Here's a post I never thought I'd have to write. Especially about a platform that I trusted and whose 3 short courses I had signed up to, I enjoyed.
But enough is enough and I feel myself obliged to say something.
I'm sure a lot of you are familiar with Domestika. But if you're not, Domestika is an online learning platform that offers courses in a variety of disciplines, including design, art and craft. The courses are heavily curated video-courses (a bit too curated for my liking) structured into lessons that you can watch and complete at your own pace from the comfort of your own home.
How it all began for me...
On the 15th July, I signed up to a Domestika course on "How to use Pinterest as a marketing tool?" led by Mercedes Valganon for £0.99. I signed up to it using my mobile - not an app or my laptop. This is important as you will see. At the time, the payment wouldn't go through (I'm kicking myself now for not seeing something was trying to save me all this aggro, but hey ho!), but I tried, and tried...and tried, and tried as the "Pay Now" button moved up and down when all the form input fields were loading on the page, and had to go back and forth through every single one to make sure all my card details were correct, which they were. So I couldn't understand what was wrong. So I changed the payment method to Paypal and it was accepted. The payment for £0.99 went through. Great! (not so great now...)
Fast forward to 22thth August
On this day, I logged in to my email account and noticed an email from Paypal from the 15th August saying "You paid $116.41 USD to Domestika Inc" Sorry...What now? My heart stopped I swear. The first thought I had as I saw those numbers was that someone had hacked into my account and paid for a $116 course or something. I KNEW I HAD NOT MADE THAT PAYMENT.
So, the first course of action I took was to go to the Domestika website. I thought "this is just a mistake and they'll rectify it straightaway". But once on the Domestika website, I couldn't find a way to speak to someone real (sounds just like the EVRI story...) and where it says "The best way to contact us is through our form". Eh? What form? Even hovering on the word "form" does not give you the option to click it to be taken to some kind of form. You are given a physical address in the US and a phone number. Great! How helpful of them! (can you hear the sarcasm?) You can view so yourselves: https://www.domestika.org/en/about/contact
And you guessed it, even when you got to the "Help Section", they take you on this endless ride of set questions and answers that don't lead anywhere, if not back to square one.
I'll show you...
Clicked on "domestika plus"...
Clicked on "refunds and cancellations"...
And at the very end of that same page, you can see a "contact us" button again.
I pressed it and got taken to a new contact page where you can find a way to contact Domestika - albeit a very limited way of contacting them or requesting a refund depending on what country you are in.
I filled in this form a couple of times I believe - but I received the same generic message twice saying the following:
I've contacted them through IG, and again, there was an automated response to my request for a refund of my domestika plus subscription.
I left a few more messages like that in the hope that a human picked up on it. I didn't receive a response for every message that I wrote, just one and exactly like the one above 4 days later.
So the same day I saw that email, after trying Domestika's website and their IG account, I thought of contacting my bank. But the transaction wasn't listed in my bank account, and that's when I remembered I paid through Paypal because for some mysterious reason, when I tried using my bank, the payment wouldn't go through (Now I'm attributing this to my bank doing a good job safeguarding my money - I bet they've had lots of complaints about Domestika!)
The Facebook Group
So that's when I opened a case through Paypal. And while that was being reviewed I came across something really interesting online. A Facebook group called "Domestika Scam!". Over 2000 people are going through the SAME-THING-I-AM...How is this possible?
I genuinely believed that what happened to me was a technical error. Sometimes, some features on a webpage appear on the desktop version but not on the mobile version. I thought that some error of that kind had prevented certain features from appearing on my phone as I completed the purchase of my course.
But that this happened to over 2000 people over months is a little bit much. A simple website glitch can be rectified straight away, before so many payments are taken in error. But we are talking about months, and I know this because I then went on Youtube and low and behold, there's a really helpful video by Sewing Report LIVE 26th March 2024 entitled "Domestika Sneaky Subscriptions Exposed 🚨 BUYER BEWARE!"
To cut it really short, I was refused a refund by Paypal twice now because they repeat what Domestika says, that I didn't cancel my free trial in time. But I didn't know I had a free trial, how can I cancel what I don't know I have?
My case is still under review as I write this post (7/9) and they have till tomorrow to respond. I am anticipating that they'll ask me for my billing agreement again (though they already have it as I sent it to them several times) and it will then be under review - again - for a number of days - again.
This is the email receipt I received from Domestika on 15th July 2024. I didn't open it then as I mentioned in the beginning, because as far as I'm concerned, I knew what I purchased, 1 course for £0.99. Not Domestika Plus. I didn't put it in my cart. I don't need it.
