The RealRealReviews 5,323

I've been both a buyer and seller on The RealReal for years, but this will be my last experience with them. The company sold my items and owes me my commission, yet they refuse to release the payment by check as requested. The funds are stuck as a site credit, and despite repeated outreach, the only responses I receive are automated messages saying they are "working on it." This has been going on far too long for something so simple.
I don't know if they are dealing with an internal system or ERP failure, but this is not acceptable for a company of their size. They sold my product — they owe me the money. Period. I just want the commission I earned so that I can move on.
It's disappointing to see how much the service has declined. Until they fix these issues, I cannot recommend The RealReal to anyone.

Every time I buy a pair of earrings from them and I mean every time they are way smaller than listed. They are very dishonest in their descriptions. I called them and said the earrings were way smaller than listed and they said it was a final sale. You lied on the description. Nothing is final. They said they would refund me with a store credit. I said no. Won't be buying from them again. Ripped me off for 50.00 of my refund. They say free prepaid return shipping and then take it out of my refund. I'm reporting this company to FTC and FBI Internet Fraud and BBB. Stay away from this place.

Horrible company. They damaged my shoes and claimed that it was damaged when it was picked up by their employee. I have pictures of the shoes at pick up showing it in great conditions

Have purchased many of my favorite pieces from TRR. The items come as described and customer service is wonderful to work with.

Purchase two items from the real real online and never received my items. UPS took full responsibility and will be refunding me, but the real world has not signed paperwork from UPS which is delaying my refund this happened May 2025 and is still ongoing as of August 2 of 2025. UPS representative informed me that the real real did not disclose to UPS the value of the items and UPS did not deliver or get a signature.

The RealReal is the biggest scam I've ever experienced I had a very bed experience, didnt get the package and paid for it and the customer service didnt help me i was hour on the phone with the realreal pay for a watch and didnt recived it

I made a simple request. The request for return was granted. The tender used, however, was not. The tight-fisted effort to force my funds to remain with TRR was simply vulgar and out of tune. It was just a matter of time before, willingly, I would have returned and purchased more…willingly. Now TRR just feels average. Average quality control. Unsatisfactory customer experience and overall in very-bad-taste. This is a consignment store. One has to know their sphere so as to read the landscape accurately.

I bought a diamond bracelet which was listed as 6.2 ct. But the image showed much smaller. So, hoping the image was just wrong, I e-mailed customer service three times to confirm that the bracelet was indeed 6.2 before and was confirmed yes-6.2. They use foreign call centers so I was a bit skeptical, so, since It was at the Palo Alto store, I left a messgae there - can someone just lay eyes on it to confirm? No response. I decided to purchase after the third CS "confirmation". I received bracelet today, and as feared, it is no where close to being 6 ct. If anyone had even looked (like I asked!) it is obvious. How can I ever trust a "valuation report" when this was clearly incorrect. I kept asking and no one checked! At least they should have gotten a response from their brick and mortar! TRR prides themselves on authentication and yet they either committed fraud or were grossly negligent in their process to make such a glaring error. I have asked for a full refund (including shipping charges) but no response yet. (Oh! And the labels were completely unattached. Just laying in the box. If TRR gives me trouble saying I took them off-I will lose my mind. And they lose a customer forever.) Point-I love their jewelry but if TRR doesn't have control over their authentication, or doesn't care, then how can a customer trust in their purchase? Especially ones for thousands of dollars. Are they real diamonds? How can you know for sure if anything is accurate when this was so easy?

Buying second hand items at a discounted price was beneficial for buyers and environment although some items are final sale and unable to return and unable to use... a total waste of money. In addition, the company gives such small reimbursement (4 brand-name items sold and commission was $6) to sellers that does not make sense of selling through them. I rather donate these items instead of giving money to TRR.

I made a purchase that turned out to be a frustrating experience from start to finish. The shoes didn't fit, and the return process was so costly it nearly matched the original purchase price—making it pointless to send them back. On top of that, I was charged almost $100 in duties, which felt excessive. I also received a pair of white pants with visible yellow stains—completely unacceptable under any standard of quality control. Combined with the high import fees, poor product condition, and lack of a practical return option, this was a one-and-done experience for me. Never again.
It's not worth purchasing from the US either these high duties. You're better off just finding Canadian thrift stores.

Everything is waaay overpriced for the condition of the items most of the time. You know its bad when you have to run 50% off just to compete with other websites. The quality has gone to $#*!. Very deceptive descriptions, conditions of items are not accurate at all! Dont tell me a pair of sneakers is in very good condition, but when i get it the inside smells like feet, and the bottom of the shoes still havwe dirt on them. It wasnt like this until about last summer. That is when the quality dropped significantly, started overpricing the hell out of items, the descriptions are extremely inaccurate. This site isnt really worth it anymore. It used to be GREAT.

