Online activewear site scams customers

Josie Chesmore

Athletic wear is morphing from baggy sweatpants and T-shirts to fashionable leggings and colorful tank tops.

Kate Hudson jumped on this fad with a co-founded line of activewear called Fabletics.

The brand is a branch off of another well-known website JustFab, which sells fashionable clothing items and accessories.

Customers on both websites first take a quiz to determine their style. They are then set up with a personalized online boutique to shop from for a set price each month.

JustFab’s price is $39.95; Fabletics’ price is $49.95. The sites also include deals such as buy one, get one free on the first purchase or 50 percent off the first purchase.

Once someone signs up and creates an account, he or she will be charged every month on a certain date.

The customer can decide to pick out clothes to have shipped for free, or they can choose not to purchase anything and can select “Skip the Month” to not be charged.

If neither happens and the customer doesn’t choose anything and doesn’t select “Skip the Month,” he or she will be charged, and the money will go toward credit they can spend or save.

Customers can cancel their subscription any time and stop being charged immediately, or so the websites say.

There has recently been a bout of unhappy customers with the brand. Many people are claiming that Fabletics scammed them and took their money.

There were reports of people selecting the “Skip the Month” option and still getting charged the full amount, even with a confirmation email from the company saying they wouldn’t be charged.

Some people did not even sign up for the VIP account, meaning they just purchased an outfit from the site and didn’t want the deal every month, but somehow found themselves with money being taken from their bank account or charged to their credit card without them knowing or without them choosing any clothing from the site.

Once customers found out about the problem, they quickly contacted customer service and ran into an entirely different issue.

Customer service is meant to help customers and solve any problems.

The Fabletics customer service was apparently a far cry from helpful. When people tried to contact customer service to cancel their accounts or get refunded for charges they didn’t intend to have, they were met with rude responses and accusations of the charges being their fault for not reading the fine print.

Many people were told to call their bank to fix the problem, not the company. There were even statements from people who canceled their VIP membership but were still charged months later.

The site has received low ratings on many review websites, and the number of angry customers continues to grow.

Fabletics isn’t the only website to do this to customers, and it surely won’t be the last.

Be careful when ordering from websites such as Fabletics, and make sure to read the fine print.

Fabletics may be fashionable and co-founded by a well-known actress, but is it really worth losing money in a scam?