Envato support policy

[Mike Mancini]

Ed,

As of today the new envato support policy is in effect with 6 months of support instead of lifetime. From what I understand you are able to set your own support rules on your support forum. I am curious what support will be offered to existing customers. Will I still get support and updates 6 months after my purchase or will I have to purchase a 6 month support pack?

Thanks,
MM

[Kyle – SUPPORT]

Hi

We will be following the new item support policy, you can read more about it here: http://themeforest.net/page/item_support_policy?_ga=1.249331591.1810579767.1439292642

You will still get updates after your support period has expired, however to continue using the support forum you will need to purchase a further 6 mont support pack.

– Kyle

[Mike Mancini]

So I will not be able to search the forum to see if there is an update, bug or plugin incompatibility after the 6 months?

[Kyle – SUPPORT]

I think you will still be able to browse the forum yes, just not post in it

– Kyle

[jennmattern]

Are you guys planning to release changelogs with each update at least? That’s the main thing I use the forum for — trying to get a list of changed files because I run manual updates due to complicated site setups. It looks like there’s an updated changelog for Flexform on TF, but the one for Pinpoint looks outdated. It hasn’t been updated since Jan. 2014 for version 1.6 while they have 1.6.5 available for download now.

That’s what I came here for today, and this is the first I’ve heard about the changes. Unfortunately I’ll probably start moving away from all ThemeForest themes (truly love you guys, but on principal I won’t continue supporting companies that change things for customers long after a purchase was made, which is what they’re doing by dragging devs into the new policy when they had other, better, support structures already in place).

Knowing whether or not changelogs will be kept up-to-date will at least let me know how quickly I have to prioritize the moves and redesigns. Any info you have about that would be appreciated. And it would be awesome if you guys could update Pinpoint’s public changelog on Themeforest for its current version.

[Kyle – SUPPORT]

Hi @jennmattern

I will forward this to the developer for you

– Kyle

[jennmattern]

Thanks Kyle. 🙂

[Kyle – SUPPORT]

No problem

[Swift Ideas – Ed]

Hi @jennmattern

The latest changelog.txt file included in Pinpoint is up to date – http://d.pr/i/13Ksz/4wiJmAQ2

It has mainly been plugin & compatibility updates as of recently.

Hope that helps.

– Ed

[jennmattern]

Thanks Ed. I must have downloaded the WP-only fileset from TF. I’ll check out the other one later today.

The version that’s out of date is the changelog that appears publicly on the TF page for Pinpoint. It’s about 2/3 of the way down this page if you decide to update that too:

http://themeforest.net/item/pinpoint-responsive-multipurpose-wp-theme/3760530

Thanks again!

[David Martin – Support]

Hi @jennmattern,

Thanks for the feedback, we’ll try to get that updated also.

Thanks,
David.

[Mike Mancini]

Hi,

My question: “So I will not be able to search the forum to see if there is an update, bug or plugin incompatibility after the 6 months?”

Kyle replied “I think you will still be able to browse the forum yes, just not post in it”

“I think” is not a answer it is a guess. Can Ed or someone that knows please answer the question?

Thanks

[Swift Ideas – Ed]

Hi Mike,

Sorry I missed clarifying that. Yes – that is correct. You will still be able to browse, but not post replies or topics.

– Ed

[Mike Mancini]

Ed,

OK. So I have 6 months from September 1st until March 1st to have support and to post correct? That is disappointing to say the least. That gives me some time to move all my sites off of Themeforest themes and on to a theme developer that gives a support rate for a year instead of buying support every six months. As much as I like Swift themes I refuse to deal with a company like Envato that changes their terms after the fact.

Thanks

[Swift Ideas – Ed]

Hi Mike,

I do understand, this policy should have been in place a long time ago – it’s simply impossible to sustain lifetime support on a $50-60 theme.

We are hopefully putting plans in place sometime early next year to open our own shop outside of Envato.

– Ed