Rihanna’s lingerie line, Savage x Fenty, is under fire after fans discovered they were being scammed into paying for a costly monthly membership they didn’t purposely sign up for.
Rihanna’s lengerie line, Savage x Fenty is reportedly using a sneaky trick to gain subscribers to their monthly membership.
Shoppers are unknowingly signing up for a $50 “Xtra VIP” monthly membership when they purchase an item off of the site.
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Vox reported that a number of shoppers weren’t even noticing the money disappearing from their bank accounts for months.
Fans have been calling out Savage x Fenty ever since for being a “scam”, demanding to be refunded .
The thing is, technically, these shoppers voluntarily agreed to the monthly membership by not reading the fine print.
So, although Savage x Fenty pulled a slimy trick — they can’t actually be held accountable for customers not paying close enough attention at checkout.
That being said, the trick is still definitely unethical.
Savage x Fenty uses something researchers refer to as “dark patterns” to get shoppers to fall into their trap .
These “dark patterns” are essentially sly design and interface techniques shopping websites use to guide their customers into certain actions.
It usually involves coercing shoppers into giving up personal data, money, or sometimes both .
The particular “dark pattern” Savage x Fenty uses is what researchers at Princeton University and the University of Chicago call “sneaking”.
Researchers describe this tactic as “attempting to misrepresent user actions, or delay information that if made available to users, they would likely object to.”
So, on savagex.com, if you add anything to your cart, it automatically adds the monthly membership to your cart as well.
The really misleading part about this is that it doesn’t list any cost next to the membership, nor is anything additional added to the total.
In fact, it only shows you how much you’re “saving” with Xtra VIP.
Under the membership, there is a “learn more” link that outlines the specific terms of the membership .
However , it doesn’t bother to mention to $50 monthly charge until the very last paragraph.
Once you’re officially enrolled, you have until the 5th of every month to cancel your subscription.
Otherwise, the site will automatically take the money out of your bank account or off of your credit card.
The $50 monthly fee can then be used as credit to buy more Savage x Fenty products.
Furthermore, there is no guest checkout option on their website — forcing shoppers to create an account in order to make any purchases .
Unfortunately, this trick is more common on shopping website than you may expect.
Princeton and University of Chicago researchers found that 11% of the 11,000 sites they studied used similar antics on their customers .
Once fans caught on that they were being bamboozled out of an extra $50 a month by an underwear store, they were less than pleased.
Some people were genuinely disappointed because the products were actually up-to-snuff.
This person revealed that canceling the monthly membership is actually quite a hassle.
So, not only does Savage x Fenty sneakily take $50 from you every month, but they make it inconvenient to cancel.
Others think that Rihanna should drop the entire lengerie venture altogether and stick to makeup and music.
Hopefully, at the very least, this was a learning experience for her and she can continue to grow her empire without “sneaking”.
For the time being, there is nothing illegal about companies using “dark patterns”, but that could change.
For now, stay vigilant, folks! Don’t get hoodwinked out of $50 every month if you can help it!
Let us know what you think of Savage x Fenty’s sneaky membership scheme!
