Short Story

Independent Sources

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

Contacts & Login

• Official website: https://my.shortstorybox.com/
• Customer support and returns (Contact page and FAQ): [email protected]
• Customer login (profile, schedule, settings, checkout): https://app.shortstorybox.com/login
• Press and partnerships: [email protected]
• BBB-listed phone (not published on Short Story's own pages read): (415) 917-3072

Locations

Charged, cancelling or returning a Short Story box? What to check

Short Story is an online personal-styling service for women 5'4" and under. According to its own FAQ, a stylist picks a box of clothing, you "have 5 days from the date of delivery to decide what to keep," and the company charges a $25 styling fee that is credited toward anything you keep. If you are trying to stop boxes, dispute a charge or send items back, these are the company's own published terms, quoted from its FAQ (https://my.shortstorybox.com/faq, read September 30, 2026):

• Stopping automatic shipments (the FAQ calls this cancelling): under the heading "Need to cancel your subscription?" the FAQ says "To cancel, log into your profile and go to the Settings tab in the top right corner. Then click stop receiving automatic shipments and select 'Let me schedule my own boxes'. This means we won't ship you a box unless you request it." The FAQ text describes stopping automatic shipments; it does not describe closing the account or removing a stored payment card. The home page also says "Cancel anytime."
• Check the Schedule page afterwards: the FAQ says your next order "is created at checkout and scheduled based on your subscription frequency" and that you can skip a box from your schedule. In a reply on a BBB complaint dated May 13, 2026, the company wrote: "our system does not automatically cancel upcoming boxes post cancellation, those need to be canceled separately." In a reply dated September 1, 2026 it wrote that the customer's "subscription was canceled but the scheduled box for that cycle was not" and that it cancelled that box before it shipped and refunded the charge. The FAQ does not say whether stopping automatic shipments also removes a box that is already scheduled, so it is worth checking your profile's schedule for boxes already created and keeping the confirmation email.
• Styling fee: "There's a $25 styling fee for every box ... your styling fee gets credited towards anything you keep from that box ... It cannot be rolled over to your next curation and is non-refundable." The FAQ says the fee "is charged when we start working on your box, usually a week before it is delivered to your door."
• Return window: "You have 5 days from the day your Short Story is delivered to checkout and return anything you don't want to keep." Items must be "unworn, undamaged, and with tags still attached," and the FAQ says "We will charge for any unreturned items past the end of the Return Window." To ask for more time, the FAQ says to email [email protected] ("we'd happy to provide an extension"). On how to send items back, the FAQ says to "Check your return label to confirm the carrier" (it says returns now use FedEx and USPS) and adds: "You are responsible for getting your returns back to us. We do not recommend returning your bag through 3rd party shippers or in stand-alone mailboxes, which can cause delays."
• After you buy pieces: "Items you've purchased from your box can be returned within 30 days of delivery of your box for a full refund" if unworn, unwashed and with original tags; the FAQ says returns received after 30 days "will not be accepted." Exchanges "can be returned within 15 days."
• Contact: the Contact page says "Email us at [email protected], or use the form below" and offers a "chat now" option. No company phone number appeared on the Short Story pages read on September 30, 2026; BBB lists (415) 917-3072.
• If a charge or refund is not resolved: the company's BBB profile has a "Submit a Complaint" option and shows the company's replies; your card issuer also has its own dispute process with its own deadlines.
• Background on federal subscription-cancellation rules (no conclusion about Short Story): the FTC's 2024 amendments to its Negative Option Rule (the "click-to-cancel" amendments) were vacated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in Custom Communications, Inc. v. FTC, 142 F.4th 1060 (8th Cir. 2025), according to the FTC's Federal Register notice. A final rule published February 12, 2026 (effective the same day) restored the rule's text as it existed before the 2024 amendments, and on March 13, 2026 the FTC published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking seeking public comment on the need for amendments (FTC Negative Option Rule page, read September 30, 2026). This page draws no conclusion about how these rules apply to Short Story.

Company background

According to its About page, Short Story was "born in San Francisco" and was founded by Isabella Sun, who writes that at 5'1" she was tired of "shopping in the kid's section." Y Combinator's company directory lists Short Story in its Summer 2019 batch with the status "Active," a San Francisco location and, as displayed on September 30, 2026, "Team Size: 120", and names Isabella Sun and Samuel Hoffstaetter (CTO) as founders. BBB's profile separately shows "Number of Employees: 19"; the two directory figures are reported as displayed, and this page does not reconcile them. BBB gives a business start and incorporation date of July 1, 2019 and a "Corporation" entity type.

This page covers the personal-styling service at my.shortstorybox.com; it does not cover other businesses or apps that use the name "Short Story."

