itch.io

Useless and dishonest customer service

I will say: The platform IS great for sharing content between developers. A bit like a cloud sharing site. If you are developing a game with people. It's good for sharing progress. But that can be done with any number of services. This does allow to share larger files however.Anyhow: There ARE a lot of good games on this platform. But it doesn't excuse the horrendous practices they perform. To give a few examples:1: I was informed that charity content couldn't charge money for themselves. So, I corrected this and removed payment option as requested. Over a month passed and nothing happened. Now it's been over two years. And they're still "working on it".2: I was told I apparently forgot to turn on something in my user profile that allowed me to leave comments. I once again did as instructed. The change did not work. Nothing was done for a few months. Then I got a reply (after sending a SECOND mail.) that they were just lazy and gave up on trying to fix it. Telling me to instead just make a new account and try again.3: While logged in. A product accurately displayed as 2 stars from the 2 reviews it had gotten. While logged out however... the product SUDDENLY became 5 stars. I'm not sure why it does this. But it's very disingenuous. 4: Falsely advertised content is allowed to stay. I've seen several dozens of ex: Art packs, falsely advertised. As for example: "Containing X amount of pictures!". Like: "Over 100 pictures!" and then the actual pack had around 87 pictures. This was reported on 30+ art packs. Nothing. Happened. They are still up 3 years later.5: Similar to above, people can upload content *without* a description. Yes, you can choose not to purchase it ofc. But the fact someone can put a product up for sale with close to 0 information is just bad form. This is *especially* true for anything in their 18+ section. I've several times seen comics and similar just sold as "Comic" doesn't say how many pages, what content, what genre. I'm not here to purchase a loot box. I expect to be able to tell what I'm buying AND to be able to get what I pay for. I get it can be hard to run quality control. But this is akin to when Steam sold games that doesn't even launch. But it NEEDS to be stricter on what is enforced. Require a *minimum* of disclosing WHAT is in a product. I can agree to be more lax on "pay what you want" products. But even then: You could see something you really do not wish to see. But on paid products: There should be a bare minimum of someone doing a quick scan to see if the content match with what is advertised. Or if it even has a description.6: They support criminals. I'm not sure how much information I can disclose. But in short: They host content of people blacklisted by IP holders, for using their IP illegally. And they just let them sell it. One person that got a cease and desist AND was banned from Patreon for drawing minors... is gladly being hosted by Itch. Despite dozens of accounts of fraud. They are VERY hands off with their 18+ content.7: Reviews/comments are largely useless. Reviews are only visible to devs. Who: Ignore it. (If they are bad apples.) And comments are mostly selectively displayed based on who you follow.8: You can't really search for certain things. Unless you have a link to certain content, you'll never anything of a specific genre unless you look in the "recommended/related" section of those things. Some things are understandably hidden. But when you *specifically* search for them, and they still don't show up... that's a bit of a nuisance.I think that covers most of it. As said: It IS a good place for indie devs. Really, really slow. But its an alternative. If you traverse *outside* of that section of Itch.io however... it's like a proper storefront, that has a sleazy backroom with under the table deals.

Date of experience: Sep 03, 2020