Envo Storefront Pro WordPress Theme Fatal Error

I’m very curious to know if anyone else’s website has broken due to Envo Storefront Pro’s theme plugin.

I bought the Pro version after installing the free version and deciding I really liked it! It’s simple but elegant and the Pro version had extra bells and whistles that I also enjoyed. It’s the first theme for my site – Lydia Hawk Designs – that I fell in love with and wanted to keep forever!

Last week my website returned a Fatal Error when I refreshed it that had to do with the ‘writing-effect-headline.php’ document in the Pro plugin. Needless to say, I was instantly panicked. Running an eCommerce website is a labor of love that requires a functionality your customers rely on. Seeing a fatal error and no website can be panic-inducing, but I accessed FTP as quickly as I could and deleted the file, which created new errors, so I deleted the plugin altogether. Free version still in place, it only changed the look of my site slightly and now no fun bells and whistles on my products, for the moment. I really wanted a quick, friendly response to justify keeping the plugin.

I logged into Envo Themes and submitted a ticket asking if there is a fix for this issue.

The response I got was that I had an old version of the plugin and to update it and see what happens. Wait, what? Um… no “So sorry… that’s awful… we apologize…” Basically, the response was that it was somehow my fault! I had an old version so… This is a theme that comes with a yearly cost. I expect an email or some sort of notification that the plugin must be manually updated if there’s a chance it will disrupt my business a little, let alone break my site. I update my plugins constantly because I need my site to run well. And all of my plugins – I thought – come with an automatic notification that they need updating. Easy, right? Yet somehow this plugin was old and required something on my part that I had no idea I needed to do even though I bought it in September of 2021 (it’s April 2022 as of this writing).

I don’t like being upset about a website, or customer support. It’s not enjoyable. It’s stressful, it takes time and energy I’d rather use creating and smiling and being generally happy. Lydia Hawk Designs is my happy place!

I’m frustrated with the response I received. I don’t want to feel that this is the world we live in now, post-COVID, but it really feels like no one cares or wants to own up to their mistakes and go the extra distance for the paying customer. It’s deeply disappointing. I asked for a partial refund because I did enjoy the theme but have to find a different one. They said no. I can’t trust a theme that is going to break my site; I can’t trust a company that won’t take care of the customer. Unfortunately, what I do trust is that they’ll be trying to charge me renewal prices come September 2022…