Big CartelReviews of bigcartel.com

I ordered a Ludo back in May. Seller claimed they had surgery so there would be a delay in shipping. That's fine, life happens. Months go by, messages are ignored, my money is gone. PayPal wasn't an option when I paid and it turns out these debit/credit cards are just as much of a scam because they don't offer any of the protection they advertise.

Never had a problem, also don't understand the scam thing as payments are through PayPal or stripe with there buyer protection.

0/10. Daughter wanted to spend her pocket money. 2-4 day estimated delivery. They don’t answer messages, like “where is my order?” They block you. Scumbags. Having to get credit card company to try and recover money.

I started a small business December 2020. I shopped around before settling on the big cartel because they offered 5 products for free. I has no previous website building experience but I didn’t need any to build a website with the big cartel. I customized my website to my liking and everyone loved it. Customer services has been A1. Anytime I have emailed them with a concern or needed assistance they have been on it. Recently the rep help me for over an hour with my domain issue because google changed things on their end. I recently upgraded to a paid plan for 50 products and I love it. My favorite part of the big cartel is the mobile app. I can create order with a couple clicks of my phone, add products, post to Facebook, take cash payments, look at shipments, and more from my mobile device. And they recently upgraded it. And the price is so low.

Unless you want to give free money without anything in return then don't buy from any store selling through big cartel. They house an immens amount of scammers and the reason why there are so many scammers on it became clear after i got scammed; i ordered a t-shirt from fully licenced tees and only got a confirmation mail. The following month i haven't heard anything from it. I emailed them and no response, i emailed big cartel and no response. Only after spamming big cartel with about 10 emails telling them they need to respond they responded with a mail that basically said: we are not responsible, we are not refunding you and you need to contact your PayPal/creditcard company to see if you can get a refund. They do NOTHING to protect buyers from scammers, and that's why it's completely invested with them. Don't buy from them, not even when you think you found a 'trustworthy' seller. You have absolutely no refund to fall back on if anything goes wrong.

Folks, You’re not going to believe this one! As you know, some of our popular items are produced and shipped from the USA, including the Mini Vest Koozies, which are made by my business partner (a retired copper from Cleveland.) Last December, we decided to sell them in US dollars since they are coming from the US. This also allowed you to save paying the GST/HST on these items. Although they are still subject to the tax when they enter Canada, smaller packages are normally cleared without being taxed. Since we only had a few items like this, we opened a separate “online store” using a platform called Big Cartel ( I know, what a stupid name 🤦‍♂️) whereby you could have up to 5 items in the store without paying a monthly subscription. However, we wanted to add more products to the store so we inquired about changing to a paid subscription but instead of answering our email, they went ahead and CLOSED the store without any prior notice for supposedly violating their Merchant Agreement as they do not allow the sale of "Products or content glorifying guns, gun culture, violence, illegal activity, self-harm, or policing." Say what? You’re putting policing in the same basket as violence, illegal activity and self harm? The exact things the police try to deter to help keep people safe! I was completely baffled and tried to appeal their decision and make them reconsider their decision. I mean, we’re selling Koozies with various department’s crests on them, not ammo, not guns, nothing glorifying violence.... Koozies. They didn’t even have the decency to respond to my email...crickets...until today. I also have a side project I’m starting called The Grammar Police because yes, I’m one of those sticklers who get annoyed at poor spelling, punctuation and grammar. I was planning on using their platform (this was before they closed the Thin Blue Line store) as I wanted to start off small with a handful of products to see if there is a market before going to a paid subscription but lo and behold I received another email today from Big Cartel informing me that they have also closed The Grammar Police store (which wasn’t even live yet) due to previous Merchant Agreement violations. What a f*%king joke this company Big Cartel is! Please share this post far and wide to anybody you know that is thinking of opening an online store and advise them that Big Cartel are part of the far left, “woke” movement, are completely anti law enforcement and obviously love the “cancel culture” as they cancelled our store without warning or right to appeal. I really hope they lose a few a customers due to their totally unjust policies.

I think all of these 1 star reviews are reviewing actual websites rather than the Big Cartel company itself. I’ve been using Big Cartel for the past 8 months, as I just started my small business. It’s great for small businesses like me that can’t quite afford the £30 for Shopify. It’s a lot more simplistic and minimal, but that’s kinda good for newbies and smaller businesses as you can get really caught up in over customising your website. I currently use the platinum plan for £9.99, and I can list up to 50 products, with no listing fees. The credit card processor Stripe and Big Cartel both take a percentage but it’s much smaller than fees you’d find on Etsy etc. I can’t complain, just wish there were more apps to customise your website however as time has gone they’ve developed more!

I think the bad reviews on here are for perhaps not so honest website creators who sell under-par goods. However, if you are thinking about trying your own shop, this company have been great so far. Don't bother with Shopify etc who charge a lot. Now I don't know how scalable Big Cartel are but if you are wanting to try something out, try them. I'll be sticking with them for as long as my business can grow with them and they stay competitive.