Fabletics

I’m beyond frustrated with Fabletics, and I feel like I’ve been completely misled and scammed by their business practices. If you’re even considering buying from them, be prepared for deceptive tactics that will leave you regretting it. Let’s start with the VIP membership. The way Fabletics pushes this is downright manipulative. When you first sign up and start shopping, there’s an overwhelming amount of pressure to join the “VIP” program, which is automatically added to your cart. The site makes it seem like it’s a great deal—you get discounts, special perks, and access to exclusive items. But what they don’t tell you upfront is that you’re locked into a monthly charge unless you actively remember to skip or cancel each month. If you forget (and trust me, it’s easy to forget when you’re bombarded with pop-ups and promotions), they charge you a minimum of $59.95 for credits that you can’t even use toward a regular purchase. It’s a complete scam. What makes it worse is the complete lack of transparency. They bury the details about the membership in the fine print, making it hard to understand exactly how the system works. And if you try to reach out for help or ask for a refund, good luck. Their customer service is a nightmare. They make the cancellation process confusing and tedious, hoping you’ll give up and just accept the charges. I’ve tried to cancel my membership twice, and each time I’ve had to deal with hours on the phone and multiple emails to get any kind of resolution. In addition to the shady membership, the website itself is designed to confuse. They push the VIP membership on every single page, and even when you think you’re making a regular purchase, they sneak the VIP option into your cart or offer it as an automatic discount. It’s tricky, and it feels like they’re banking on you not noticing until after the fact. Let’s not even talk about the return policy—it’s another hassle. If you want to return or exchange items that don’t fit or are defective, they make you jump through hoops just to get a return label. And if you do manage to send something back, you’re not guaranteed to get a refund—it often just results in store credit, which again locks you further into their web of deception. At the end of the day, Fabletics isn’t offering the great deal they claim to be. Instead, they’re preying on customers who aren’t paying attention, getting them locked into a monthly charge for a “membership” that’s more of a trap than a benefit. I would highly recommend avoiding this brand at all costs. There are plenty of other brands that offer great activewear without the shady business practices.

I have purchased several products from Fabletics over the years, and finally decided to go VIP. I absolutely love their shorts and their boxers, and I’m excited to try their pants. The prices are a little steep, but the quality is top tier, and there are frequently deals to take advantage of which make it more than worth it. But, Lord, their website is so glitchy, and certainly not optimized for mobile browsing. If other sites are “user-friendly”, Fabletics’s site is actively user-antisocial. Every page took so long to load, whenever I would add an item to my cart the screen would just freeze and I’d have to go back to the homepage, and when I did, it kept defaulting to Women’s apparel- even when I deliberately selected Men’s from the menu, the site would crash or go back to Women’s leggings. And I had to repeat this process for EVERY item I looked at- it got to the point where I stopped even bothering to look at other designs. To check out three items, it took me over half an hour. As it currently stands, you are effectively losing my business because I don’t want to visit the online store and have to deal with that again, and I can only make it to the physical retail location on rare occasions when I am on the other side of my city. Fabletics, I love your products, and your in-person representatives and over-the-phone staff have always been very good to me. I just really wish the same level of quality went into the website. PS- I’m coming back to add this bit after literally having to copy & paste my review from my phone and sending it to my laptop. because even submitting this response proving difficult, as none of the links provided are working for my phone, when no other site seems to cause issues. And I have an iPhone, so it’s not exactly some little niche software company’s Temu phone. It is the Year of our Lord Two Thousand and Twenty Five- if your site is not optimized for mobile compatibility, you are actively hurting your business.

The truth is, I love fabletics. I love the quality for sure. My issues with fabletics is that their customer service can be very unhelpful when trying to track a missing package. They have no way of contacting their shipping company for updates or for ETAs. I waited over two months for a package, called every week after the initial 10 days. At first it was the usual run around, “ it’s been delayed” or “ it’ll probably arrive this weekend.” After awhile though, they started trying to cancel my order. The problem with them wanting to cancel my order and issue me a refund was that everything I had ordered was now sold out in my size and color choice. After two months I let them refund my order. I did eventually receive my entire order, it took over 3 1/2 months. I can’t complain too much as they also refunded the entire order in credits and I was allowed to keep the “ lost “ order once it finally arrived. The other issue I have noticed is that they advertise certain colors or outfits towards “ new VIP members” only. For someone who has been one of their VIP members for several years, it seems unfair to not allow LOYAL members to purchase those products as well. Maybe treat all your customers equally, instead of saving the best for the newbies.

The quality of the leggings from Fabletics has gone downhill in the last couple of years, and of course the cost has gone up. I've been purchasing from them for nearly 10 years and disappointingly I'm canceling my "membership". The focus on functional and quality design has switched to just fast fashion nonsense with "celebrity collabs" leading the charge. *Edited to add* I received a response email from Fabletics on the same day I posted this, which I do appreciate. I will note that I've never had an issue with the customer service or promptness in reply and I find their return system to be pretty standard and easy to use. However, unfortunately when the overall product quality and selection has declined a reasonable return policy and prompt customer service is not the fix. The two best things about their leggings specifically for me were the pockets and the option to get them in a "tall" length, those seem to be becoming less and less frequent amongst the catalog. Not to mention the waistband design outside of the "seamless" options has gone from one singular unit with consistent compression to a weird belt-like elastic along the top most part of the waist, which is horrible. So I stand by my disappointment with the brand as a whole.

I first discovered Fabletics because of my son who has always been active in all sorts of sports. I purchased him several items a couple years ago and fell in love with the quality, durability, look, and price. That's one thing I always try to explain to anyone even considering Fabletics is the monthly fee is 100% worth it with the monthly membership credit, and the random gift cards they send you just for being a member. Plus if I don't plan on shopping for a month than I can always get online or call and skip a month and not be on charged for that month. Or like I did this month, let them go ahead and take the monthly fee knowing I would be getting a member credit to use on pant I needed for work anyway. It's a win win. With the member credits, rewards program, customer service, quality, and value you just can't beat it. I will continue to shop at Fabletics because I love the look of their clothes,the value, and quality. I would absolutely recommend Fabletics to anyone looking for great clothes, great quality, great customer service, and a great value in stylish looks for both men and women.