Complaints

This profile includes complaints for Short Story's headquarters and its corporate-owned locations. To view all corporate locations, see Find Local Branches.

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• 

  Short Story

  1045 17th Street Suite 201 San Francisco, CA 94107

• 

  Short Story

  1833 Egbert Ave San Francisco, CA 94124

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:07/03/2025

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I have attempted to close my account with ********************** but they ignore my messages. Theyve charged my bank again for the service I am trying to cancel. Very poor customer service!

  Business Response

  Date: 07/03/2025

  Hello and thank you for bringing this to our attention!

  
  After investigating the situation it appears that ** *** has not actually canceled or adjusted her subscription nor communicated with us that she needed to cancel her account. The most recent communication from ** *** was from 4 months ago when she requested certain pieces in her next box, we have not received anything since that time. Her current subscription schedule is set to Every 4 Months which is why she is receiving a box. It looks like ** *** mistakenly selected "Every 4 months" instead of canceling her subscription.
  

  Since ** *** is looking to cancel her subscription we have gone ahead and processed that for her and refunded her styling fee since this box was unexpected. 
  We hope that this helps to clarify the situation!

  Best,
  The Short Story Team
  

  
  

• Initial Complaint

  Date:07/01/2025

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I reached out and sent the box back. Received a message from one of their customer service representatives that once the items were received, the invoice would be reversed. I got a notification that they are still trying to charge me $468.00 for a box that was returned. I sent and email and did not get a response. I also requested that they take my card information out of their system. I would like them to stop trying to charge my card for the items that were returned weeks ago.

  Business Response

  Date: 07/01/2025

  Hello Everyone,

  Thank you for bringing this to our attention! It looks like this invoice has already been voided as of 3:42 PST. Our system charges for outstanding returns, one we confirmed that they were one their back back and delivered we canceled the charge attempts. I've attached a screenshot of the voided invoice for reference.

  Best,

  The Short Story Team

• Initial Complaint

  Date:05/27/2025

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Clothes were sent and I requested more time to checkout and send back all unwanted items. I was charged for items. Charges were not reversed in anticipation of receiving unwanted clothing. I am requesting reversal of charges

  Business Response

  Date: 05/28/2025

  Hello Everyone and thank you for bringing this to our attention!

  
  Our apologies for the delay in responding to your inquiry. It has taken some time to investigate thoroughly.
  Unfortunately, we do not have any record of Ms. A***** emailing, calling or chatting our client experience lines, we have shared screenshots of our CRM page for reference. The only communication we’ve had from her is from us through our outbound messages notifying her that her payment on file failed, which she did not respond to, we have attached a screenshot of ******** which shows confirmation of the email delivery and that she opened the message a month ago. 

  According to our records we have not received her returns from her first box and her tracking number shows no movement. we have also attached a screenshot of our records. Nor did we receive any request through email, phone or chat to receive an extension on her return. If she used a different email address to make that request we would love to see it to review our records once more. 

  
  If we do not hear from a client in regards to an extension, our system will check out their items on their behalf and close the order, which happened in this case. Unfortunately, we cannot issue any refunds in this instance.
  We appreciate your time and attention to this matter.

  
  Sincerely,
  The Short Story Team
  

  
  

• Initial Complaint

  Date:05/07/2025

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. They did refund me, but I still find that their response to you was incorrect and did not provide the whole story. Their business practices are extremely predatory. 
  
  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  
  
  Lyndsey C******

  Business Response

  Date: 05/07/2025

  Hello Everyone,

  
  Thank you for bringing this to our attention. It looks like we have already resolved this issue with Ms. C****** prior to this BBB being posted. I would be happy to give more information on the situation.
  It looks like Ms. C****** canceled her subscription on April 1st where we sent the attached messages. The email states confirmation that their subscription was canceled and if they also wanted to cancel their upcoming box due to arrive on April 6th. It looks like this box wasn’t canceled and is why she received a box after she had canceled her subscription.

