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Why can a scam company raise $40 Million Series C + $76 Million Series B?

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Re: Why can a scam company raise $40 Million Series C + $76 Million Series B?

#371

Post by iggym001 »

DrJokepu wrote: post #287
cs702 wrote: post #278

JustFab is not a 'scam company' (in the sense that they may not be doing anything technically illegal), but they are using DARK DESIGN PATTERNS[1] to trick at least some people into doing things they don't want to do. The checkout page[2], in particular, seems designed specifically to trick people into signing up for recurring monthly charges. Any person who adds merchandise to the cart and then clicks the big 'Conti…

No, seriously, if your business model is based on tricking people into paying for something they don’t want and didn’t realize they’re getting charged for (no meeting of the minds), your company is a scam company. It’s simple as that.

exactly, a business model that tricks customers is not a business model, it is a scam and fraudulent

Re: Why can a scam company raise $40 Million Series C + $76 Million Series B?

#372

Post by mring33621 »

avalaunch wrote: post #69
jdh wrote: post #23

I'm the Series A investor in this company. We in fact have done plenty of due diligence, and you will be pleased to know it is not a scam company. In fact, the company has very high customer satisfaction ratings, including an NPS that is in the ballpark of Amazon, and a very high customer retention rate. More than half of the people who subscribe to the service are still subscribers after two years, which is unusuall…

The other commenters are being too nice in their replies. You're full of shit. JustFab is a shoe of the month club masquerading as a normal online shoe store. The VIP Membership Program is the essence of JustFab's business model and yet it's missing entirely from the home page of their site. It looks like any other shoe store. And yet you think it's clear that the user is being signed up for a shoe of the month membe…

Agreed. This 'investor' is full of shit. Per their own screen capture, there is no line item for 'VIP membership' in the cart section of the page. As such, it reasonably appears that the customer is buying no such thing. But, in fact, they are!

The presence of the sidebar is irrelevant, as it is in no way visually associated with the current transaction.

Re: Why can a scam company raise $40 Million Series C + $76 Million Series B?

#373

Post by aestra »

tzs wrote: post #226

Interesting that I don't see these kind of complaints at this level about book clubs. The most popular book clubs all use a negative response model, where when you sign up you get a certain number of books at a great price, and agree to buy a certain number of additional books at the regular club price. They send you a monthly list of books available that month, with one marked as that month's featured selection. If…

On the front page it say

"5 books for $1 each with membership"

I think that makes it clear this isn't a one off purchase.

Re: Why can a scam company raise $40 Million Series C + $76 Million Series B?

#374

Post by aqme28 »

nugget wrote: post #184
abalone wrote: post #154

Every single person who has been misled into signing up for a recurring charge should do this one thing: Dispute the charge with their credit card company. You'll get your money back and it will issue a bunch of chargebacks to JustFab, which will penalize them financially. If enough people complain their penalties will escalate and their credit card processing rates will go through the roof. This is how the credit ca…

You can also file an action against them in your local small claims court. Depending on where you live, it takes about 30 minutes to fill out the form and costs around $25 in filing fees. Most likely the company will not respond to your complaint, and you will receive a judgment for all of the money you paid them. Assuming they don't go bankrupt, they will eventually pay you and satisfy the judgment. I did this again…

Why? A chargeback is basically an automation of that process, with the full backing of your credit card company.

Re: Why can a scam company raise $40 Million Series C + $76 Million Series B?

#375

Post by skizm »

avalaunch wrote: post #69
jdh wrote: post #23

I'm the Series A investor in this company. We in fact have done plenty of due diligence, and you will be pleased to know it is not a scam company. In fact, the company has very high customer satisfaction ratings, including an NPS that is in the ballpark of Amazon, and a very high customer retention rate. More than half of the people who subscribe to the service are still subscribers after two years, which is unusuall…

The other commenters are being too nice in their replies. You're full of shit. JustFab is a shoe of the month club masquerading as a normal online shoe store. The VIP Membership Program is the essence of JustFab's business model and yet it's missing entirely from the home page of their site. It looks like any other shoe store. And yet you think it's clear that the user is being signed up for a shoe of the month membe…

If investors get a good ROI all legally they might be horrible people but not horrible investors.

