Envato is one of the popular and biggest marketplaces available for purchasing digital goods. You can buy starting from a piece of code to power packed themes on their marketplace. It covers the marketplaces like codecanyon, themeforest, PhotoDune, 3DOcean, AudioJungle, VideoHive, etc. This is kind of one stop solution for website owners to purchase variety of items using a single account. However, there are some facts normal website owners and buyers do not aware or overlook when purchasing items. In this article, let us share few reasons for you to stop purchasing from envato marketplace.
Did We Purchase Items from Envato?
The answer is yes, obviously. We have purchased handful of products from themeforest and codecanyon. So, the experience we share here is based on the facts and not on assumptions. We have also mentioned the items currently available on the marketplace for you to verify the facts.
The reason we share with the readers is that you can learn from other’s mistakes instead of making mistakes yourselves and struck.
1. Account Lock Out for PayPal Dispute
Recently we have purchased Discy theme which is a replica of the popular Stack Overflow questions and answers concept. After two days, we found that the theme allows automatic login to the site after registration without the email verification from users. We have asked the author to check and after unconvincing answers, we have requested refund.
The author rejected the refund and we are pushed to go to PayPal buyer protection for getting $61 spent for this theme. The moment we filed a dispute with PayPal, envato locked the entire account. This prevented us from downloading or viewing previously purchased items including item purchased on codecanyon. They will also ask you to close the PayPal dispute to take up the dispute through envato. In our opinion, this is threatening the buyer by locking account and prevent access to previously purchased products.
It will take up to 30 days for resolving PayPal dispute and you will not have access to your envato account till the dispute is resolved. This is a bureaucratic attitude mentioning security reason and be aware that you need to fight back after getting buggy products. It essentially means you need to spend lot of time which should not be the case for the buyer.
2. No Product Activation
Well, you may be wondering how product activation could cause issues. The products are sold under a regular license meaning you should use the purchased product on one domain. However, most of the products don’t have a product key activation. This leads to the following problems:
- You can purchase once and use on multiple domains. Many websites allow free download of the products sold through themeforest. It will be embarrassing to spend $50 and find the same product is available on another site for free download. If you don’t believe us, search in Google for “discy theme free download”, “disputo theme free download” or search for any other themes offered in themeforest. You will get the latest version in few clicks without spending a dime. The point here is that not offering activation API will make no difference between original and fake users.
- You can’t have automatic update and in some cases demo content also will not be available.
Putting in simple words combining the two points – envato neither worry about the originality of the author’s product nor worry about the protection of their buyers. On other hands, authors can file a simple DMCA complaint with Google to take down all those fake sites. However, they can’t do this since anyone can create another webpage and offer the item for free as it has no product key attached to restrict the usage.
3. Author Can Remove Items Anytime Without Notice
The author has full rights to remove the products due to various reasons from the marketplace. This looks good at the outlook, however, it happens without any notice to the buyer. The only way for you to know this fact is to go the downloads section and find the product is removed by the author.
- You have no information whether it was removed for security reasons.
- You need to decide on yourselves to delete the product or continue using.
- In most cases, you can’t consult with the author for free as additional support needs additional money. Also, removed products theoretically can’t have any support.
In our case, we have purchased AtoZ SEO Tools optimization add-ons from codecanyon. The author removed this product from codecanyon as show below.
However, he is offering the same product as a free add-on through his own website. In our opinion, envato should make clear to the buyer about the reason(s) for removal to avoid security problems.
4. Author Can Combine Products
This is another problem that author can stop updating one of the products and combine the same product with another product. Let us explain with an example. Go to codecanyon and search for “flag counter” and you will find the item “Flag Counter – Advance Visitors Counter” tool offered for $23.
It looks fine when you look at first, however, the truth is different. This item will not support the PHP 7+ versions. The last update you see on 15th May 2019 was kind of fake to show the product is updated. Now, look for another product from the same author “A2Z SEO Tools…”. The clever author simply combined the flag counter product with his SEO Tools product and offering as an add-on through his website for $19. The combined product is a trending product and supports the latest PHP 7+ version. In our opinion, this is the responsibility of envato to protect buyers from such greedy authors. However, it seems they have no time to look into such topics.
