Complaints

This profile includes complaints for Bonfire's headquarters and its corporate-owned locations. To view all corporate locations, see Find Local Branches.

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  Bonfire

  Glen Allen, VA 23060-6709

  
• 

  Bonfire

  PO Box 3131 Glen Allen, VA 23058-3131

  
• 

  Bonfire

  3420 Pump Rd Mailbox #351 Henrico, VA 23233-1111

  

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:03/22/2025

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I'm a seller on Bonfire and have been completely unable to get in touch with customer service over several months. I've had problems with people's orders randomly getting cancelled, and being unable to verify my email to get my first payout. I emailed ********************************** several times about the order cancellation issue in August 2024 and never heard back, I just kept getting automated emails from their ** chatbot saying to reply to the email if I needed more help and asking if I was satisfied with the help I received. I kept replying to the email but was never able to get in contact with customer service. At that point, the campaign I was running ended so I gave up on that issue.Recently, I went to get a payout and needed to verify my email. I haven't received the verification email, it's not in my spam, and I've resent it several times. I've had some contact with customer service using their online chat service but I'm not sure it's a real person and there's no normal email or phone number I can use to contact them, I have to sit on the page with the chat open so I don't miss anything. It's supposed to send you an email notification when you get a message but my email can't be verified so I'm not getting anything.The quality of the products and the site interface has been great, it's just the customer service that's been so difficult to deal with. I'd like to continue using Bonfire, but I need help getting these issues resolved from an actual customer service person, not the ** Chatbot.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 03/26/2025

  This is ****** from Bonfire, reaching out about your recent BBB review. Thanks for your feedback. I want to ensure we answer all your questions and resolve any outstanding issues.
  
  I understand that you had trouble receiving a response from us. I see that ******* from our support team did reply to your email on March 22nd. You noted you were having an issue verifying your account, and she responded that she verified it manually for you. I also see the conversation from August 2024. Our teammate ******** also responded there and sent two follow-up messages over the following days, but since we didn't hear from you the conversation was closed.
  
  I'm unsure why you didn't receive our responses, but regardless I'm sorry about that. If you start a chat with us and leave the page, you should receive an email when we reply. If you don't get that reply to your email, you can always log in on the Bonfire website and check your previous chats.
  
  For future reference, if you are ever chatting with a bot and want your message to go directly to the team, you can reply with "talk to the team" or something similar, and the bot will pass your message over to the support team. We are quick to respond, especially during our working hours (8-5 Eastern, Monday-Friday).
  
  Thanks again for your honest feedback, and please let us know if you need anything else. You can chat on the site or email ***********************************

• Initial Complaint

  Date:12/05/2024

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I ordered a sweatshirt on 10/25/2024. According to a follow-up email, the item was shipped on 10/31/2024. The tracking number shows that the package did make it to my city, but the package was addressed to my name and city. No actual address was included. I have reached out to the company 4 times since the package was rerouted back to the company. However, no one has answered my emails and the website does not list a phone number anywhere. I just want the item I purchased and an actual response from the company.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 12/06/2024

  This is ****** from Bonfire - we appreciate you reaching out. I apologize that you haven't been able to get in touch with us. I could only locate 1 email from you sent 9 hours ago, which I have responded to. I took a look at your order, and I noticed the shipping address is incomplete. I've replied to your email so I can get your corrected address to have your order reprinted and shipped ASAP. I look forward to hearing back from you there and making things right!