Re: Why can a scam company raise $40 Million Series C + $76 Million Series B?

#376

Post by alexsilver »

drstewart wrote: post #297
kilburn wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rule in my book is pretty simple: opt-in is perfectly fine, opt-out is shady at best, and morally wrong. This applies to every service and/or subscription, from mailing lists to purchases. This case is a clear "opt-out" case. If their offer is good enough, they could just explain why properly and people would opt-in. If they need to resort to this kind of tricks to get people enrolled, their offer is not so good…

So you consider Netflix to be a shady and immoral business?

Netflix makes it pretty obvious that you're signing up for a monthly subscription. It is also a pretty well-known fact about their business model so it's much harder to be "duped" into it.

Re: Why can a scam company raise $40 Million Series C + $76 Million Series B?

#378

Post by bradleyjg »

jonnathanson wrote: post #323
revelation wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A law has actually been passed in Germany to curtail these 'subscription services': https://blog.avast.com/2012/04/17/here-comes-the-zahlungspfl...

Correct, and indeed, this business model is nothing new or unusual in the EU in general, or in Germany in particular. Back in the early, pre-smartphone days of mobile, a lot of European companies made fortunes by selling ringtones through a misleading subscription model similar to JustFab's. Their success soon led to a lot of imitators in the US market. Remember those "Text 53646 to this number to get your NSync ring…

Pre-internet, or at least widespread internet, there was a similar scam with music tapes, perhaps records even before that. The first month's selections would be free but for shipping, after that they would send you a bunch every month if they didn't hear from you — and a hefty bill.

Re: Why can a scam company raise $40 Million Series C + $76 Million Series B?

#379

Post by thegna »

bradleyjg wrote: post #378
jonnathanson wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct, and indeed, this business model is nothing new or unusual in the EU in general, or in Germany in particular. Back in the early, pre-smartphone days of mobile, a lot of European companies made fortunes by selling ringtones through a misleading subscription model similar to JustFab's. Their success soon led to a lot of imitators in the US market. Remember those "Text 53646 to this number to get your NSync ring…

Pre-internet, or at least widespread internet, there was a similar scam with music tapes, perhaps records even before that. The first month's selections would be free but for shipping, after that they would send you a bunch every month if they didn't hear from you — and a hefty bill.

One major difference: JustFab doesn't send you anything, they give you "credits" which can be used for future purchase but most likely got un-noticed and un-used.

Re: Why can a scam company raise $40 Million Series C + $76 Million Series B?

#380

Post by aestra »

belorn wrote: post #130
avalaunch wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other commenters are being too nice in their replies. You're full of shit. JustFab is a shoe of the month club masquerading as a normal online shoe store. The VIP Membership Program is the essence of JustFab's business model and yet it's missing entirely from the home page of their site. It looks like any other shoe store. And yet you think it's clear that the user is being signed up for a shoe of the month membe…

> When a user goes to checkout of any online store, they're not going to read everything on every page. It's a process they're very familiar with so they're going to skim and click through quickly. I know this, you know this, and JustFab knows this. This is the key point. If I know, you know, and JustFab know, then JustFab is without doubt acting in deceitful behavior. The act of deliberately portraying a subscriptio…

I argue the term "VIP membership" is in itself deceitful on purpose. A VIP membership means nothing, and certainly doesn't mean "subscriber."

"I have a subscription to Wired magazine."

"I have a VIP membership to JustFab."

One the meaning is obvious, the other is meaningless without context.

When you sign up for a site, and create an account, you can be considered a member. I am a member of Hacker News. The VIP is just a potentially meaningless quantifier, some sites like to say "our members our very important people to us."

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