But if you look at the receipt, it doesn't say:
How much Domestika Plus costs (whether monthly or yearly)
How my money will be taken
There's a lot of emphasis on the word FREE and 1000 COURSES, but no mention of how much it will cost once the free trial is over. My guess is that they purposefully left it out, so that the other numbers didn't visually clash with FREE and 1000 courses. Once you start to see numbers, the brain automatically starts to drop the notion of FREE. Making consumers uninterested.
Had I opened this receipt when I bought the course, it still wouldn't have been transparent to me that after a free trial of 14 days, I would've had to pay over £90 as I did for the year.
Moreover, and I want to be very clear about this, I have not received ANY reminder emails from Domestika about this "free trial" that they were so keen on, ending soon. Domestika did not give me a chance to cancel my "free trial", they didn't want me to. They wanted my money.
I have bought 2 other courses from Domestika before, one from August 2023 and the other from 2020. I have thoroughly enjoyed the courses, and never had anything, let alone a yearly subscription added to my cart like this. Never happened in my entire life. I believe this is another factor that Domestika was counting upon. Returning customers that were used to checking out confidently.
Applying to Domestika
A little over a year ago I actually applied to teach on Domestika. As I've stated above, I had enjoyed the courses and I noticed that the polymer clay courses on Domestika weren't along the lines of my work, so I thought I'd apply. I am so thankful that they never replied to me. I would've died of embarrassment to have been associated with that platform today. If I had known, as a teacher, that this was going on with my students, I would've pulled through my embarrassment and said something because this us just unacceptable.
Even if I don't get my money back, which in the grand scheme of things it isn't much, it's the principle that counts to me. Taking money from customers without their knowledge or consent is plain wrong. I know I didn't put that in my basket - but they know they did! So I'd want what's rightfully mine. I have no use for 1000 courses.
Where I think Domestika failed:
Adding Domestika Plus to my cart without my knowledge
No transparency about Domestika Plus charges at checkout or in email receipt
No transparency about how my money will be taken
Never received emails from Domestika about my free trial ending
Never got to talk to a human from Domestika - automated responses everywhere!
Paypal refused me a refund twice and sided with Domestika (case still open) because I didn't cancel my "free trial" within the time stipulated (that I didn't know I had)
Learning with Domestika
If you're thinking about signing up to a course with Domestika, go ahead...you will enjoy the courses. The teachers have nothing to do with the platform itself. All I'm saying is, be careful when checking out - maybe do it on your laptop where you can see all the contents of the page properly - and make sure nothing foreign to what you are ordering has been added to your cart. If Domestika Plus is added to your cart, you can delete it. If you checked out and Domestika Plus was added to your cart without your knowledge you have 14 days from purchase to request a cancellation and your money will not be taken at the end of the free trial or when the payment is due. If you're on the same boat as me - hello - let's get cosy in the fight to getting off this boat and let's do our best at blowing our whistles before others get on this boat.
I don't know why any online platform would ever automatically add a service to a cart if not in the hope that the customer doesn't notice, to collect the money a month later. I wouldn't expect to go shopping at a supermarket and have a member of staff follow me around, adding products to my basket without my knowledge to then get to the till and have the checkout assistant say "we automatically added it to your basket, you could've taken it out if you didn't want it. It's too late now, you've had them long enough." What? This is exactly how I feel. It's ridiculous.
I wouldn't be writing this blog post and making this public if I didn't feel completely conned. I posted on the facebook group about my experience and since then so many new people have been posting their stories daily from al over the world.
I feel sorry for each and every one of them. This is their hard-earned money that was stolen and their trust that has been taken advantage of, and that makes my blood boil more than anything.
As I'm writing today (9/9) I like to see that some Domestika teachers are aware of the situation and are getting involved - in some way. This situation is evolving very quickly and is difficult to keep track of everything that's going on. I've just come across the term "dark patterning" on the Facebook group and this is what I found online: "A dark pattern (also known as a "deceptive design pattern") is "a user interface that has been carefully crafted to trick users into doing things, such as buying overpriced insurance with their purchase or signing up for recurring bills" (Wikipedia)
That this is exactly what's happening here.
As for me, my Domestika journey - albeit quite short - has come to an end. I will continue to support the artists I love, but I will do so in a different way. I will support them through their own platforms, signing up to courses on their own websites, buying their books, etc.
I don't want to end this blog post on a sad note, so I'd like to recommend 2 artists whose courses I enjoyed.
One of them is the the course by Emma Block in "Gouache techniques for illustration" and the other is "Illustrated map creation: reflecting a city's essence" by Stef Maden.
I will update this post as soon as I have more information.
Thank you so much for reading and I'll catch you all soon,
Love, Mai
Other Sources:
Domestika: https://www.domestika.org/en
Trust Pilot: https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/domestika.org
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/923159682678749/?hoisted_section_header_type=recently_seen&multi_permalinks=1043440733983976
So sorry this happened to you. Hope you got a refund.