Australian fashion business White Fox is under attack from angry customers complaining about delays

Social media sites for the brand, which is hugely popular with Gen Z and Millennials, have been flooded with customer complaints in recent months about the company taking weeks to dispatch orders and not communicating with customers about the status of their orders.

On Instagram one customer wrote: “Stop posting on social media and start fulfilling your orders”.

“Can we have updates on when our orders will actually be delivered and not our team is working on it that tells us nothing reallyy [sic] disappointed in this brand, by the looks of it many are,” another angry customer wrote.

Another raged: “Show us this warehouse where all our orders are ‘ready to be dispatched’! all these statements saying you’re working 7 days a week when there’s orders from months ago still not shipped? what exactly are you guys doing for those 7 days a week!?”

And another disgruntled customer posted: “White Fox Boutique still waiting for order placed on 13th November! No updates to confirm dispatched and still showing as unfulfilled. Generic response to multiple emails sent when I’ve chased for updates. This is an absolute joke”.

White Fox was founded in 2013 by Georgia Contos, 32, and Daniel Contos, 33, who started out selling clothes on eBay.

In a statement to news.com.au, Ms Contos blamed the shipping delays on the “overwhelming success” of the company’s Black Friday sales.

“We did prepare for these sales, ramping up both staff in our warehouse and additional resources in customer service.”

“Unfortunately, even with all of this preparation we still exceeded 3 x our sales targets.”

She added: “The team is currently working 7 days per week and extended hours. Including myself and Daniel assisting in the warehouse.

“Currently we are dispatching over 20,000-25,000 orders per day and responding to over 5000 customer inquiries per day.

“These are huge numbers for any Australian based business and we are going through a huge amount of growth at the moment.”

The company co-founder added: “This has allowed us to employ record numbers within our warehouse facilities and we continue to hire on these numbers.”

Apologising to customers, Ms Contos said that the backlog of orders “will be cleared soon” but stopped short of guaranteeing products bought as Christmas gifts would arrive in time.

“We understand that it would be very frustrating waiting for your order in anticipation for Christmas which is why the whole team across all departments are assisting in getting these orders out.”

While many of the company’s products are revealing, it is the brand’s hoodies that have attained cult status.

But despite the popularity of White Fox, customers say its customer service leaves a lot to be desired, with many of the social media complaints dating back to the months prior to the Black Friday sales spike.

“Forget BF [Black Friday] orders I’m more concerned about not receiving my order placed on 26th October (5 weeks ago) that you still haven’t investigated. Awful customer service!” one customer wrote on Instagram last week.

Other have also questioned why the company is continuing to take orders given the backlog, with one customer writing: “If you are admitting to being swamped and can’t cope with orders, your website should be closed so you can catch up!”.

Customers have also taken to social media to vent their anger at the company’s express shipping policy.

White Fox usually offers same day delivery in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane at a higher postage rate, but it’s a service that seems misunderstood by many customers, who have complained about orders not arriving in time for events.

The White Fox website stipulates that the express shipping – which is currently suspended due to the high order volumes – only applies to delivery time frames once the order has been processed and packed and not the time from order to delivery.

Among other customer complaints are that the company only offers store credit for change of mind or incorrect sizing and that returns and credit notes are also taking a long time to process.

Some customers have gone as far as threaten to lodge complaints with the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission and the Office of Fair Trading, while others have taken the drastic step of disputing White Fox transactions with their banks.

It’s not the first time White Fox has attracted controversy.

In late November the brand was accused of copying a design from another Sydney-based fashion designer.

And in 2022, a number of small businesses and influencers took to social media to call out the label for producing items similar to a number of brands, like Mr Winston, Miaou, and Dion Lee.

Ms Contos chose not to comment on news.com.au’s questions about the allegations of copying designs from other labels.

Away from the business, the Contos’ have been quietly building a property empire.

The couple recently purchased their fourth property in the exclusive eastern Sydney suburb of Vaucluse, spending more than $120 million on property in the suburb this year.

Three of the properties, purchased for $25 million, $34.5 million and $36 million are adjoining, creating the opportunity for the couple to knock down the homes and build a huge compound on the 3500 square metre block with harbour views that take in both the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House.

The couple made their debut on the AFR’s Young Rich List this year, ranked 62nd and 63rd with a combined estimated worth of $100 million.