Support 6 Months

You know this is going to cause more nulling to themes now. Who is going to do the continued pay for every 6 six months? In the long run people are going to end up costing as much as paying for a developer. So it would end up people using a developer instead of buying themes of Envato. So looks like when my 6 months is up I am moving on to something else. This is BS to me.

I know it says extend for 12 months, but still for someone that has no income and actually paid for theme already, this means I get a broken theme after 6 months with no updates to it. So what the point of the full price for a theme if you get to be forced a support price after and not usage except to be stuck with same version of the theme and no more updates at all unless you pay.

I am not the only one that is going to hate this move from Envato. Consider me on strike when this 6 months of mine is up.

• This topic was modified 10 years by doucare1971.

I might just move on before my 6 months is up. This is completely waste of my $48. I don’t go by a game for my PC and be told to take it back after 6 months and that should not be the case here either. So I am pissed. Envato now sucks.

• This reply was modified 10 years by doucare1971.

I know what I might do is just a framework and make my own theme, and maybe I will sell it but not on here. Since I think about customers and choosing this way is thinking about money more than it is about customers. It is getting to be all about money and this is going to cause the end of the world a lot faster this way. Not trying to start a fight here but I am moving on. Consider this a lost customer.

I am in Envato support and Andrew is saying we get all the version updates, but the wording in Item Support says otherwise. I am trying to get him to change the wording so no one else is going to spend hours trying to understand why we have to pay for updates when we don’t.

I guess its just version updates that we get and that is not including new features, functionality, and design updates. It is just bugs and fixes, but they still have as were paying for the updates and bug fixes in the Item Support. So they are all screwed up with what they are saying. I guess since they can’t figure it out and word it correctly that I will still end up moving on away from Envato.

If I lose the updates I am gone. Poof and goodbye and good riddance.

• This reply was modified 10 years by doucare1971.

Maybe I should charge for support on my website, since everyone on the internet is inclined to charge for it now. I will lose visitors because they won’t want to pay it. Can’t people see that charge for support is not always the best way to earn money. You are going to have more than just me thinking this way. Its all boiling down to reaching into customers pockets and hoping they will do nothing or say anything. I guess we will see how long this is going to work. Not for me. Yes, I am going to have a big grudge on this new Item Support. “My way or the highway” does not work for me.

I agree. The theme is great, the support mostly fast. But would I pay extra for this? I don’t know. I bought this theme because it fits to my site and because of the great customer support. Additional charge is not the right way I think. You will probably lose some customers with this.

From what I can see on the Envato website, it says 6 months of support from the author. Version updates should be available beyond six months, and I imagine that you will still be able to post issues to this forum beyond six months.

I assume that it’s an attempt to impose a uniform minimum standard on developers to directly support their themes, but that individual developers will be able to guarantee longer support periods if they want to. I also assume that it’s aimed at direct one-on-one support rather than a forum environment like this one.

Okay, then that will be fine with me. The only issue I have is just like buying something as a laptop from a store or anything you buy that should last a great while. Should be as that. If I plan to use this theme for at least many years, then it should be that way with updates.

@stuartmasson I agree with what your saying and hope this is correct and Tagdiv is not going to force us out of this forum for that new policy. I think this is great the way we have it now, and would be a shame to just leave because I can’t get what I paid for or limited to only bits and pieces of the new updates.

So I will go with what you are saying and continue to come and help others on this forum, but hope I am not going to get the “You did not pay for extended support, Goodbye!” That will be a big turn off and I think you will understand that too.

Absolutely, but I doubt that is what is likely to happen. I have used several themes over the last four years, and researched plenty of others. If you browse the different themes on Envato, you will see plenty of examples of customers who seem to think that they should have some kind of permanent hotline to the developer for personal assistance and customisations. There is also a huge variation in the level of support provided by different developers

Six months should be plenty of time to install your theme and iron out any problems with assistance from the developer, which is what the support is for. If you want to add extra functionality or modify your theme after that, I think it’s reasonable that you should pay for additional direct & personal support from the developer if you need it.

Tagdiv are unlikely to abolish your forum membership after six months, as it provides a valuable community for support, tips and future ideas, and helps them produce better themes. There are plenty of people here who offer their advice and expertise in addition to the theme developers, so it’s doing the developers a favour to have it.

Well, keep in mind some theme developers get swamped with RTFM support questions on how to use WordPress, how to install WooCommerce, and folks who decide to completely change their site layouts/design 10 months later and want another hour of free support to teach them how to do basic CSS fixes, or “where do I download my file update from ThemeForest?” — so, at some point there are good reasons for two kinds of support.

Presumably support for the THEME should be free; but basic “where do I log in to WordPress” questions really should be limited as folks need to take ownership of learning to use the platoform and stop expecting the theme to completely manage a website.

Just my two cents.

On the other hand, I’m not renewing my Canvas/Woo licenses, after paying for them several times over. Their last support ticket took 5 days for reply, and they didn’t provide an answer on how to fix something they changed back the way it had been for 5 years. Answer was, too bad, sorry, for something related to having sidebar visible on iPad portrait.

Sorry — kind of ranting there 🙂

Sorry to bring this up again but there is added information on the top of this https://forums.envato.com/t/item-support-policy-and-functionality-launched/3619

It says the support will be forced on support forums, comments, via email and it is all by the purchase code. This forum uses the purchase codes to sign up so we are all clients that bought before September 1st this year will be ending their support on March 2nd, 2016. That means this forum is going to cut out your clients even if you don’t like it Tagdiv. People that enjoyed the free support are going to be not very happy even if you say you won’t do it to us. Envato says it is that way on that link above on the first post. They forced this support no matter what the author says. I would be surprised if this paying for support is actually going to be better.