Legal entity: the USPTO record for the PETITE ASSEMBLY trademark (Reg. No. 7902636, registered August 19, 2025) lists the owner as Short Story, Inc., a Delaware corporation, at 27 Maiden Lane, Suite 625, San Francisco. BBB's profile for "Short Story" gives 1045 17th Street, Suite 201, San Francisco, CA 94107 and lists Ms. Angela Hernandez as manager. Two 2024 copyright complaints filed against Short Story, Inc. (see the litigation section) describe it "upon information and belief" as a California corporation with a Sacramento address; those are the plaintiffs' allegations and differ from the USPTO entry, and this page does not resolve the difference. The docket copy of a 2024 California Superior Court case (Aguilar, below) captions the defendant as "Short Story, Inc., a Delaware corporation," which matches the USPTO entry. A search for a USPTO "SHORT STORY" word mark was not completed for this page.

What it sells: the FAQ says boxes include "5-6 pieces" (pages read on September 30, 2026 give other counts: the home page says "6 pieces" and "6-7 pieces inside each personalized curation," /style-box says "5-8 pieces," /petite-style-guide says "5-9 pieces" and /referral says "5 pieces inside each personalized curation," so the pages do not agree on one number), sizes 00P-20P, and pieces priced "$35-$150+." It says it works with brands such as Joe's Jeans, Vince Camuto, Vero Moda, Amour Vert, Good American and Liverpool, and also carries "our own exclusive Short Story clothing lines." It ships only in the United States, and the FAQ says it accepts credit and debit cards but not prepaid cards.

Company claims: in a July 2022 interview with Fortune, Ms. Sun said the company had raised "$3 million in seed funding from institutional investors like Tribe Capital, True Global, and Y Combinator," had "eight figure annual revenue," and designed clothing "based on feedback from over 100,000 petite women." Those are the founder's statements in that interview; they were not independently verified for this page. Short Story's own pages carry similar marketing statements, read on September 30, 2026: its styling-service page says "100,000+ petite women styled" and its Petite Style Guide page says "Join 100,000+ petites who've solved their fit issues." These are company statements and were not independently verified.

Complaint record: USAComplaints, BBB and Trustpilot, reported separately

Each source below is reported separately and is not combined into one figure:

• USAComplaints: 0 complaints about Short Story on this site as of September 30, 2026.
• BBB (BBB profile for Short Story, San Francisco): BBB Accredited (BBB's raw data gives the accreditation date as September 5, 2025) with a BBB rating of B; BBB's page gives the reason for rating as "51 complaint(s) filed against business." BBB shows 51 total complaints in the last 3 years, of which 37 were closed in the last 12 months. BBB's complaint filter lists the 51 by type as Product Issues 31, Service or Repair Issues 9, Billing Issues 7, Sales and Advertising Issues 3 and Delivery Issues 1, and by status as Answered 35 and Resolved 16 (BBB's own classification, not a finding by this site). BBB's customer-review tab shows 1 out of 5 from 5 customer reviews. BBB displayed 10 complaints dated May 7 to August 31, 2026. Two examples: on August 31, 2026 a consumer wrote that Short Story "will continue to charge you even when you've asked for your account to be paused," and the company replied on September 1, 2026 that the scheduled box had not been cancelled with the subscription, that it cancelled the box before shipping and refunded the charge; on August 5, 2026 a consumer described a box delivered to the wrong address, a full-price charge and a delayed refund, and the complaint is marked Resolved, with a later note attributed to the consumer: "The day after you contacted them, my money was returned." BBB does not verify the facts alleged in complaints, and a handful of displayed complaints does not show how typical they are.
• Trustpilot: a claimed profile (since April 2025) showing 4.3 out of 5 from 119 reviews, 78 of them in the last 12 months; the star split shown is 73% five-star, 6% four-star, 3% three-star, 3% two-star and 15% one-star. Trustpilot displays the notice "No recent history of asking for reviews ... reviews may not be representative," and says the company "replied to 50% of negative reviews" and "typically replies within 1 month." A September 2026 review describes a stylist not following a request and support replies that felt automated; the company replied on September 17, 2026 that "Our team are all real people."

Because each source covers different people and periods, the numbers above cannot be added together or averaged, and none is a rating by this site.

Court cases naming Short Story, Inc.

Court records checked on September 30, 2026 fall into two groups. This is not a complete list: a name search does not cover every court, and the San Francisco Superior Court's own case-query site sits behind a CAPTCHA and was not used.

