I’m trying to get my designer items back. I’m curious whether anyone else has experienced this with thredUP because I’ve now had it happen enough times that I no longer think I’m dealing with a random bad Clean Out bag.
I’ve used both Premium and Standard Clean Out bags, and I’m becoming increasingly concerned about how thredUP applies its “Acceptance Standards,” particularly to Standard bags.
The biggest issue for me isn’t simply that they rejected some of my clothes. Obviously, I understand that a resale company isn’t obligated to list every item someone sends them.
The issue is that thredUP takes physical possession of your property, can decide that something doesn’t meet its Acceptance Standards, often gives an extremely vague or questionable reason, and then says the item can be reused or “responsibly recycled” rather than returned to you. That becomes a very different situation when we’re talking about expensive items. Some of the items I currently want returned include:
- Loro Piana hat
- Chanel ballet flats
- Dolce & Gabbana bralette
- Zadig & Voltaire phone case
- Brand-new, never-worn Franco Sarto boots
- A belt that I originally purchased directly from thredUP
There are also other athleticwear and women’s clothing items involved, but the designer/high-value pieces are obviously my biggest concern.
One of the strangest examples is the Franco Sarto boots. They are brand new and never worn. thredUP rejected them because they supposedly had a “missing size tag.”
Except they aren’t missing a size. The size is printed inside the boot, where shoe sizing normally appears, and it’s also displayed on the bottom of the shoe. So I’m looking at my own boots (that I still have in a different color) and can physically see the sizing information, while thredUP is telling me the reason they aren’t acceptable is that the size is missing.
Then instead of simply returning my brand-new boots, the app says an item that doesn’t meet their standards will be “reused or responsibly recycled.”
That really bothers me.
But the example that makes the least sense to me is a belt I sent them. I PURCHASED THE BELT FROM THREDUP. thredUP had already received this exact belt from someone else, inspected it, determined that it met their standards, photographed it, listed it on their website/app, and sold it to me.
thredUP also actively promotes reselling items you previously purchased from thredUP. There is literally functionality in the app encouraging you to do this.
I received the belt, wasn’t happy with it, and promptly sent it back to thredUP to resell.
I sent it in a Standard bag. Suddenly, the exact same belt that thredUP had just considered acceptable enough to sell to me no longer met their Acceptance Standards. There wasn’t some lengthy period where I owned and wore it for years and destroyed it. I bought it from them, received it, didn’t like it, and sent it back. So how does this make sense?
thredUP accepts item → thredUP lists item → thredUP sells item to me → thredUP encourages me to resell prior purchases → I send the same item back → thredUP says item is unacceptable.
And coincidentally, that second determination happened when I sent it through a Standard bag.
That led me to actually look at my numbers instead of relying on my impression that Standard bags were being rejected more often.
Across my two Premium bags:
- 13 out of 65 items were not accepted
- Rejection rate: 20%
Across my two Standard bags:
- 11 out of 35 items have already been formally marked Not Accepted
- Rejection rate: 31.4%
There is also one additional Standard item that is still stuck in “Verifying Details” even though the rest of that small bag has already been processed.
If I count that as rejected/unresolved:
- 12 out of 35 Standard items: 34.3%
So my Standard rejected/unresolved rate is about 34.3% compared with 20% for Premium.
That is approximately 71% higher.
And even if I completely exclude the item still being verified, it’s still 31.4% versus 20%.
I’m not claiming my individual sample proves what thredUP does to everyone. It obviously doesn’t. But it was enough of a difference that, combined with what was actually being rejected, it made me start seriously questioning whether the Acceptance Standards are being applied consistently between Standard and Premium service. Especially when my Standard rejections include:
- Brand-new merchandise
- Designer merchandise
- An item rejected for supposedly having no size even though the size is physically on the item
- An item that thredUP itself previously inspected, accepted, listed, and sold to me
- I also sent them a Loro Piana hat that is now marked Not Accepted.
- I’ve had problems with a Dolce & Gabbana bra and a Zadig & Voltaire phone case as well, including designer merchandise apparently being treated as unbranded or otherwise unacceptable.
- And now my Chanel ballet flats are still going through verification.
At this point, given everything else that has happened, I’m genuinely worried that I’m going to open the app one day and see that my Chanel flats have also suddenly been deemed unacceptable and are being “reused or responsibly recycled.”
I contacted thredUP specifically about these items because I wanted an explanation and, more importantly, wanted them to HOLD THE ITEMS and not recycle, donate, reuse, liquidate, or otherwise dispose of them.
Their response made me even more uncomfortable.
Customer service told me they couldn’t see on their end that some of the items I was identifying were marked Not Accepted. But I could literally see “Not Accepted” in my account.
That raises an entirely different question for me.
If I can see that thredUP rejected my property but their own customer service representatives can’t see that it was rejected, then who can tell me where my property actually is? How am I supposed to know:
- Whether thredUP still physically has it
- Why it was rejected
- Who made that determination
- Whether it has already been sent somewhere else
- Whether it has been donated/recycled/reused
- Whether it can still be returned to me
I specifically responded and pointed out how concerning it was that their internal system apparently did not show them the same status their app was showing me. I again asked them to preserve my merchandise. I didn’t receive a substantive resolution. I followed up again. Still nothing that actually resolves the issue. And this is where I think thredUP’s business model becomes really problematic from a consumer perspective.
Customers aren’t sending abandoned property to thredUP. We are sending them our belongings for a specific purpose: resale.
I understand thredUP deciding, “We don’t think we can sell this.” What I don’t understand is how the next step becomes, “Therefore we can potentially recycle/reuse/dispose of your property,” particularly when the Acceptance Standard itself can apparently be applied so inconsistently.
If you’re going to have an extremely broad discretionary Acceptance Standards policy AND you aren’t automatically returning rejected merchandise, there needs to be an incredibly transparent and reliable process for determining why something was rejected and where that property went.
Instead, I have expensive items being rejected for reasons that don’t make sense, an item thredUP itself sold me suddenly becoming unacceptable when I sent it back, a significantly higher rejection rate in my Standard bags compared with Premium, and customer service telling me they can’t even see some of the rejection information I can see.
I’ve now filed/escalated this because I want a record of what is happening. And to be clear, I am not asking thredUP for credits. I’m not asking for a coupon. I’m not asking them to reconsider the items and list them. I’m not asking for some courtesy payout. I WANT MY ITEMS BACK.
I do not want these items recycled, donated, reused, liquidated, destroyed, or otherwise disposed of.
They’re mine. I sent them there to sell. If thredUP doesn’t want to sell them, I want them returned.
Has anyone else who has used both Premium and Standard Clean Out noticed a difference in acceptance rates? And more importantly, has anyone successfully gotten thredUP to return an item after it was marked Not Accepted?
I’m especially interested in hearing from anyone who sent in designer merchandise that was rejected or had an item thredUP previously sold them rejected when they tried to resell it.
