Abercrombie & Fitch

Complaints & Reviews on USAComplaints

USAComplaints currently maintains 36 historical complaints about Abercrombie & Fitch, published between 2003 and 2012. No approved complaints have been published on this site during the last three years. For a current reputation snapshot, see the independent sources below.

• StorePublished Sep 17, 2012 · Historical consumer allegation
• Worst Service EvePublished Sep 17, 2012 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished Sep 4, 2012 · Historical consumer allegation
• EmployeesPublished Jun 26, 2012 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished Apr 8, 2012 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished Mar 13, 2012 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished Feb 24, 2012 · Historical consumer allegation
• Rude store manager with no customer service skills!Published Feb 17, 2012 · Historical consumer allegation
• Offensive smellPublished Feb 14, 2012 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished Nov 7, 2011 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished Nov 3, 2011 · Historical consumer allegation
• BewarePublished May 31, 2011 · Historical consumer allegation
• Substandard product, Incompetent EmployeesPublished May 8, 2011 · Historical consumer allegation
• Extremely horrible customer servicePublished Apr 14, 2011 · Historical consumer allegation
• Beware Parents - customer service/addPublished Mar 18, 2011 · Historical consumer allegation
• Sizing and AdvertisementPublished Jan 30, 2011 · Historical consumer allegation
• Efuses refund for returned merchandisePublished Jan 24, 2011 · Historical consumer allegation
• No refund/kept coatPublished Dec 21, 2010 · Historical consumer allegation
• They owe me $256.00Published Dec 19, 2010 · Historical consumer allegation
• Promo - customer service/addPublished Sep 11, 2010 · Historical consumer allegation

Independent Sources

Shown for context — not merged with USAComplaints' own numbers.

Contacts

• Official website: https://www.abercrombie.com/
• Customer service, alternate line (BBB-listed): 866-681-3115 8 complaints mention this number
• Corporate / investor relations site: https://corporate.abercrombie.com/
• Customer service (BBB-listed): 866-777-1892
• Customer service, alternate line (BBB-listed): 866-426-1285 3 complaints mention this number

Locations

Shopping or returning something at Abercrombie & Fitch? What to check

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. operates the Abercrombie & Fitch, abercrombie kids, Hollister and Gilly Hicks store and online brands. According to the company's own return and exchange policy, as reproduced on its Better Business Bureau profile, eligible, resalable merchandise "must be delivered to, and processed at, our Distribution Center within 30 days from the date of the last shipment" to be refunded to the original payment method; returns processed after 30 days are instead refunded "to a merchandise credit in the form of an e-gift card." Exchanges are described as free "at any time," while a mailed return through the company's "Digital Return" service carries a $7 fee that is "deducted from your refund" (exchanges remain free of charge). Some merchandise carries a tag that must stay attached to qualify for return or exchange, and items bought with Same Day Delivery shipping are not eligible for Digital Exchanges. The policy also states that after a return is delivered to the carrier, customers should "allow approximately three weeks" for it to reach and be processed at the Distribution Center before a refund or exchange order is initiated; once a refund is initiated it can take a further 3-5 business days to appear, depending on payment method. In-store returns and exchanges are free at any Abercrombie & Fitch or abercrombie kids store in the U.S., though online orders "must be placed in USD" to be returned or exchanged in a U.S. store. Holiday purchases made November 1 through December 31 can be returned for a full refund through January 31 of the following year with the original receipt, invoice or order confirmation.

The company also runs two loyalty programs described in its most recent annual report: myAbercrombie for the Abercrombie brand family and Hollister House Rewards for the Hollister brand family. Under both, the company says customers "accumulate points primarily based on purchase activity and earn rewards as points are converted at certain thresholds," which can be redeemed for merchandise discounts in-store or online; higher spending tiers can add benefits such as free shipping and extended return windows, according to the filing.