  
  In regards to Ms. C****** getting into contact with us. Our last communication on record from her was on April 26th at 3:26am when she requested a refund for this unexpected box. Our first contact with her was April 26th at 2:32pm and our last email to her was today at May 7th at 1:13pm. We did confirm with her that we would issue her refund but couldn’t until her returns were delivered. Her returns were delivered yesterday May 6th and her refund was processed today May 7th. Refunds usually take 5-10 business days to post back to a client's bank. We appreciate Ms. C****** for bringing this to our attention and hope this clears up any confusion.
  

  Sincerely,

  The Short Story Team

• Initial Complaint

  Date:01/16/2025

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I am filing this complaint regarding the unethical and dishonest practices I experienced with Short Story. After trying their service, I decided to give them three chances despite receiving poorly curated and stylistically unsatisfactory boxes. Upon receiving my third disappointing box, I canceled my subscription.Despite canceling and returning all items within the required timeframe, Short Story has attempted to charge me nearly $300 for items I already returned. This attempted charge occurred after they had already received the returned items.I reached out to them multiple times, warning them of the implications of their actions, but they continued their attempts to charge me for items I did not keep. I have also demanded that they remove my information from their records. Their lack of resolution and refusal to rectify this issue is unacceptable and dishonest.The numerous negative reviews I have since seen about this company align with my experiencethey engage in unethical and unprofessional business practices. As a consumer, I feel defrauded and disrespected.I will be escalating this issue by:- Reporting them to the local ******** of Commerce for their business misconduct.- Consulting legal counsel to address what I believe amounts to attempted theft.I am requesting immediate intervention by the BBB to compel Short Story to cease any further attempts for these unauthorized charges and these unethical practices. Their actions are not only damaging to their customers but harmful to consumer trust in subscription-based services.Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.

  Business Response

  Date: 01/16/2025

  Hello Everyone and Thank you for bringing this to our attention! 

  We are so sorry for any miscommunication on our part and would be happy to help clarify any of her concerns.

  According to our records ****** was still listed as an active subscriber which is why the most recent box 4 was shipped to her, she was not charged a styling fee for this box. Once she receives the shipment she can return the box to sender, she is not required to try on or keep any of the pieces if she does not wish to. She will still need to return those items to ensure no auto charges associated with Box 4 that is enroute. As of today we can confirm that her subscription is inactive and she will no longer receive automatic boxes.

  Regarding the charge of $281.14, this charge was tied to her second box which included items that we did not receive back. I have shared some examples of those pieces above and how we track each item. While we did receive some of the returns we did not receive all of them back which lead to us charging the remaining balance of $281.14. Now while Ms. ****** claims that she did in fact return them, we always give our clients the benefit of the doubt and make any corrections necessary. Which we did in this case by refunding her the $281.14 at 1pm this afternoon. Sometimes things get lost in transit or lost or packages damaged, it happens and if a client reaches out we hear them. As for the $10 charge, this is a standard test charge to verify the validity of the cards on file and are always immediately refunded. 

  We hope that this clarifies any confusion regarding matter!

  All the Best,

  The Short Story Team

• Initial Complaint

  Date:12/27/2024

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I have emailed on 7 occasions my credit has not shown up on my bank account.

  Business Response

  Date: 01/02/2025

  Hello and Happy New Year everyone!

  Our last communication with Ms. B*** was on December 27th, she has not yet opened that message. We have refunded her for her returns from her Box 4 on December 27th. As mentioned in the email we sent her, refunds can take between 5-10 business days depending on our bank. Our records indicate that the refund was issued on 12/27 on our end. I have attached screenshots of our correspondence and our payment page where we issued the refund.

   

  I hope this clarifies any confusion! Looking forward to resolving this together.

  Best,

  Short Story Client Experience Team

• Initial Complaint

  Date:12/03/2024

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Hello, I canceled my subscription to *************************** several weeks ago and they have continued to charge my card on file and send boxes. I have emailed/contacted them (multiple avenues including email and ******** messenger) several times with no response. Would like my subscription canceled and the $25 they charged on 11/21/24 returned to me. Thank you.

