Rent The Runway has a rating of 1.5 stars from 655 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers complaining about Rent The Runway most frequently mention customer service, credit card, and next day problems. Rent The Runway ranks 108th among Subscription Shopping sites.
This company does not typically respond to reviews
I am giving this business five stars because of their customer service, not because of the dress. I was not able to wear either size evening gown that I ordered due to length issues. That said, their stylist employees are terrific. On every email I sent, I got a response in minutes, and keep in mind that this is two days before New Year's Eve. Both Michael H. And Sarah C. Were kind, sympathetic, helpful and efficient. My refund credit never expires and I can gift it to a friend if I wish. Hats off to this company. Great job on putting customers first!
I recently decided to give Rent the Runway another try after a poor experience nearly three years ago. Unfortunately, it seems that not much has improved since then. I find their practices to be quite misleading, particularly when it comes to the availability of items. It's frustrating to be able to "heart" items that aren't actually available for months, creating unrealistic expectations. The customer support experience hasn't been much better. Despite providing detailed information up front to Jessica, I was asked to share answers to questions that I had just shared specific links of what I wanted, which suggests a lack of effective training. This is both inefficient and exasperating. Moreover, Rent the Runway appears to prioritize getting customers in the door rather than being transparent about item availability. The focus seems to be on offering refunds rather than addressing the root issues, which does little to rebuild trust or improve customer satisfaction. A more honest and upfront approach would be greatly appreciated.
I rented a dress for my bachelorette party. This was my fourth rental and the second one that wasn't quite as described and I didn't even end up wearing. It was due on 7/3, which was a Sunday and the next day was July 4th. Their policy says to return by 12PM the first business day after a Sunday and/or Holiday in a UPS drop box. I dropped mine in my usual drop box, which I have used for every other return, at 7:30AM. A week later, I suddenly get a $250 charge from RTR. I inquired, sent in pictures, contacted UPS and discovered that UPS had mistakenly left my return in their warehouse and didn't ship it back until 7/11. RTR said that because the dress was late to someone else, they were still going to charge me, no matter what. I complained to their customer service, collections agency and got the same line: "this impacted another customer so we will not refund". I would ask how it was my fault, since UPS was their vendor and it was a UPS error, and I was ignored. This is bad customer service and bad business sense. They are charging me for a UPS error and therefore have lost all of my future business. And I'm disputing this charge through my bank as fraud.
Tip for consumers:
Stay away!
I bought an unlimited membership. Big mistake. Called as my second shipment did not arrive. 8 times. Emailed several times. No response.
I have requested many times that account be canceled. It's been 5 months and 4 request and they still won't cancel.
I rented a dress in size 10 for a night in Vegas along with the bonus size 12. It was a beautiful dress, but when I put on the size 10 I noticed that when I pulled it over my head I couldn't get it past my bust. Confused, I took it off and went to try on the size 12, which I was swimming in it was too large. I realized the 12 was stretchier and upon examining the 10 realized that they had their own seamstress replace the inside slip with a different material that was not stretchy. I was confused why they didn't cut it to the size of the dress so I measured it to see just how small it was--size 4! They sewed a size 4 slip inside a size 10 dress! It was the night before I needed it so I got a pair of scissors and cut off the ridiculous slip. It fit perfect, very flattering, but felt strange to me because of the cut up lining. Luckily in pictures you can't see the damage to the slip I resorted to cutting out of desperation. Once it was time to return it, I explained what I'd been forced to do to RTR customer service and they said that it was a successful rental because I was able to wear it! Lol! Did not take responsibility for their incompetent seamstress/alterations department. I was really frustrated and sent them a message about it--which they ignored. I mean come OONN! After telling my roommates and coworkers, about my awful experience, none of us are ever using this website again.