DO NOT CONSIGN with this company. If you do not want to give away your things do not do business with them! They are very very dishonest. No transparency!

Selling on The RealReal is the biggest scam I've ever experienced. I consigned a brand new Max Mara skirt and ended up with a pathetic $10 commission (isn't it too funny?). Then came Salvatore Ferragamo sunglasses — guess what? They sold them, and I got just $12. Are you serious?! This is insane daylight robbery. They market themselves as luxury resale, but treat sellers like they're dumping garbage. The commission structure is laughable and insulting. If you value your designer items, just consider The RealReal a donation center for luxury fashion, because that's basically what you're doing. I STRONGLY advise DO NOT SELL HERE unless you're okay with watching your expensive pieces go for pennies while this company pockets the rest.

I send for consignment several itmes with The Real Real. It's been a nightmare. On their website, they mention that the processing time is 2-3 weeks, but in my case, I've been waiting for 6 weeks. When I ask for the status, they just tell me to wait longer and to be patient, but they never tell me when they'll resolve the issue. The customer service is terrible. I don't recommend it at all. They just kidnaping your most valuable stuff.

Bought a pair of Celine sunglasses because I scratched the lens on mine. They were final sale which would be fine if they were authentic, but they were not. I tried to return and they did not stand by the product. They offered to "reauthenticate." You can't reauthenticate something for me when I have an authentic pair purchased at Nordstrom and they are not at all the same. I exchanged about 6 emails with customer service, requesting even a store credit, to no avail. Will never shop here again (and I'm a serious consumer, ha).

I had a terrible experience with The RealReal. I spoke with Emily, who completely sold me a dream — she reassured me that most of my items would be accepted, even encouraging me to check their website for acceptable brands before packing. I did exactly that. I carefully packed 72 items based on their guidelines and brand listings. And guess what? Only 8 got listed. Then that number dropped to 6… then 3. One item sold, but was returned by the customer — and instead of relisting it, they're just sending it back to me along with everything else. So out of 72 items, only TWO were actually listed? Now they have the nerve to ask if I'd like to ship more. Honestly, I'm heartbroken and furious. I took time, care, and effort to send them items I believed met their standards. I'm now dreading how my items will come back to me. The whole process felt like a bait-and-switch, and I feel completely misled. Never again.

I had consigned with TRR for 4 years! I consigned A LOT, 6 figure numbers. But at the end, because I would message them frequently to deal with all the issues with consignments, they said that I was "abusing" their platform, therefore I am banned. In order to get anything though with my consignments, you Got to message them frequently otherwise times just sit there for months. They banned me and told me, The RealReal is closed and you no longer have access to any services of The RealReal. In addition, you are not permitted to directly communicate with The RealReal employees or visit any of The RealReal's retail, consignment office, or pop-up locations. Refused my appeal for account closure; didn't hear me out. There was a bit misunderstanding. I had asked them to explain their terms, what I was doing wrong but never got a response. Just made me feel like I committed a crime and banned me and blocked me. The sad part is I asked multiple times to explain what I was doing wrong, read through their terms; didn't find anything that said i was doing against their rules! But I guess for frequent engagement it contacted, you're abusing their platform and they permanently ban you! Crazy part is that's how they make their money! By people consigning their items!

Title: Irresponsible Handling of High-Value Items – Beware!

I had an absolutely unacceptable experience with The RealReal when trying to retrieve my own $17,000 bracelet. Not only did they reject my item due to alleged alterations, but when they returned it, they failed to require a signature for delivery—despite their own policy stating that all returns require one.

This is not a minor mistake. I live in an area where packages are stolen frequently, and a high-value item like this should never have been left unattended. Their response? They simply blamed UPS, completely ignoring their own responsibility in ensuring proper handling of returned consignments.

Here's part of what they told me:
"Per company policy, we require all our packages to be returned with a signature required via UPS regardless of price… Unfortunately, it seems this was an error on UPS' part."

So, their policy exists, but they don't enforce it—and when something goes wrong, they take zero responsibility. They made the mistake, but I was the one left stressed and dealing with the consequences.

If you're thinking about consigning with The RealReal, think twice. They show blatant disregard for customers and their valuable items. Once they have your luxury goods, don't expect them to treat them with the care they deserve.

Ordered a dress which I never received. Therealreal staff said to notify the police. I received a jacket that I did not order. They are completely overwhelmed and disorganized.