Complaint Review: ThredUP

ThredUP is a useful sight for the BUYER. They did a great job of providing a bag and it was an easy process to get the clothes to them. Their process is nicely streamlined. They ONLY allow clothing and the clothes and seemed to be competitively priced.

Since their new business strategy (March 2012) and $24MILLION loan-- they started charging for clothes instead of "swapping" them. The down side to their strategy is for the person who SUPPLIES the clothing.

My initial experience with ThredUP went like this; 

I shop lands end for uniforms for my child and was fortunate to have a complete records of all clothes purchased. I filled two bags full of pristine clothing and sent them to ThredUP. Bag #1 had a value of $596.50. I very carefully laundered each article of clothing and checked for any tears, rips, missing labels, or stains and did not send anything that was not in perfect condition. Then I built an excel spreadsheet listing each item and its value and a column for what was received from ThredUP. I did this because I was planning on sending several (7-10) bags of clothing as I cleaned out each family member's closet.

Bag #1: $596.50  RECEIVED from ThredUP $16.00 (minus 2% for PayPal transfer) = $15.68. They "REJECTED" 61% of the items sent because they said that 61% of what I sent had tears, rips, missing labels, or stains, and pills. So where did the 61% of the clothes that I sent go????? Hummmmm...

I emailed the company asking what was rejected and they wrote: "Thanks for contacting us. I do not have a listed of items not accepted but I show the notes on this bag about items not accepted show: Show excessive wear and/or piling, Are stained, Missing tags"

So, I emailed again and asked for my clothes back and their response was:  "we can not return the items. Once we invest our resources to send you a bag, receive your items back and process those items, we cannot return them. When you send us a bag, it is ours. Just so you are aware items that are not accepted are immediately separated from the items we purchase, and combined with other items. Since we process hundreds of bags daily it is impossible to retrieve one single item. We would have loved to make an exception for you, but unfortunately we cannot."

I know that the clothes I sent were not damaged and that I very carefully inspected each item. Consider other alternatives such as such as a donation to a local church, family member, or consign to a local resale shop.

Signed
FedUP

Here are some links to their clients experiences:

http://www.bbb.org/greater-san-francisco/business-reviews/general-merchandise-retail/thredup-in-san-francisco-ca-381201

http://www.resellerratings.com/store/ThredUP

http://www.yelp.com