Theme Updater & Backups | OOTS
Shopify premium theme updates and online store data backups
Rating
4.1
feedback
255
chart
#1,351
All reviews
Review RSS Feed
Sept. 19, 2019
Very poor service and underhand fees - simply read the reviews. The app doesn't work very well, and now a greedy developer wants to charge over $100 a year (forever) for an app to update a couple of lines of code. Their themes are full of bugs, support is very slow (at times even leaving bugs in the code - I'm looking at you 'Artisan'), and now they are trying to sneakily charge for something that was advertised as part of their theme purchase. I doubt this is acceptable practice, or legal, in most countries. We have already had to change two Out of the Sandbox themes due to bugs in their software, and now they do this. If I were them, I would be very embarrassed as to how they treat long standing customers. The most insulting thing is the email we were sent, spinning this charge as an 'opportunity'. Please don't patronize us with PR, you are simply milking merchants for all you can get before moving on. P.S. Following the developers response: You seem to miss the point - everyone who purchases an Out of the Sandbox theme agreed to do so with the knowledge that the updating app comes along with it (and we have also paid an initial premium for the theme and updater app). You are significantly changing the agreement by now charging for the app, and I would say that is unlikely to be legal here in the EU. Also, you mentioned in one response that you need the money to fund your IT systems - well, if you can't afford to provide a service, don't offer it for free with the intention of locking customers into a 'blackmail scheme'. Have the dignity to admit you simply want more money by charging customers twice.
Hello The Hosiery Box, We appreciate your honest feedback - it is true the Theme Updater App will soon have a number of flexible subscription options available, required to use the tool to automatically configure your updated theme, and access advanced perks (like our new Priority Support feature in the Pro Plan). However, updated theme files and support will continue to be FREE, as we continue to improve our themes with new features and bug fixes; with these updated theme files, the normal process of updating a Shopify theme can be followed, which does not require use of the app. We have been working hard on improving and maintaining the Theme Updater App, adding new features and support for more themes, and want to keep offering you the time-saving convenience of updating without needing to reconfigure your settings. We understand your grievance with the change in pricing, and hope the subscriptions options we're offering line up with how you value the app, so we can continue to offer you the fastest updating experience possible. Sincerely, - The Out of the Sandbox Team
Sept. 18, 2019
A premium theme should not require an additional $9 per month to upgrade the few times per year that is necessary. This will not build good will for Out of the Sandbox or Pixel Union. I imagine this will also impact reviews of their themes directly. I like Empire but would not recommend it to others given this recent sheisty maneuver.
Hello danformshoesvt, Thanks for sending these remarks; we take your input to heart. It is true that periodic updates are a necessary part of using a theme, as the theme is updated to include new features and improvements. However, you are not required to use the Theme Updater App to update your theme - updated theme files with new features and improvements will continue to be available for free, as they are for all Shopify themes. You can optionally use the Theme Updater App when an update is released to retain your previous setting configurations and transfer some code customizations, to make the updating process faster and easier. This is accomplished through the app's unique functionality that we continue to develop and maintain. To take advantage of these updating benefits, along with new and exciting features such as Priority Support (available in the Pro Plan), we'll have several flexible subscription options to choose from. But, rest assured, the normal Shopify theme updating process will continue to be possible for your premium theme, and the updated theme files will continue to be available for free. Sincerely, -The Out of the Sandbox Team
Sept. 18, 2019
Like many others not happy this app is going from free to paid with no details on how to avoid being charged. This app never worked for me due to my custom code.
Sept. 18, 2019
Stay away from Out of the Sandbox themes. First you pay dearly for the theme, then if you want to apply the theme upgrades you will have to pay 9$ a month for a service that you will use 2/3 times in a year. But what is your choice? None. Because to update the theme manually it's a nightmare. I am going to find a better theme that doesn't charge me for updates. I am not happy.
Sept. 18, 2019
They just notified that they moved this to a paid app. 100+ a year to keep their app updated on top of what you pay for the theme.
Sept. 18, 2019
We have used this app once and it worked well but it just sits there majority of the year. Now that they are charging $9/month for this app we will be deleting it. This isnt something constantly used that we can justify paying them for especially for something that should be free with the theme.
Sept. 18, 2019
I'm a long time online seller and this app has been great the handful of times that I"ve updated in the past three years. But I cannot believe that I paid $350 for a theme (with 1 store usage allowed), and now OOTS wants to charge $9 a month and/or $108 a year (forever) to let an app stay installed in my store that I use two or maybe three times a year at a maximum?? BOO HISS. Horrible. The updater is great so I hate to leave 1 star because of this new policy, but its a complete disappointment to see these guys get so greedy when their themes are highly priced.
