Poor support

Hi Daniel,

thanks for your feedback and we’re sorry that you feel that way. Of course we offer quick and helpful theme support (even for free through the .org forums, as you can see when having a look at hundreds of answered threads here) and we’re always happy to answer theme-related questions about the installation, configuration or usage of the theme.

Please keep in mind that premium WordPress themes are available at low cost and of course you don’t have a personal developer included who will code customizations for you for free, just because you’ve spent a few bucks to purchase a theme (which by the way covers the cost for maintenance and development of the theme). Usually people understand that and have appropriate expectations about that.

I had difficulty applying the codes and tweaks I got from forums and bloggers.

Of course you can’t just copy & paste code from forums or blogs and paste that into your theme. That usually won’t work because every theme usually has a different structure and codebase.

If you’re not familiar with coding, but want to do custom things through coding, then you always have two options, either invest time to improve skills or pay a developer in order to do the work for you. It’s just a normal thing to do.

The theme is one of the most popular magazine themes for WordPress and when you check other ratings here or on our website, you’ll notice that usually people are very happy with their theme and the support, as they have adequate expectations and understand that people usually don’t work for free. We’ve plenty of views from other customers in our showcase as well.

Anyway, we hope that you consider to change your your rating to a more adequate level as we don’t think that this is fair. We wish all the best and good luck with your website.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by Michael.

You started your reply feeling sorry and could have stopped just there. Instead, you had to make patronising comments.

1/You said

just because you’ve spent a few bucks to purchase a theme

Hmm. You were not a big shot when I chose your firm. Your brand was just one year old.

2/Even if my first comment was self-explanatory, let me add two things:

* You suddenly dropped the three columns feature on single posts when you updated the theme. Which was one of the major reason, I liked the theme.
You were unwilling to suggest a work around or politely explain why the old feature is a bad idea. So I had to choose between using an old version and risk security or pay more?

* You suddenly closed the help desk and made responses via email. Which means I can’t access the previous support tickets.

3/There were no special features that I asked and would warrant hiring a developer. Just the basics. How to make the theme work half as good as advertised.

If you wish….Google doesn’t like your webfonts. In case you care to improve on future versions.

Bottom line: Hire a marketing consultant.

One more thing:

There is nothing strange about my wish to implement codes I get on forums and from other blogs.
In case you didn’t notice, that is the basic philosophy underlying WordPress.

The less knowledgeable build on the work of the more knowledgeable. You don’t necessarily pay for every single workaround.

I bet you are not paying royalties to the Word Press Foundation. ??

Have a nice week.

Dan,

thanks again for your kind words. Although this doesn’t seem to lead anywhere, we’ll comment on some of your statements as they couldn’t be more wrong:

You suddenly dropped the three columns feature on single posts when you updated the theme. Which was one of the major reason, I liked the theme.

We have no idea what you mean with this. The theme has a three column feature (2 sidebars) on posts since its release in 2013 and it never has been dropped… You can even see that when having a look at the theme demos.

You suddenly closed the help desk and made responses via email. Which means I can’t access the previous support tickets.

When companies scale, they need to adapt their systems as well. Sending an email is no different to sending a support ticket. If you needed information that previously was part of a support ticket, you could simply have asked your question and you would have received a reply accordingly.

There were no special features that I asked and would warrant hiring a developer. Just the basics.

If someone needs a few lines of minor CSS code or so, then we usually provide that. But if it’s clear that someone has no understanding of coding and keeps requesting code to modify the theme which costs lots of time on our end, then we need to draw a line somewhere. That can’t be covered based on the small price you pay when purchasing a theme. That’s actually common practice amongst commercial theme shops.

If you wish….Google doesn’t like your webfonts.

Sorry, we have no idea what you mean with that… The webfonts that are included actually are Google Webfonts, they come from Google…

There is nothing strange about my wish to implement codes I get on forums and from other blogs.

If you really believe that, then you couldn’t be more wrong. Just adding code from blogs / forums to your site without understanding what you’re doing there isn’t only poor coding practice and is guaranteed to cause compatibility issues, but it’s also highly dangerous. Any capable WordPress developer will confirm that.

I bet you are not paying royalties to the Word Press Foundation.

WordPress (not Word Press) is open source and there actually are no royalties. But since you seem to care, we’ve actually spent thousands of dollars per year sponsoring WordCamps so that people like you can connect with other people and learn more about WordPress.

And by the way, thinking that just because WordPress is free and open source, anything else related to WordPress is free as well is another misconception. People don’t work for free. Like you, anyone else has to pay their bills, pay salaries if running a company, support their families, etc…

You seem to have your very own special opinion and we respect that. But at the same time we need to say that your expectations and statements are far away from reality and we can only recommend that you rather inform yourself and spend time improving your skills instead of wasting time and blame other people.

If you really think that the theme doesn’t work as it is supposed to work, then have a look at various examples of other users sites and you’ll notice a lot of discrepancies compared to what you’re saying.

You may even get to a point where you start thinking about why other people happily are using the theme and build professional websites while you keep sending complaint over complaint. Taking responsibility to inform yourself and improve your skills usually is better (especially on the long run) than blaming other people for your lack of skills and forcing them to do the work for you.

However, as mentioned before, this doesn’t seem to lead anywhere. It’s time to move on and we wish you all the best and hope that you’ll find a way to become happy with WordPress, your theme, your website and anything else that makes you unhappy.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by Michael.

Twice, I came contemplating to change this rating, but you simply reconfirmed the appropriateness of my rating.

Just to be clear:

At the time, most commercial themes were either $60 or $75. Yours was $75 and I paid that.
I don’t know why you keep whining that the price of the theme was small. You set the price, not me. I wasn’t on a discount offer. I paid the price, the full price.

Secondly, I had only three or four issues. Which apparently the theme wasn’t able to do, like the slider image size, which were supposed to be flexible.

I can go on and on.

The rest of mh points mentioned above are solid. Even if you tried to act smart and trash them. (The suggestion that I could have asked the ticket questions again via email is ridiculous at so many levels.)

Anyway, Don’t have the time to engage in insincere debate.

The bottom line is:
It wasn’t that I needed your support desperately. I taught myself decent level of wordpress just as a hobby.

It is your obnoxious attitude that put me off. Just like the attitude you are showing here.

I use several premium services – hosting, CDN, support, etc. I could have threw a few extra bucks for you too. But when you were unable to provide helpful or friendly response to a few explanatory questions, how can I trust you to hire you for extra works?

That’s where you failed. And keep failing.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 7 months ago by dan.

Dan,

it really seems you’re on a personal mission here. We looked you up, you purchased a theme in 2014, almost 3 years ago and we didn’t have contact since ages. Now, out of the blue you pop up here and post pointless accusations.

We don’t know what your motivation or agenda is, but we won’t go that route again. Everything has been said here before and your statements are in extreme contrast to what other people think about their theme and support.

It seems the only thing you want to do here is bashing. We commented on all your statements and accusations and we won’t go that route again. Have a nice day and good luck with your website.

*Reads*

I’m closing this review because it’s really just going round and round.

The reviewer left a review.

The theme author replied.

More comments isn’t going to change anything and after 1 month I don’t see the point of anymore back and forth. Neither side is going to change their mind. I will leave the review in place but this back and forth is no longer productive.