Clothes company folds then gives my details to a new company? Stitch fix/Outfittery

squashykat

HillStreetBlues said:

squashykat said:

I used to subscribe to Stitch Fix to get a quarterly box with 5 garments to keep or return. Loved it but just as I was thinking about pausing/cancelling due to a full wardrobe and trying to cut back, they sent an email saying they were no longer going to be trading. This was last November. 

This week I spotted an email from a company called Outfittery with an invoice for over £500 attached complete with a list of 9 clothing items they are sending me. An email search shows that this company has taken over my stitch fix account, there are emails asking me to click to activate my new account over the last few months but never paid them a second thought or made the connection, certainly no link was clicked. To be honest there was also one saying I could click within 2 weeks if I didn't want to proceed with the transfer but I didn't see it. I use gmail which puts all sales stuff into a promotions folder which I only ever glance at, I have never heard of the company any therefore never opened any of their emails, assumed to be spam.

I am unable to see any full details without following links to presumably accept and set up an account which I don't wish to do. 

I am hoping that I can just return the items with no financial penalty, but where do I legally stand about my information including payment card details being given over to a new company without my explicit permission?

Any advice or experience?
Thank you 

https://www.outfittery.com/howitworks

Receive your box

Try at home: Discover and try on your selection in the comfort of your own home, with 7 days to decide your favourites.No obligation: Tell us online what you liked and what you want to return. You only pay for what you keep.Free returns: Too big or too small? Just send us back the items that do not work for you. Both shipping and returns are free of charge.

Just return them for free.

Yes I intend to

squashykat

Alderbank said:

I think you misunderstand how data protection works.

You need to log in to your account to prove to them that you are the owner of that account. Once you establish that, you will be able to cancel or return goods in transit and close the account, if that is what you wish. 

That is absolutely as it should be.

That's the reason I asked, to clarify my understanding. I am surprised that they are allowed to pick up a dormant account and then begin a new, somewhat different subscription that's all. You can understand me therefore being wary of creating an active account with them particularly as they aren't UK based. I am sense checking. 

Alderbank

It's not a dormant account. You said yourself you never closed it. There might have been some changes to the ownership of the company at the top but that's OK, they can share customer information for business reasons.

The account, which as far as I can see sends you curated selections of clothes from time to time, continues to operate. No-one but you can make any transactions within the account such as returning unwanted items, paying for wanted ones or closing the account.

They are a well-established German company in Berlin, operating under EU law. It's not the Wild West.

You are right to be cautious, but your conviction that it is a new and different account is not supported by evidence.

ThumbRemote

Alderbank said:

It's not a dormant account. You said yourself you never closed it. There might have been some changes to the ownership of the company at the top but that's OK, they can share customer information for business reasons.

The account, which as far as I can see sends you curated selections of clothes from time to time, continues to operate. No-one but you can make any transactions within the account such as returning unwanted items, paying for wanted ones or closing the account.

They are a well-established German company in Berlin, operating under EU law. It's not the Wild West.

You are right to be cautious, but your conviction that it is a new and different account is not supported by evidence.

I disagree with this, and with some of the other comments made so far. 

The OP received an email stating that the company was closing down. Surely this email in itself could be relied upon by the OP.

Subsequent to this, the company they had an account with, Stitch Fix, appears to have sold their data to a different business, Outfitter. It's not a business takeover at all, the two remain as separate businesses. 

Outfitter have used the data they have acquired to bill an amount never agreed by the customer and sent clothes unwanted by the customer, after a gap of some months.

I fail to see how this can be considered a continuation of the previous contract in any sense. It's a different business who appear to have purchased a customer database. The OP has no contract with Outfitter and the OP has not authorised a £500 transaction. Indeed this is verging very close to being unsolicited goods. 

I'd be extremely surprised if this behaviour was legal, in particular the passing on of payment information then using it for a different purpose. 

Alderbank

Stitch Fix UK Ltd, the company used by the OP, does not remain as separate business.

Stitch Fix UK's Data Protection policy said:

DISCLOSURE OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA
Corporate Restructuring. We may share some or all of your personal data in connection with or during negotiation of any merger, financing, acquisition or dissolution transaction or proceeding involving sale, transfer, divestiture or disclosure of all or a portion of our business or assets. In the event of insolvency, bankruptcy, or receivership, personal data may also be transferred as a business asset. If another company acquires our company, business or assets, that company will possess the personal data collected by us and will assume the rights and obligations regarding your personal data as described in this Privacy Policy.

