The Envato Marketplaces are an awesome place to get super cheap, super professional stock products, there is no doubt about that and there are some authors including myself that go beyond the call of duty to give buyers every possible support but there are also authors that produce great items that are very complicated to use and fail to give even the most basic support. In this post, we’ll give you all the information you need using our 9 years + experience with the marketplaces to help you stay away from those authors.
First of all, if you are an author, and you are offended by my post, I seriously suggest you reconsider you stance on your customers. The things in this post are vitally important for your customers, and if your only goal is to get yourself rich over night, without any care about your buyers, you shouldn’t be an author in the first place.
What is item support?
First off, we must understand what support stands for. The fact that ThemeForest items are priced so ridiculously low is that they are Stock Items. Meaning, what you see in the demo, is what you get, meaning, adding extra, custom features, is charged at freelance rates and is not included in the support package.
By default, you are entitled to get a fully functional item that can be made to look and work exactly like shown in the preview.
What is included in Item Support
- Updates for the item to ensure it works as described and is protected against major security concerns.
- Help with defects / problems to the item that are caused by the item
- Help with plugins bundled / included in the package
- Answering questions about the functionality of the item
Basically, all you need to know to get your item setup and ready to fly. Most authors have extremely well built documentations, and you must always read these.
What isn’t included in Item Support
- Adding custom features that are not present in the demo / description
- Installing the item ( there is a manual for this, and you have to follow the instructions )
- Hosting of the Item
- Help with third party plugins that are not included in the item
- Teaching you how to use the programming language of the item ( example: Teaching you WordPress )
Basically, everything that is stock with that item you’ll get help for, everything else, is custom work and not included. And this is perfectly fine, considering you’re getting an item that’s worth a XX.XXX$ for XX$.
Finding out if an author supports an item.
Although Envato mandates all authors to support their items, there is a portion of them that bend the rules to suit their own will. Luckily, there are a few great and easy solutions to see how an author manages his support, and how much he really cares about the customer
Item Comments Section:
Each item is you will see on the Envato Marketplaces has an Item Comment Section. Let’s take for example one of our latest products and dissect it. This is one of our latest items, called 20K Mobile. When opening the file, you’ll see a few tabs at the top, the 3rd one is called Comments. When you open the comment section, here are the biggest and most important aspects you need to check
- The authors reply time to questions.
- The authors attitude towards buyers.
- Reported comments from buyers.
- Refund requests and arguments.
1. The authors reply time to questions.
The reply time can vary from author to author, but, excluding weekends ( since authors are human too ) the maximum reply time for an awesome author should be 36 hours. Some authors, including myself, have our phones or tablets around all the time and we reply to messages within the hour of them being posted. This should always be checked. If the reply time of an item is more than 3 days and you see comments of despair asking for a reply, then it’s clear, the author should be avoided.
2. The authors attitude toward buyers.
A hello, a thank you, a have a great day are some small an insignificant words that help and steer conversations to a positive start and end up making a bond between author and buyer. Seeing an author reply politely to his customers only shows that the author cares about his product and about the customer satisfaction. Seeing the exact opposite is usually a sign of an author that simply doesn’t care and is trying to get rid of you as fast as possible. If you see instant 3 – 10 word replies without any sort of emotion or politeness included, again, that author is most likely not to care about your problems and you should stay away from them.
3. Reported comments from buyers.
Authors usually report comments from other authors since this is a cheap and stupid advertisement technique. I do the same to keep my item comment section especially dedicated to my buyers and not start unrelated chats. That being said, every comment from a buyer ( meaning a member with less than 4 badges under the thumbnail ) should be a big question mark. Great authors that have bugs on their items fix them, because they value the feedback and want to improve their item, while at the same time replying to the buyer with a fix or a time-frame for that fix. Authors that avoid fixing their bugs and simply report the comment for deletion should be avoided. Simply check the reply the author or buyer gave to that comment and you’ll easily figure what and why the comment was reported. Maybe the bug was fixed and the author is removing it to keep the conversation relevant. Still, it’s best to check reported comments and their reasons.
4. Refunds requests and arguments.
This is something that lately has been flooding items that are low quality built, and a great move on behalf of Envato. Authors fear and revere refund requests from scamming buyers, even though Envato banns them, it’s still a nuisance until the situation is resolved, but there are those refund requests or comments requesting money back for serious matters that should never be ignored. If for example, you see a comment, where the buyer is referring to a serious bug and requesting a fix, and the author is reluctant to help and provide a fix and as a result the buyer requests a refund. Be sure to check what happened, what is the reason, if the author is to blame and if the author tried to offer solutions. If the author failed to help or provide any sort of solution, then that author’s item is clearly malfunctioning and should be avoided.
Understanding Item Reviews.
The item review section is the second tab on any item, and it has immense importance to finding out what an item’s quality is. There is however, something very important that needs to be mentioned. Item reviews should be judged by the masses and not by the few. There is a reason for this as well. Let’s say the item you want to purchase has 500 reviews out of which 10 reviews are negative. Do you still purchase it? Of course you do! And the reason behind this is simple, and I’ll share a quote to make it better.
“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”
– John Lydgate
This is true throughout our society. There will always be people that are unhappy with something even if it’s free, even if the author gives them money, they will still be unhappy. This can be for a number of reasons. Poor communication, poor knowledge, a bad attitude from the buyer, a hate rating, anger rating, etc. In laments terms, if an item is 4 stars + that item is certainly working properly, and the reviews that are negative are most likely from a scenario mentioned above.
Item reviews also help to see the highlights of the item, since a happy buyer will most likely explain in detail what they loved about the product and will love sharing their thoughts.
The Item Description
Reaching the last part of our post, is the item description. This I left for last for a specific reason. Some authors ( although unprofessional ) lack design skills and don’t bother creating an awesome item design, but the design in this case, is not the main aspect. Always read the item description. See how it’s explained and how the author provides information about it. The more information you can get form the description, the better. Always, and I mean always read the description prior to purchasing. A Jeep will get you over step terrain, a Ferrari however won’t, but they are both cars. Don’t judge and item just by it’s live preview.
Testing an author prior to purchasing.
As a closing message, there is always a great way to find out if the author will help out. And that is by asking any question that is not clear to you prior to your purchase. You’ll get the chance to talk to the author, judge their reply, and see how much they value you as a potential customer.
These are some simple yet highly effective tricks to check and see if authors are always there for their customers, and we share this information with you with a 9 year plus background as an Elite Author and Community Moderator that respect buyers and future customers. We’ll always provide the best support and we hope that with this information you’ll be able to find more authors like ourselves that truly believe that support is the backbone of any item.