5. Duplicate or Similar Products
Let us explain this with few other examples. We have two cases – Convert Plus and WP Bakery Visual Composer. These are the popular plugins offered through codecanyon for WordPress websites. After reaching certain popularity, those authors decided to sell their products on their own sites instead of codecanyon. Here comes the problem – envato rules prevent authors from selling their product with the same name outside their marketplace. It’s like you need to work in single company for life long and you should not leave even you get better prospects.
Now, the authors duplicate the entire product and modify few features to sell with similar name on their own sites. Below are the examples of the cases we have mentioned:
| Original Name | Currently Sold on Codecanyon | Sold on Author’s Website |
| ConvertPlug | Popup Plugin For WordPress – ConvertPlus | Convert Pro |
| Visual Composer | WPBakery Page Builder for WordPress | Visual Composer |
It’s a pity that envato policies neither help customers nor help authors.
6. Support on Comments Section
Almost half of the products are outdated in the marketplace and not supported by the author. If you are looking for supported products, then be careful to understand the mode of support. Some items are supported only on the comment section of the product page.
This is one of the ridiculous ways of supporting in such a big marketplace. Let’s say, you have purchased a theme like Discy theme and getting PHP errors. The author only supports through comment section which you did not find before the purchase. How can you leave PHP errors with server details on the publicly visible comments section? So, when you notice thousands of comments, it is an indication that the author may support through comments section. If privacy is your concern then be away from such products. It is also unbelievable that an author selling a digital good does not have an option to support through the envato email support or a dedicated website.
7. Fake Reviews
When you look at the reviews, it is easy to find many irrelevant reviews without having any idea of the product. Let us prove this with an example. Go to codecanyon and find the “Icon Generator” item. The author does not provide support from the day the items was available. However, you can see the below review mentioning 5 star for customer support.
Also, you can find other authors leave comments like “good product” to increase the visibility.
Conclusion
Big marketplaces like envato should have their own moderators to monitor the processes and purchases. This will help to resolve issues and address buyers with appropriate information. However, the fact is that envato lock out your account when there is a PayPal dispute and protect the author instead of buyer. This is evident as their business depends on the commission collected from the authors. But the fact is that the money is coming from the buyer and not protecting their fundamental consumer rights will make them run away after few purchases.
As of now I bought a product which was 160$ through paypal if I request refund through paypal will i get my money back.
Its worst product and author is not even replying my mail and in the skype too even in comment sections
Exactly the same thing happened to me, after 9 years of being an Envato customer and after having purchased hundreds of items from them, Envato arbitrarily and without any justified reason canceled my account. This affects me seriously because without being able to access my account I can not download the latest updates of the Wordpress Templates I bought. I asked for a refund of the items purchased and they replied that it was not possible, they practically robbed me and scammed me by telling me that I was going to receive updates “for life”.
I recommend to stay away from this Market Place and do not buy or do any business with them.
Envato has been literally flooded by all kinds of crooks and low quality stuff. It used to be good and we have bought a lot of quality content but nowadays it’s simply not worth it. You will even struggle with refunds. In the past they cared about buyers but now apparently don’t. Envato has lost customer centric approach. If this is the cost of growth, it’s a very bad cost and sooner or later will take its toll on the company’s success.
Envato is the worst place for costumer service. They lock accounts without any given information and refuse to help or find out solutions. Run away from this website!
I’m new to Envato marketplace and was about to buy an app template from one of the developer there, then I happened to see this article. It seems like Envato do not care for the buyers but the sellers. Since I have never buy any thing on Envato, I have some questions that I hope someone can help shred me some lights?
– Can I download my purchased app including its supporting files onto my PC? So I can access it later even when my account get lock-out.
– Once I publish my app to the Play store, can developer hack into the app they sold to me and manipulate my app? Sorry, this question may not make sense, but #1 in the article got me thinking that it could happen.
– What would be a better alternative for Envato market if I’m looking for Andriod App templates.
Thanks,
You can download the app after payment and use as per the license. Whether developer can track or hack is a common question for any App Store or marketplace item, you have to follow the details in the item’s sales page. There are marketplaces like Codester and Uplabs for Android templates (we did not test their services).
I’m a customer since like 2001.
After a dispute with PayPal that they didn’t even bother to answer and got refunded, I got this email.
