The RealReal BadBad: Fashion's next big scandal? 👀🍿🧃

An open lawsuit alleges fraud while customer complaints flood social media

If you’re looking for Aly’s class action form— it’s here.

Like all good gumshoeing adventures, this one started when seeing a complaint about The RealReal in a friend’s Instagram stories.

I reached out to some folks also complaining on Twitter but there wasn’t a particularly big angle. The RealReal eventually found my friend’s skirt— 16 weeks later. She’s still waiting to get the jacket back.

Then earlier this week I was contacted by a woman suing The RealReal for over $5M for allegedly selling $232,000 worth of her items without permission (her full story is below). A quick new search of social media showed that there were suddenly A LOT more upset customers taking to Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook with their complaints.

I connected with a breadth of consignors and buyers from The RealReal while sorting through the lawsuit documents. Through each of these conversations, it became apparent that The RealReal is definitely navigating some very strange service issues. Below are a series of customer stories detailing an extensive array of problems.

After reaching out to The RealReal via email asking to speak to someone for this story, the team replied saying, “We're unable to offer you a comment or an interview at this time.”

This article is long but I promise it is SO, SO, SO WORTH THE READ. It has (alleged) fraud, (alleged) lying, (alleged) stealing, and more.

Without further ado, The RealReal has really done some customers dirty… and these are their stories *Law & Order sound*.

A Multitude of Problems

The RealReal has struggled with selling counterfeits, was sued by Chanel and settled an $11 million dollar class action– which had been led by one of their own investors.

More recently, the issues appear to be coming from a disgruntled userbase, massive amounts of unhappy tweets, and comments on The RealReal’s Instagram, they’re certainly having widespread difficulties across their customer base. 

Selling consignors’ products for pennies on the dollar–  oftentimes despite requests to have them returned

While Vestiaire launched a free calculator to calculate the average resale value of designer items, The RealReal makes no guarantee about the price at which pieces will sell– even if they sell at a 90% discount. 

We first connected with a photographer (let’s call him Snap) based in Florida who had had a good experience selling a Gucci coat (~$4k new) through the platform in November of 2021. When dropping the coat off in the New York store he was told that he’d have the opportunity to approve the listing price before it was posted for sale. Unsurprisingly, about two months later, he got a notification that the coat had sold for $3,300.

Quickly thereafter, Snap was informed that the coat had actually been sold at a 20% discount, for a $2,600 sale. Having collected a 60% commission ($1,584) and the experience having gone relatively well, he sent a variety of clothing which included a couple pairs of Louis Vuitton sneakers, a Hermès agenda, and two Philipp Plein bomber jackets. While some items were returned, he received notification that some of his items were sold. From this new batch of consigned items-- the first two sales (both jackets) were sold at a 20% discount and the commission rate remained at 60%. The Hermès agenda was the third item to sell from the batch, but this one sold at a 50% discount and Snap’s commission was 50%. The last item to sell was the $1,700 Marc By Marc Jacobs bomber jacket which sold for $70 and Snap’s commission was 30%. Another piece, a limited edition $5,500 Plein Jacket, was sold for $260.00. He reflected, “How do those things happen? They [The RealReal] don't send it to me for approval, they put it online for sale somewhere and it sells immediately and it's like oh, we sold it for $70. It's like, fuck you. For $70, why would I even take the trouble? I think I got $21 for that jacket.” 

He did, per his screenshot below:

Overall, we’ve noticed a trend across all of the consignors we spoke with who were allegedly verbally told by The RealReal appraisers that they’d have the opportunity to request their items be returned if they didn’t approve the listing prices. Unfortunately in almost all of these cases, most of the consignors were allegedly not given this opportunity. 

In order to successfully sign up as a consignor via the website, you are required to accept their Consigner Terms which states that upon receipt of your items, once inspected, authenticated, and accepted “The Accepted Items will then be processed and listed as available for sale on the Service and, at Our discretion, may also concurrently be displayed and available for purchase at one of Our retail store locations. Please note that all list prices are determined at Our sole discretion unless We have previously agreed otherwise with You in writing,” which renders any verbal agreements with the appraisers as mentioned above, not something they’re required to uphold.

