Clips4Sale review: Going downhill

First there was the famous server clean. A lot of great content has been lost forever and many creators had their clips deleted without warning.

The website is a shadow of its former self in terms of functionality. For example, the search function is basically a recommendation engine at this point, and it simply refuses to acknowledge the existence of any older content. The sort options "Most Recent" and "Most Popular" return almost identical results. These factors contribute to a vicious cycle, where older content doesn't sell due to lack of visibility, and so it is more likely to be purged.

I've seen Google authentication popups in foreign languages and alphabets when visiting the site. This doesn't inspire confidence. There have also been a couple of hamfisted attempts to shove promotions for other sites or services into the checkout process, which just comes across as desparate.

Support is shooting itself in the foot every day by misreading tickets and failing to understand even basic issues. They will claim to have done things that make no sense in the context of the issue you originally reported. They will tell you that the ticket has been forwarded to the appropriate department and then close it as resolved. It's as if everything is being run by KPIs, which are easily gamed, so there is really no incentive to care.

Some creators have been blatantly violating the terms of service for more than a year but nothing is being done about it despite all the evidence that was provided. I guess it's just too expensive to do the work or too embarrassing to admit that there is nothing that can be done about it. This also raises questions about the moderation process.

The refund policy is needlessly restrictive and easily exploited by unscrupulous creators. Refunds are in the form of credit, which must be spent at the same clip store as the original purchase. So, for example, if you were tricked into buying the same clip twice, then you either reward the creator who scammed you, or lose your money and receive no content.