I don't see evidence for your claim that they have passed on payment information then using it for a different purpose, which I agree would be illegal. Stitch Fix's UK policy said they did not have payment information. Payments were made by token from a third party.

For online payments, we use the payment services of Braintree (https://www.braintreepayments.com/gb). Other than the type of payment card and last four digits of the card number, we do not record or maintain your credit card or bank account information even after you input it into our Services - Braintree does. For more information on how payments are handled, or to understand the data security and privacy afforded such information, please refer to https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full.

For the benefit of the OP, I believe the best and most pragmatic way for them to resolve things is to log on to their account, return the unwanted goods (returns are free from within the account) then close the account.

squashykat

ThumbRemote said:

Alderbank said:

It's not a dormant account. You said yourself you never closed it. There might have been some changes to the ownership of the company at the top but that's OK, they can share customer information for business reasons.

The account, which as far as I can see sends you curated selections of clothes from time to time, continues to operate. No-one but you can make any transactions within the account such as returning unwanted items, paying for wanted ones or closing the account.

They are a well-established German company in Berlin, operating under EU law. It's not the Wild West.

You are right to be cautious, but your conviction that it is a new and different account is not supported by evidence.

I disagree with this, and with some of the other comments made so far. 

The OP received an email stating that the company was closing down. Surely this email in itself could be relied upon by the OP.

Subsequent to this, the company they had an account with, Stitch Fix, appears to have sold their data to a different business, Outfitter. It's not a business takeover at all, the two remain as separate businesses. 

Outfitter have used the data they have acquired to bill an amount never agreed by the customer and sent clothes unwanted by the customer, after a gap of some months.

I fail to see how this can be considered a continuation of the previous contract in any sense. It's a different business who appear to have purchased a customer database. The OP has no contract with Outfitter and the OP has not authorised a £500 transaction. Indeed this is verging very close to being unsolicited goods. 

I'd be extremely surprised if this behaviour was legal, in particular the passing on of payment information then using it for a different purpose. 

Thank you! I do have a feeling that it is surely unethical to post the box of clothing without an explicit order or request to do so. I did believe my account was closed as I had an email stating so. The last delivery box I had was August 2023, nearly a year has passed so if that is not dormant I don't know what is.

The box has arrived today and now the onus is on me to take swift action or be held liable for a £500 bill, whether they hold my card details or not. As a neurodivergent person I would never have committed to this ie very high value with a short return window of 7 days - I have an irregular working pattern and family life to juggle.

I am sensible enough to make sure it is sorted but just don't need the hassle of it and begrudge having to create an account for the purpose.

DullGreyGuy

squashykat said:

I am hoping that I can just return the items with no financial penalty, but where do I legally stand about my information including payment card details being given over to a new company without my explicit permission?

Their privacy policy states that your data will be shared with third parties in a variety of circumstances one of which is around takeover/sale of business assets. You undoubtedly agreed to their privacy policy, inc future changes, when you signed up. The policy currently in force is from May 2022 however Wayback Machine shows it has the same wording on corporate restructuring back in April 2019 when the site was launched. 

So you most likely did give your explicit consent but like most people didnt read what you were actually agreeing to and even if you did, probably forgot that you had over time. 

Alderbank

squashykat said:

ThumbRemote said:

Alderbank said:

It's not a dormant account. You said yourself you never closed it. There might have been some changes to the ownership of the company at the top but that's OK, they can share customer information for business reasons.

The account, which as far as I can see sends you curated selections of clothes from time to time, continues to operate. No-one but you can make any transactions within the account such as returning unwanted items, paying for wanted ones or closing the account.

They are a well-established German company in Berlin, operating under EU law. It's not the Wild West.

You are right to be cautious, but your conviction that it is a new and different account is not supported by evidence.

I disagree with this, and with some of the other comments made so far. 

The OP received an email stating that the company was closing down. Surely this email in itself could be relied upon by the OP.