As we learned with Aly, it’s not that they uphold the written ones either but mmkay. 

Erik Altemus @ErikAltemus

@therealreal is shit. NEVER buy or sell w/ them. I sent a few items to be appraised, asked for ALL of those items to be returned to me EXCEPT a pair of shoes (see screen shot below). Today I received an email saying the coat (which has not been returned) was sold 🤯

liza darwin @lizadarwin

Does @therealreal seem like even more of a mess than usual? I sent in a new-with-tags Derek Lam dress, they mistakenly priced it for the cost of a salad, and now I can't get in touch with them to revise the price or take down the item.

You Get A Sale, You Get A Sale, EVERYBODY GETS A SALE!

Whether just lucky timing or a perfect indication to further prove the trend of deep, deep discounts on inventory at the time of writing this, there’s a 48-hour warehouse sale. The sale is allegedly “75%-90% Off Everything” but unless they mean from retail value, our saved “to watch” items are certainly excluded.

Below are some screenshots– I’m not a high fashion person but seeing someone’s $12,000 dress on sale for $900 makes me feel ill. 

Losing consignors’ products—both when sent in via mail AND when dropped off directly to The RealReal stores

While my friend I’d mentioned at the top of this story eventually got her items back from The RealReal, others weren’t so lucky.

An owner of a skincare brand in California (let’s call her L’eau) last November. She had sent The RealReal a custom-designed necklace with sapphire beads, Beryl beads, and coated in a liquid diamond finish. Immediately, her experience with The RealReal started off oddly, "the first thing that I thought was super weird was I had an appraisal scheduled with this girl and she comes on the Zoom and she has one of those Zoom backgrounds like a fake office background. There was just a lot of noise, and she's like 'Oh well, I'm sorry, I'm driving right now.' And that was so weird for me because I'm like 'how are you driving?' I just thought that was super odd.” 

After speaking with the appraiser, L’eau had a feeling the appraisal was going to be a lowball, but the appraiser had assured her that she’d have the option of getting her necklace returned if she didn’t like the quote. “So that is where I wish I'd done my research because I put it in a mailer and thought ah whatever, if they don't want to list it for any reason or I just don't like the price, they'll send it back to me,” L’eau said. 

Unfortunately, after the 18-day window for the appraisal delivery came and went, L’eau followed up to check the status of her necklace. It took a full six weeks but finally, the necklace was listed under the “My Sales” category simply as “Necklace Necklaces” and the status update “Not Accepted.”

Upon reaching out to customer service, L’eau was told that her necklace was going to be expedited back to her and that she would get it shortly. For the next ten weeks, she frequently contacted customer service via chat (the phone number simply redirects you to text a number for help) and was given two $75 in store credits and told shipping was just very backed up. Despite then using the credit to buy two items and having quickly received them, L’eau said her necklace, “went into a black hole there and I never saw it again.”

After telling The RealReal’s customer service that she had contacted the FBI and reported them for theft, she was told that the necklace had been lost in the return transit and the investigation team had approved she be compensated for the loss-- based on the market demand. The amount she’s been promised is $795, only 2/3 of the lost necklace’s initial value.

L’eau is still waiting on the payment and was last told she could expect it to come through on February 15th. She’s skeptical, however, "I don't understand. This is not rocket science. You guys are a publicly traded company, right? You must have had some systems and processes to get to that point,” she told me on the phone. “It seems like their business plan doesn't actually work. That's the only thing I can actually think of. And like it's just pure greed and they don't want to tell investors that they're actually not succeeding" 

Before we hung up, L’eau laughed and told me, "I’m like, I just want my stuff back before you guys go bankrupt. They have to be going bankrupt, right? This is the most insane thing."