Sept. 18, 2019
Getting rid of the Free Plan and starting to charge $9 for it? Big Mistake! You, As a Company that sells templates (For Big Money!) and charges money in order to update them, create very, an extremely bad business relationship between a provider and a consumer. Does Microsoft charges money for their Automatic system Update? Or Does Adobe Charges Money for their Automatic system updates? I can provide you with many more Companies With good and Loyal Marketing towards their Customers. But You are simply getting Greedy. That will be a downfall for you if you actually gonna initiate your policy. Customers and their Loyalty come First. Without Customers and their Loyalty there is No Business. Don't Forget about this golden rule before getting greedy
Sept. 18, 2019
I have received an email telling me that they intend to delete the free plan of this app, so think twice before to buy one of Out of the Sandbox theme: without the app you will have to start new every time they publish an update! I am utterly disappointed by their policy...
Aug. 28, 2019
This app works like a charm and gets the job done without any problems. Support is also quick and fantastic, often going above and beyond what I expect of them.
Nov. 12, 2019
RUN FROM THIS APP. DOES NOT WORK. RUBBISH. Guarantee we'll get a faster response to this Review than we will support. The App is not worth the time, money and energy. It does not work with PixelUnion. It creates more work. Who has the time to wait 1-2 days let alone 24 hours with "premium" support for a response. Find a better Theme than using PixelUnion and this App from Out of the Sandbox. More importantly-find companies with better support. Day 2 STILL WAITING FOR SUPPORT. A MONTH LATER AND IT STILL SUCKS. LOOK AT ALL THE POOR REVIEWS-DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY OR ANY OF THEIR APPS. Shopify should dump them
Aug. 15, 2019
WORST PURCHASE OF MY LIFE! If you want to torment yourself & get nothing done & be set back months then BUYER BEWARE as you purchase. NO SUPPORT at all! No live chat, no phones, and emails are pointless replies that do not help at all. Features like HTML5 video don't work as advertised so emailed them and they won't help make it work then decide to install bare minimal version but first have to update to latest version and when try to do that then site says cannot validate purchase! So no version of Turbo theme is possible to download after paying $350!
Using app
Over 1 year
Total reviews
1
Average rating
1.0
Hello Heart Pup Team, We're sorry to hear about the difficulties you've had with your theme and with our support team. While we cannot provide over the phone support or a live chat, we are committed to supporting your theme and it's built-in settings and features in any way we can through email correspondence. In order to use the Theme Updater app, you need to register your theme license. When you purchase a theme, your license is attached to the email you used at the time of purchase. We have received your support request about your difficulty with registering with the incorrect email address, and it's great to see our response made it to you and that you have successfully registered with the correct email address - you should now be able to update your Turbo theme to the latest version. We're pleased we were able to help you with this one, but feel free to respond to the message to let us know if anything else is amiss. Regarding the HTML5 video issue, we'd like to work with you to inspect the issue and provide support - we haven't been able to receive a reply to our messages to assist with the issue, but we're still keen to help! Feel free to reply to our previous messages, this message, or the request for a Collaborator account, and we'll be on the case. At Out of the Sandbox, we pride ourselves on the level of support we're able to offer over email correspondence - we're awaiting your response to our offers to assist you as much as possible; we'd love to get this squared away! Sincerely, OOTS Support Team
Aug. 24, 2020
Their Turbo theme has a huge bug that sometimes causes the Add to Cart button not to display at all on product pages (talk about a conversion killer). I brought this to the attention of the support team 4 months ago. They wouldn't believe it was their theme, and just kept telling me it must be cause by an app I am using or customisations I did. After about 20 emails the finally believed me (after I found out the bug is even present on their demo stores) and I was told it would be fixed in an update. Now 4 months later the bug is still there and the customer support as unhelpful as before. I expected a lot more from the most expensive Shopify theme around and have received (much) better support from free Shopify apps than what I've received from OOTSB. So here I am still waiting for their Theme Updater to tell me there's an update and hoping this time the bug will be fixed. Besides all this, premium support means waiting 5 working days for an answer it seems....
Hi there, Sorry to hear that you haven’t had a great experience with the updater app as well as our support team - we certainly strive to provide solutions as promptly as possible, but in this case, the issue has been very difficult to reproduce and troubleshoot. Without that ability to consistently reproduce it, it becomes a challenge to find the cause of the issue, thereby making the solution even harder to find. While we take each reported issue seriously, some can certainly present more difficulty and complexity. With our theme updates, we aim to provide solutions for issues like you’ve experienced, but each update may also address other issues which can take extensive testing. Having said all of that, we can certainly appreciate the importance of this issue and the potential impact it may have, so we do apologize for the time it’s taken to sort this out. We’ve sent along an email to you if you’d like to discuss some options a little further, and hopefully we’re able to come to a solution there!
Aug. 8, 2019
Makes life easier thats for sure. Thank you very much for this great app! Very easy to install and use.