Subsequent to this, the company they had an account with, Stitch Fix, appears to have sold their data to a different business, Outfitter. It's not a business takeover at all, the two remain as separate businesses. 

Outfitter have used the data they have acquired to bill an amount never agreed by the customer and sent clothes unwanted by the customer, after a gap of some months.

I fail to see how this can be considered a continuation of the previous contract in any sense. It's a different business who appear to have purchased a customer database. The OP has no contract with Outfitter and the OP has not authorised a £500 transaction. Indeed this is verging very close to being unsolicited goods. 

I'd be extremely surprised if this behaviour was legal, in particular the passing on of payment information then using it for a different purpose. 

The box has arrived today and now the onus is on me to take swift action or be held liable for a £500 bill, whether they hold my card details or not. As a neurodivergent person I would never have committed to this ie very high value with a short return window of 7 days - I have an irregular working pattern and family life to juggle.

Outfittery.co.uk's T&Cs say you have 30 days from when you receive the goods.

We should like you to feel secure when you order something from us. By allowing us to pick out goods suited to you, you place your trust in us. We should like to return this trust by granting you, in addition to the statutory right of cancellation, an optional 30-day money back guarantee. The time period commences as of the date you receive the goods.

https://www.outfittery.co.uk/terms

Vectis

Well, it might be in the original company's t&c's that your details can be passed on to a new company, but it doesn't sit very well from a consumer's point of view that you can start being billed, and at higher pricing levels and for more goods, by a different company, especially after being told that the original company was ceasing trading.

Is it down to the consumer, after being told that the company was no longer trading, to be so very vigilant that they read every single email which arrives unsolicited from a previously unheard of company? That doesn't sound right.

But, I agree with what others have said, log into your account, close it and return anything which arrives in the meantime.

squashykat

Alderbank said:

squashykat said:

ThumbRemote said:

Alderbank said:

It's not a dormant account. You said yourself you never closed it. There might have been some changes to the ownership of the company at the top but that's OK, they can share customer information for business reasons.

The account, which as far as I can see sends you curated selections of clothes from time to time, continues to operate. No-one but you can make any transactions within the account such as returning unwanted items, paying for wanted ones or closing the account.

They are a well-established German company in Berlin, operating under EU law. It's not the Wild West.

You are right to be cautious, but your conviction that it is a new and different account is not supported by evidence.

I disagree with this, and with some of the other comments made so far. 

The OP received an email stating that the company was closing down. Surely this email in itself could be relied upon by the OP.

Subsequent to this, the company they had an account with, Stitch Fix, appears to have sold their data to a different business, Outfitter. It's not a business takeover at all, the two remain as separate businesses. 

Outfitter have used the data they have acquired to bill an amount never agreed by the customer and sent clothes unwanted by the customer, after a gap of some months.

I fail to see how this can be considered a continuation of the previous contract in any sense. It's a different business who appear to have purchased a customer database. The OP has no contract with Outfitter and the OP has not authorised a £500 transaction. Indeed this is verging very close to being unsolicited goods. 

I'd be extremely surprised if this behaviour was legal, in particular the passing on of payment information then using it for a different purpose. 

The box has arrived today and now the onus is on me to take swift action or be held liable for a £500 bill, whether they hold my card details or not. As a neurodivergent person I would never have committed to this ie very high value with a short return window of 7 days - I have an irregular working pattern and family life to juggle.

Outfittery.co.uk's T&Cs say you have 30 days from when you receive the goods.

We should like you to feel secure when you order something from us. By allowing us to pick out goods suited to you, you place your trust in us. We should like to return this trust by granting you, in addition to the statutory right of cancellation, an optional 30-day money back guarantee. The time period commences as of the date you receive the goods.

https://www.outfittery.co.uk/terms

Thanks for finding that, because in the emails it says I have 7 days to decide/return and payment is due in 14 days. I quote:

-Once you receive your box you have 7 days to try everything on. Anything you do not want, you can send back for free.

-After you have made your selection and sent back any returns, we will email you the ‘outstanding amount’. Please transfer this amount to the specified account within 14 days of receiving the box. Please include the reason for payment as specified in our e-mail.

-If you pay by credit card or PayPal, the outstanding amount will be debited automatically.

On the packing slip/invoice it also says I have 7 days to decide.