Summer Bowie @SummerBowie

Do not ever do business with the @therealreal . They took a 6000$ Christian Dior pantsuit and after months of run arounds, I asked for it to be returned to me. They lost the jacket and there is not one competent human-being who can speak to me to explain what is going on.

After having spent over $10,000 at The RealReal between 2016 and 2021, Lori Fenske of Naples, FL had decided to consign some items on the platform after doing a closet purge. One of the items Fenske sent was a never-worn $500 JBrand jacket (with tags) since it was a tiny bit too small but ultimately The RealReal told her they’d be sending it back to her– but it never arrived.

Customer service created and sent Fenske a shipping label but the tracking number showed there were no updates after ‘label created’. Fenske said that after two months, "I finally received an email from customer service that said ‘I wasn't able to retrieve your consignment, however, I will be moving forward with compensating you for this loss by issuing you the commission earned as if these items sold to a customer on our website.’ They tell me they're giving me $8 for a $500 jacket. $8.”

Fenske followed up with customer service about the laughable cost offered for the missing jacket. “They asked me to find a comparable jacket and brand. I found this [Alice + Olivia blazer] and they said it wasn’t comparable. It is but they’d have to pay me 60% commission instead of $8”.  After months of haggling, “they gave me $75 for it, which I haven't seen yet. Which is ridiculous."

Selling counterfeits or products in bad condition and sending incorrect orders—but returns are difficult

A marketing manager from Brooklyn was excited to order a Celine bag for work but when it arrived, she found it too flimsy. Within the week she decided to buy a Prada bag off The RealReal and return her previous purchase.

She said, “I knew because of the Terms and Conditions I had to resend and resubmit the [Celine] bag, and potentially not get full price back for the Celine bag but you know, I understood those consequences.” Unfortunately shortly after making the return she received a message from The RealReal back saying it was a counterfeit bag and they couldn’t authenticate it. 

She was incredibly upset and tried to argue with customer service about them having sold her the fake bag in the first place and that she wanted her money back. Customer service wanted to give her credit and she recalls, “I told them ‘I don’t want a credit for a fake bag.’ It literally took months, honestly, it was just a terrible experience. I went to PayPal and tried to get my money back, I talked to many people in customer service. I did not get my money back. So yeah. I don’t like The RealReal.”

Also complaining about receiving an item in bad condition is Bethenny Frankel who recently posted a TikTok captioned “ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK @TheRealReal #Scam #LuxuryHandbag” to share her experience with the platform. After showing off her bag she concludes, “What I maintain is that The RealReal is the wild, wild west, Moroccan bazaar. If you want to sell stuff really quickly, just get it out for pennies but you get it out of your house and they’re gonna sell it, that’s where you go. Which means if you’re buying, you might be able to get a deal but enter at your own risk. It is like buying a bag in a Moroccan bazaar because it might just be listed as ‘very good’ even though it looks ‘very old’”

@bethennyfrankelENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK @therealreal #scam #luxuryhandbag

Tiktok failed to load.

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She concludes with “I guess what you guys were saying is true, so under no circumstances should you be purchasing a handbag on The RealReal. Share your stories please”

What’s Old Is New Again

Her Imperial Highness, Abímbọ́lá Fernandez, the star of African Royale had a bad experience with The RealReal in 2017 when they dramatically underpriced 600+ couture and vintage pieces from her late mother’s collection. Note: we’ll be publishing her story in the next few days– so remember to subscribe for that notification.

In 2018 The RealReal disappointed another large consignor. Aly Sene-Dorsi is a French woman living in New York City and she’s accusing The RealReal of having sold ~$232k worth of clothing, handbags, accessories, and shoes without her knowledge or consent. As a result, she’s suing The RealReal for $5M.

When Aly tweeted me asking if I’d want to learn about her legal battle with The RealReal. Of course, I did, as the case has already cost Aly over $52,000 and counting. Her case can be found in the New York State Supreme Court E-Filing system: Index Number 100336/2020 in front of The Honorable Judge Louis N. Nock. It was filed on March 2nd, 2020. 

