Thredup Selling Program – A Blogger’s Experience and Warning
As a blogger one of the things I do is review products and services so that I can report back to my fans and let them know a company is safe to do business with. Recently I started shopping at Thredup and I was very satisfied with their services and my orders arrived promptly. All of my orders were quickly shipped and we were satisfied with the clothing that we received. We had a couple items come flawed and they refunded me promptly. So from a buying perspective I am satisfied with them.
However, I decided to test their selling feature and I am appalled! I don’t think I need to explain why. Just check out my payout from them below. * These items are all brand new some w/tags still attached to them. The even sadder part is I have one more bag awaiting processing and it holds even more brand new name brand clothing in it that will probably be paid out just like this one!
Thredup states on their site here that they pay out up to 40% and that new items with tags still attached are worth more. You can clearly see from my payout that I did not receive even close to that payout. If you go to their Facebook page there are TONS of unhappy customers talking about their low payouts on high end clothing, many received less than 10% of their listing price (Thredup’s price, not retail price).
As a buyer I think you are safe because I have personally bought from them already 5 times but do NOT give them any of your clothing because the payouts are incredibly cheap.
Some additional warnings about the service
* If you do choose to use them then do know there is a risk involved and that unless you pay a $10 fee to have the clothing they do not take returned to you they will donate them.
* There is a $5 bag fee which is currently temporarily waived for now but will be in effect later on. If that bag fee had been in effect I would have had $5 deducted from my payout, resulting in an even lower payout.
Here are some additional bag payouts courtesy of MamaBreak.com
13 Comments
Tammy Rinaldi
I am so glad you posted this because as a buyer I agree with you that the company can offer great children’s clothing at affordable prices. However, I did receive a women’s dress recently with HOLES in it. They have yet to refund the purchase price to me for that or even respond to numerous emails. Secondly, I have also sent in two bags to them for processing. My 1st bag of expensive items mixed with mid priced items got a whopping measely $13 dollar payout which they promptly took 10 back for their “return assurance” option for those items mysteriously not up to their standards. That bag, was inexplicably sent to another person in New Jersey and not to me in Kansas. They never got it back to me despite 50 emails trying to get them to correct it. That bag is lost in the system, not confirmed sent back to the warehouse, nor delivered to me here (usps # 92612904852386511003245862). And they no longer respond at all on that issue. Second bag #161348 got a better payout and frankly nothing close to what their calculator claimed and again I got robbed. This return assurance bag was missing a $120 A&G by Amal Guessous Couture Line silk scarf that was NOT paid out on, nor returned to me. It just grew legs and walked off from Processor#7 who btw, claimed it had a hole in it-which was a flat-out lie! That scarf had nothing wrong with it and since it just flat disappeared, I now see why. Again, after about 50 emails, their customer service has YET to make this right. Now, here’s a heads-up for those who have posted or are considering posting their negative experiences on thredUp’s facebook page….they WILL delete & ban you no matter what. And this is to do obvious damage control. They have an “F” rating with the BBB, which they continue to ignore. They have several outstanding complaints with the KS State Atty General’s office, one of which is mine for interstate commerce fraud and theft. The CEO James Reinhart likes to get online and post Instagram images of himself eating hotdogs at the San Fran Country Club, paid for of course by you and me along with a published diatribe in the company blog about how all of us who’ve complained are quote end quote, “liars” just out to get him and thredUp. Also, he does most of the sanitizing of the FB public comments. I know because every time I’ve left one, he’s come on commenting then erasing all the complaints for that day. When you log back in, you soon discover how juvenile he is because you’re banned. I am sure of one thing….they will not last too much longer conducting business in such a fashion. So, enjoy those dogs while they last James.
admin
Thank you for sharing your story. I do remember you! I had seen you posting asking for them to look into where your bag had gone. That it absolutely ridicules that they did not make it right. I saw that they had admitted to you that they mistakenly sent the bag to the wrong address so they should make this right.