I know if I was an author on Envato I would be a little ticked off. This sounds like sales going down for you guys. I can just see it.

• This reply was modified 10 years by doucare1971.
• This reply was modified 10 years by doucare1971.

Um, no.
The forum is on the tagdiv web server — not Envato. Envato can’t “cut off your account” on this forum. Only cut off additional downloads from the ThemeForest repository.

I think this has become necessary for some theme developers who deal with 5 hours of tech support for folks who buy a $59 theme; then a year later want another 5 hours of support. Nobody can make a living that way. I’ve been one of many (sorry!), pushing this idea the past 3 years on ThemeForest so theme authors can make a living *and* continue to develop and support products for clients.

For example, client buys v2 of theme – works great, gets bunch of support for customizations, site is awesome. 2 years later new super version theme comes, out customer gets it free, and now wants ANOTHER bunch of support for customizations and “how do I get it to work with plugin XYZ” … that’s crazy for a company to offer for a $50-60 product.

Otherwise they would have to at some point charge for support tickets unrelated to an ‘actual” bug or theme issue. Like the guy on Newspaper them who was “furious” over problem, and got all sorts of support, turned out it was issue with Cloudflare. Wow, huge time waster for TagDiv.

So I would not panic if you’re an existing customer – sky not falling – get your site setup, and get on with your life and make great content. TagDiv has already said they will continue to support existing clients, as they have done the past couple of years — often going above and beyond for clients who REALLY need to learn to use WP before coming here at all.

Sorry – not trying to be a troll or war of words, or anything, these are just my thoughts and reflect no policy or anything from the company or anybody else — just an opinion.

We started to sell themes 6 years ago and stopped doing so due to this very issue … folks really want a theme developer to help them debug their server, their plugins, their photos, their life, their coffeecake, and that’s just not reasonable in any business case. Hopefully some middle ground will be found, and 6 months is plenty of time for a buyer to get support on setup, shoot down bugs, etc for the small amount being paid.

Like the guy on Newspaper them who was “furious” over problem, and got all sorts of support, turned out it was issue with Cloudflare. Wow, huge time waster for TagDiv.

Okay no problem but I hope that wasn’t meant towards me because I did that in this forum and this is Newsmag not Newspaper. I was not that furious either.

I know that Tagdiv said they would continue to offer us support but I also did not know this forum was separate from Envato, since we really have to go to Envato to get to it or put it as a bookmark on browser or straight from themepanel.

There is this thing called purchase code too. Still is being tracked by Envato even if this forum is 3rd party. Not trying to be a d*ck. I am just not made out of money. I pay for one theme then all of a sudden Envato wants more. I should be upset.

One theme and that does not mean, well he did not pay enough, now lets ask for more. I understand authors paying for support but there is a difference from authors saying they are charging and then Envato saying they are making the authors charge. Authors saying is better than a marketplace doing it for them.

Does not bother me if Tagdiv actually says they would do it on this 3rd party forum because it is coming from them but Envato is making it look as they are trying to suck as much as possible and this sure sounds like vampires without the blood sucking.

Their taking the authors share. I am just informing about what Envato is doing so Tagdiv knows but since everyone here is acting like there is nothing to worry about. I will just forget this ever happened or even just not come in the forums at all.

I hardly ask serious stupid questions, like some I have read in here. So making me feel bad for something I hardly do, does not help anything either.

The main reason I come to these forums is to see if I can offer some help but that looks as I am more a problem than a help or I just stepped on your territory Chris.

If my opinions or willing to try to help in these forums are being a problem or I really stepped on you territory then say so. I will never come back here again and just let you guys do what you do without me and I will just update the theme when they are available. Sounds like that is what you want here.

Giving information about changes to Envato bothers people that they rather not hear it, then I can stop that too. Let you all find out yourselves then.

• This reply was modified 10 years by doucare1971.

This forum and the support on it I find unique- having used two premium themes in the site before, and with good support I must say from the theme authors by email, the patience displayed by the team at TagDiv with requests are worth paying for. What’s different is that when you buy a theme, a theme author won’t advise on every little tweak and change you may need. TagDiv does that here. People buy the theme, which to be fair at about £30 Sterling UK is a coffee a day for two weeks – and then what lots and lots of style changes – me included – and we get them with a smile and properly explained with screenshots. The theme itself is state of the art, increases page views, looks as good as any national or international News website, increases dwell time, and is very customisable in itself without touching code.

I don’t know how they operate the forum all day for just the theme revenue, each time you look there are loads more questions – I would gladly pay for support here and anywhere that comes anywhere near this level of service. My site does generate revenue, and I’d suggest most choosing the theme are probably aiming for that too.

Thanks

Pat

I also ran previous sites through MaxCDN and Cloudflare – both paid for about $29 per month – I use neither now no cache plugin even and have lost 1 second. For my audience this is fine. So it’s even paid for itself 10 times over.

I hate to say this as many disagree but GoDaddy Managed WordPress as a host has been awesome and also contributed to good speeds, cache at host and backups and staging sites. But will probably have to move to private soon if traffic keeps rising ?

@doucare1971
wasn’t poking you in any way there ;-0

However good point was made that with the 6-month support limit, this *will* impact free downloads from ThemeForest, presumably. So, that might be the only real conundrum in the stew pot.

Its all okay. I am not worrying about it anymore. I just needed to take my mind off of it, and I am fine now. I should of just not even worried about it in the first place but when I see stupid things happening, that is why I flip out. This is one of those things. I been there and done that with premium support to know that it does not matter if its paid or not, you will still get companies out there with really bad support. Not saying this against Tagdiv or they would do that. So don’t think it was meant for you.

• This reply was modified 10 years by doucare1971.