  Business Response

  Date: 12/03/2024

  Hello Everyone,

  Thank you for bringing this to our attention! We apologize for any delay in returning ******* initial email. It appears that there was already a box in flight at the time that ******* subscription was canceled. Once we received her email we issued a refund and confirmed the cancelation of her subscription. We refunded her on November 21st, 2024, refunds can take 5-10 business days to complete depending on the bank associated with the card. Unfortunately because the box had already shipped we were unable to intercept the shipment and prevent its arrival. We've let ***** know she is not obligated to try any of the items on if she doesn't wish to and to use the prepaid return label provided to make her returns.

  We apologize for any inconvenience and hope everyone has a great rest of their day!

  Best,

  Short Story Client Experience Team

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/26/2024

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  Denyael ******elp since this took my money for food and utilities.

  Business Response

  Date: 11/26/2024

  Hello All,

  Thank you for bringing this to our attention and we apologize for any miscommunication! It looks like Ms. ******** return carrier for this box (#7) was listed as ***** and not ***** When her returns were sent with **** instead of ***** the barcode on the label was not scanned due to the different carrier, thus keeping the box as "not returned".

  Our system automatically charges for items that have no movement in returns tracking which is why the charge went through. I see that we have been in communication with Ms. ****** already. After each message sent by a client we send an automated "we received your message" confirmation email letting the client know that we will return their message within ************************************************************************************** responding to Ms. ******** initial message.

  We have refunded her for the items that were returned the amount of her refund was $469.34 and have marked the items as lost in our system due to the carrier miscommunication. We honor that she did her due diligence as a client and made her returns. Refunds usually take 5-10 business days depending on the bank to clear. We can also confirm that her subscription is canceled and she has no other orders in process. 

  We apologize for any stress caused by this situation and hope she and all of you at BBB have a great holiday week.

  We look forward to resolving this together.

  Best,

  Short Story Client Experience Team

• Initial Complaint

  Date:10/31/2024

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

   
  Complaint: 22496411
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  
  I did end up receiving the referral credit, however it took weeks and ***eated efforts on my part to contact them via their website, and Instagram (not ******** as they mentioned in their response), and emailing the same information ***eatedly over email and Instagram, as well as making a complaint on BBB in order to resolve the issue. That is totally unacceptable. In addition their *** via Instagram assured me the credit had been added to my account at least once when it had not been added, and when I notified them of this, they responded asking me to provide the same info of my friend who I referred even though I already provided this info to them. Their response which suggested I never responded to their email is totally false. They need to do better, WAY better! I tried to attach as many screen shots as I could but wasnt allowed to load them all here.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ****** *******

  Business Response

  Date: 11/05/2024

  Hello Everyone,

  I have attached a screen shot of the History of our email correspondence. We only received 2 messages from her and one of which was responded to in ********, both of these messages were received on the same day. I completely understand the client's frustration and do want to resolve this accordingly, She and the referred client did receive their referral credit and their waived styling fee. Regarding any additional clients referred, we would still need their names to see if they are in our system and are linked to her referral link. We only have 1 client listed as referred by her, I have included this in the images above, this is a direct screenshot of our code regarding the history or her unique referral link. In the third image shared there is a chart of how many clients actually clicked the link (3 people) but only 1 the referred actually used it to sign up.  If there were messages or emails missed on our part we take full responsibility for that and wish to resolve this accordingly with the client, however regarding the referral  not working we can only go by the history we see from the use of the link. 

   

   

  Below is the RAW record of this unique referral code:

