ArtFireReviews 436

I have two "stores" on Artfire and I love it. They are really great about helping with making sure all items are uploaded to Google. I have been there less then a year and when I look up my store name it comes up third with a google search. My sales are increasing and in general I am very pleased. I ship all orders out the next business day and with 2 day priority mail. I wouldn't judge the whole site by a couple of bad apples. I have a 5star customer satisfaction rating. Customer satisfaction is number one with me and there are a lot of other sellers there who feel the same. If you are looking for a place to sell your products I highly reccommened Artfire.

As a seller on ArtFire, I can not believe the reviews of these folks slamming ArtFire. I'm not a maven; I've only been there just under a year and I don't see any truth in what all these folks are talking about with regard to the site itself or the operation of the studios. I can't speak for those who say they placed orders and didn't get what they ordered. But as for the site itself and the way it is run, is not what is being written here.

We were looking for an online market for our handmade products and on the face of it Artfire looked good. Not really. There is a 15 day free trial and when I couldn't get any technical help with an issue I canceled. They acknowledged the cancellation and then proceeded to continue to charge the card I had registered with - repeatedly. My bank finally advised me to cancel the card and I did so at great inconvenience. And now artfire is bombarding my email with notices that I haven't paid and have not responded to multiple requests for a refund of the money they charged me after they acknowledged in writing that the account was closed.

I sell at Artfire and have been satisfied with their service. I've never had any problems getting questions answered and have been amazed that a real live person has answered the phone when I've call with questions regarding my site set-up. I think that most people's bad experiences listed here have been the fault of the individual vendors, and not with Artfire itself. I give great customer service, and I send out orders within a day of receiving payment. I answer questions promptly, send tracking numbers when items are shipped, and communicate with customers whenever needed. Their price cannot be beat for an online shop. I have over 600 sales, and not one bad review. I have 67 ratings, all 5 stars, on my site, so there are many happy Artfire customers.

BEWARE of Artfire.com The website is barely functional... and very clunky... annoying to use. I would imagine that they hook in many with the 14 DAY FREE TRIAL... I signed up to give the 14 days a try and I cancelled my subscription on the 14th day. A day later I was charged for a month.

When I tried to get my money back I was told that somewhere in the terms of service there is a clause that you must cancel at least 72 hours prior to the end of the 14 day trial in order to not be charged for the month... WOW... TALK ABOUT SHADY BUSINESS!

This site is obviously set up to scam people... It's unfortunate how many people are out there trying to steal a few bucks from creative people who just want to make their items available for sale. Whoever runs the Artfire.com website, they do not have the user's interest in mind... and from most of these 1 star reviews, they don't have any safeguards set up for buyers either.

Very disappointing. Very shady business. Stay away! Etsy might not be as good as it used to be, but at least their website functions very well and looks good, and they won't charge you for absolutely nothing!

I was SO happy on Artfire. As of Oct 2015 they started a down hill spiral. First destroying our shop layout. Got rid of any personalization. Only when the forums lit up with complaints did they bring back a banner space though not nearly as nice.
IF that wasn't bad enough, suddenly, and very sneakily google adsense ads started appearing in our listings. Only if the seller is logged in they don't see them. Many were unaware. I counted no less than 14 of these PER LISTING and I had over 500 listings. I had a "locked in rate" which said nothing about them putting ads all over. In fact they claimed all the time how they wanted us to succeed. That links leading out of our shops would not happen. Well... times have changed.

Again the forums lit up only now some long time sellers started closing up.

So then... they came up with a new fee plan to start in June. Now we can pay a monthly "locked in" fee AND pay commission on sales including shipping!
Well I was furious as are many others and probably over stepped my bounds in their forums. Suddenly my shop, with my over 500 listings and perfect customer feedback, is closed. And I can't even SHOP on Artfire anymore.

This is a bad way to do business. I tried calling but... as expected, no answer. Found a page where you can call in complaints. Only again no answer and the "mail box is full." GEE I wonder why?

I had planned to move off artfire anyway but wanted to do it slowly and keep my ability to shop alive. But they slammed that door.

And that's it for me and venue sites. NO more. This is not the first to get bit by the stupid bug. I'm done with all of them. I'll put a shopping cart on my personal site and be done with all their greed.

Sellers... avoid artfire.
Shoppers, be aware, prices are likely going to go up across the board to offset all the fees.
I would suggest contacting sellers and see if they might invoice you directly. Probably save you a few bucks.

