Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–260 of 480 posts

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

#251

Post by notacoward »

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…

With a book club, you receive something of at least nominal value each month, which also serves as a clear reminder of your ongoing relationship with them. The "club" in the name is also a not-so-subtle cue. JustFab has none of these aspects. No cues, no hints, no reminders, nothing of value unless/until you go there again or check your credit card bill. You might think that's a trivial difference, but I think it's enough to explain the different reactions.

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

#252

Post by _delirium »

Erwin wrote: post #165

In DK (possibly EU) we have laws that mandate the actual total minimum cost to be prominently shown when you buy something and companies are regularly fined by the marketing board for misleading information there. So if you buy a $1 cell phone, but it requires you to sign up for a 12-month $50/plan and oh, there's also several $5/month fees in small print -- then that's the total minimum cost you pay must be shown Fo…

While that helps in a lot of cases, I don't think it would here: the minimum cost is not any higher than the one pair of shoes, because there's no required contract period, and you can cancel immediately. The scammy part is that this isn't made particularly clear at all, and so people end up unwittingly paying for months of a subscription before they realize and cancel.

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

#253

Post by bitJericho »

ghshephard wrote: post #228
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…

Totally not the case that you get your money back, at least with WellsFargo Visa, they will investigate to determine whether your card was used by some other party. Saying, "I didn't read the terms of the agreement" is not grounds for a chargeback. What's worse is when you've signed up for a One year recurring payment and you have to jump through hoops to cancel such as a registered letter to cancel. Wells fargo will…

And that's why you shouldn't bank at Wells Fargo.

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

#254

Post by logn »

stephengillie wrote: post #235
logn wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Those won't matter to scam business, especially since the BBB itself is a scam, and most yelp reviews are fake.

Although I think the BBB is not a scam, there are still many other routes to take. There's always a potential for a class-action law suit. Some law firms specialize in that and work cases only taking money from any final winnings in court.

And the attorneys general are usually happy to hear any complaints. While there's often not immediate results or consequences, having made an official complaint helps those who are seeking to apply some rule of law via the justice system.

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

#255

Post by jasonkester »

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…

Sounds like you have a simple solution:

Offer complete refunds of all paid subscription fees to anybody who asks for one. No questions asked. Single button, right from your "My Account" page. Refund all 8 months of those charges in one shot.

If you're correct, and it's just a tiny fraction of a percent of your userbase who neglected to read that six paragraph sidebar disguised as an ignorable upsell ad, then chances are nobody will ever ask for this refund and you guys will all be good to go. You can even offer it only to people who have never bought a second item, thus limiting it only to those few silly folks who put themselves in this boat through their own foolishness.

No harm right, since as you say, your guys are on the up and up.

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

#256

Post by xmodem »

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 was with you right up until i looked at the screenshot. It looks like it has been very carefully laid out and A/B tested to optimize for the maximum number of signups, not for making sure users know what they're signing up for.

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

#257

Post by Semaphor »

Tichy wrote: post #216
noptic wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We can not know this from the screenshoot alone. The membership itself is mentioned. Maybe the fee is mentioned on a other screen. As far as i renember it is not really "illegal",but the contract is invalid.

I think the law in Germany is very specific in how obvious it has to be what is being purchased and what it costs. Some mention somewhere in the fine print is certainly not enough. I've heard they even specify texts for the buttons, it has to be something like "buy now" to make it clear that the action will lead to costs.

I didn't check what followed, they might well have mentioned the specifics clearly on a follow up page. My point was simply that this is already far clearer than the scammy .com site.

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

#258

Post by dustinchilson »

AlexDanger wrote: post #243
downandout wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

PayPal does it too. The screens to create the cards are just hard to get to.

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

#259

Post by znt »

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…

Thanks for being upfront about your affiliation with a shady business practice, this way startup founders can skip you right away when they look for credible investors.

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

#260

Post by [deleted] »

AlexDanger wrote: post #243
downandout wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[deleted]
Post reply on HN