Oh! Also, while Aly has been claiming for three years that The RealReal forged a consignment agreement to defend selling belongings, the Manhattan DA’s office is now open to starting an investigation; if Aly is able to provide them with a list of other affected consumers.

Buckle up. This court case is wild and there are a ton of strange things to discuss. Ultimately I tried to let the facts speak for themselves and only editorialize when sharing my own fact-based conclusions after having combed through all the lawsuit documents. Okay, there’s also some sass and I’d like to think I even have a Legally Blonde moment toward the end.

And So We Begin

Aly’s story begins on September 13, 2018, when she had a Luxury Manager from The RealReal visit her home to pick up dozens of items to assess and price out for a potential consignment. Upon connecting with her assigned Luxury Manager, Aly made it very clear that she was merely seeking pricing before deciding whether or not she would consign with The RealReal.

Like with the one below, all of the screenshots are from documents from the publically available court documents through the New York State Supreme Court E-Filing system, all of which are public records. I’ve highlighted in pink, sections of the screenshots I believe are important.

Between the September 13th visit and October 15th, Aly and her Luxury Manager sporadically communicated about pricing. Upon receiving and reviewing the Luxury Manager Pricing List on October 15th, Aly decided that she would not consign with The RealReal as she felt her pieces had been undervalued.  

Aly texted and emailed her Luxury Manager on October 15th saying, “I just looked at the prices. They are below what I was expecting. I have sold several items on eBay for much more money. There was definitely some time involved in dealing with the buyers but since i am not in dire need to make more [money] off the items I’ll use the services of a freelance seller to deal with them for me. I apologize for taking up some of your time.”

To which the Luxury Manager is shown to have emailed back on the same day, “Noted. Thank you for letting me know” and arranged for the return of Aly’s belongings. 

Per the lawsuit documents, almost exactly a year later, in October of 2019, Aly was complimented on her coat by a woman who said she worked at The RealReal. When Aly mentioned not consigning with the platform in the past due to the low item pricing, the woman allegedly said, "Check us out again because a lot has changed / improved in the past year."

On October 9, 2019 a Senior Group Manager contacted Aly about scheduling an in-home pickup of her belongings to assess their potential resale value. On November 11, Aly responded stating she was again, merely seeking a price assessment before moving ahead with any consignment agreement. On November 15, another Luxury Manager from The RealReal met Aly and picked up 131 items. Four days later, an additional 7 items from Aly’s doorman. Aly claims to have never been presented with a Consignment Agreement from The RealReal. 

Aly estimates that the value of the pieces picked up totaled ~$232,000. According to the lawsuit, 138 items included pieces from Bottega Venetta, Hermès, Christian Dior, Givenchy, Gucci, Fendi, Chloé, Balenciaga, Alexander Wang, Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, and Saint Laurent. 

Throughout correspondence in October 2019 through January 2020, Aly repeatedly stated (via text, email, and verbally) she was simply seeking pricing again. Below are a sampling, more can be found throughout this piece and via the court exhibits in our appendix below.

Quick very, very important thing to remember: The RealReal’s Consignment/Sales Agreement Contract states that once the items are received at the warehouse and approved by the platform, they are immediately uploaded and listed for sale. 

When reading through the email threads as a third party, it was evident that three things are true: 1) The RealReal was proceeding with what appears to be their standard practice of uploading items for sale upon receipt. 2) Aly had stated in writing that she was only looking for an initial price assessment, so her understanding is that The RealReal team is getting her those prices to review. 3) When Aly had approached The RealReal a year earlier in 2018 for a price assessment, she was indeed given a preliminary price list for her items on which she ultimately decided not to consign with The RealReal.

In understanding those three facts, suddenly the email threads can be read through both perspectives and see the two varying expectations for a final outcome. Intentional or not, The RealReal’s communication feels to me like they’re aware of this misunderstanding– and while reminding Aly of the pricing being uploaded to the dashboard, they *never* outright say: the pricing being live on the dashboard is a result of your items being listed for sale. 

