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Every single person who has been misled into signing up for a recurring charge should do this one thing: Dispute the charge with their credit card company. Yo

by abalone 13y ago

Every single person who has been misled into signing up for a recurring charge should do this one thing: Dispute the charge with their credit card company. You'll get your money back and it will issue a bunch of chargebacks to JustFab, which will penalize them financially. If enough people complain their penalties will escalate and their credit card processing rates will go through the roof. This is how the credit card system weeds out crappy businesses like this. Unfortunately the very people who this model is designed to exploit are the least likely to know about their consumer protections.

halviti 13y ago
Except for there is a time window for these sorts of things. His girlfriend isn't going to be able to dispute charges that are 8-months old.
- logn 13y ago
  Then also file a complaint with the attorney general of a state in the US and the Better Business Bureau. Also write an honest Yelp review (make it fair and truthful but not slanted as you don't want to be sued over libel). All of those things matter a lot to businesses, in addition to their standing with credit card companies and banks.
  - stephengillie 13y ago
    Those won't matter to scam business, especially since the BBB itself is a scam, and most yelp reviews are fake.
    - logn 13y ago
      Although I think the BBB is not a scam, there are still many other routes to take. There's always a potential for a class-action law suit. Some law firms specialize in that and work cases only taking money from any final winnings in court. And the attorneys general are usually happy to hear any complaints. While there's often not immediate results or consequences, having made an official complaint helps those who are seeking to apply some rule of law via the justice system.
      - aestra 13y ago
        The BBB sells its A ratings. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo8kfV9kONw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo8kfV9kONw Watch the video.
      - unclebucknasty 13y ago
        The BBB is the very definition of the word scam. More specifically, extortion.
  - makomk 13y ago
    The BBB are close to a scam themselves, but it might be worth contacting the FTC - they tend to show an interest in this kind of thing and can lay down some serious financial hurt themselves.
- downandout 13y ago
  The window is usually 180 days, and some of the more lenient credit card companies will go back even further depending on the circumstances. She can easily get back 6 of the 8 monthly charges. A simple way to avoid issues like this is to always generate a virtual card for each purchase, and then turn the virtual card off the moment the transaction is completed. You can do this through Netspend prepaid cards - you just open their site in another tab, generate a card with two clicks and turn it off with another two clicks. It costs nothing and the whole process adds about 1 minute to your purchase. I do this for every "free" trial I take on - if I like the service, then I will consciously make the decision to change the billing to a real card. No one gets to make that decision for me.
  - crag 13y ago
    That's a lot of work to buy a pair of shoes. Not to mention, I never heard of Netspend (until now). And I spend most of my day on the net. You expect folks who don't to know? It shouldn't be this way. Buyer beware is one thing. But one shouldn't have to watch their back to buy a pair of shoes. What this company is doing is low down. By the way, thanks for the tip. I'm looking at Netspend right now.
  - AlexDanger 13y ago
    Virtual card number? Never heard of this before. Sounds useful. Is this something unique to Netspend? Can you do it via Paypal or something if you're outside the US? I wouldnt need a physical card if I can link such functionality to my (verified) Paypal account.
    - danielweber 13y ago
      Many (not all) credit card vendors offer virtual account numbers.
    - dustinchilson 13y ago
      PayPal does it too. The screens to create the cards are just hard to get to.
    - deleted 13y ago
- abalone 13y ago
  It may be possible.. I've gotten refunds going back that far. But definitely the more recent months will get refunded. And that's enough to put some financial hurt on JustFab, as there are additional penalties they pay with each chargeback.
- maaaats 13y ago
  Well, in my country the credit card company's police on time window isn't very relevant. If there is a scam involved, it becomes a legal matter and for that the time window is years.
- PeterisP 13y ago
  For most cases, 8 months are out of scope, but his girlfriend should be able to successfully dispute the last 3-6 month bills anyway. In some places, like EU direct debit legislation, the maximum time window for such disputes is 12 months after you receive that invoice/bill, so ~13 months in effect.
- darkarmani 13y ago
  That is the time window for chargebacks, but not for small claims court.
nugget 13y ago
You can also file an action against them in your local small claims court. Depending on where you live, it takes about 30 minutes to fill out the form and costs around $25 in filing fees. Most likely the company will not respond to your complaint, and you will receive a judgment for all of the money you paid them. Assuming they don't go bankrupt, they will eventually pay you and satisfy the judgment. I did this against similar scams like Video Professor in the early Facebook era and it worked surprisingly well for 2 years worth of scam rebills to which I had been completely oblivious.
- jtbigwoo 13y ago
  >> Assuming they don't go bankrupt, they will eventually pay you and satisfy the judgment. Let's be honest, though. It's 80% certain that they're going to go bankrupt. They're clearly not building a company to last. Your best hope would be to get your money back before bankrupcy proceedings start.
- aqme28 13y ago
  Why? A chargeback is basically an automation of that process, with the full backing of your credit card company.
  - legitsource 13y ago
    If corporations are going to run the system, you might as well get some benefit from having a large one go to bat for you when you can.
ghshephard 13y ago
Totally not the case that you get your money back, at least with WellsFargo Visa, they will investigate to determine whether your card was used by some other party. Saying, "I didn't read the terms of the agreement" is not grounds for a chargeback. What's worse is when you've signed up for a One year recurring payment and you have to jump through hoops to cancel such as a registered letter to cancel. Wells fargo will refuse to cancel for you, saying it is between you and the vendor. Further to that, you can't even cancel your credit card, as Wells Fargo will transfer the recurring charge to a new card. About the only way I could figure out how to get out of that type of recurring scam is to just cancel my bank account.
- bitJericho 13y ago
  And that's why you shouldn't bank at Wells Fargo.
  - rschmitty 13y ago
    WF is fine, its just that parent thought his WF Visa was the same thing as an actual Visa that comes with actual protection Remember, never use debit cards.
    - canvia 13y ago
      A locally based credit union will provide better and more flexible support than any big chain bank. Plus you get to use any credit union ATM anywhere (there's a CO-OP network ATM in every 7-11) for free, and most refund some amount of ATM fees every month.
      - untog 13y ago
        But a Credit Union debit card has just the same weaknesses as a Wells Fargo one.
- haimez 13y ago
  That's why you should use a credit card and not a debit card for online purchases. If you dispute the charge, it's their money instead of yours that they're recovering.
chmars 13y ago
Dispute the charge with their credit card company. Who is their credit card company? I have not had a credit card complaint for years but I would probably ask my credit card issuer for a refund, in particular because I have an agreement with my credit card issuer but not with the vendor's credit card company.
- DanBC 13y ago
  Yes, that's what the parent says. When Bob has a problem with Ann's scummy business Bob should ask Bob's credit card company for a refund, which generates chargebacks for Ann's business.
  - chmars 13y ago
    For me, not having to deal with a vendor (or even its credit card company) is a major advantage of using a credit card instead – for example – paying by invoice. I have just checked my credit card issuer's process for such cases, it seems pretty straight forward. The down vote of my comment indicates a possible difference in other parts of the world …

