(Locked) Dealing with Difficult Developers

I swear to god, I’ve met some really difficult to deal with WP Template developers on this site… Obviously, there is a huge range and I’ve also worked with some downright saints!!!! I’m a sweet and generous person by nature, and am used to kindness and generosity in almost all of my interactions… So it’s been really frustrating at times to work with developers who I swear to god don’t know the meaning of the term “Customer Service” and don’t want to help people and frankly are completely resistant when confronted with any negative energy and can’t deal.

I’m frustrated because I have asked for help over and over again regarding how to set up seemingly basic things such as sliders in a template that has completely re-created the WP backend experience ([edited]) and I can’t get anywhere, it’s like being stuck in traffic and not moving. And I keep asking for help and the more I ask for help the more I get ignored.

Additionally, I personally think it’s the right of every potential WP template buyer to know if people who have already bought that template are having a difficult time w/ it…. Personally I get it that the developers want to control the comments in their section because they don’t want to lose potential buyers, but at the same point; how else are buyers supposed to be forewarned if they’re about to put themselves into a potentially difficult situation of working with a template?

I have worked with DOZENS of WP Templates from Themeforest now over the last almost 2 years, and have seen some that are so easy to work with, so intuitive, with developers who are amazing at responding to questions and can help with basic to advanced tech issues… And I’ve learned so so much from these people, and I’m so grateful.

So, I really implore developers to humble themselves and get it that just because they’ve designed their template and THEY UNDERSTAND IT – doesn’t mean that everybody else is going to understand their ‘work of genius’ – And no, their template isn’t necessarily easy to work with just because they think it is…. Honestly, if developers are going to sell templates on Themeforest, they should be ready to help not dismiss questions, and they should also be humble enough to receive criticism, because not everything is perfect.

I’ve worked with some ‘saints’ too as well and some not so saintly. I’ve never had a nasty experience with any author but have been ignored as well which is just as bad. What some don’t realize is that not all buyers are one-off customers so it would do them well to preserve a relationship. Additionally they should easily be able to distinguish between a noob’s support request that has more to do with their lack of WP skills and a more experienced buyer who may have hit some obstacle and has a valid support request.

I always try to buy from authors who’ve proven good support to me but sometimes a client may like a theme I shortlist from an author I haven’t dealt with. One particular theme comes to mind where this happened recently and I struggled for support. I haven’t complained to them but I’m not going to ever buy a theme from them again.

Authors need buyers and buyers need authors just the same.

I think it takes a year or two to master support here.

ThemeProvince said
I think it takes a year or two to master support here.

I agree it would take a while. It’s even frustrating to me reading some of the support requests that clearly have nothing to do with the theme so I can well understand the author’s dilemma. It’s too bad that legitimate requests become casualties as a result.

Well, it all depends! To be honest, I help each and everyone of my customers that is POLITE ! I respond to positive people with kindness and help each person out, sometimes for free, sometimes against a freelance fee. But, again, if the buyer is a jerk, and rates the file 1 star o talks crap before even knowing if he has a problem or not, I do treat customers the same way, I ignore them.

In case of authors who don’t give support, well, that’s just sad for their sales, but in case of authors who are damn straight angry and hateful, to be honest they should not be allowed to communicate with buyers!

It’s really simple, a small thing buyers forget. We like to get compliments for our work. So if someone just says ” What nice file, I have a small issue ” We will tackle that person ( most of us ) with kindness. But, i’ve seen so many thread, about buyers who just go crazy angry and start ranting lies about a certain file, give out a one star rating, and then want free support, how is that Author suppose to react?

wahkeenasitka If you ever encounter trouble around here and need customization, please feel free to fly me an e-mail at ienabled@me.com and I’ll do my best to service you!

Enabled said

wahkeenasitka If you ever encounter trouble around here and need customization, please feel free to fly me an e-mail at ienabled@me.com and I’ll do my best to service you!

Hmmm…

Thank you Enabled for your comments…

You know, with what I’ve experienced, and I’ve experienced this at least twice, with two separate theme developers (“authors”) – I approach them first with an honest issue, no emotional energy behind, not angry at all… no negative energy, no overwhelming frustration at that point… And I ask them for attention for a specific issue or tech problem with the template and they respond either by ignoring me, deleting my comments, or flat out just not answering my question. And that’s when I get angry and I start losing it..

There’s a threshold where the conversation can stay even keel, and if the developer is humble enough to actually listen to a buyer’s concern before getting to the level of overwhelming frustration, then the issue can actually be addressed and the author can feel like a Hero, right?

But then there are these developers who I honestly think they just don’t want to give anybody any of their time, and they don’t really want to be supportive to the buyers of their templates…. Months ago, I had issues with a specific template and asked repeatedly the same question and waited for a week with no answer and then the author just started deleting my comments, and I could never get anywhere…

My current issue is with a template that I think was not developed with ease in mind, but was created in such a way that you’d have to completely learn an entirely new “maze-like” system in order to customize the content w/ that template… And the documentation is shoddy and doesn’t answer every issue, and the developer keeps telling me it’s my problem and that I’m not reading the documentation… But the documentation doesn’t address my issues, nor am I finding any solutions in it, nor is it clearly organized what is what…..

And when I have issues that I’m seeking resolution for and I’m not getting any real workable answers, I get upset…. And I feel like the developers need to learn how to understand that not every buyer is going to be ecstatically in love with their work of genius and is going to be showering them with nothing but praises…. I swear to God, It seems like some of these developers have inflated tech-geek-genius egos….

You can’t get anywhere when the only thing they want to hear is nicey-nice. It’s like, wtf????

Some authors have hectic work lives and don’t set aside the time necessary to provide support for their themes. Authors that choose to ignore or delete questions aren’t doing themselves any favours. By answering all buyers with a positive attitude and helping resolve their problem swiftly will go along way to building a loyal following.

Some people get that, others don’t. It’s just good business sense. I’d suggest looking at the comments before buying a theme to see if the author has a good track record with responding to buyer queries.

if your issues are comes from the theme/template false (fatal error, etc) – you should report the file into support if the author not responding into your questions

but if your issues are: how to modify (advance modification), change the functions, change the animations (jQuery/js) – that need more than 10 minutes for author to reply your question, maybe you should ask if the author available for custom work and how much you will need to pay for all changes or hire a person to fix all things that you called your issues

my2cents

sorry for my english

WpGirl said
if your issues are comes from the theme/template false (fatal error, etc) – you should report the file into support if the author not responding into your questions

but if your issues are: how to modify (advance modification), change the functions, change the animations (jQuery/js) – that need more than 10 minutes for author to reply your question, maybe you should ask if the author available for custom work and how much you will need to pay for all changes or hire a person to fix all things that you called your issues

my2cents

sorry for my english

+1