Cher tried to sign up for Kate Hudsons Fabletics: felt I was being conned
I buy fitness clothes online so I often get the ads for Kate Hudson’s Fabletics. I looked into it a while ago and there are so many complaints about how hard it is to cancel, and how difficult it is to get a customer service representative on the phone, that I decided to stay away. Fabletics is a subscription based service which charges you $49.99 every month (unless you remember to opt out) and sends you clothing. You can send back the clothing for store credit, but there are some catches as to how the credit can be used. Some customers say that it was unclear when they first filled out a survey on Fabletics and purchased cheap clothing that they were authorizing the company to charge them monthly. You can only cancel over the phone and many people have said that the service is frustrating and that they have been unfairly charged.
The parent company for Hudson’s Fabletics, JustFab, also owns Fabkids and Shoedazzle. They were ordered to pay a $1.8 million settlement in 2014 for deceptive business practices stemming from signing customers up for their service without properly disclosing the terms.
When singer Cher tried to use Fabletics she went through the sign up service, which includes a quiz indicating your style and clothing preferences, and got the impression that it wasn’t a legitimate sale. She wisely opted out and then tweeted about it, saying that something wasn’t right essentially:
Made mistake of going2 Fabletics.What a pain in the ass.won’t even let u see anything Till u give them ur 1st born‼️Felt I Was Being Conned
— Cher (@cher) July 18, 2016
Well a lot of people agree with her, and with that one tweet she’s hopefully clued in other potential customers about the issues with Fabletics. Business Insider has a great piece about all the issues with Fabletics and JustFab, and they cite the Buzzfeed article I linked above. (There’s also a longer Buzzfeed article about the two founders of JustFab and all the scams they’ve run over the years.) Business Insider reports that Fabletics is trying to make changes by letting customers cancel online, and that they have opened some physical stores. (It’s unclear if buying an item at one of their stores will sign you up for a membership.) There are all sorts of changes planned but it doesn’t sound like they’ve done much. Fabletics issued a statement to Business Insider and it’s all very tongue in cheek:
First of all, we LOVE Cher! So bummed she did not like our member quiz. The introductory quiz helps us better understand our customers and personalize the shopping experience. By asking shoppers for their style and size preferences, we’re able to save our customers tons of money and eliminate waste. We try only produce the clothing that people want. It is true that some people don’t like to shop this way, but there are over 1 million active customers of Fabletics who love it. I wish we could turn back time and explain all this to Cher.
That was funny but dismissive. I thought Kate Hudson was just the face of the brand but she’s actually one of the founders of Fabletics. That just reflects so poorly on her.
Also, people are complaining on Facebook and the fabletics reps are just as blasé there too.
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