices!
It’s a joke and one of the poorest moves by a business that I have experienced.
Time to move away one thinks.
Oh, 6 pages of paperwork for one purchase as they break down the purchase into three invoices.
This is an absolutely terrible idea, credit was simple and convenient.
Not only are you forcing us to pay $1-2 extra for every purchase, as a business we now need to processes sperate APRs though our finance department for every purchase.
Are you genuinely going to inconvenience your customers for the sake of scraping a couple of dollars from us from us? What a joke!
For every transaction. You can purchase multiple items and only pay $2. The fee is per transaction, not per individual item. If multiple items are in the cart, the fee will only be applied once.
No offence intended, just correcting the terms so others won’t understand that each item in a cart will be charged an extra $2 on checkout! 
It’s worse the I thought! I just bought one Theme right now I got 3 invoices with different numbers! Are you kidding me?
With credits: 1 Invoice for 4 themes
Now: 12 invoices for 4 themes
That’s just stupid sorry…
What are your plans for the $2 charge?
Is it staying, going?
How much more backlash from customers and content creators until something will be done? Literally one person defending Envato and the rest are outraged, annoyed or frustrated.
It’d be nice if someone from Envato could update us.
Add up the lost simplicity of instant downloads on demand together with these other hurdles created by the elimination of Credits, and it becomes clear that a myriad of customer concerns were ignored when making this decision.
please bring credit system back, or remove the unfair surcharge system all together.
As a creator, I’ve never used the credits system here. Honestly, I’ve only purchased content that was used in an AE template because of how it fit so well with that template. But I don’t understand the “handling fee.” What exactly is being handled? The purchase is made electronically, the money is transferred electronically, and the download is generated electronically. No human interaction, other than the buyer, is required to “handle” anything. Also, why do tracks over $100 (if I remember that correctly) cost more to “handle,” again, electronically?