  { "event": "$mp_web_page_view", "properties": { "time": *************, "distinct_id": "**************************************-7f793560-61d78-192a0c7425e1f5b", "$browser": "Mobile Safari", "$browser_version": 17.6, "$city": ************ "$device": "iPhone", "$device_id": "***************************************-*********************", "$initial_referrer": "$direct", "$initial_referring_domain": "$direct", "$insert_id": "****************", "$lib_version": "2.55.1", "$mp_api_endpoint": "*******************", "$mp_api_timestamp_ms": *************, "$os": "iOS", "$region": "**************", "$screen_height": 932, "$screen_width": 430, "current_domain": "********************************", "current_page_title": "Referral", "current_url_path": "/referral/ashley5049", "current_url_protocol": "https:", "mp_country_code": "US", "mp_lib": "web", "mp_processing_time_ms": ************* }{ "event": "$mp_web_page_view", "properties": { "time": **************, "distinct_id": "**************************************-27743275-4b6a2-192a0d0b2621131", "$browser": "Chrome", "$browser_version": 117, "$device": "Android", "$device_id": "***************************************-*********************", "$initial_referrer": "$direct", "$initial_referring_domain": "$direct", "$insert_id": "****************", "$lib_version": "2.55.1", "$mp_api_endpoint": "*******************", "$mp_api_timestamp_ms": *************, "$os": "Android", "$screen_height": 786, "$screen_width": 393, "current_domain": "********************************", "current_page_title": "Referral", "current_url_path": "/referral/ashley5049", "current_url_protocol": "https:", "mp_country_code": "US", "mp_lib": "web", "mp_processing_time_ms": ************* }}{ "event": "$mp_web_page_view", "properties": { "time": **************, "distinct_id": "**************************************-432f2f35-1fa400-192a0f50acc8b1", "$browser": "Firefox", "$browser_version": 131, "$city": "Wake Forest", "$device_id": "***************************************-*********************", "$initial_referrer": "$direct", "$initial_referring_domain": "$direct", "$insert_id": "****************", "$lib_version": "2.55.1", "$mp_api_endpoint": "*******************", "$mp_api_timestamp_ms": *************, "$os": "Mac OS X", "$region": "**************", "$screen_height": 1080, "$screen_width": 1920, "current_domain": "********************************", "current_page_title": "Referral", "current_url_path": "/referral/ashley5049", "current_url_protocol": "https:", "mp_country_code": "US", "mp_lib": "web", "mp_processing_time_ms": ************* }
  

  Business Response

  Date: 11/04/2024

  Hello There!

  Thank you for bringing this to our attention! We have been in contact with ****** regarding this matter and sent her a response with next steps when she first emailed us. It appears that she spoke with two of our agents regarding this. In the emailed example above we offered her next steps to give her and her referral friend their credit but we never heard back from her. 

  When it comes to receiving referral credit sometimes for example if the referred client was already in the process of signing up, is an existing clients or if they don't follow the link the referral credit won't work. In this specific case, we had asked Ms. ******* to give us the the name of the referred client, so we can manually apply the credit as an act of good faith and trust in our clients. It looks like after Ms. ******* first sent us a message on ******** that we did give her the credit to her account and waived the styling fee for **** ******* whom she referred, **** was never charged a styling fee because we waived it per the referral program. Attached you will find screenshots of our conversations and referral credit proof as well.

  This is a copy of our Referral program FAQ: For every friend you refer, you get $25 in Short Story credits when they check out and make their first purchase. Your friend also gets her $25 styling fee waived. Win-Win! The credits can be used towards items in your next box.

  We appreciate your time and consideration and look forward to closing this matter!

  Best,

  The Short Story Team

  Customer Answer

  Date: 11/05/2024

   
  Complaint: 22496411
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  
  I genuinely have no idea what short story is referring to. I only referred one person and only wanted the one credit I was due. I ended up getting the credit but the issue is the hoops I had to jump through to get the credit. The record of their responses to me which they just sent is a jumble of nonsensical computer code. This is just further evidence of the total incompetence of their support team. I have provided ample evidence of my correspondence with them via email, their website, and Instagram. I never once contacted them via ******** and they have not provided any proof of this alleged correspondence because it doesnt exist. They still seem confused about what I was requesting, and why I made this complaint. 
  Sincerely,
  
  ****** *******

• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/13/2024

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *******************************

  Business Response

  Date: 09/13/2024

  Hello All,

   

  Thank you for bringing this inquiry to our attention. Upon review it appears that this issue is regarding box #2. Our system reports the returns lost by ***** This is in no way the client's fault and we have refunded their returns on 9/13 at 11:09am. According to our records, when the client reached out about this situation on 9/13/24 at 4:34am we went ahead and honored their concern and promptly refunded them. We do apologize for any confusion and are always happy to work with our clients to find a resolution. Attached is proof of the email and refund.

  We look forward to coming to a resolution together.

  Warmly,

  Short Story Client Experience Team