• Initial Complaint

  Date:04/12/2023

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  we started a t-shirt website with bonfire.com they are supposedly a charity, business, or personal website provider for selling there shirts with our designs on them. we have/had 8 different campaigns with various t-shirt designs with them.. our website through them is bonfire.com/store/i-am-we-r which they have stopped from working in the last week.. we've listed our bonfire link on various link exchanges to get some sells & what not which we haven't gotten many in a year or two. we have bought some t-shirts from all 8 of my campaigns to have some examples to see the quality of the shirts they make & how they look with what we designed on them. on bonfire.com when a customer purchases from any of there partner websites they can buy shirts & leave a tip haz well. of the various designs of mine we bought from our 1st campaign to the 8th.(something like ***** shirts.). now the whole time we've had site with them we haven't got a payout for our share. which at the end of March was $314.16(my sare from my sales/tips). we requested our payout in our online site & they sent it to us. so like with checks we deposited into our checking account. 2 days later the bank called & told me bonfire put a stop payment on the check therefore causing my checking account to go into a negative balance cuz we had already used the money. then the bank also charged me $28 return check fee. we let bonfire know & they blamed me stating that there risk assessment department accused us of being a fraud risk. so they basically kept there share of my ********** share of sales plus the tips we gave on there. we have done nothing anywhere close to fraudwith bonfire.com. we designed our shirts, listed our link & gave them my personal info for mailing payouts(which they did & then cancelled).That's all we have done with them nothing fraudulent or anything of the sort. they have been the ones doing fraud with this situation. We responded to the excuse & lie about stop pay & they haven't respond

  

  Business Response

  Date: 04/12/2023

  Hi there,

  Our risk assessment team determined that your account has been associated with fraudulent activity and, therefore, deactivated your account and campaigns. We are unable to disclose the specific reasons for this.

  I've been in touch via email today detailing how we have resolved the outstanding issue you presented here about the associated payout from the orders placed on your campaigns. If there's anything more you need, please reach out via our email thread.

  Best,

  The Bonfire Team

  Customer Answer

  Date: 04/17/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the offer and/or response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
  
  bonfire did send me an email & sayed they are refunding money to credit cards of the purchases of $314.16 they refused to pay me which is what they are supposed to do according to there site.. however they refusing to stop bearing false witness & lie about there refusal to reactivate my site that we spent many hours designing 8 different t-shirt campaigns for me. They aren't recanting there delusional statement about my site being fraudulent & what not. There by insulting us without cause cuz we've done nothing except us bonfire the way it is intended. they unlawfully state that they can't/won't tell us there baseless acquisitions of fraud. If anything they are the site provider & they are behaving in a fraudulent way by not honoring how they represent themselves to there partners.  They like seemingly alot of web based companies thing they can say or do what they want cuz they want to instead of behaving honorably & with integrity in there dealings.  Which they aren't all of a sudden for no reason.. we require control of our site at bonfire & a $81881 dollar grivience payment for there utter defamation of my AWESOME NAME.  or we will indeed allow my lawyers to bring a multi facetted lawsuit against them for many reasons for at least $10,000,000 & a controlling interest of 33% of the bonfire company then they'll have strong & ethical leadership.. this is not up for debate.. you all already have spoken ill & acted illegally without cause or provocation.. you type of companies can not be tolerated on the internet cuz only honesty makes the blessing of the internet function correctly.. no one has ever been foolish enough to insult me in such a way.. bonfire is guilty & we are not....  ETC.......
  
  Regards,
  
  ***********************
  
  
  
  
  

• Initial Complaint

  Date:04/06/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  We designed a T-Shirt and submitted those graphics to Bonfire. I was willing to pay a bit more because we thought we'd be getting a very high quality shirt and graphics. Instead, it's a cheesy looking shirt with a really, really low-grade graphics, almost like an "iron on lettering." It will not make it through more than a couple of washes I am sure. This was a long wait to get, and when they arrived we were SO disappointed. I'll give them a chance to do better with it, or suggest a way that this will not happen again, but the three shirts we ordered to test out Bonfire DO NOT APPEAR ACCEPTABLE.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 04/11/2023

  Hi ****,

  Thank you for your feedback. I'm sorry to hear that you are unhappy with your order. We strive to create products our customers will love, and it we didn't meet your expectations.

  I reached out to you via email to either get you a replacement or a refund. I look forward to coming to resolution together there. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have there as well.

