JustFab’s Checkout Tactics Are JustShady

http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/27/not-so-vip/

by minimaxir • 13 years ago

34 11 13 years ago

techcrunch.com

emperorcezar• 13 years ago

Somebody is gonna get sued.

They are more than shady, they straddle the line over which they become misleading.

bsullivan012• 13 years ago

Absolutely shady. It's a shame we don't have consumer laws or JustFab would have been closed a long time ago. Good thing they raised some money, at least they can afford lawyers for a while.

Another major deception going on is on search engines. All of them. They deceptively designed ads in a way so a lot of people (roughly half http://www.seobook.com/consumer-ad-awareness-search-results ) do not know that they clicked an ad. Imagine seeing a commercial and thinking it was CNN content or reading an article and thinking it as an unbiased one from NYT? If you're buying an item and search for it, the ads do not have your best interests in mind, so this matters a lot. Of course, if you think the result is unbiased you're more likely to buy it. That is fraud, plain and simple and it has been going on for a long time.

benologist2• 13 years ago

This may be the closest thing to journalism TechCrunch has done since AOL took over. It's definitely the first time AOL has impressed me since giving me 30 hours free internet ~16 years ago.

Edit: I hope they have the stones to do a follow-up about the JustFab articles vanishing from HN.

josh2600• 13 years ago

I <3 TechCrunch, but it's true that HackerNews did the Journalism here. Maybe they deserve credit for this scoop, but I don't think so, IMHO of course.

I think AOL impressed me by buying TechCrunch, BTW, and that wasn't 16 years ago.

chasing• 13 years ago

Really? Because it looks like they just picked the best comments from the Hacker News thread on the matter and just stuck them together.

benologist2• 13 years ago

They took a shot at a VC darling, signed up with and without VIP subscriptions, and went through the cancelation process, and didn't sugar coat what JustFab are doing and why they're evil.

That's a lot from a company whose specialty is monitoring RSS feeds, HN, and favored companies' press releases for stuff to reword.

bsullivan012• 13 years ago

This may be the closest thing to journalism TechCrunch has done since AOL took over.

Ummm, they had the chance to investigate on their own and declined to. HN did the heavy work and TechCrunch couldn't ignore the direction their story took https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6455391 . (from "JustFab raises lots of money" into "they are a scam company")"

badclient• 13 years ago

Edit: we are still unsure if the cost of membership is in addition to the cost of the shoes? Would love if someone could clarify. --

Funny enough my sister informed me that she ordered a pair of boots last night. I immediately think of this and ask her if she's heard of JustFab to which she says "how did you know?".

For what it matters, she is a law student and actually took the time to read the TOS(yeah!). She has it all planned and will cancel her subscription Monday.

Also learned from her that if you just make an account and wait for a few days, apparently they let you in for the first month for $20.

My sister felt a bit shitty after I showed her HN's view but at least for her she's getting a good deal. Too bad almost every other customer isn't likely to have the same luck.

vinceguidry• 13 years ago

What I think's going to ultimately stop these sorts of shenanigans is that enough people are going to get wise to it and start exploiting them. We'll be a nation of extreme couponers.

Then it just won't be profitable to try to dupe people anymore.

nutanc• 13 years ago

Just wondering, do they atleast send an email reminder mentioning that you have to select your pair for the month?

That should give an indication to some people to cancel their subscription.

jaredstenquist• 13 years ago

Very disappointing. I'm sure the internal stories of the UI/UX designers and product managers will start coming out soon. I suspect that management had a checkbox for "knowledge of dark patterns" on the job description.

Re: the investors. I wanted to give Josh Hannah of Matrix the benefit of the doubt - many investors have little interest in much besides the revenue and user growth. Unfortunately he decided to speak out about the situation and show he was not only completely aware of this bullshit, but fully supports it.

JustFab’s Checkout Tactics Are JustShady

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