Federal copyright cases about the company blog (not about customer orders). A CourtListener search for the name "Short Story, Inc." returned two cases in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, both about photographs on blog.shortstorybox.com:

• Barbera v. Short Story, Inc., No. 2:24-cv-02550, filed September 20, 2024: a photographer alleged that two photographs of a singer were displayed on the blog without permission (copyright infringement). A notice of settlement was filed March 20, 2025, and on May 5, 2025 the court entered an order granting the parties' joint motion and dismissing the action "WITH PREJUDICE in its entirety, with each party bearing his or its own costs, expenses and attorney's fees."
• August Image, LLC v. Short Story, Inc., No. 2:24-cv-01920, filed July 12, 2024: the plaintiff, which licenses photographs, alleged that a photograph of an actress by photographer Art Streiber was displayed on the blog in April 2023. The docket shows Short Story's answer on September 3, 2024, a notice of settlement on December 23, 2024, and a minute order terminating the civil case on February 14, 2025 ("Date Terminated: Feb. 14, 2025"). The settlement terms and the text of that minute order were not on the docket pages reviewed.

California state-court employment cases (employment matters, not customer complaints). Two cases in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco name Short Story, Inc. as defendant. Both concern workers, not customers' orders, and the claims in them are allegations unless a court decides them:

• Singh v. Short Story, Inc., No. CGC-23-609394: a former employee's wage-and-hour class action, also asserting civil penalties under California's Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA), on behalf of non-exempt employees in California. According to the court-approved class notice on the settlement administrator's site, the plaintiff accuses Short Story of failing to pay minimum, straight-time and overtime wages, provide meal and rest periods, pay final wages on time, provide accurate wage statements and reimburse expenses; the notice says Short Story "strongly denies violating any laws or failing to pay any wages" and does not admit any violation by settling. The court's order of January 21, 2026 granted preliminary approval of a settlement with a $500,000 gross settlement amount, conditionally certified a settlement class, and reserved a final approval hearing for June 25, 2026. The administrator, Apex Class Action, LLC, lists a response deadline of April 24, 2026 (passed). Its page, read September 30, 2026, still shows the June 25, 2026 hearing and lists no final-approval order, so this page could not confirm whether final approval was granted.
• Aguilar et al. v. Short Story, Inc., No. CGC-24-614404: a case brought by four individuals. A public copy of the court's docket, read September 30, 2026, shows a jury trial in Department 318: jury selection began September 11, 2026, the jury was sworn September 14, the trial commenced September 15, and the latest entries, dated September 24, 2026, continue the trial to September 28, 2026. The entries include a September 16, 2026 order on a stipulation about "economic damages, the scope of plaintiffs' emotional distress claims, and proof of emotional distress damages." The entries seen do not state the claims No verdict or judgment entry was visible, and Short Story's position is not stated in the entries seen.

Sources checked on September 30, 2026 identified no consumer class action, and no FTC or state attorney general action, naming Short Story. Those sources were: web searches combining "Short Story" or "shortstorybox" with "class action," "auto-renewal," "FTC" and "attorney general" (search-engine results, not a court or agency database); a CourtListener case-name search; and the California Attorney General's data-breach list, filtered by organization name "Short Story," which returned "There are currently no published reported breaches." That list holds only sample notices of breaches sent to more than 500 California residents, so it says nothing about investigations or enforcement. The FTC's Legal Library and other states' pages could not be searched directly, so this is not an exhaustive negative. The Singh wage-and-hour class action above is an employee case and is a different matter from a customer class action.

Is Short Story Legitimate?

Short Story operates the website my.shortstorybox.com (shortstorybox.com redirects to it) and describes itself as a personal-styling service for petite women. A company named Short Story, Inc. is the owner of record of a 2025 USPTO trademark registration (PETITE ASSEMBLY) and was the named defendant in two 2024 federal lawsuits about images on the company's blog and in two California Superior Court employment cases (see the court-cases section). Y Combinator's directory lists Short Story (Summer 2019, status "Active"). BBB and Trustpilot profiles exist; their figures are in the complaint record above.

Points a customer may want to check: (1) the footer on the pages read on September 30, 2026 lists "FAQ," "Press & Partnerships," "Your Privacy Choices" and "Contact Us," with no Privacy Policy or Terms link; the address /privacy-policy returned a "Page Not Found" page when opened, and no Terms of Use page was found in the footer, the site's sitemap, the public sign-up and billing pages, or the common paths tried, so any terms shown inside the account or checkout flow (not entered for this page) are not something this page could review; (2) the marketing line "Cancel anytime" and the FAQ's cancellation steps should be read together with the schedule check described above; (3) the $25 styling fee is stated by the company to be non-refundable; (4) the state-court employment cases concern workers, not customer orders, and their outcomes are described above only as far as the sources read show.

This page assigns Short Story no rating or verdict; it reports what the company, BBB, Trustpilot, the USPTO and the courts show so readers can weigh it themselves.

Court & Public Records

Frequently Asked Questions