• Keep your order confirmation, invoice or receipt — the company's stated returns/exchanges policy says it cannot process either without one.
• If you're holding an e-gift card or merchandise credit, keep the original order confirmation or purchase email on hand. One customer's BBB review reported that when trying to redeem gift cards purchased in 2017, they were told the transaction could not be located because "records older than three years are no longer available" — a single, unverified customer account, not a stated company policy.
• Watch for look-alike or counterfeit sites. Complaint records reviewed for this page show shoppers who believed they were buying from Abercrombie & Fitch or Hollister but were actually dealing with unrelated websites using similar names (for example domains combining "Abercrombie," "Hollister" or "A&F" with words like "sale" or "outlet"). BBB identifies abercrombie.com, abercrombiekids.com and hollisterco.com as the company's own e-commerce sites; the reviewed complaints concerned other domains, so they are excluded from this profile's own-complaint count below, though ownership of every such domain was not individually verified. If you already ordered from an unfamiliar look-alike site, the company's own customer service may not be able to help since it does not control that seller; keep the site's URL, your receipt or payment record, and any messages, then contact your payment provider to dispute the charge and report the domain through an appropriate fraud-reporting channel. Shop only at abercrombie.com, abercrombiekids.com, hollisterco.com, an official app, or a physical A&F/Hollister store.
• If a delivery, refund or missing-item dispute isn't resolved through customer service, you can file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, describe the issue on this site, dispute a card charge using the Federal Trade Commission's published guidance on disputing credit card charges, or contact your state's consumer protection office (listed by USA.gov).

EEOC religious-discrimination settlements

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has brought and settled multiple religious-discrimination cases against Abercrombie & Fitch over its store "Look Policy." In the Samantha Elauf case, EEOC v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, Inc. (N.D. Okla., No. 4:09-cv-00602, filed September 16, 2009), the EEOC sued after a Tulsa store did not hire Ms. Elauf, a Muslim applicant who wore a hijab, on the basis that hiring her would conflict with the company's Look Policy banning head coverings. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled for the EEOC on June 1, 2015, holding that "an employer may not refuse to hire an applicant if the employer was motivated by avoiding the need to accommodate a religious practice." The Tenth Circuit dismissed Abercrombie's appeal on July 27, 2015, at the company's own request; per the EEOC's July 28, 2015 announcement, the company paid $25,670 in damages to Ms. Elauf and $18,983 in costs.

Separately, on September 23, 2013, Abercrombie settled two EEOC lawsuits filed in the Northern District of California on behalf of two Muslim women, Halla Banafa and Hani Khan, who said they were denied employment or terminated for wearing a hijab. The company paid a combined $71,000 and agreed to create "an appeals process for denials of religious accommodation requests," to "inform applicants during interviews that accommodations to the 'Look Policy' may be available," to "incorporate headscarf scenarios into all manager training," and to give the EEOC periodic compliance reports.

Beyond these religious-accommodation cases, this page did not identify any other pending federal or state regulator enforcement action against Abercrombie & Fitch Co. itself as of September 29, 2026. The federal criminal case against the company's former CEO, discussed below, is a Department of Justice prosecution of an individual, not a regulatory or enforcement action against the company.

Company background, brands and the Michael Jeffries case

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE: ANF) is a Delaware corporation, incorporated in 1996, headquartered at 6301 Fitch Path, New Albany, Ohio; the Abercrombie & Fitch retail brand itself traces to 1892, according to the company's Better Business Bureau file. The company describes itself in its most recent annual report as "a global, digitally-led, omnichannel retailer" organized into Americas, EMEA and APAC segments, operating under two brand families: Abercrombie (Abercrombie & Fitch, abercrombie kids and Your Personal Best) and Hollister (Hollister and Gilly Hicks). As of January 31, 2026 the company operated 829 company-owned stores plus 60 franchise stores, and employed about 43,200 associates worldwide, per the filing; its registered trademarks include Abercrombie & Fitch, abercrombie, Hollister and Gilly Hicks. Fran Horowitz has been Chief Executive Officer since February 2017. The company's investor site also describes an NFL "Official Fashion Partnership."