Let’s take a look at an example, this is an email from Aly’s Luxury Manager on December 4th:

Again, the email can be read in two, very true ways ie: “start the consignment process” can mean both “get you an initial price list before listing” AND “process your items for sale.” Starting to see some  🚩 🚩s? Also, “… we aren’t unable to provide final pricing until…” Freudian slip? Couldn’t decide between “we aren’t” and “we’re unable”? Who knows!

So in my opinion (hi lawyers):

At best, this makes The RealReal look incompetent– the Luxury Manager has forgetten Aly’s written request for an initial price assessment. 

At worst, this makes The RealReal look calculating and dishonest– ignoring Aly’s written request and proceeding with the sales process while being deliberately vague in their communications. This allows them to argue that they’ve been telling Aly they’re going ahead with the sale the whole time.

Curious as to which one it was. 

Anyway. Per the lawsuit, The RealReal uploaded Aly’s items to the platform in December– unsurprisingly, meaning the clothes were actively listed for sale. Because Aly understood that the items’ suggested prices were available on the dashboard for her to review, she replied that she was in no rush to approve the pricing until after the holiday season had passed.

Simultaneously, Aly, was unable to access the account that had been created for her because the passwords provided by The RealReal never worked– a fact that was corroborated by the IT department during a customer service call that Aly had recorded.

Aly was finally able to access her account on January 6th by logging in through Facebook.

It was only upon gaining access to her account that Aly realized that her pieces had already been listed on the marketplace as being for sale, with a few items already having been sold at prices she felt were drastically too low. She immediately texted her Luxury Manager.

Again, looking at The RealReal Luxury Manager’s text and Aly’s reply– it’s frustratingly evident there’s still a huge gap between Aly’s understanding of the situation and The RealReal now having officially begun selling Aly’s items. I do wish that at this point, Aly had simply pulled the plug but instead, Aly confirmed she’d review the pricing on the dashboard.

Unfortunately, while her text conveyed she still hadn’t comprehended that the pricing being available on the dashboard meant that her pieces were up for sale., The RealReal made no attempt to correct this misunderstanding. Something they were obligated to do? I guess not. Should have done? Absolutely. 

Now I’m curious about whether The RealReal Luxury Managers get a commission on the items they convince people to list.

Anyway. With the above exchange, Aly assumed that The RealReal now understood no items should be listed for sale until she’d had the opportunity to approve the pricing. On January 10th she received an email from a new contact at The RealReal:

The verbiage of this email indicates the desire to have a conversation about what to consign now – implying that the decision is still to be made about what should be listed for sale in the future, further reassuring Aly that everything is now copasetic.

When logging back in on January 13th- again through her Facebook account- Aly realized that all her items were still listed for sale, with dozens having been sold for “nauseatingly low amounts.”

Aly then again, allegedly reached out to her Luxury Manager stressing that she hadn’t approved the items’ pricing, something she’d expressed as a requirement before she agreed to potentially move forward with selling through The RealReal. Aly also explicitly told The RealReal to cease selling her items and to send them back to her immediately. The RealReal agreed to pull all unsold listed items from the marketplace and return them to Aly within 3 business days.

Between January 13th and January 24th, Aly consistently reached out to The RealReal requesting updates on her items being returned–as they were simply listed as “update in progress” on the platform. Despite her constant check-ins with customer service about packages that never arrived, Aly only received 43 items back as of February 17, 2020. 

Now here’s where it gets real(real) weird.

Between January 13th and January 22nd, Aly was trying to find out why her items had been sold without her consent. 

The RealReal pointed to a Consignor Agreement that Aly signed as the reason the items were immediately uploaded for sale upon approval.

And yet. Aly claims she didn’t sign the signed contract The RealReal has in its possession.

Now, you know we love some good internet gumshoeing here at The Wreck List so there are two points of evidence to consider that Aly has flagged in her Affirmation In Opposition of The RealReal’s Motion To Dismiss:

1. The initials in the Docusign are not those that Aly regularly uses when signing documents. She includes multiple documents in her lawsuit materials that span several years from 2016 to 2020, all showing her initials as ASD (as opposed to AS, as on The RealReal contract). 

