Envato theme author extortion

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Hi everyone,

I purchased a theme and paid thousands for the author to customise it, they have done half the job and left the site unfinished in disarray, full of bugs, they only send rushed random updates weeks apart when eventually giving in to my multiple emails begging them to correct, typically these updates do not fix issues yet just create more, there communication is poor, they always claim they are busy, it’s been a total disaster.

I’ve waited six months for work that was meant to take three weeks. I was led to believe there was a team behind the theme but it is a single developer.

I asked for reimbursement for the work not completed so I could continue on myself, which they are not interested in doing, I advised that I would lodge a complaint with the escrow service we used as partial services not rendered, I was told that if I do this he will revoke my theme license and is now asking for further project funding to fix issues he created. First question is, can he actually revoke my license? It feels like extortion, and I’m really concerned.

I originally wanted to use my own local devs for customisations however they advised me that the theme would have no support if the core was customised by a third party.

Essentially I want nothing to do with the theme author now, I’d rather forgo the non- existent support/updates and work on the theme myself. Can an Envato license be removed and or can I fork the theme? I have spent far too much time myself on this site so I’m not going to abandon it but I’m also not clear on what my options are.

Any advice, greatly appreciated.

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