  Again, I'm sincerely sorry for the unsatisfactory products. Your feedback helps us continue to get better.

  Best,

  ****** + The Bonfire Team

• Initial Complaint

  Date:03/28/2023

  Type:Sales and Advertising Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I have had two separate accounts with Bonfire to make tshirts and sweatshirts for our small business that people can order on demand and both accounts have been closed by Bonfire for "fraudulent" activity after I tried to link my PayPal account to my Bonfire account so I could receive the money I earned on selling products. Both times I messaged Bonfire and all they will tell me is that their risk team has determined that my account has been associated with fraudulent activity. The first account the orders had not shipped yet so they refunded all ordered and no one got what they wanted. Which is great but they didn't even tell me that so I had to go back and check with every person that put an order in to make sure they were refunded. The second account I waited until all orders were shipped (expect 1) and they are telling me there's nothing they can do and my account is closed. I have $93.00 that I profited from sales and it's now gone in thin air. They won't show me any proof of fraud and tell me there is nothing they can do about it. I believe this company scams small business sellers like me because they know they can get away with it and keep my profits without anything happening to them. They will not allow me to get into my account and even if I try the "forgot password" that no longer works as well. They did this to me on both accounts. The first time I thought it was a fluke and maybe someone was trying to hack my account but now that it happened again I know it's them scamming me out of the profits I made. My profits were small but if they do this to enough people they are making plenty of money from it.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 03/30/2023

  Hi ******,

  My name is ****** and I manage our Customer Support team who you've been communicating with.

  First, I want to sincerely apologize for the missteps in your account deactivation. We have certain failsafes in place for mitigating fraud risk, and your account was affected by that. At the moment, our policies do not allow us to share details about fraudulent activity due to the associated risk. We are in the process carefully assessing our policies & procedures to ensure we are not affecting sellers like yourself from successfully and legitimately using our platform.

  After thorough review yesterday, your Bonfire account has been reinstated. Our team member, ******, contacted you providing more detail on this. Again, I am terribly sorry for how this has inconvenienced you and your buyers. I promise that we truly want to help small businesses like yours succeed using Bonfire. If you need any more assistance, please reach out in the email thread and we'd be happy to help.

  Best,

  ****** + The Bonfire Team

  Customer Answer

  Date: 03/30/2023

  [A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's offer.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me. I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved. If the company does not perform as promised I can get back to you at: **********************************************.
  
  Regards,
  
  *************************
  
  
  
  

• Initial Complaint

  Date:03/09/2023

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  There was a campaign setup online through a website. A ****c organization is asked to be verified by providing and EIN number. The proceeds are based on the number of items sold and shipping method. On the website the max ****** stated$9-$11 could be made. Once the campaign was launched I purchased the first Tshirt and the amount earned by our organization changed to $2 per Order. Bonfire made over $250, after the campaign ended our organization made $70.33 . Upon requesting the $70 I was denied because I was then told that a board member of our company had to request funding, the same does not hold true for launching the campaign which makes money for Bonfire. The *** has been contacted and verification was sent. I was then told that the *** had to state that payments were authorized to be released. I am having a hard time trying to receive the small percentage made from the campaign. The company is making difficult to collect money earned and with holding the payout.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 03/10/2023

  Hi *******,

  I'm very sorry to hear that you had a difficult time receiving your funds. I promise that we want an organization to receive the funds raised using our platform. However, our team takes the security of all payouts very seriously. We would hate for those funds to get in the wrong hands, which is why we require specific supporting documents from the requestor. I can see that our team was able to assist with your payout and you have successfully requested it via check. It is currently in our queue to be printed and mailed.

  The amount you can earn per shirt is dependent on a number of factors including the design, the products you select, and the selling prices you set. Bonfire uses the base cost to source, print, and ship the products. In the majority of cases, the cost to produce products makes up most of the ultimate selling price. If you have specific questions about how you can increase your profit margins, please email us at ********************************** and we would be more than happy to help!