2. The timeline relating to the signed contract in The RealReal’s possession:

   1. On September 13th, 2018 at 4:03pm EST, The Luxury Manager emailed Aly a note saying she was running 15-20 minutes late for the appointment.

   2. Based on the timestamp (in PST) of the DocuSign’ed contract— all the activity below happened on September 13, 2018:

      1. The contract was emailed at 4:27:08 pm

      2. The contract was delivered 18 seconds later to the inbox (4:27:26 pm)

      3. The contract was signed at 4:27:52 pm– 26 seconds after it was delivered via email & roughly no more than 10 minutes after the Luxury Manager arrived at Aly’s apartment. Perhaps it’s standard to have a Luxury Manager immediately present the contract upon meeting a client for the first time?

3. In any case, a month after the meeting, the Luxury Manager emailed Aly on October 1, 2018, with “We should have everything to you by end of day today, and once approved and the contract is signed, we can move forward with a pick up this week. Apologies for the delay.” So, the Luxury Manager either didn’t have the signed contract yet or she forgot that she’d walked Aly through signing the contract in-person, on September 13th. No biggie, mistakes happen.

4. Worth noting that in June of 2021, the same Luxury Manager signed a sworn Affidavit saying, “3. I walked Ms. Sene-Dorsi through the Consignment Agreement on my iPad and directed her to initial each page of the Agreement and sign the Agreement using DocuSign, an application that allows consignors to execute agreements using electronic signatures. 4. I observed Ms. Sene-Dorsi signing the Consignment Agreement using an electronic signature on September 13, 2018.” Interesting that the same Luxury Manager indicated via the Oct 18th email that Aly had not yet signed the contract during their meeting the month before. Easy thing to forget! Just curious to see that the same Luxury Manager could now indeed recall the signing, two and a half years later.

4. Anyway, jumping back to January 29, 2020 — Aly is now frantically trying to recoup her items from The RealReal. She calls customer service to ask about the status of the items being shipped back and also takes the opportunity to ask about the Consignor Agreement and the agent indicates that there is not a signed contract associated with her account. Below is a transcript of the call which Aly also recorded:

Aly: “Ok, let me go back. Yes, I received it yesterday at 10:01pm that is the last shipment information I received. Is there any problem Betsy?”

Betsy: “No. No, the 27th is the correct date.”

Aly “Yes. Ok. So, at this point there is nothing that can be done. Betsy, could you do me one last favor and just check in your record if there is a Consignment Agreement?”

Betsy: “Let’s see. I see on the My Sales page itself, it has “ Consignment Contract PLEASE SIGN .” but I don’t know if….”

Aly: “What do you mean pre-signed? Pre-signed by whom?”

Betsy: “It is asking you to PLEASE SIGN on TRR website.”

Aly: “Oh yes, it’s not signed. I never signed anything.”

Betsy: “…. but it’s not signed on TRR website”

Aly: “So where do you find that? Can you please walk me through this? I am actually gonna go to the page. How can I access that, please?”

Betsy: “Are you on your My Sales page now? Where it says next to Billing Statement.”

4. Aly logged into her account on January 30th and noticed she was indeed being prompted to “Please Review and Act on These Documents” which instructed review and sign the Consignor Agreement. Weird, considering since again, in the above 2021 Luxury Manager’s Affidavit, she had observed Aly signing the contract back in September of 2018. And yet, a signed contract clearly wasn’t on Aly’s account portal.

   

4. On February 12th Aly called The RealReal’s in-house lawyer four times. She left a voicemail asking her about the prompt to sign the contract on the portal.  

5. When Aly logged in to the portal again on February 14th, 2020, the prompt to sign the contract had disappeared.

Ok, So Ultimately, Here’s The Thing...