I ordered a dress that "sort of" fit (in that I could get it on) but it was horribly tight and unflattering. It was so ugly; it looked completely different in person than in their picture. I normally wear a 4-6 but ordered a 6 and an 8 because the reviews said to size up. The 8 was so tight and hideous I didn't even try the 6. I was offered a credit (minus shipping) but no refund even though the dress was unwearable. When I originally rented the dress I was offered an opportunity to upgrade for 16.18 to get free shipping and a free birthday dress. I tried to upgrade but the website wouldn't let me. Then I tried to email but the email wouldn't deliver. When I finally got ahold of someone about returning the dress, I asked about getting the upgrade I tried to get and I was told they were no longer offering it to me! I will not be using my credit. This company is a joke. I have a clothing rental service with Le Tote and their customer service is AMAZING. I've been with them over a year and they don't have dresses as fancy/expensive as RTR but at least the product and customer service is totally dependable. I was completely floored by how rigid and indifferent the customer service at RTR is. I had intended to order 2 dresses for my birthday in March and 4 dresses for a cruise in May. This company lost a lot of potential business from me by being totally unwilling to give me a good first time experience.
They have terrible service, unprofessional and they will charge late fees even though you return the items on time
When you need to get in touch with the co, stay on the line my wait was 1 hr and 2 hr the second time, once got through they were very helpful.
RTR is deceptive, predatory, and unreasonable. ZERO stars.
I tried RTR for two months and ended up paying over $1500 in charges and fees because the merchandise was lost in transit for 3 weeks. During this time, they provided false information that led me to believe all my items were successfully received. I then called them almost daily for several weeks and they resolved nothing. I asked them to reverse the charges and for a refund MULTIPLE times on email to their billing department and via phone to customer service. In the end, they did not issue me a refund, only a credit, so that they didn't have to repay me. More evidence of their unethical, shady business practices.
Their business model is set up to purposely screw over the customer. I called at least a dozen times to customer service and they did nothing but pay me lip service. They even provided false information, stating that all my items were received, when in fact they had not. You see, customer service has no way of seeing into billing or transferring a customer to billing - or that is what they say. They also do not have a way of looking at prior call notes, the last time I called, I mentioned I'd called at least a dozen times, but the rep was confused by the notes. So be very careful, record each call and document everything in email to the billing department. Read each email from billing closely because it is not just an automated email bot, which it appears to be. Billing is only reachable via email and they hold all the power. Billing is ruthless and they don't give a shi* about their customers.
It is only a matter of time before a lawsuit is filed. Where do we sign up?!?!?
Tip for consumers:
Careful, if you end up having a billing issue be prepared to pay in sweat, tears and money!
I signed up for the Unlimited membership last month and am LOVING it! I swap out my pieces a bunch of times a month and keep getting compliments from my co workers on how well dressed I am
I ordered a formal gown that was a Bagley Mischka($695). And a short dress that was a
ML MONIQUE LHUILLIER($695).
The dresses were made of the same material shown in the pictures, however they were homemade dresses. The formal dress had a zipper that was sewn in crooked and therefore humped out and did not lay straight on my back. I've never bought a dress, much less an expensive designer dress with a crooked zipper.
My husband could even tell it was poor quality.
The short dress was not the same design as the picture with a sheer lace at the waist.
Conclusion: This company has been licensed to duplicate the designer clothing using their own sweat shop. You are NOT getting the designer dress you would purchase at Nordstrom or Neiman Marcus that came from the designer's quality-controlled shop! The result is a garment that is not exactly as pictured and is of poor quality that will not fit as a designer outfit should.
Because I was the MC at the ball I was attending, it was important that I have a dress that wasn't sold locally so as not to have a 'dress twin' at the event. Because of that, I will never use this service again.
I returned the dresses and received a full credit, but wasn't offered anything more.
Great idea that is poorly executed.
First time using this service and had 2 major disasters! I chose a dress I loved and placed the order 2 weeks before the event. The dress was supposed to arrive on a Thursday and the wedding we were attending was on Saturday. On Wednesday at 4pm RTR sent me an email stating that the dress I selected was not available in the size i needed. The reason given was that the dress was returned to them from the previous user either late or damaged. They gave me the opportunity to select 5 styles that i would accept as a replacement. This would have been acceptable if it werent for the fact that they sent an EMAIL to notify me of this. The email was sent at 4pm EST. I read the email at 5:45 pm EST. (I run an insurance agency, so I was working!) The email gave me until 6pm EST TO RESPOND! WTF! So VERY quickly I chose 5 other styles and gave 2 different sizes that would be needed. Of those 10 dresses (5 dresses in size 4 and size 6) ONLY 1 DRESS WAS AVAILABLE. If this isn't bad enough, it actually gets worse...
