Is anything being done to help the customer with a valid complaint about poor support, or to provide a way for the customer to reward the author for delivering outstanding customer support?

It seems very unfair to Authors who understand I am trying to run a business, and respond to my support requests quickly and knowledgeably, while others obviously either don’t have a clue how to provide support well, or simply don’t care about supporting their customers.

There should be some inbuilt review process where customers can rate Authors’ products and support positively them with, say, points which they can allocate to different aspects.

If that happened in a meaningful way, and was entirely transparent, I would then be better equipped to run my business, if I can see that an Author has good ratings in those aspects I am interested in. If he has no or low rating in Support, for example, I will be buying elsewhere.

Lately, I tend to buy the “pro” versions of software from Authors who provide a ‘freemium’ versions on the WordPress Repository, which then allows me the opportunity to check out their product and their support claims before committing a project to their software.

I think the folk who manage the repository should not overlook this very important aspect of reputation, in the buying process.

What do you think?