  Again, I apologize that your experience wasn't what you anticipated. We truly want to see you succeed using Bonfire, and we're here to help should you need it in the future.

  Best,

  The Bonfire Team

  Customer Answer

  Date: 03/10/2023

  [A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's offer.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me. I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved. If the company does not perform as promised I can get back to you at: **********************************************.
  
  Regards,
  
  ***********************************
  
  
  
  

• Initial Complaint

  Date:02/03/2023

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I started a Bonfire fundraiser in December 2022 for my students. Bonfire employees are nearly impossible to contact. The "payouts" take a long time to deliver. Now, I am attempting to access my account but to no avail. The password I have saved and which I regularly use is suddenly not working. I have attempted to request a password recovery email from their website multiple times this evening but have still not received anything from Bonfire. There is no other way for me to log into my account and Bonfire is unresponsive. I have funds left to recover in the form of another "payout" but am helpless at this point, so this *****************. I do not know what to do at this point apart from seeking outside help.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 02/23/2023

  Hi *******,

  I am sincerely sorry for the issues logging in and receiving your payout. I promise we're doing what we can to resolve this for you.

  It looks like our team member, *******, was able to assist you with logging into your account. However, I do see one payout is still in a "requested" status. I have contacted our team to look into why this hasn't successfully been received yet, and we should have a resolution there shortly. I'll send you an email once that's been sorted out.

  If you need anything more or have questions prior to hearing from me, please do reach out to our support team at ********************************** so that we can assist.

  Warmly,

  ****** + The Bonfire Team

  Customer Answer

  Date: 02/23/2023

  [A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's offer.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me. I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved. If the company does not perform as promised I can get back to you at: **********************************************.
  
  Regards,
  
  *****************************
  
  
  
  

• Initial Complaint

  Date:10/12/2022

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  10/11 my campaign made 2 sales. 10/12 I close campaign to collect payout All my sales records are gone my money is gone.. and I want results. I messaged your automated system and that's trash.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 10/14/2022

  Hi there! 

   

  It looks like you emailed us and didn't wait our 24 hr response period before submitting this BBB claim! We are happy to send you the funds raised. Typically they are available 1-2 business days after a campaign batch goes to print. You should be able to withdraw these funds very soon! 

   

  Let me know if we can help with anything else :) 

   

  Best Regards

• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/29/2022

  Type:Sales and Advertising Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  We ordered a t shirt in side youth small, were sent a t-shirt in size adult small. We filled out the contact form online to let them know, received an email confirmation informing us that they'd be in touch within a few business days, but six days and four business days later there has been no follow up or additional information on how to receive the correct order. When we fill out and submit the contact form to ask what needs to happen next, the web form won't submit and says "A request has already been submitted for this item." I'm not able to find a phone number or email address or any other means of contacting the company. We were expecting that daughter could wear this shirt to her rehearsals for the play she is in. The other children have their orders and wear them to rehearsals, but we are just waiting on a response that appears as if it may not come.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 09/30/2022

  Hi there! 

   

  I'm so sorry you had an issue with our automated system! I pushed the replacement request through for you! You should have gotten an email, this will also send you the tracking once the replacement has been printed :) 

   

  Let me know if I can do anything else for you.

   

  Best regards

• Initial Complaint

  Date:07/20/2022

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  transaction date 6/13/22 - Bonfire.com - Amount $46.99 - I have no idea why this company charged me - I haven't ordered anything from them.- It's impossible to get ahold of anyone at this business, they don't list a number to help you reach them, - i want this charge erased - this is a pain to deal with.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 08/01/2022

  Hi there!

   

  It looks like you haven't reached out to our support team with the email **************************** I also don't see an account. I recommend reaching out to ********************************** or disputing this charge with your bank in case someone fraudulently used your card on our site. 

   

  In the meantime, if I can help at all, email ********************************** and ask for me, ********.