Upfront Summary: Is Artfire Legit?
Artfire is a digital storefront allowing users to pay monthly subscriptions to have their stores hosted on the site. At first glance, they appear to be a more luxury competitor to Etsy, a house name for online arts and crafts sales. That is where the similarities end. The only safety net you have while shopping their site is secure checkout via PayPal. Otherwise, the site has hundreds of consumer complaints of undelivered items and no communication from vendors and customer service, alike. With no verified sellers, the site has made itself a haven for fraudulent sellers. With no way to tell honest vendors from dishonest ones, Artfire has become a roulette wheel of scams that the buyers spin on every purchase.
With a plethora of online marketplaces, the online shopper has become extremely frugal. Even unexperienced shoppers still know, largely, where to find the best prices. Yet, in our search for the best bargain we often find ourselves opened up for scams, fraudulent sellers, and cheap or misrepresented items. Artfire is just such a marketplace that, in a perfect world, should unite hard-working artisans to keen buyers all for exceptionally low pricing.
Sadly, the world is not perfect. As they say, if it looks too good to be true, then it is.
A few instances of fraudulent activity do not discredit an entire online marketplace, does it? The odd complaint is to be expected, as you genuinely cannot please everyone. So, is Artfire legit? After researching hundreds of reviews of the site and cross-referencing many of the site’s listings and sellers we were shocked by our findings.
Artfire company info
| Official Website | www.artfire.com |
| Founded | February 28, 2008 |
| Owner | John Jacobs |
| Number of Employees | 8 (though, LinkedIn has them listed as a company with 11-50 employees) |
| Location | Tucson, Arizona USA |
| Customer Service Contact Information | Email: service@artfire.com |
| Social Media | Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Pinterest Tumblr |
What is Artfire?
Artfire is an Arizona-based company founded in the early 2000s as a marketplace for unique artisan items. They provide an online space to unite buyer to seller of a various items from handmade pieces to vintage articles to unique crafting tools. Artfire is essentially the middleman in the consumer to artist relationship. They provide a digital storefront for individuals and small businesses to post their wares without having to scale up to their own website.
Artfire launched itself three years after the well-known craft and handmade marketplace Etsy, in hopes of Artfire becoming a sleeker, more luxury version of their homey predecessor. In their initial launch there were quite a few users rushing to move their store over. Everything Artfire did was marketed at taking Etsy’s seller base. It did not last long, as users quickly became disenfranchised with the site and swiftly went back to Etsy. Since the early 2010’s Artfire has ebbed from any popularity and, in many ways, has been in its death throes for nearly a decade while leaving no trace of relevancy.
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Is Artfire Legit & Safe or a Scam?
The only thing that creates “legitimacy” on the site, as a seller, is paying a monthly rate and a commission on each sale. With no requirement for verified sellers, Artfire has constantly been under fire for being a veritable playground for scammers. Individuals willing to pay a monthly subscription for ample opportunity to underperform or not deliver. Artfire may tout itself as a Marketplace, but they are more akin to a pickpocket, seemingly content with its user’s fraudulent activity in exchange for the constant revenue of the monthly subscriptions.
But, is Artfire Legit?
According to the over 220 complaints filed through the Better Business Bureau and the 1.4 star rating through Trustpilot, it is a legit way to lighten your wallet for no return. When using Artfire, you are buying from unverified “creators” hoping that they make good on their end of the bargain. Yet, what we see on hundreds of occasions are people having their money taken who are then left floundering for answers. They receive no follow-up correspondence from the vendors and are left out to dry by Artfire’s lack-luster customer service team. People have received fake tracking numbers attached to nothing, dead-end and bounced back emails from closed accounts with their only recourse being a refund through Paypal. Hundreds of people with the same issues: “I bought an item that I never received, I sent an email that got no response, I demanded a refund that never came”.
