Some recourse to recoup funds from nonresponsive add-on developers

jauburn

Well-known member
There should be some xenforo-enabled recourse for customers who purchase add-ons from developers that are nonresponsive to queries, help, support, or anything. As it is, when we buy something from an add-on developer, we're "on our own," or so it seems. If developers are going to sell things under the umbrella of xenforo, I feel that xenforo ought to offer customers some protection.
 
Then xenforo has to collect money from developers.

As it stands there's not enough developers to satisfy demand so discouraging expansion is crazy

This is business and you win and lose.
 
You can't win every deal.

A customer / supplier will screw you at some point in any industry.

Suppliers being bought out, prices going up making it difficult for you to sell the product. Product coming to end of line. New versions "better" with core functionality destroyed. Paying them, not receiving goods etc.

For customers shop lifting, not paying on credit, reverse charges, telling others your service was poor but you know you put your heart and soul into it... The list is endless

It's not nice, it sucks.
 
There should be some xenforo-enabled recourse for customers who purchase add-ons from developers that are nonresponsive to queries, help, support, or anything. As it is, when we buy something from an add-on developer, we're "on our own," or so it seems. If developers are going to sell things under the umbrella of xenforo, I feel that xenforo ought to offer customers some protection.
We allow users to list resources here, but this does not mean we have to provide any guarantees (nor do we) and therefore anything you download, purchase or install on your forum is entirely at your own risk.

It might be different if we were managing the payment and order process and therefore were taking a percentage of the revenue, but this is not something we do, nor something we're considering in the near future.
 
It might be different if we were managing the payment and order process and therefore were taking a percentage of the revenue, but this is not something we do, nor something we're considering in the near future.

Is there a "buyer beware" or disclaimer posted somewhere in the add-ons area? If not, I think there should be.
 
Is there a "buyer beware" or disclaimer posted somewhere in the add-ons area? If not, I think there should be.
Why should there be? Buyer beware is a given whenever someone purchases products anywhere. It's not Xenforo's nor this communities responsibility to do your fact checking for you. Your only recourse is what ever you want to do in going after the person or persons you feel you have been wrong done by.
Those of us here who have had issues like you describe understand your frustration but it falls on you to fact check and take what action you feel you need or can afford to recover your loss.
 
Is there a "buyer beware" or disclaimer posted somewhere in the add-ons area? If not, I think there should be.
Have you been burned or scammed by a developer here, or are you upset that you aren't getting questions answered?
 
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Is there a "buyer beware" or disclaimer posted somewhere in the add-ons area? If not, I think there should be.
That is, unfortunately just common sense and it should be applied to all financial transactions.

In terms of recourse, your payment provider is usually the best avenue. Even if a considerable amount of time has passed they will still hear your dispute if you have one.
 
In terms of recourse, your payment provider is usually the best avenue. Even if a considerable amount of time has passed they will still hear your dispute if you have one.

Agree. Beyond this, though, some kind of reporting system should be in place to protect future buyers from developers who abandon or fail to support their add-ons but continue to collect money from unsuspecting consumers.
 
There is this at the top of every resource overview:

"Resources listed here are not affiliated with and have not been reviewed by XenForo Ltd. If you have any questions regarding a resource, please contact the author. XenForo Ltd. is not involved in any resource-related transactions."
 
Also we have a strict resource housekeeping process. If an author goes missing (not logged in for X time) we mark the resource as Unmaintained for them. The next step after that is we delete the resource.

This, along with the notice displayed, should help protect people.
 
There should be a rating system for developers, much like eBay has for sellers/buyers.

As it stands, many people don't write reviews when developers go MIA (..most don't leave reviews at all), so that doesn't work very well as an indicator.
 
Also we have a strict resource housekeeping process. If an author goes missing (not logged in for X time) we mark the resource as Unmaintained for them. The next step after that is we delete the resource.

This, along with the notice displayed, should help protect people.
there are some add-ons that are harmful, i reported one add on that caused my forum to be hacked...literally hacked, and my report was shut down by you guys lol...thankfully the hacking attempt was caught super quick and the mod was uninstalled...but i did my duty to warn the other xenforo customers and nothing was done

i mean i get it that you dont have the time to investigate if my report was actually accurate, but i feel if an add-on is so badly written that it was cause your forum to be hacked, the least you can do it is look into it
 
I vaguely remember a report with regards to a potential add on vulnerability and it would have been closed and we would have referenced this:

https://xenforo.com/community/help/resource-vulnerabilities/

We of course take resource vulnerabilities very seriously but the above procedure needs to be followed first and if that doesn't resolve the issue as you'd like you can then contact us.
 
I vaguely remember a report with regards to a potential add on vulnerability and it would have been closed and we would have referenced this:

https://xenforo.com/community/help/resource-vulnerabilities/

We of course take resource vulnerabilities very seriously but the above procedure needs to be followed first and if that doesn't resolve the issue as you'd like you can then contact us.
honestly i dont remember if you guys mentioned this link when you rejected the report or not but i will do next time
 
Which resource was it and more importantly, has it now been sorted?
https://xenforo.com/community/threads/xfa-custom-username-icons-paid.106581

there was about 8 updates after my report so maybe?

other than changing colors and icons, he somehow completely messed up postbit and changed few things he shouldnt be able to change, the attempt was done using this add-on 100% since we were able to duplicate what the hacker did using it

and the attempt was done 2 days after we installed it
 
When we close reports we always provide a reason and we paste that reason in an alert.

In this particular case:

IMG_5950.webp

So hopefully that process was followed otherwise, who knows, maybe the add on is still vulnerable.

We've gone off piste a bit now though so the last thing to say is you should check with the author (in private) confirm if the issue was investigated and resolved and if not then follow the rest of the procedure in the help page.
 
There should be some xenforo-enabled recourse for customers who purchase add-ons from developers that are nonresponsive to queries, help, support, or anything. As it is, when we buy something from an add-on developer, we're "on our own," or so it seems. If developers are going to sell things under the umbrella of xenforo, I feel that xenforo ought to offer customers some protection.

I have been discussing with some devs about an "Addons Guarantee" service for XF2, while some small bits are still to be finalized most seem happy to agree to the principals anyway.

What would this involve?

Put simply, the addon author signs up to the service with paid addons they wish to be covered, completely free of charge, and provides the Addons Guarantee a license and a contract that should the addon fall into a state where no updates or support are being provided for whatever reason for 6 months then the rights to the addon will shift to the group (the devs who sign up) to allow the group to then fix, support and re-publish the addon.

Its win win for everyone, customers get peace of mind the addon will be maintained and looked after (even is there is waiting period), and addon devs hopefully wont ever need us to step in (and should something unexpected happen, have the peace of mind and the stress removed of having to worry about the addon and customers).
 
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