Fabletics: a company with probably the worst reviews ever.

kendo1

kendo1

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It came to my attention today, after a tearful phone call from my daughter, that Fabletics has been taking money from her bank account every month since Christmas.
She is at university and trying to stay on a limited budget of about £50 a month.
Imagine what she felt like when she checked her account today and found she had £11 left for the rest of the month. She had been wondering why she had so little money to live on recently and had asked for more help from my wife and I.
It seems they sign you up automatically if you buy anything from them.
My daughter bought a Christmas present for a friend and assumed it was like buying from Next or John Lewis...
Not so. They sign you up without you knowing to their 'VIP' service, buried at the end of their terms and conditions.
It's one of those arrangements that you can't get your bank to cancel- the company have to cancel it.
So, first order of business is to cancel her bank card and get a replacement.
If I am going to buy on-line I would check reviews of the site, such as this LINKY .
Unfortunately, my daughter did not.
I will be getting in touch with Trading Standards and Citizen's Advice this week about them.
I have been in touch with Dom Littlewood at the BBC and started a Facebook page about the scam.

Edit, BTW they have a Facebook page.
 
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Gotta be suspicious of the one good review.

Good luck with pursuing them and don't give up.
 
woof woof said:
Gotta be suspicious of the one good review.
.
Click to expand...

yep obvious shill is obvious

on the OP good luck kicking their arse - it is slightly worrying that yur daiughter didnt realise they were charging her... she needs to be checking her statements etc,
 
I hate companies like this. Oh... I'm sure it's legal, just totally immoral.
The only way to deal with them is to spread the word so that no-one will buy anything from them. It won't happen of course. Best of luck with trading standards and so on, but probably the most effective weapon is social networks nowadays!
 
terrible way to conduct business hopefully your daughter will be able to get something sorted although it does clearly state the T&Cs on the main page of the website but even so its still a cheeky and horrible way to do business.

maybe try posting on Martin Lewis site see if anyone knows how to go about sorting it, or fire an email off to Watchdog??
 
Good luck getting the word out (y)

Terms like that just shouldn't be allowed! :mad:

No doubt they'll have raked in a fortune before anything is done, but hopefully more folk will become aware.
 
While it's a sneaky way to do business there is some personal responsibility needed, they don't hide the way they do business (if I have the correct company) and it's fair to say your daughter must have gone through the sign up and purchase pages with her eyes closed and not read any of what is written.

http://www.fabletics.co.uk

This is prominent on the home page:

VIP MEMBER CREDITS
  1. If you don’t shop or "Skip the Month" by the 5th, your credit card will be charged £44 on the 6th until you cancel. That charge can be used as a credit to spend or save.
Click to expand...

Clicking on the VIP membership tag it says:

As you make your first purchase, you'll have the option to enrol in our free VIP Membership programme. As a VIP, you'll receive:

• Complete Outfits starting from £44 - more than 30% off retail
• 20% off all individual items
• Reward Points for every purchase, friend referral or product review
• Free delivery on orders £44 & over
• Easy returns and exchanges. If the clothes fit, great! If not, simply exchange or return your order
• Monthly personalised picks curated by fitness stylists just for you
Click to expand...

It's also prominently shown when you click to put an item in the basket.

VIP Membership Programme
With this purchase, you are activating your VIP Membership.
How VIP Membership Works
  • Receive Personalised Outfits on the 1st
    On the first day of each month, our stylists will send you handpicked new outfits for your shopping pleasure.

  • Review your Outfits by the 5th
    Log in to your account and browse your outfits by the 5th then buy your favourite style(s).

  • Skip any month, No obligation to buy
    If you're not ready to make a purchase, simply skip the month by the 5th and you will not be charged. Skip as many months as you like. If you do not take action by the 5th, you will be charged £44.00 on the 6th. This accumulating balance can be used to shop whenever you like.


    No thanks, I don't want to save up to 40%
Checkout as a Regular member
Click to expand...

it might be a good time to remind your daughter that no matter what she is buying online (and in person) it's always best to read and understand exactly what she is signing up to. I've seen far more devious schemes in the past, to be fair to this retailer, they are upfront about it.
 
Dave1 said:
While it's a sneaky way to do business there is some personal responsibility needed, they don't hide the way they do business (if I have the correct company) and it's fair to say your daughter must have gone through the sign up and purchase pages with her eyes closed and not read any of what is written.

http://www.fabletics.co.uk

This is prominent on the home page:



Clicking on the VIP membership tag it says:



It's also prominently shown when you click to put an item in the basket.



it might be a good time to remind your daughter that no matter what she is buying online (and in person) it's always best to read and understand exactly what she is signing up to. I've seen far more devious schemes in the past, to be fair to this retailer, they are upfront about it.
Click to expand...
From looking at the site today I wouldn't buy from them.
But as I said, she was just buying a present at Christmas and put in her bank card number.
She was probably on autopilot to be honest, as I said -thinking along the lines of how John Lewis do business: put in your number, press 'next' to get to checkout and the goods are delivered.
I still reckon the way they do business is underhand.
Why do they make it so difficult to refund money? Why do they use a premium rate phone number for complaints/enquiries? Why do they have so many negative reviews? Why do they hide customer complaints on their twitter feed?
 
