The RealReal

I'll be fair and start off with the good part... they ship very quickly which is why I'm giving it 2 stars instead of 1. The customer service representative also accommodated me prior to my purchase with a promo code that had expired but would grant me it anyway. That's the good part. Now, here's the part you WANT TO READ: I bought a Tiffany necklace from them, $200, even though I'd later discover that they lie about the item shown in their listing photos as being the actual item sold. THEY USE WHAT APPEARS TO BE STOCK PHOTOS! For the same necklace (if they have multiple to sell), the same exact photos are used for each listing! The product page states, "Photos are of the actual item in our possession" yet when I emailed them to ask for a visually-detailed photo of the item, they SENT ME THE SAME PHOTOS AS WHAT I HAD ALREADY BEEN VIEWING FROM THE PRODUCT PAGE. WTF? So as if that's not bad enough (obviously, I overlooked this as being a potential issue - I needed to get my daughter a gift in time for her birthday so I placed the order anyway), they described the necklace's pendant as being in "very good" condition, having "light scratches" on the pendant, which leads one to believe there are a few here and there, hardly noticeable, right? Wrong. The entire pendant looks like someone used sand paper on it. I'm livid. I'm leaving this review to warn others that THEIR PHOTOS SHOULD BE OF DETAIL for selling used items. It's my bad for not taking the warning signs seriously before my experience. I'm contacting corporate to suggest that they get their QA/QC team involved to determine what went wrong here - in a nutshell, the stock photos they use are clearly false advertisement. Look at my photo and their listing photos and you'll see the difference in detail, and how it is misleading! Seriously, read other people's reviews and also articles from CNBC where it states this company is borderline fraud. They have "experts" who authenticate without having had any training.

On two different occasions I've ordered Chanel bags from The Real Real. And I have worked at a high-end retail store for years; I know how to package and ship any, but especially expensive, items. Both times I requested on the order itself to package the handbag with the chain straps/handle to be placed INSide the bag with cushion around it. Both times they ignored my request, but they also SHOULD know with ANY merchandise to not lay a bag on top of its straps (and without cushion around the straps) you wouldn't do this at home so you shouldn't be in the habit at work. Now both these Chanel bags have indentations, indentations that were not there on the photos and what's more, they're on the FRONT side of the bags! I couldn't believe their mishandling and their not caring.

When I spoke with a staff member after ordering the first time, she said, oh just give it back then.' I don't Want to return it. You messed up.
I saved up for and wanted that specific hard-to-find item that they ignorantly let get a "smile" line across its front. No apology either. Sad.
It's really about teaching the ignorant how to properly package items, so basic. I don't trust them to handle items correctly; what if this had been a gift?
And they let it happen again with the second bag. Same request, same hope, same basic packaging 101 error. Who are you hiring?
Honestly I have found much better customer service on eBay, with the highest ranking sellers. Some even have gift receipts and authenticity cards! I no longer receive emails from them so I'm assuming they removed me from their list. Saved me a step unsubscribing.
Time to be teachable, TRR.

I had the same issue as at least 1 previous consumer. I never make expensive purchases my first time on an online site, and bought a small Bottega Veneta bag to try out the RealReal. AFTER the company charged my credit card the following business day and NOT receiving any update on the order for over a week, I finally received the following e-mail after calling their customer service line TWICE:

Thank you for shopping The RealReal. Additional information is required before we can complete the processing of your order. We are requesting that you submit the following:
1) A photograph of your government issued identification card
2) The authorization code for this transaction from your bank OR
3) A screen shot of your most recent bank statement where this charge is displayed
No scanned copies will be accepted.
After we have confirmed this information, your order will be processed.
Thank you,
TheRealReal.com
*******893

They're basically asking me to give them ALL the key components for any hack to commit identity fraud: 1. A government issued ID not only has the associated unique identification number, but also includes my birthdate, home address, and photograph; 2. My bank account number as displayed on the statement, and 3. The credit card number associated with account. What makes this worse is the fact that their privacy policy is EXTREMELY vague when stating how this information, once provided by E-MAIL, is encrypted, stored or shared with third parties.

So much for protecting your customers. If the RealReal is sincerely invested in doing this and preventing fraudulent purchases, they would 1. NOT charge the credit card before verifying identity, and 2. Find a better way to do it! Have shopped at multiple stores providing online international purchasing services (I live in Canada) such as Neiman Marcus, Saks, Bergdorf Goodman, Yoogi's closet, Nordstrom, etc... and have NEVER been asked to provide this information for ID verification.

I've ordered once from TheRealReal and was generally happy with my purchase. The item was beautiful and a good price. I don't really like how they charge $12 for shipping that takes a week. But like I said, what I got was a good price so I suppose it balances out. I took off one star (and debated taking off two) for their incredibly strange customer service. I corresponded with a seller on another site who said they sent an item I was interested in off to TheRealReal. I didn't see it up on the site, so I emailed to ask when it might be. The agent that responded to me did so in a way that was muddled and badly written. Basically they told me that they didn't really know of the item, but "if" the item was in their inventory, it would be on the site soon, but only "if" it was in their inventory... Okay, so if you are prevented from revealing merchandise before it is up on the site, just tell me that. I wasn't really satisfied with that response, so when TRR emailed to ask what I thought of their service, I said I wasn't really happy with the answer I got as it was vague and unhelpful. To my surprise, the same agent that I was referring to sent me an email in response about how they did their best and shouldn't have received a bad rating. What company asks customers how they feel about the service and sends that feedback directly to the person who helped them? That's incredibly strange and deceptive. They asked for my feedback for the purposes of improving their practices, not so that I would be harassed by the very agent I critiqued. I've never, ever had a company do this. It made me uncomfortable to say the very least. I really hope TheRealReal does not consistently forward feedback ABOUT customer service to the same agents providing it. **UPDATE** I received a nice apology from them after writing this review. Additionally, I learned that the seller that had told me they had sent the item to TRR had foolishly not done so and told me so anyway. Still, I do think it was strange that they forwarded my feedback to the woman. I'm not nearly as upset about the situation since they never had the item to begin with.

RealReal BAD. OK, add me to the list of exceedingly disappointed one-off customers. I bought one ETRO handbag that was marked something like "perfect" or "pristine" condition. The thing that arrived was nowhere near pristine and an obvious fake to boot: stiff plastic-y feel; tarnished, corroded hardware rings (with separations!) attaching the handles to the bag; separations in the "leather" piping where it should have been solid; the "leather" trim had a flimsy, "machine stamped" quality to it; plus the thing had a really off, weird odor(!); and, finally, some sort of attempt at an interior, barely decipherable ETRO label that was thoroughly unconvincing.

I mean, I own ETRO pieces and know the quality of the brand and this was NOT CLOSE. I was so disgusted that they would have the gall to sell something like that, that I lost all confidence in trying to go through the hassle of returning it. I was getting ready to re-consign it back to them when I did a search for reviews on their consignment practices and found this. Can't say that I am surprised to see all these negative reviews, so I will just chalk up my loss. I can't even imagine myself trying to sell this thing on eBay.

I stopped browsing there very shortly after this initial shopping experience. The website looks slick, slick, slick, and you will definitely get pulled into "obsessing" about the things they offer until you find yourself getting rooked. I'm usually a very understanding, forgiving customer and very supportive of luxury retail, but my first experience with the RealReal was flat-out appalling and undeserving of allowing them to try and make it right.

Buyer (and seller) Beware!