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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?

#131

Post by annnnd »

grey-area wrote: post #103
jdh wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't accept the word "misleading" -- I do not believe the page in any way misleads. It does not try to position it as anything other than a subscription, and the language is plain english. Could they put the subscription details in bold? Could they use a larger font than all the other text? Sure. It's a tradeoff, for sure, and every retailer has to optimize their site to perform. Could they pop up three boxes afte…

You shouldn't have been downvoted here, but the mob has been angered! I'd encourage you to ignore the insults and consider carefully the other feedback - there are some good points made here by people coming to the pages for the first time. Re your point above, What they could do which is very simple is to change the button text to 'Subscribe'. If you'd be reluctant to do that, ask yourself why that is? Why can't you…

The German site is a nice example how it should be done! Kudos!

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

#132

Post by perlgeek »

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 mere fact that the costs for VIP membership are not listed in the same box as the other prices you pay sets off my internal fraud detector.

If you really don't want them to look like scammers, make sure they include the monthly price right there.

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

#133

Post by bumbledraven »

mmvvaa wrote: post #105
jdh wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh for god's sakes, did you even look at the site you just linked to? A site that gathers negative reviews to get companies to pay them> Did you read Amazon's review -- 1 out of 5 stars with 690 reviews, worse than JustFab's? http://www.consumeraffairs.com/online/amazon.html I'm sure you'll enjoy 1SaleADay, with 5000 reviews and a 4 star rating! http://www.consumeraffairs.com/online/1saleaday.html

Are you really going to try to keep repeating yourself in an attempt to compare this shady business to amazon? Amazon is in it for the very long run (they just turned a profit this year). Good luck trying to continue to dance this song to the tune of amazon. It won't last. It is likely a legal practice, and your background might blind you into believing that unintended actions by well-meaning consumers is a perfectly…

The point is that the ratings on consumeraffairs alone are meaningless as a criticism of JustFab, given that they rank Amazon so low and 1SaleADay so high.

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

#134

Post by ttctciyf »

drakaal wrote: post #3

Most of you are too young to remember, "Buy now and we'll send you CD's each month for just $9.95 per month, keep only the ones you want, cancel anytime" This is the same thing. It may feel scuzzy, but they do tell you this up front, and while they hope you forget, it isn't a scam, it is just preying on the uninformed.

"It isn't a scam, it is just preying on the uninformed" - a bit oxymoronic, no?

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

#135

Post by testing12341234 »

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…

Absolutely agree with this comment. Here's the impression that I see at a "first glance" that page:

1.) The item to purchase, along with the price of the item. 2.) A bright magenta "Continue Checkout" button. 3.) An ad for an upsell on the right hand side which I'm generally not interested in. (on the right side, light grey text, etc)

Only after carefully scanning the page do I notice the following:

3.) This isn't an ad, it's actually something important for me to read. 4.) There is a tiny magenta link on the right hand side with explanation text that says to click it if I don't want to save 50%. 5.) Way down at the bottom of the page is text.

So I went ahead and did try it out myself. I borrowed a friend's laptop (that doesn't have a developer-level screen resolution). The screen resolution was 1333 x 768 and FF is maximized there. Here is what it looked like http://imgur.com/9rHhhLV

What's missing from that page, is all of the important information about the VIP program. What is present is the price of the item, the quantity and a magenta "Continue Checkout" button.

I'm definitely calling "Dark Pattern" on this one. Hiding important text off the screen, coloring the important text a light grey, even when the text is visible it is far down the right side in a small font.

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

#136

Post by mruniverse »

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…

I'm happy you're an investor and I hope you get everything you deserve.

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

#137

Post by bumbledraven »

jaap_w wrote: post #47
jdh wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've posted this comment three times, and I won't reply on every thread, but let's be clear: these "review" sites are shady operations that extort retailers by aggregating negative reviews and charging to hide them. Amazon's review is worse than JustFab's on the same site: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/online/amazon.html You can Google a lot of e-commerce sites with the word "fraud" or "scam" and find a lot of neg…

That's true, but that doesn't mean that JustFab's businessmethods are not a scam. See the discussion above about not including the Vip-membership in the checkout-flow.

Let's stick to sound reasoning here. Whatever problems JustFab may have, since consumeraffairs ranks amazon at 1 star and 1saleaday at 4 stars, its ratings have no bearing whatsoever on actual consumer satisfaction with JustFab.

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

#139

Post by agilebyte »

neya wrote: post #85
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…

At first, I disagreed with your tone and profanity. But now, after trying to checkout on that site myself, I realize that it's fair to treat people who knowingly aid scammers, this way. Especially when they are the ones who fund them. It's not like they are innocent little babies, right? They (the company and the investors) know obviously why the conversion rates are so high - Because they are very subtle-y scamming…

Exactly. I think one of the failures of the current system is that we assume that people are rational. We are not and marketing makes ample use of it.

The company is not providing a better product (shoes) or a better customer experience & support. They are not making the world a better place. Their business model is to make most of human weaknesses. To me, that is not morally right.

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

#140

Post by cabalamat »

neya wrote: post #85
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…

At first, I disagreed with your tone and profanity. But now, after trying to checkout on that site myself, I realize that it's fair to treat people who knowingly aid scammers, this way. Especially when they are the ones who fund them. It's not like they are innocent little babies, right? They (the company and the investors) know obviously why the conversion rates are so high - Because they are very subtle-y scamming…

> They (the company and the investors) know obviously why the conversion rates are so high - Because they are very subtle-y scamming people.

Indeed. This website could be used as an example on http://darkpatterns.org/

UPDATE: I have emailed Dark Patterns, I hope they feature it on their site.

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