By Eliza Mcphee For Daily Mail Australia
03:54 28 Dec 2023, updated 04:06 28 Dec 2023
The owner of embattled fast fashion giant White Fox Boutique threw a lavish Christmas lunch for her staff members, serving Iranian caviar and appearing to gift them a free holiday.
The company, which is owned by Australian couple Georgia and Daniel Contos, has been slammed online in recent weeks following huge delays and claims of ‘poor customer service’ in the lead up to Christmas.
Customers have complained about waiting weeks for their orders to be shipped, claiming they received no response or a ‘sub-par’ reply from the brand when they asked how long they would be waiting for their products.
Ms Contos hosted a Christmas lunch at her house in Vaucluse with fellow White Fox staff members, including her sister-in-law Sarah Contos who works in creative content for the brand.
White Fox Head of Product, Tiara Lepore, and the brand’s Head of Creative, Laura Thomson, were also at the Christmas gathering.
Snaps shared by Sarah show the group of young women enjoying a seafood spread with two large tins of Beluga Iranian caviar, which is considered ‘the finest of all caviars’. A 50g tin can cost $625.50.
In another post uploaded to Sarah’s Instagram story, the group are seen holding makeshift tickets for a trip from Sydney to the Gold Coast, believed to have been gifted by Ms Contos to her staff.
‘Couples getaway lets goooo,’ Sarah wrote alongside the photo of the flight tickets, which had Merry Christmas messages on them. It’s understood the gifts may be for Ms Contos’ staff and their partners.
The group threw a similar Christmas gathering last year, along with the caviar and seafood spread.
‘It is so frustrating to customers waiting for refunds and orders from White Fox to have these pictures shoved in their face,’ one customer told Daily Mail Australia.
‘I hope they enjoyed the caviar.’
Daily Mail Australia has contacted White Fox for comment. The company posted a message to its 2million Instagram followers on Thursday morning.
‘The customer service team are experiencing a high volume of enquiries at this time so please allow additional business days for a response,’ they said.
‘Our team have extended hours and additional help at this time to ensure you can get a response ASAP.
‘Please note sending multiple emails will push you to the back of the queue as we work in chronological order. We appreciate your patience and understanding.’
White Fox’s Instagram page has been flooded with comments from angry customers demanding to know when their orders will be delivered.
‘Everyday I check my emails to see if I got a response from my email that was sent well over a month ago. However I am disappointed to not see one. Then without fail I open my Instagram and see an obnoxious post from White Fox,’ one commented on the company’s latest post.
‘Still waiting for a refund after nearly 3 months but still received not a single email or anything about it,’ said another.
‘I returned my item over 6 weeks ago for a store credit. After loads of emails and DMs on here and TikTok I have had nothing. This is ridiculous now!!’ one wrote.
‘The nerve of you to continue posting, while customers are literally begging for their orders,’ one said.
Many of the comments have responses from White Fox asking them to send them a DM (direct message) to sort out their order, along with a love heart emoji.
Earlier this month the White Fox founders hosted a boat party filled with influencers.
On November 19, the brand hired out a function room to celebrate their tenth anniversary, titled the White Fox 10th Anniversary Gala.
Prizes were handed out to staff including trophies for the ‘messiest desk’ and ‘most chaotic energy’, while each place setting had a small bottle of tequila beside it.
Last week, Georgia Contos told FEMAIL she had all hands on deck to get orders out quickly.
‘The team is currently working seven days per week and extended hours. Including myself and Daniel assisting in the warehouse,’ she said. ‘Currently we are dispatching over 20,000-25,000 orders per day.’
She admitted they are receiving 5000 customer enquiries per day about delays.
‘We did prepare for these sales, ramping up both staff in our warehouse and additional resources in customer service,’ she said.
‘Unfortunately even with all of this preparation we still exceeded three times our sales targets.’
She was very apologetic about the delays and said she understands it is frustrating ‘which is why the whole team across all departments are assisting in getting the orders out’.
‘These are huge numbers for any Australian-based business and we are going through a huge amount of growth at the moment.’
Georgia, 32, and Daniel Contos, 33, have spent more than $120million buying up houses in Vaucluse.
They own three homes, worth $25million, $34.5million and $38million, and all three are right beside each other.
Their property portfolio has led to feverish speculation that the Contos’ intend to knock down all three houses to build a mega-mansion on the now almost 3,500sq metre site.
That massive task of turning three properties into one will take some time, so in the meantime the couple is reportedly living in a house that was built in the 1920s.
The couple came from humble beginnings with Ms Contos saying she had no money when they launched the business, and relied heavily on social media.
They Contos’ started selling clothes on eBay in 2013 when they were in their early 20s, offering the latest fashion trends at affordable prices.
Despite having no background in the industry, the venture proved to be a huge success and was the beginning of the brand that has been worn by the likes of the Kardashian sisters, Sofia Richie, Hailey Baldwin and Emily Ratajkowski.