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They'll also delete negative comments on their f-book site too I guess.
 
kendo1 said:
I still reckon the way they do business is underhand.
Why do they make it so difficult to refund money? Why do they use a premium rate phone number for complaints/enquiries? Why do they have so many negative reviews? Why do they hide customer complaints on their twitter feed?
Click to expand...

Their entire method of business relies on non attentive people, and they are bound to make it as difficult as possible to sort this sort of issue, hoping people will just cancel and chalk the loss up to experience.

Hopefully your daughter has actually cancelled now? They will be taking another £44 soon if she hasn't...
 
Had a quick look, you can report to them to Trading Standards for using an 084x number for Customer Services.

Also post the company details onto the Which website for them to follow up.

Advice from Which is:

Talk to the Citizen’s Advice national Consumer Helpline on 0345 404 0506. They can pass your complaint on to the relevant Trading Standards department. You are also entitled to reclaim any excess call costs incurred.
Click to expand...

http://conversation.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/costly-calls-expensive-premium-rate-numbers-084-087/
 
Dave1 said:
Their entire method of business relies on non attentive people, and they are bound to make it as difficult as possible to sort this sort of issue, hoping people will just cancel and chalk the loss up to experience.

Hopefully your daughter has actually cancelled now? They will be taking another £44 soon if she hasn't...
Click to expand...
They just took a payment for this month.
Yes, she should have checked her account more frequently. She only did so when she realised she had no money.
But she is at university with other things on her mind- studying and exams for a start.
She is on the Fencing Club's committee- arranging tournaments in this country and abroad. She is in the Scottish Student team fencing in Ireland in a month or twos time.
She is arranging her coursework for her transfer year in Wyoming, as well as travel, visa, finance and accommodation.
 
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She did sign up...albeit inadvertantly, but yes it's a sneaky old way of going about business.
Good luck getting restitution.
 
Thanks for that, Dave, re Which etc (I don't know if the website looked the same in December re your first post)
And thanks to everyone else.
Hindsight is great, as is experience.
...and not pressing the 'next' button!
 
I hope she enjoys her transfer year as immensely as I did!
 
kendo1 said:
Thanks for that, Dave, re Which etc (I don't know if the website looked the same in December re your first post)
And thanks to everyone else.
Hindsight is great, as is experience.
...and not pressing the 'next' button!
Click to expand...

I know, I wasn't trying to defend the company or denigrate your daughter, just trying to be devils advocate to try and put things a little more into perspective, I know how angry these devious sales methods can make people, getting angry usually hurts your case more than it helps in the long run ;).
 
While the company do make it clear how they are going to operate this method is a new one to me and I think most people would not expect it. Until your daughter can get it stopped she could set a reminder in her 'phone/laptop/tablet for the 1st of every month so she can choose the 'Skip' option. If there is the ability to save or print the screen that shows you have skipped it would be useful to keep, just in case there is any dispute about if a month was skipped.

A good reminder to us all to be careful out there.

I don't know if it will make any difference to the outcome but the registrant's address is in California.


Dave
 
Their way of selling is horrible, it really does rely on the user not paying 100% attention. What I don't get is, Amazon has been trashed recently for charging people for prime after their trial period ends because they didn't cancel, despite them fully refunding if you cancel after payments taken.
But these guys seem to get away with making it awkward to get a refund for those who made a mistake of not reading everything (As like you said, they presume its something like John Lewis not something trying to bill you for "VIP")

My brother would be caught out by something like this, as he cannot read. He can fill in order forms etc but soon as something different like this appears he wouldn't pick it up.

kendo1 said:
They just took a payment for this month.
Yes, she should have checked her account more frequently. She only did so when she realised she had no money.
But she is at university with other things on her mind- studying and exams for a start.
She is on the Fencing Club's committee- arranging tournaments in this country and abroad. She is in the Scottish Student team fencing in Ireland in a month or twos time.
She is arranging her coursework for her transfer year in Wyoming, as well as travel, visa, finance and accommodation.
Click to expand...

Maybe you could suggest she tries using one of the online banking apps on her phone? Some are really quite good and much quicker than having to go on the PC to login. Might help her as she can check it when she has a minute spare on the bus or something.

There's also some good finance apps out there, a quick Google bought up some with the ability to link to a bank account so it can automatically import transactions. Two of which are "Level Money" and "Venmo". They have some good reviews so maybe she could try them or something similar.
 
Thanks for that, Alison. I'll let her know.
 
How did your daughter get on, Ken?
Did you get anywhere with f-book?

They had a TV ad on early this eve.
 
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