I received the dresses on Thursday. One was too small and the "replacement" dress had a busted zipper. I called customer service and they were non-nonchalant and not concerned meanwhile I am freaking out! The girl even laughed at me.
Needless to say the issue was never resolved. They told me they were sorry and just to return the dresses. So here I am, traveling to a wedding, no time or place to shop and DRESSLESS!
RTR=awesome... NOT! Blown away by how bad this company is.
I signed up for a membership plan August 2022 thinking it would save me money when it came to dresses for the multiple weddings I was invited to in August. I figured if it was a great experience, I would continue to rent dresses/outfits for future events. When I signed up, I thought that the $150/mon would include the cost of rental. There is NO WHERE ON THE SITE that says you still had to pay for the rental and not all of their items are included in the membership! The only benefit to paying for a membership is being able to keep the items longer. That's not a benefit to me! They charged me for 3 months and only refunded me for 1 month even though I've never used their service. They told me the could not refund my money. I told them that it was wrong for them to charge me when they were deceptive in their membership plan AND I haven't even used their services! NO SERVICE WAS RENDERED. I even asked if they can at least give me RTR credits so I can make use of the money I paid for the 2 months of membership and they still said no! You cannot take payment for something you haven't rendered a service for, especially a misleading service!
I've been a RTR customer for many years now and also signed up for their Unlimited service last year. Sadly, it has declined greatly over that time and I am on the verge of cancelling. I'll start off by saying that their unlimited service is slow and highly unpredictable. I selected my new items last Friday for an event I have this upcoming weekend and as of this afternoon (Tuesday) they still haven't shipped. If you contact customer service they just say tough bounce, plan ahead more (mind you, I placed my order over a week in advance of the event).
But the worst incident I had with them was when I rented a dress from their store in Vegas last year. The lady gave me a large padded envelope with a pre-paid return label so I could send it back to them after wearing it. The next day as we were checking out of the hotel the front desk attendant said that he would be happy to mail the package back for me as I did not have time to go searching for a UPS drop box before my flight. I filled out a brief form with the hotel with info about the package. A few weeks later I get an email from RTR stating that my item was returned 5 days late and therefore I was charged a $50 per day late fee--plus sales tax--for a total of $270. As you can imagine I was livid. I called customer service and like always, was told tough bounce. I asked if they could provide me with the tracking number on the package (since I rented in store, I could not see that info in my account on their website) so I could look up when it was shipped. They said they didn't have the tracking number--which is BS because the tracking number is on the package! I then contacted the hotel that had mailed it for me and thankfully, they--unlike RTR apparently-- keep meticulous records and were able to provide me with the tracking number no problem. I searched it online and it turns out that the item was mailed on time (a day early, in fact) but for some reason got caught up at a UPS processing facility for 5 days. I took a screenshot of this and emailed it to RTR as proof that I returned the dress on time and only then did they agree to refund all the late fees.
I love the concept of RTR, but I think as it grows the service has sadly declined drastically.
Lame company that automatically charges your credit card even after you cancel membership. SCAMMERS wont refund. Lame quality clothes
The clothing is great quality (of course!), however, $139/month for unlimited is way too steep for their poor customer service, slow processing/shipping time, and low product availability. I would save things in "my hearts" to pick out things for my next shipment, and by the time it was time to choose my next items, they would be no longer available (and that's in a matter of days!) On top of that, if you browse through the website, you may see something you like, but there is a 50/50 shot that they will have it in your size. It's ridiculous.
I had a poor experience towards the END of my first rental period (I reckon they were trying to manipulate me to ensure that I would HAVE to pay for another month). I had placed an order for two new items(I still had one item at home), and for two days, they never shipped or were processed. Two days later, I received an email that they were no longer available, and could order 3 new items to make up for their mistake. By then, it was Thursday, and my billing period was to end the following Wednesday. I was so unhappy with the product availability to begin with and after this experience, I decided to cancel my unlimited monthly subscription. I called and they cancelled my membership but said I would have to ship back the item I still have at home to avoid paying full price and they would email me a UPS tag to ship it back to NJ. I STILL have not received the tag after they said it would take 20 minutes to process.
The product/service received from this company does NOT reflect the monthly payment. Although the quality of the clothing is great, these items are YEARS out of style, and the brands are getting worse... definitely not a sustainable business model. If I were one of the co-owners, I would leave now while they still have their wealth.
