Kickass is from the Philippines. I'm a US expat living in Hong Kong, and there are *many* Filipinos working in the, er, service industries. Smile on their faces always, but in my experience will screw you over in a heartbeat if they think they can get away with it, ever maintaining that dumb grin that makes you think you're the insane one for even thinking they might. I was exchanging money in Wanchai at a Filipino place (most of it is Filipino cuz its dodgy as hell) and got ripped off to my face... if I didn't make them recount every single penny I would have lost about 15% of the transaction. Three smiling Filipinos, including a middle-aged gentleman with glasses who reminded me of a Filipino Mr. Rogers. On the surface the nicest people you could possibly meet. Total scumbags, and wolves in sheep's clothing. When I figured out what they had done to try and mentally trick me into miscounting my money I almost threw a computer at one of them -- it doubled as an internet cafe where who knows how many scams they were running with the info their users inputted.
Bottom line, don't give her the benefit of the doubt. The fact that so many people in the thread have had bad experiences, well, if you pay money up front then you're a dumbass. Great, reliable designers are cheap and available here. And from what I've seen, her creativity is not competitive, she just adds text. Eek. And 25$ for a logo on here is the upper end of the market.
-2cents of a guy looking for a design, and skeptical immediately from seeing her country of origin, then reading the thread and confirming.