Is there an option to rate with NO STARS? The site itself looks horrendous! It looks like a 10 year old designed it. The font is huge! It looks ridiculous. The first time I signed up for the site, I was signing up for a free trial. I am sure that I would not have chosen to pay for such a crappy site with horrible functions. If anyone from Artfire reads this I would like them to take some constructive feedback from this:
1. If you want to improve redesign the entire site at your appropriate age level.
2. Navigating through the site is not simple enough. Sellers need a clean site to have a comfortable selling experience.
3. NOTIFY PEOPLE WHEN YOU ARE BILLING THEM!

I had the horrible experience of thinking I was signed up for a free trial and really getting billed $12 a month without knowledge of it! I didn't post on the site and didn't make any money from it and I was still billed!

I got scammed. Please stay away from this website. Never received my item. Sent a message to the seller who told me that he had several orders gone missing and that it must have been the post office, he said he was gonna call and let me know. I have emailed him 4 times since then and have gotten no response. The website can't help me because they "don't mediate disputes between sellers and buyers"... seems like a safe haven website for scammers.

"Doesn't get any worse than this. Stay away!" That is the best explanation I can give of this website and the seller Grime Designs on this website. Grime Designs shipped me an unapproved wedding program, which had spelling errors, I received the shipment the day before my wedding even though I placed the order a month and a half before my wedding. When I received the programs there was a misspelling and upon checking the proof I approved, I found there was no misspelling. Grime Designs made changes to the program after I approved it, did not take responsibility for making this change, did not offer any apologies for making the error and only refunded half of my money, even though they are the ones who made the error. Artfire.com has an option to rate the seller, but BUYER BEWARE because it is up to the seller as to whether or not they post your rating, so I gave Grime Designs the lowest score possible and it did not affect their rating at all. So if you go to ArtFire and look up Grime Designs it looks as if they have never had any negative feedback. When contacting Artfire.com to log a complaint about the rating system, they quit responding to my emails, even though they were fast to reply when they knew I was trying to set up a rating. Once they found out I had a complaint, I could not receive any replies back from them. I would never suggest anyone make any purchases from this website, they have horrible customer service and no interest in helping the buyers feel safe when making purchases.

It doesn't even deserve 1 star! The site is broken from the people who run it to the site itself. The forums are brutal & overrun with bullies. It's no wonder that there are some 5 star ratings. Those are the same people who have cussed others out for disagreeing with anything there. One even went so far as to tell a frustrated seller who was closing shop to "f"ing go and if no one liked what she said..."blow me". Just a small example of the type of words coming from a maven & mentor. Shameful! I was cussed at and left after one year,

Artfire.com misled and deceived me. They told me to sign up for a free 1 month membership and then if I wanted to continue after the month I would be charged $11.99. Well, they charged me the very second I signed. I have been emailing and leaving messages numerous times to get my money back, but they have chosen to ignore me for so long. I am about to file a complaint with the FTC.
Stay away. Do not do business with these crooks.

I would give Art Fire 0 stars if I could, I hand make all of my items and work very hard to keep my customers happy. I began with listing a few of my items I paid every month and my items were promoted alot. I also have an etsy site that I sell alot of items on. I never had even one sale on Art Fire. I had Facebook friends who tried to purchase my items tell me there was a broken link on the site. I have no idea how many sales I lost due to this error. I contacted them and they told me there was no broken link and that my items just did not sell. Funny how i cannot keep them in stock on etsy.

I started selling at ArtFire in 2009 and at first really liked it. The forums were friendly, there was a real sense of teamwork, everybody was helpful, including the COO, Tony Ford, and my sales were terrific. Last summer, the entire site took a nosedive and became the opposite of what it was. There has been a great deal of contention, implementation of crazy programs that don't work, kicking sellers off the site or muting them if they ask too many questions, a drastic reduction in the number of sales for many of us, and blaming sellers for problems.

In addition, there is a secret forum where where about 7 to 10 members of Tony's "Team" decide how they are going to handle unhappy sellers, which is usually to gang up, swear at them, make fun of them, and take any serious subject off topic. The mavens in Tony's special group will tell people they are "similar to a dangling turd" or to "F off" and "blow me."

The site is broken, it doesn't work, and the COO, Tony Ford, has a million excuses. ArtFire is not a healthy place to be, either for your pocketbook, or your psychological state.

As a marketplace venue hosting many individual shops, this site has more bugs for both buyer and seller than any other online selling venue (Ebay, Etsy, Zibbet for example). Admin of the site are rude, state untruths causing sellers to waste time fixing things in their shop and have gone on a mute and boot rampage deleting good sellers who have questioned any decision that has been made regarding the site. Forum - stay out or be prepared for an onslaught of verbal abuse from a select group of sellers who seem to be admin's (Tony's) chosen few. Language used is rude, belligerent, condescending - yet non of those partaking in such posts get muted, only those who dare question the site's functioning. Beware.