With hundreds of scams reported, you may wonder if it is even safe to be on the site at all. Upon entering the site, you are flooded with the signs of a luxury and high-end marketplace. With excellent high-definition photography and banners, highlighted shops and vendors, clear site layout and click-throughs, you immediately feel “safe.” The site uses cookies, stated in its privacy policy, strictly for improving the user’s experience and better predicting the user’s interests and preferences. They also note that they do not sell or store private and financial information on their servers. The problem with the site then lies, in most part, with illegitimate sellers.
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Is Artfire Reliable and Trustworthy?
With a despairingly low rating and hundreds of consumer complaints, the obvious answer is no. Artfire is avoiding responsibility for the hundreds of scammed buyers through the loophole that they, themselves, are not responsible for the handling of any items. They are not like Amazon, which has hundreds of warehouses and thousands of employees handling their physical stock. They are simply an online host for sellers to make empty promises and buyers to purchase at their own risk. They take a back seat approach to the mishandlings happening on their marketplace. Their real revenue comes from the sellers paying the subscriptions to have their store fronts hosted. This differs widely from more successful and trusted online marketplace models that take percentages of sales made or charge minor fees per listing made.
Sadly, this lack of interest in the goings-on of the site leads to legitimate sellers losing out on site traffic and being lumped in with the counterfeit vendors. There are also many complaints of sellers trying to terminate their subscriptions only to find their accounts consistently billed with no assistance from the ever-silent and hands-off customer service.
The site claims to have several perks for the few and far between legitimate sellers. Perks such as:
- “CSV Item Importer” is essentially a copy and paste method, provided that you already have an Etsy account to pull from.
- “Google Shopping Boost” that seems to be a drummed-up version of SEO. Google currently offers Shopping Campaigns and Shopping Ads for online stores to use, neither of which Artfire seems to utilize.
- “Coupon Code Creation/Management” which is a feature on most marketplace sites that is only a few simple clicks to manage from your own account.
These “perks” are a weak and watered-down sales pitch to use an online marketplace that currently ranks 342nd of the 396 marketplaces listed (rankings are according to Sitejabber).
Sellers who were encouraged to jump ship from established sites like Etsy quickly found themselves aboard an already sinking ship.
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Artfire Site and Shipping
Site Navigation
Let’s say you decide that you are willing to take the risk and try to purchase from Artfire. After all, reviews have become a place of complaining rather than a place to extoll exceptional work. The actual process of finding items is straight forward, with several categories to choose from or a search bar. Items are also appropriately tagged so that the search bar does not come up with redundant and unrelated items.
Shipping Cost
Shipping cost is at the discretion of the individual vendors. Some sellers offer options to combine shipping of multiple items. Combined shipping does not apply to several products from different vendors. Since cost of shipping is up to the vendor it can quickly become excessive.
Shipping Time
According to the site shipping time is typically 7 business days but they ask that you allow up to 21 days for your package to arrive.
What countries does Artfire ship to?
Artfire currently standardizes shipping service to the US, Canada, and the UK, but individuals may open shipping to any country in the world.
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How to track, cancel, and return orders
Upon check out you receive and order number and once the item has been shipped you receive a tracking number. Though many people have received fake tracking numbers or never heard further from the sellers.
There are no ways listed on the site to cancel an order short of reaching out to the individual seller.
Unsurprisingly, there are no free exchanges or returns on Artfire.
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Payment
Artfires payments are all done through PayPal.
Artfire Alternatives
If you find yourself shopping for handmade items or are just looking for that extra special touch, there is an abundance of safe and sensible alternative sites to explore.
- Etsy has become the handmade crafter’s site of choice, providing an excellent resource for buyers and creators alike.
- Wren and Glory have become the gold standard for hand painted and custom apparel.
- Gallery Nucleus and Gallery 30 South are among hundreds of galleries that you can buy original artwork and numbered prints from lesser-known to top-rated artists, supporting the creators directly.
Other alternatives include
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Bottom Line
With so many excellent substitutions, there is no reason to set yourself up for disappointment using a careless and dangerous site like Artfire. At least stick with sites people have heard of in the last 10 years.