Tammy Rinaldi
Well, I am here to tell everyone that bag is in postal purgatory still. And they not only flat just don’t care, they ignore emails to their customer service email and lied to me about contacting the postal service to boot! I opened the Case # with them myself and learned directly from USPS that usps had no record of anyone from Thredup contacting them to initiate a package trace. Lost bags, pennies-on-the-dollar payouts is one thing but they have consistently lied to me and I have the emails to prove it. The nerve right?
Cara
I couldn’t agree with you more. ThredUP is the biggest ripoff online today. If you are a seller – DO NOT SEND THEM YOUR CLOTHES. I sent them practically new, in excellent condition, childrens’ clothes and they found every conceivable excuse not to “accept my clothes”. Wonder what they’re going to do with them now? (Selling them without paying me!) “Tiny flaws” that are nowhere to be seen, invisible “stains”, “brand not accepted” (yet the accepted the same brand on other items of clothing.) I sent them over 50 pieces of clothing and several pairs of shoes and they sent me $13! THREDUP IS A SCAM.
admin
How do you find out the reason for them not accepting the clothes? When they gave me my credit I got no word as to why the others were not accepted? Anyway, I completely agree with you. I won’t ever sell my clothes to them again. I have been buying stuff but never ever will I sell to them.
Sarah
Ugh! I was googling info on TU and saw your post…I sent in a bag of returns and received an email that my refunds were applied and THEY WERE NOT!! I had am still chasing down a refund for clothing they got back.
AND to add insult to injury they have had a bag of our clothes since June 24th yep almost a while month, payout was promised as of yesterday.
I did however get a sweet Matilda Jane dress for $8.99, which is a such a steal.
Bottom line, I would not recommend this site to anyone and am considering contacting paypal to do a chargeback on the purchases they have not refunded me for.
Sorry for the vent:)
admin
I am sorry you sent in clothes. It’s too bad you didn’t see my post beforehand. I stand by what I said about buying from them. You really can score some sweet deals.
Jussi
Would you like to try swap.com? We offer real consignment model where you set the prices for the items. We take $1+20% commission on sales, but we photograph, list and story your items and handle the possible returns and refunds (you will always be paid when the item sells even if the item is returned). If the item does not sell in 45 days, we offer a SureSell guarantee, which means that we’ll make an offer for the items you still have on your account. You do not have to accept the offer, but you can continue selling the items if you want.
If you would like to try us out, I can send you a code for free shipping for your items to swap.com (normally $8.90). We do have acceptance criteria for the items (the item needs to be clean, odor-free and in working condition), but we accept all brands and we also accept toys and games and other baby and kids’ stuff and maternity clothes.
admin
Please send me an email emily@emilysfrugsltips.com and maybe we can work together.
Paige
I sold with them and sent a massive bulging bag (30+ items) of Gymboree clothing in perfect shape. With their policy and the price they sale for, I was expecting at least $75-100. I could have easily sold these items at a pop up consignment for $200+. My check: $10! Everytime I get an email of what each item sold for (at least $5 each) it’s like a slap in the face.
Never ever again.
admin
I am sorry to read that 🙁 I see its not gotten any better. That truly is a slap in the face and a damn shame. I would say they practically stole your items.
CL
This is an older post, but adding this anyway in case anyone else is having a similar issue.
They now have a ‘points system’ where you can earn points for purchases. (or so you think) You can trade 1000 points for a $10 credit. I just accumulated enough points for two $10 credits so I tried to use both and do a bundle order to save on shipping.
AS SOON as I tried to use those points they cancelled my order and did NOT return the points to me! They put the items right back up for sale. I can assume they weren’t making enough on them because they listed the items a little higher in value when they relisted them (same exact item, descriptions, measurement, size and PHOTOS) the exact item, not a new or different similar item.
I complained and sent numerous emails, but have not received any help from them.
Finally one of them responded that they couldn’t give me my points back, so I was told to just place a new order and they would credit the amount of the points I’d earned right back to my card or paypal “immediately” after the transaction.
Guess who was dumb enough to fall for it?
Now they have even more of my money because they did not ever credit me back. Four more emails later, still no recourse no refund. So now I have an open Paypal dispute, a BBB dispute and a huge loss of my time.
Thredup is a rip off for selling AND buying.
admin
That’s frustrating 🙁