by abalone 13y ago

halviti 13y ago

Except for there is a time window for these sorts of things. His girlfriend isn't going to be able to dispute charges that are 8-months old.

logn 13y ago
Then also file a complaint with the attorney general of a state in the US and the Better Business Bureau. Also write an honest Yelp review (make it fair and truthful but not slanted as you don't want to be sued over libel). All of those things matter a lot to businesses, in addition to their standing with credit card companies and banks.
- stephengillie 13y ago
  Those won't matter to scam business, especially since the BBB itself is a scam, and most yelp reviews are fake.
  - logn 13y ago
    Although I think the BBB is not a scam, there are still many other routes to take. There's always a potential for a class-action law suit. Some law firms specialize in that and work cases only taking money from any final winnings in court. And the attorneys general are usually happy to hear any complaints. While there's often not immediate results or consequences, having made an official complaint helps those who are seeking to apply some rule of law via the justice system.
    - aestra 13y ago
      The BBB sells its A ratings. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo8kfV9kONw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo8kfV9kONw Watch the video.
    - unclebucknasty 13y ago
      The BBB is the very definition of the word scam. More specifically, extortion.
- makomk 13y ago
  The BBB are close to a scam themselves, but it might be worth contacting the FTC - they tend to show an interest in this kind of thing and can lay down some serious financial hurt themselves.
downandout 13y ago
The window is usually 180 days, and some of the more lenient credit card companies will go back even further depending on the circumstances. She can easily get back 6 of the 8 monthly charges. A simple way to avoid issues like this is to always generate a virtual card for each purchase, and then turn the virtual card off the moment the transaction is completed. You can do this through Netspend prepaid cards - you just open their site in another tab, generate a card with two clicks and turn it off with another two clicks. It costs nothing and the whole process adds about 1 minute to your purchase. I do this for every "free" trial I take on - if I like the service, then I will consciously make the decision to change the billing to a real card. No one gets to make that decision for me.
- crag 13y ago
  That's a lot of work to buy a pair of shoes. Not to mention, I never heard of Netspend (until now). And I spend most of my day on the net. You expect folks who don't to know? It shouldn't be this way. Buyer beware is one thing. But one shouldn't have to watch their back to buy a pair of shoes. What this company is doing is low down. By the way, thanks for the tip. I'm looking at Netspend right now.
- AlexDanger 13y ago
  Virtual card number? Never heard of this before. Sounds useful. Is this something unique to Netspend? Can you do it via Paypal or something if you're outside the US? I wouldnt need a physical card if I can link such functionality to my (verified) Paypal account.
  - danielweber 13y ago
    Many (not all) credit card vendors offer virtual account numbers.
  - dustinchilson 13y ago
    PayPal does it too. The screens to create the cards are just hard to get to.
  - deleted 13y ago
abalone 13y ago
It may be possible.. I've gotten refunds going back that far. But definitely the more recent months will get refunded. And that's enough to put some financial hurt on JustFab, as there are additional penalties they pay with each chargeback.
maaaats 13y ago
Well, in my country the credit card company's police on time window isn't very relevant. If there is a scam involved, it becomes a legal matter and for that the time window is years.
PeterisP 13y ago
For most cases, 8 months are out of scope, but his girlfriend should be able to successfully dispute the last 3-6 month bills anyway. In some places, like EU direct debit legislation, the maximum time window for such disputes is 12 months after you receive that invoice/bill, so ~13 months in effect.
darkarmani 13y ago
That is the time window for chargebacks, but not for small claims court.

