The rating system here puts authors in an unreasonable position

cmt said
I never take into account ratings when I buy an item. Looking at the comments is much more useful.

As a regular buyer I do, and I suspect lots of others do.

If an item only has 4 stars I’ll check out the comments etc, but if its 3* and below I’ll probably disregard the item – I’ll assume that there’s something wrong it.

I think it’s extremely important that a few idiots can’t ruin your item’s sales, there should definitely be a system for disputing the rating .

Dan

Or at least display 4.5 stars instead of 4, 3.5 instead of 3….

But kailoon’s suggestion is a good choice also.

dwhitmore said
If an item only has 4 stars I’ll check out the comments etc, but if its 3* and below I’ll probably disregard the item – I’ll assume that there’s something wrong it.

Yes – wrong buyers.

If an item has 3- rating, I’ll look carefully at the comments – those who were so disappointed have expressed their anger for sure.

bloooming said
turkishbox is right, those kind of people will give you a poor rating, no matter what you do.

The purpose of this rating system should be to give the buyers a little guidance, but that’s not what it’s doing.

It basically shows if the author offers good support, and if any of ‘those kind of people’ purchased the item before.

Support is voluntary, which makes this whole rating fake.

Even if it wasn’t, the problem is you can’t measure support quality with that kind of scale, it is a subjective impression, and different for every buyer.

I think the following facts make the rating obsolete:

• very high quality standards – you can’t buy crap here
• refund system – if it doesn’t work you’ll get your money back
• the documentation has to be very extensive
• there is a demo or a screenshot for everything – nobody is buying a pig in a poke

+1

Exactly to the point.

peerapong said
Or at least display 4.5 stars instead of 4, 3.5 instead of 3…. But kailoon’s suggestion is a good choice also.

I suggested this also, long time ago.

kailoon said
Or we should change the rating system into fav system? If you like it, fav it, else, don’t do anything.

So, which mean, if you have 50 purchases and you have 40 favs, it means something. But if you have only 20 favs, it doesn’t look ugly too

Further, it is easier for buyer to fav rather than choose the 5 options ( 1 – 5 stars ), I guess, they may fav more

+999

I love this idea! It’s much simpler and looks much better! To change the database will be a pain but it would be worth!

kailoon said
Or we should change the rating system into fav system? If you like it, fav it, else, don’t do anything.

So, which mean, if you have 50 purchases and you have 40 favs, it means something. But if you have only 20 favs, it doesn’t look ugly too

Further, it is easier for buyer to fav rather than choose the 5 options ( 1 – 5 stars ), I guess, they may fav more

Better do something like amazon’s rating – show how many votes for each star. And maybe make it mandatory to add a comment when rating.

cmt said
Better do something like amazon’s rating – show how many votes for each star. And maybe make it mandatory to add a comment when rating.

“I rate 1 star because the documentation is too long for me to read and I think that theme should work in 1 click. This author is not helpful at all, he/she never reply to my email. Support MUST be 7/24, this is online business. I want my money back!”

kailoon said

cmt said
Better do something like amazon’s rating – show how many votes for each star. And maybe make it mandatory to add a comment when rating.

“I rate 1 star because the documentation is too long for me to read and I think that theme should work in 1 click. This author is not helpful at all, he/she never reply to my email. Support MUST be 7/24, this is online business. I want my money back!”

Exactly!

When I see such a jerk comment, I would know the theme is just fine and the low rating is inadequate.

OllieMcCarthy said
I’ve had one of those buyers you know the kind; completely irrational and demanding. The guy has a database problem and is blaming it on my theme! I tried my best to work with him and wasted an hour of my time on it. Yes, an hour on something that wasn’t even my problem in the first place.

And why, you might ask, would I do that? Because of the rating system. I know that this prick is going to rate my theme one star if I don’t do exactly as he says. I really, really want to tell this guy to go screw himself but I can’t risk a four star rating.

Who’s with me on this? We are put in a completely unfair position here. The review process is rigorous and surely that means that all themes here are of a decent standard. Why do we even need ratings?

Now don’t get me wrong; I honestly don’t mind supporting the average buyer as they are reasonable and grateful. 99% of my experience with support is very positive. It is just that 1% that are completely unreasonable that piss me off because they have so much power to mess up a themes rating and thus its sales.

Oh and the buyer is now looking for a refund. Apparent he wants it “RIGHT NOW !!!!!!”.

Issuing a refund is out of the question. In order to have a refund issued you would need give the item back…which is impossible to do since it’s digital goods.

I’ve purchased an item on here and I gave the author a 3 star rating. The reason I did that is because the Author wasn’t aware of Google Adwords standards. I feel if you are designing landing pages you should have a strong knowledge of Google Adwords as 90% of landing pages in the advertising industry are used in conjunction with Pay Per Click Search Engine Marketing Campaigns.

The author was very polite and even offered to help consolidate the issue. In the long haul I ended up having to scrap the landing page that I purchase and create one myself from scratch. It never once crossed my mind that I wanted a refund.

I’ve been in the advertising industry for over 10 years and the majority of reviews end up being bad and distasteful. People who are often satisfied with a product never even have the thought of writing a good review.

I say stick up for yourself and let it be known you will not tolerate his type of behavior. Tell him there will be no refund issued and that when he purchased the theme he entered into a contract that cannot be broken. It’s his stupidity — not yours.

xstortionist said

I’ve purchased an item on here and I gave the author a 3 star rating. The reason I did that is because the Author wasn’t aware of Google Adwords standards. I feel if you are designing landing pages you should have a strong knowledge of Google Adwords as 90% of landing pages in the advertising industry are used in conjunction with Pay Per Click Search Engine Marketing Campaigns.

Hey xstortionist,

sorry, but I have to disagree with you on this one – I don’t think your rating was fair.

I’m no landing page or Adwords expert ether, and you obviously know exactly how a landing page with ‘Google Adwords standards’ has to look like.

So, I’m just curious: Why didn’t you explore the code of the demo BEFORE the purchase, instead of punishing the author afterwards?