I made the mistake of not checking reviews of RTR before placing my order. I knew about it from a few years ago and decided to give it a go and rent a dress for an upcoming wedding. I placed my order a month ahead of the event. I got an order confirmation sent to my email and just kinda forgot about it.
Fast forward three days before the event and I started to get worried that I hadn't received a shipping notification. I emailed customer service with my order number around 10:00am. Around 3 I got an email back that stated that they didn't have an order associated with my email account… even though I gave them my order number and the confirmation was sent to that email. I sent another with my phone number, order number and another email it could've possibly been sent to (it wasn't). Only to have them send me an email at 4:54 claiming that my order was canceled due to a technical error. Ok, so why am I just now learning about this and why hasn't a refund been issued yet? They offered a promo code of 20% off and offered to expedite the shipping for another dress IF I RESPONDED BY 5. They gave me a six minute window which would't have been a problem if they just told me that after my first email. I'm waiting on my refund because despite the technical error canceling my order they charged my card.
What a sorry company with sorry customer service.
Tip for consumers:
Just don’t.
I am a very busy working woman who did not have time to search for an evening gown. I heard about RTR on NPR and thought I would give it a try. It sounded like a great concept that would be very economical. I was actually excited about the dress. It looked perfect for my style, body type and age. I received an order confirmation email confirming the dress that I ordered. Two days before the order was due to arrive I received a confirmation of shipping. The subject line on the email simply said my ordered had shipped. I didn't open it because their was no indication of a problem. This was a big mistake. When my ordered arrive, I found two dresses that were in no way similar to what I had ordered. One dress was floral... I have not worn flowers since I was 6. The other was designed for a much younger woman with the body of supermodel... definitely not me. I immediately called customer service and was told by the very capable customer service representative that the last person to use the dress ruined it so they sent something that they thought I might like. How about calling me about this or sending an email that there was a problem with my order? Nope RTR just sent two completely inappropriate dresses and sent them hoping that I liked them. The event that I need to attend is less than two days away and I have nothing to wear. I spent quite a bit of time on the phone with customer service looking for an alternative but of all the dresses that RTR allegedly has their is nothing in my size available for the night that I need it. I will be given a full refund and was offered a 50% credit on a future order. I declined the credit. Next time I need an evening gown, I will simply buy it. I do not have the time or energy for a company like RTR.
I am attending a NYE wedding tomorrow evening and rented from them fairly last minute. (on Dec 23rd) Every dress I liked was pretty much rented at that point, however, I did finally find a dress I liked and that was available. Also based on the reviews of the dress and quite a few of them stating the dress ran small, I opted to order the free "backup size." Said they would be delivered on the 29th, and they were. The "backup size" ended up being the one that fit thankfully, HOWEVER, there is a hook & eye closure at the top of the bodice of the dress, and the eye part was missing. Meaning I now had to rush to try & get that fixed if I actually planned on keeping the dress zipped up all evening. I then also noticed a light grey stain on the front of the WHITE bodice! Awesome! Thankfully my dry cleaners are able to fix the hook & eye closure – but could not guarantee the removal of the stain. Hook & eye closure repair + stain treatment + rush fee = ALL AT MY EXPENSE. (sure it probably won't break my bank, but that's beside the point) Had I of expected to receive a damaged dress that I was going to have to get fixed 24 hours before my event, I wouldn't have bothered! And now having read all the dress return nightmare stories, I'm totally freaked out about having to get the dress to a UPS drop off on New Year's Day! (THAT should be a ton of fun, huh?) My advice would be to skip the unreliable rental website... either borrow something from a friend or buy a dress on clearance!
