Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

291–300 of 480 posts

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

#291
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…

So, Mr. Investor, you believe that this is normal, acceptable business practice, and you can't imagine why anybody would put a stop to these guys.

And I bet you wonder why VCs get a bad name!

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

#292
post #180

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…

I suppose it isn't exactly Blue Hippo, but they'd have to be pretty obtuse not to know that it is misleading, regardless of whether it is the old or new version of the page.[1][2] Take for example item number three shared by both in the side bar: "Skip The Month" or "Skip any month". This isn't the usual lowercase English word "skip", it is a special "Skip", short for special terminology "Skip the Month", their offic…

woah! are the yusing the "i accept the terms" checkbox to ask if the user wants subscription? NO WAY! How much more deceitful can you get? What frequent user of the internet would even stop to consider that this is NOT the usaul "i accept" but a SPECIAL one?

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

#293
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…

What a mother fucker. Go to hell.

EDIT: haha founder of betfair and eHow. Delicious.

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

#294
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…

This comment is a perfect example of how people who are involved in evil business practices justify it to themselves.

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

#295
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.

[deleted]

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

#296
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…

JustFab is not a scam company...but they are using DARK DESIGN PATTERNS

So...they are a scam company? Just because you can try to apply different terms to describe their business, doesn't mean they aren't operating mainly to scam people out of their money.

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

#297
post #92
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 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?

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

#298
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…

If I went to your site, I would see all of that text, choose NOT to read it and then choose NOT to purchase the shoes. Because I would recognize that there was something hinky and I would not want to expend the mental energy to figure out what it is. And I would NOT return to you site or recommend it to anyone else.

I buy running shoes from an online retailer that also provides a VIP membership. And it can be clearly understood in 5-10 seconds. And you have to opt-IN to the membership and opt_IN to auto-renewal of the charge. And guess what?? It's 1.99 per YEAR - clearly not a great source of income to the company. And my discount is considerably more than 1.99. (I guess they just don't want me to check out as a guest.)

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

#299
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So 800k out of 1m (according to your numbers) manage to avoid the subscription fee. Remaining users: 200K * $39 / month in revenue. So $8 million / month of recurring revenue through this programme. I wonder how the margin on that compares to the rest of the business ;)

JustFab "generate about $100 million this year" in sales funny that 8 * 12 = 96 which is close enough.

Wow...

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

#300
post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

That's why you should use a credit card and not a debit card for online purchases. If you dispute the charge, it's their money instead of yours that they're recovering.

Precisely. But I'm thinking that the OP's GF, being a foreigner, probably did not have an American CC (no credit history etcetc), so for people like her, there is just no choice....
Post reply on HN