July 15, 2019
We are in the Shopify ecosystem for the last 4 years now and I dont remember any company that is more unhelpful than Out of the Sandbox. Both technically and from a business point of view for the following reasons (we have purchased two themes from them and this app ) 1. In 95% of all the questions or help requests you raise, they simply tell you what you ask is out of their scope and you should go and hire a shopify expert on your behalf. Even though these are within the main scope of the themes or are really as simple as sharing two lines of code with you, they turn their backs and deny you. For this reason, we have shifted to another theme provider which we are really happy with as they are at least listening and seem to care. 2. Their so called "theme updater" does not do a good job, leaving you with lines and lines of code intact and not transfered to the new theme. What is the point in buying an app that is supposed to make the update process automatic if it requires you to adjust 14 different snippets of code manually? It does not work, thats it 3. Within 20 mins of buying the app and realizing that it is not doing what it is claimed to do, we removed it and asked for a refund. Same day in 20 mins !! This is the response we get: "Please keep in mind that updating the Theme Updater App to the Pro Plan does not guarantee that customizations will be carried forward. Unfortunately, all subscription charges are final and non-refundable, therefore, we're unable to provide you with a refund for your subscription." There are tons of sensible vendors out there to choose from, do your self a favor and stay clear of this OUT OF THE SANDBOX company both for their themes and so called updater.
Hello Operaistanbul, We're sorry to hear about your frustrations with the Theme Updater app. We've developed this app to provide merchants with an easier way of updating their themes without needing to download a new theme file and reapply all of your theme editor customizations. The TUA will carry over your theme editor settings and content, provided you are updating from a theme version that is already using Shopify's newer "Sections" theme editor. When you select the "Preserve theme file customizations" our app will attempt to copy over any custom/third-party code in the theme files. However, if carrying over the custom code to the new theme will cause a conflict with the new theme code, the custom code will not be automatically applied, and a report is created to let you know which custom code needs attention. The Theme Updater is presently a free app, with a Pro Plan available for a monthly fee. While we're unable to refund Shopify subscription charges, first time subscribers are eligible for a 30-day trial of the Pro Plan. As long as the subscription is cancelled inside that 30-day trial you will not be charged for the initial subscription fee. Please feel free to reach out to us directly here: https://help.outofthesandbox.com/hc/en-us/requests/new for any additional questions about the Theme Updater app, the Pro Plan or any other theme questions in general.
May 2, 2019
I had no problems with this app. Out of the Sandbox has wonderful customer service and I had quick and friendly help every time I had questions or a problem.
Hi Kalamazoo Candle Company, Thanks for leaving a review! We’re pleased to hear that both the Updater App and our Support team were helpful and effective.
April 4, 2019
When you run a Shopify store with dozens of apps, anything you can do to simply the updating process is important. Thankfully, this Theme Updater takes a lot of the heavy lifting out of keeping our store up to date. Even better is that Out Of The Sandbox works hard to keep our theme updated and they are always adding new functionality to our store, which is very much appreciated. Highly recommend this app!
Hi Welburn Gourd Farm! Thanks so much for your review! We're glad to hear that the Theme Updater App has been both beneficial and a time-saver during the updating process.
Dec. 29, 2018
Tried the pro version of Theme Updater to bring Atlantic theme 11.6 tot 13.4.5. The result was horrifying: a mix of badly placed page elements and duplicate items in the customize section. There is no solution for painless updating: I had to do everything manually. I think this tool only works for minor updated themes.
Hi Hollyworks! Sorry to hear you had a frustrating experience with the Theme Updater App. We’re now able to respond to App reviews so we wanted to take this chance to reach out! The Theme Updater App is able to carry over simpler code customizations in most cases. If you or your developer have made extensive or complex customizations directly to the theme files, then these customizations will need to be manually transferred to the updated theme. The ‘Pro Plan’ comes with the option to view a line-by-line breakdown of the code changes for customized files under the ‘View template customizations’ option when updating that we’ve added in to help merchants who have those advanced customizations! Were you able to take a look at this option when updating? Please feel free to get in touch with us directly here: https://help.outofthesandbox.com/hc/en-us/requests/new - perhaps we can clear up any questions you may have about how the Updater App handles customizations! We appreciate your feedback and would love to see if we can help out with the issues you experienced!
Dec. 27, 2018
I'm super impressed with this app - surprising visibility into theme customizations and ability to carry those through release updates. Thanks folks. https://www.dopeboo.com
Hi DopeBoo! Thanks for leaving a review and for your feedback! Glad to hear that the Theme Updater App was helpful.
Dec. 19, 2018
Out of the sand box started with good intentions and it used to offer sterling customer service but all they are now too big for their boots, its very sad since we have used the theme for a while now, I would not buy anything from them again and would not recommend them either!
Hi Cocofina! We’re now able to respond to App reviews so we wanted to take this chance you reach out to you! So sorry to hear that you’ve become unhappy with our customer service. Our Project Manager had reached out to you in December to help clear up the previous support interaction - hopefully, this helped clarify the outstanding issue. If there are any other questions we can help out with, feel free to get in touch with us here: https://help.outofthesandbox.com/hc/en-us/requests/new. We’d love to help out and do what we can to turn this experience around!