Let’s pretend for a minute that Aly for some reason inadvertently or accidentally signed the initial contract as part of the sign-up process on September 13, 2018. That contract’s Termination clause reads:“You and The RealReal may each terminate this Agreement in writing at any time, for any reason. Termination will be effective on the date of such notice and the costs listed under “Consignment Period and Return of Property”, will apply.”

As we know, Aly texted the Luxury Manager on October 15, 2018, “The prices you are offering are too low. So I will not consign with you. Thank you for the time you allocated to me. I am sorry we cannot love [sic] forward” would satisfy that definition of a written termination. Thus terminating the hypothetical contract.

This would then have required Aly to sign a new contract for the items picked up in November 2019– which by all records, was never done.

For some weird reason I knew that every contract contains an implied duty of good faith and fair dealing– which means it’d be unreasonable for The RealReal to necessitate specific/legal verbiage from regular consumers without EXPLICITLY STATING necessary language be used.

So either The RealReal didn’t have a contract with Aly in 2019 OR The RealReal has stuck all of its consignors into a Hotel California situation by not explicitly stating the magic words needed to terminate their contracts. 

Wonder which one they’re going to admit to.

In Any Case…

After returning only 43 of the 138 items they initially picked up, The RealReal offered Aly a reimbursement of $49,977 on February 23, 2020. Aly claims that most of the returned items “ had been worn, used, damaged, soiled, stained, returned with missing parts (buttons, garment bags, dust bags) or detached/missing price tags.”

In that email The RealReal stated that $17,615.50 of that total covered a confusing array of items (including some they still had in their possession but hadn’t mailed back upon her request?):

Aly decided not to take the settlement and continue with her fight. 

Now three years into her legal battle, Aly is now also pulling together consignors who have had similar struggles. 

Raise your hand if you’ve ever been personally victimized by The RealReal– Aly has invited folks to sign up for info on the class action suit here.

We highly encourage anyone with complaints to call the Federal Trade Commission at (877) 382-4357.

So what comes next?

In an effort to increase cash flow, The RealReal has been discussing ways to “reach profitability with lower top line growth compared to what was previously projected,” said co-interim CEO and President, Rati Levesque on The RealReal’s 2022 Q3 Earnings Conference Call.

Levesque outlined the initiatives, “First, overhauling our seller commission structure, which took effect on November 1; second, further optimize our pricing algorithm to get the best price for our sellers; third, take a more aggressive approach on costs; and finally, capitalizing on potential new revenue stream.” 

While conversations about plans towards growth revenue were optimistic, ironically, consignors aren’t seeing the signs of profitable growth. As Fenske observed, "They start discounting right away. They're doing 75% off sales, and they would have never done that before. They tell you you're going to get this amount of money but then as they discount it, and they don't even give it a chance to be sold."

And the lack of profitability might not be The RealReal’s biggest issue as consignors seem to lack trust in the platform as a whole.

Snap, the photographer profiled earlier in this piece said, "There’s a sense that there’s something is going on [at The RealReal]. And somebody is basically stealing your stuff and doesn't really give a fuck.” He continued, "imagine if it was a house or a car and you have a real estate agent and you ask 'can you sell my house?' and you expect he's going to get $3M for it, and he's like 'wow, we sold it! $250,000. You just don't expect that. How is that even possible? It doesn't make sense to anybody. You go into the New York store and they have all the brands there like LV and stuff, you think they're experts on it. It's like Sotheby's, they know what they're dealing with. It's like giving them a Picasso and them selling it for $70 and being like, 'yeah, that was the price, that's what we could get for it so, be happy' but then I wouldn't have given it to you in the beginning."

So, we want to hear your stories in the comments. Or send us an email at hello@thewrecklist.com. ☕

It’s worth stating again that while compiling this piece, we reached out to The RealReal via email but the team replied, “We're unable to offer you a comment or an interview at this time.”

We will, of course, update this story with any new developments. 

Remember: In a couple of days we are telling H.I.H. Abímbọ́lá Fernandez’s story about The RealReal grossly underselling 600+ pieces of vintage and couture clothing from her late mother’s collection.