nugget 13y ago

You can also file an action against them in your local small claims court. Depending on where you live, it takes about 30 minutes to fill out the form and costs around $25 in filing fees. Most likely the company will not respond to your complaint, and you will receive a judgment for all of the money you paid them. Assuming they don't go bankrupt, they will eventually pay you and satisfy the judgment. I did this against similar scams like Video Professor in the early Facebook era and it worked surprisingly well for 2 years worth of scam rebills to which I had been completely oblivious.

jtbigwoo 13y ago
>> Assuming they don't go bankrupt, they will eventually pay you and satisfy the judgment. Let's be honest, though. It's 80% certain that they're going to go bankrupt. They're clearly not building a company to last. Your best hope would be to get your money back before bankrupcy proceedings start.
aqme28 13y ago
Why? A chargeback is basically an automation of that process, with the full backing of your credit card company.
- legitsource 13y ago
  If corporations are going to run the system, you might as well get some benefit from having a large one go to bat for you when you can.

ghshephard 13y ago

Totally not the case that you get your money back, at least with WellsFargo Visa, they will investigate to determine whether your card was used by some other party. Saying, "I didn't read the terms of the agreement" is not grounds for a chargeback. What's worse is when you've signed up for a One year recurring payment and you have to jump through hoops to cancel such as a registered letter to cancel. Wells fargo will refuse to cancel for you, saying it is between you and the vendor. Further to that, you can't even cancel your credit card, as Wells Fargo will transfer the recurring charge to a new card. About the only way I could figure out how to get out of that type of recurring scam is to just cancel my bank account.

bitJericho 13y ago
And that's why you shouldn't bank at Wells Fargo.
- rschmitty 13y ago
  WF is fine, its just that parent thought his WF Visa was the same thing as an actual Visa that comes with actual protection Remember, never use debit cards.
  - canvia 13y ago
    A locally based credit union will provide better and more flexible support than any big chain bank. Plus you get to use any credit union ATM anywhere (there's a CO-OP network ATM in every 7-11) for free, and most refund some amount of ATM fees every month.
    - untog 13y ago
      But a Credit Union debit card has just the same weaknesses as a Wells Fargo one.
haimez 13y ago
That's why you should use a credit card and not a debit card for online purchases. If you dispute the charge, it's their money instead of yours that they're recovering.

chmars 13y ago

Dispute the charge with their credit card company. Who is their credit card company? I have not had a credit card complaint for years but I would probably ask my credit card issuer for a refund, in particular because I have an agreement with my credit card issuer but not with the vendor's credit card company.

DanBC 13y ago
Yes, that's what the parent says. When Bob has a problem with Ann's scummy business Bob should ask Bob's credit card company for a refund, which generates chargebacks for Ann's business.
- chmars 13y ago
  For me, not having to deal with a vendor (or even its credit card company) is a major advantage of using a credit card instead – for example – paying by invoice. I have just checked my credit card issuer's process for such cases, it seems pretty straight forward. The down vote of my comment indicates a possible difference in other parts of the world …