[wenxun]

I just stumbled upon this piece on Business Insider "JustFab Raises $76 Million To Create The H&M Fashion Brand Of The Web". http://www.businessinsider.com/justfab-raises-76-million-to-...

It kept me wonder why a company with very questionable (I will try to avoid using the word "fraudulent") business model was able to raise big money. Didn't the VCs have to do the due diligence?

I didn't have any direct experience with JustFab. The victim was my girlfriend. Back in January or so, one of her friends emailed her a link to JustFab, then she bought a pair of shoes from www.justfab.com and never visit the website again. Only 8 months later, in early September she was appalled to find out that her credit card has been charged a $39.95 fee for the last eight months. Yes, $39.95 for 8 months, without geting anything from JustFab.

I then did a bit research on the internet. It turned out my girlfriend wasn't the only victim. Apparently JustFab works like this: once you buy something from their website, you become their "VIP member". Then you will have to log into their website between the 1st-5th of each month and click “Skip This Month”. If no action is taken (either skip this month, or cancel your account), they just charge you a $39.95 fee every month.

According to the Business insider article, JustFab "will generate about $100 million this year" in sales, I wonder how much of this $100 million are from people like my girlfriend who simply didn't read their entire 2,500 words Terms of Service and were unaware that they were charged $39.95 a month for nothing.

[tisme]

Upvoted, I hope you get some more upvotes because this clearly is fraud or close to it. Some porn sites use this tactic and it should at a minimum cost them their merchant account.

Charge back as far as you can, most banks will do this up to 6 months no questions asked.

Credit card rebilling in a card-not-present situation is one of the few things where a consumer has a bit of power.

[justscam]

I'm sorry for your gf's loss, but from what you have described I don't see anything justfab did wrong here. Next time read the terms first before giving credit card info!

[tisme]

Do you read the terms every time you swipe your card to buy a pair of shoes or a bag in a regular store? Why should it be any different online? If the intention of a consumer is clearly to buy a single item once for a fixed fee then a forced membership buried in the terms of service is not what they expect, and not something they should suspect.

It's a ridiculous stance to blame a consumer for trickery like this.