Michael Jeffries, former CEO (about 1992-2014). On October 22, 2024, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York unsealed a 16-count indictment charging Michael Jeffries — described by the Department of Justice as CEO of Abercrombie "from approximately 1992 to 2014" — along with his partner Matthew Smith and recruiter James Jacobson, with sex trafficking and interstate prostitution. The indictment alleges that from about 2008 to 2015 the three men "operated an international sex trafficking and prostitution enterprise" that paid for men to travel to "Sex Events" in New York and abroad, using Jeffries' "power as the CEO of Abercrombie," and that some recruits were led to believe attending "could yield modeling opportunities with Abercrombie." Abercrombie & Fitch Co. itself is not charged in this criminal case (E.D.N.Y., No. 2:24-cr-00423); only Jeffries, Smith and Jacobson are defendants. Jeffries pleaded not guilty at arraignment on October 25, 2024 and was released on bond. After an extended competency dispute that included multiple expert evaluations and hearings, the court ruled on August 20, 2026 that Jeffries "is competent to proceed to trial" under the Dusky v. United States standard. Per the court's August 27, 2026 order, jury selection is scheduled to begin January 4, 2027 (adjourned from an earlier October 26, 2026 date), with pre-trial conferences set for November 18 and December 11, 2026; the case remained pending with no plea agreement or verdict as of this page's last docket check on September 29, 2026.

Two related civil lawsuits do name Abercrombie & Fitch Co. itself as a defendant, alongside Jeffries: Bradberry v. Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (S.D.N.Y., No. 1:23-cv-09440, filed October 27, 2023), a putative class action, and Doe 1 v. Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (E.D.N.Y., No. 2:25-cv-01105, filed February 26, 2025), brought by two men suing under pseudonyms. Both cases have been stayed by their respective courts pending resolution of the criminal case — the Bradberry docket shows a stay entered October 29, 2024 under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act's mandatory-stay provision, 18 U.S.C. § 1595(b); the Doe 1 docket shows a stay entered June 2, 2025 at a pre-motion conference hearing pending resolution of the criminal case; on March 31, 2026 the court separately denied the defendants' motion to transfer venue to the Southern District of New York. Abercrombie's pending motion to dismiss the amended Bradberry complaint (filed October 4, 2024) has not been ruled on because of the stay, and neither case has been decided on the merits. These are civil allegations against the company that have not been adjudicated, and are separate from the criminal charges against Jeffries individually.

Complaint record: USAComplaints, BBB and Trustpilot

This page reports complaint and review data from separate sources without combining them:

• USAComplaints: 36 approved posts on this site are linked to Abercrombie & Fitch or its Hollister brand as of September 29, 2026 (dated 2003-2012), covering themes such as returns/exchange refusals, order and delivery problems, in-store customer-service complaints, and employee pay/scheduling disputes. A further roughly 30 posts in this site's archive that named "Abercrombie," "Hollister" or "A&F" turned out on review to be about unrelated look-alike or counterfeit websites (for example domains such as "AbercrombieHollisterSale.co.uk" or "Cheapabercrombie.com") and are excluded from this count.
• BBB: Abercrombie & Fitch's BBB profile (headquartered in New Albany, Ohio) is not BBB accredited and carries a BBB Rating of F, which BBB attributes to "Failure to respond to 27 complaint(s) filed against business" and "22 complaint(s) filed against business that were not resolved." BBB's complaints tab shows 702 complaints in the last three years (181 closed in the last 12 months), and its customer-review score is 1.01 out of 5 from 79 reviews. The profile also notes that credit-card and billing matters for the company's store credit cards are handled separately by Comenity Bank, which has its own BBB file.
• Trustpilot: the profile for abercrombie.com (listed for the United States) shows 1.8 out of 5, rated "Poor," from 677 reviews; Trustpilot notes the company has "no recent history of asking for reviews," adding that "this company hasn't invited their customers, so reviews may not be representative."

Because each source covers a different population, time window and methodology, this page does not add or average these figures together.

Consumer, employment and privacy class actions

Aside from the Jeffries-related suits described above, CourtListener searches run on September 29, 2026 found the following notable cases naming Abercrombie & Fitch entities. Except where a settlement, dismissal or judgment is noted, these are allegations from filed complaints, not court findings.