Apr 6, 2021, 20:31 GMT+10
Hi,
Thank you for contacting Envato Market. My name is Dani from the Customer Success Team.
Upon checking, it appears that your Envato Market account was automatically disabled as a security measure when a dispute is opened and just recently, the dispute was awarded and your account remained locked. Before we can proceed with your request to have your account re-enabled, we will need you to process a re-payment of the reversed funds.
Once this is done, please reach back to us together with the transaction ID so we can verify the payment and proceed with the process.
Here are the details of the disputed item:
Item: ListingPro – WordPress Directory Theme
Amount: $85.91
Reference Number:
You can send the payment to ……
I’ll be keeping an eye out for your response.
Warm Regards,
xxxx
Envato Customer Success
Generally they support the authors and PayPal also will not help resolving the dispute in your favour for digital items.
The best way as mentioned in the article is to pay to the author and discuss with envato representative to get your amount in terms of credit. The credit is valid for 1 year which you can use for purchasing other items during checkout. So, there is no loss for you as long as you are purchasing another item.
They not only produce fake reviews, but they delete the real ones when they are not positive. And you can get banned for bad reviews as well. Practically there’s no chances for a refund. As you said – they will block your account if you request one through PayPal. That site is a one total scam and I can’t believe that PayPal is still collaborating with them. Seeing that the site uses PayPal people trust them. So PayPal legitimates that scam.
Same thing … I’m using Envato since 2012. I have 100’s of wp themes, plugins, photo’s, designs, video’s, … in my account …
I have send literary 100 clients of me to Envato to buy a specific theme or plugin …
And now all of a sudden I find out that I’m locked out … I have no idea why?!
Can they do this?? I mean: I have stuff overthere that’s worth at least 1000 dollar. They can’t just close my own account, can’t they?
Also I’m 100% sure that I didn’t do anything wrong. (I can’t even think of something that I can do wrong. I’m just a person/client who buys stuff from them.)
100% agree do not purchase from envato i get blocked today even i pay from my credit card
i just purchase and after my account get block and now envato said they not unlock my account my money gone my license gone have nothing
Just had half these issues after my first purchase. Gave me a bunk product activation code for a photoshop plug-in I’d purchased. Went back to the Envato website to confirm I’d put in the right code only to find out I’ve been locked out. So I have to go to support and put a ticket in. Finally, I get a response to the effect of, “we’re using our discretion and will not be re-enabling your account”.
I’m so stunned. I don’t even know why it was blocked in the first place, and I’ve not been given any answers or anything in return. The only plus is that since getting the email back from support, the charges for the plug-in have been automatically reversed. But wtf?!
Envato marketplace kept all our products bought, after receiving a Threatening email from Envato, they closed the account without any real reason, and that sounds like a scam and theft, as I could read here, Envato removes all unfavorable comments and reviews, to make others believe they are reliable, but many of the products Envato sell are useless, they don’t answer any emails, on the contrary, they just close the account and don’t care about the money you have invested in your work buying products from Envato; theft and fraud are criminalized in every country in the world, and as consumers we are entitled to all our purchased products and their respective upgrades.
I was locked from my account just for changing my email address. After contacting support, I’ve got this “we’re using our discretion and will not be re-enabling your account”. I was member for 5 years, bought themes. No ideas what could go wrong. Such companies should not exist in a real world.
That’s strange. If you have purchased products, contact them with the details – at least their customer service was good in resolving issues.
Just learned about the PayPal lock out the hard way. It’s exactly as you say it is. Can you tell me if PayPal resolves the matter in my favor, will Envato unlock my account so I can get product updates? I can wait the 30-60 days for PayP{al to do their thing provided I get access to my account back at some point.
First, you will not get access to Envato account when there is a PayPal dispute open. Second, PayPal will NOT resolve on your favor and reject your dispute.
If you are right, then close your PayPal dispute (or wait for it to get rejected) and you will get the Envato account back after that. Raise a dispute in Envato and in most cases they will give you the credit back in your account. As mentioned, they will protect the author and will not get the money back from the author for return to customer..
Thanks for the great info. I agree with you but we have to concern about this when we purchase items from Envato Marketplace. Big marketplaces like Envato should monitor these issues and it will be beneficial for the customers.