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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?

#241

Post by PeterisP »

halviti wrote: post #163
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…

Except for there is a time window for these sorts of things. His girlfriend isn't going to be able to dispute charges that are 8-months old.

For most cases, 8 months are out of scope, but his girlfriend should be able to successfully dispute the last 3-6 month bills anyway.

In some places, like EU direct debit legislation, the maximum time window for such disputes is 12 months after you receive that invoice/bill, so ~13 months in effect.

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

#242

Post by Jare »

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…

> More than half of the people who subscribe to the service are still subscribers after two years

In the context of the original poster's story, this reply only reinforces the idea that JustFab is scamming many many thousands of people and not just the odd person here and there.

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

#243

Post by AlexDanger »

downandout wrote: post #178
halviti wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except for there is a time window for these sorts of things. His girlfriend isn't going to be able to dispute charges that are 8-months old.

The window is usually 180 days, and some of the more lenient credit card companies will go back even further depending on the circumstances. She can easily get back 6 of the 8 monthly charges. A simple way to avoid issues like this is to always generate a virtual card for each purchase, and then turn the virtual card off the moment the transaction is completed. You can do this through Netspend prepaid cards - you jus…

Virtual card number? Never heard of this before. Sounds useful. Is this something unique to Netspend? Can you do it via Paypal or something if you're outside the US? I wouldnt need a physical card if I can link such functionality to my (verified) Paypal account.

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

#244

Post by crag »

babuskov wrote: post #222
personalcompute wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, when you agree to the terms of service, you conveniently waive the right to participate in a class-action lawsuit. Source: http://www.justfab.com/index.cfm?action=home.terms_and_condi...

No, actually, that never holds in court.

These types of "agreements" are never intended to be heard in court. They're to scare the average user. Sort of like what patent trolls do (try) to victims who choose to fight.

This is how low down this company is. At the level of patent trolls. Disgusting.

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

#245

Post by akrymski »

Just Wow, what a clever scam. Hardest thing must have been getting a merchant account for this - does anyone know who provides them with a merchant account / credit card processing? And how do they manage to tolerate the chargeback rate without being shut down by Visa etc?

Lots of these operations around, but usually remain small due to credit card companies shutting them down quickly. JustFab has been around for a couple of years. How did they manage to stay under the radar of credit card companies? And/or keep their chargebacks under the limit?

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

#246

Post by crag »

bausson wrote: post #145
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…

Seeing the comments, I wonder if the only person he was trying to convince was himself. From what I see in his comment, it looks quite like a rationalization attempt.

This "inventor" wouldn't be the first in line to place profits above people. Most VC's I know don't give two shits about the human elements.

Yeah I know, it's sad.

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

#247

Post by shiven »

It is because of websites like these, I love my credit card's Virtual Account Number generator. It gives me a new CC number every time, with 'Dollar amount' and 'Valid until' limits. I always use a new number to sign up for all sorts of 'trials' etc. Never ran into problems with zombie billing.

That said, scammy company is very scammy!

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

#248

Post by makomk »

logn wrote: post #169
halviti wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except for there is a time window for these sorts of things. His girlfriend isn't going to be able to dispute charges that are 8-months old.

Then also file a complaint with the attorney general of a state in the US and the Better Business Bureau. Also write an honest Yelp review (make it fair and truthful but not slanted as you don't want to be sued over libel). All of those things matter a lot to businesses, in addition to their standing with credit card companies and banks.

The BBB are close to a scam themselves, but it might be worth contacting the FTC - they tend to show an interest in this kind of thing and can lay down some serious financial hurt themselves.

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

#250

Post by adrianhon »

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…

You don't see these kinds of complaints because the book clubs have far fewer customers and aren't raising $100+ million. The SFBC is very poor; I spent a couple of minutes looking for how much you might pay each month, to no avail.
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