Race and sex discrimination (2004, settled). The EEOC announced on November 18, 2004 what it called a "landmark resolution" of consolidated employment-discrimination litigation — EEOC v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, Inc. (N.D. Cal., No. C-04-4731 SI), consolidated with the private class actions Gonzalez v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, Inc. (No. C-03-2817) and West v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, Inc. (No. C-04-4730) — alleging the company's hiring and marketing practices excluded Latino, African-American, Asian-American and female applicants and employees, or steered them away from customer-facing sales roles. Per the EEOC's release, the matter "was amicably resolved by entry of a Consent Decree" providing about $50 million to the plaintiff class and requiring the company to overhaul hiring and recruiting procedures, hire a Vice President of Diversity and up to 25 diversity recruiters, retain a compliance monitor, train managers, and ensure "marketing materials will reflect diversity." The EEOC's release does not state whether the decree included an admission or denial of liability, and this page did not independently verify a separate court approval date beyond the EEOC's November 18, 2004 announcement.

TCPA text-message settlement (2016, closed). Chimeno-Buzzi v. Hollister Co. and Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (S.D. Fla., No. 1:14-cv-23120-MGC) alleged the company sent promotional text messages without the consent required by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. A $10 million class settlement covering recipients of texts from August 25, 2010 to December 18, 2015 received final court approval on April 11, 2016; the claims deadline (May 15, 2016) has long passed, and checks (about $40.09 per claim after fees and costs) were mailed starting in August 2016.

Data-sharing privacy suit (2024, dismissed). Cabral v. Abercrombie & Fitch, Co. (C.D. Cal., No. 8:24-cv-01521, filed July 10, 2024) alleged the company shared customers' "personally identifying information, including payment information, email addresses, phone numbers and IP addresses" with the fraud-prevention vendor Signifyd in a way the plaintiff characterized as functioning "like a wiretap," in violation of California privacy law. The named plaintiff voluntarily dismissed his individual claims with prejudice and any putative class claims without prejudice on October 7, 2024, before any class was certified or any ruling issued on the merits.

Drip-pricing suit (filed 2026, active). Heilman v. Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (N.D. Cal., No. 3:26-cv-02224, filed March 13, 2026) alleges the company's abercrombie.com and Hollister websites withhold a mandatory shipping-and-handling fee (for example $7 on orders under $99, per the complaint) until checkout, in violation of California's Consumer Legal Remedies Act. On July 29, 2026, Judge Edward M. Chen granted Abercrombie's motion to dismiss the original complaint, with leave to amend; the plaintiff filed an amended complaint on August 5, 2026, Abercrombie moved to dismiss that amended complaint on August 19, 2026, and briefing on that motion was completed by September 14, 2026. As of this check, the amended complaint has not been ruled on, no class has been certified, and no final judgment has been entered.

Is Abercrombie & Fitch Legitimate?

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. is a publicly traded company (NYSE: ANF) headquartered at 6301 Fitch Path, New Albany, Ohio, operating hundreds of its own stores plus e-commerce sites at abercrombie.com, abercrombiekids.com and hollisterco.com. BBB lists the brand as founded in 1892, and the company reports its store counts, revenue and executive leadership in SEC filings. Separately, its Better Business Bureau profile carries an F rating, 702 complaints filed in the last three years, and 22 of those complaints listed as unresolved (BBB does not break down the unresolved complaints by subject), and its U.S. Trustpilot score is 1.8 of 5. Its former CEO, Michael Jeffries, faces a pending federal criminal sex-trafficking case — charges against him personally, not against the company — and the company itself is a defendant in two civil suits connected to that case (both stayed) as well as an active consumer pricing lawsuit. This page assigns Abercrombie & Fitch no rating or "scam" label of its own; readers can weigh the identity, complaint and litigation information above for themselves, and should order only through the company's own verified sites or stores given the number of look-alike or counterfeit "Abercrombie" and "Hollister" websites found in complaint records.

Court & Public Records

Related Complaints

Names this company in a role other than the primary subject — not necessarily current or complete.

• Named as a brand of this company: JO n JOHAN not happy, not at all. Grrrr - abercrombie

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