Be warned - the unlimited service is the worst! Before paying I scrolled through the unlimited options to make sure there were things I liked but unfortunately they don't show you what's actually available at a given time, just what is hypothetically available. As soon as I paid and created an account I realized that none of the dresses I wanted to try were actually available in any size close to mine and some disappeared altogether. I understand that you're not always going to get your first choice with a service like this, but the lack of options in my size was really disappointing. The website is counter intuitive to what you'd like to be able to do (like maybe make a list of the choices you're considering before you pick your final three) and the shipping/exchange is incredibly slow! It took a full 8 days to ship back my items, get the email to select 3 new items (which I did immediately when I received the email), and then receive those 3 items. When you're paying on a monthly basis it's not a great value to be without anything for 8 days every time you want to exchange. It's also hard to know how things will fit so I ended up feeling like I was paying to try clothes on and exchange them - I never actually ended up wearing anything during the month I tried it out. Worst of all though every piece of clothing I received was musty and unfresh. While they claim they dry clean everything, I wonder how thorough of a job they do. My final straw came when one dress I ordered smelled so strongly of BO that I gagged before even taking it out of the plastic bag. I immediately contacted their customer service and was told that they could ship me a replacement (not of the actual dress that I had liked and ordered, but a different one of the currently available options) but that they could not expedite it which meant no chance of me receiving the replacement in time for the trip I was going on which was the whole reason I'd signed up for the service in the first place. Really disappointing and a total waste of money!
Would be the best service ever if you could ever get any help! 3 hour waits to call, days to email! It's absurd!
I have found that RTR has more customers than clothing, I am very disappointed in the selection of clothing, I will give it 2 stars for ease of sign up and delivery, but no stars for availability
Tip for consumers:
I will not continue my membership, it is very frustrating to find items for the season
Products used:
Dresses and purse
I have been using RTR unlimited for over a year total and RTR for years. For over 30+ orders with RTR unlimited I was able to select new items the day after dropping something off, and receive those new items the day after. Just this week, the one time I actually need my items for an event- they advise that they have a "2 business day shipping" policy. Thus, the past 30+ times i was able to somehow receive my items next day, were a fluke. I advised that this policy does not make any sense- if you're paying $160 per month why would you want to go up to possibly 16 days a month without clothing that you're paying for. Rather than attempt to fix the situation, send me an emergency item (even for a small fee) or give me a discount or coupon- they tell me they can't help me in any way and cancel my membership. Could not have been less interested in my concerns or why I was upset- I used to recommend this service to all my friends- now I'm going to tell them to never even try to use it and want the world to know- you DO NOT GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR and worse, they don't care.
I've been a RTR Pro member (whatever that means) for almost 4 years. I was the biggest advocate for RTR - loved the dresses, loved the premise of shopping online and having it show up to your door, and it continues to be an easy return process.
I've used them probably 10 times, and as someone who doesn't attend formal events very often, it was well worth it. But not anymore.
The 5 deliveries have all been late, 2 of them so late that I had to run out and buy another dress on the DAY OF the event (even though I order all my outfits with at least a 2 day buffer). So half of all my orders were stress-inducing and the exact opposite of an easy process.
My last few orders really showed the deteriorating quality - stained, fabric loose, with a strong musty odor, like they're barely dry cleaned between uses.
They're incredibly deceptive with their pricing. Their shipping costs are hidden and it's unclear if your order is a Next Day order or standard order, and you won't know until after you place your order and are slapped with an additional $15-25 charge. All orders come with a free backup size of your dress, but if your dress is out of all sizes, they recommend you another dress completely, then tell you AFTER that your "backup" actually cost you the full retail price of that dress.
But the worst is by far the customer service. It is ALWAYS an argumentative back-and-forth, where they seem intent on proving the customer is wrong. I have to go on long email chain, then wait AT LEAST 30-45 minutes to talk to live person, where I have to explain everything all over again, and am given a partial refund for something that has always been their fault.
It's clear they actually don't care about their customers and are just trying to get everyone onto a subscription.
Try one of the hundreds of subscription boxes out there instead of RTR. Way better value for money, and they actually try to help you.
I actually was trying to sign back up for Unlimited! I did unlimited a couple years ago, and was thinking it would be a good time to restart as I have a number of events coming up. At the time, I didn't love how slow the shipping times were. I thought that I got pretty poor bang for my buck. They sold the service as "unlimited" but with more than a week between shipments, the reality was very far from that.
Still, I thought it would be great to restart.
For some reason, my account wasn't letting me purchase the subscription. Every time that I added it to my bag, it would not actually add anything to my bag and take me to the same "try unlimited!" screen. It was a never ending loop. I tried to chat the RTR team but of course the chat was always down, even during the hours they said chat would be available. I tried to call but they were unavailable within, but close to the end of their business hours, so finally I explained the glitch to customer support over email and never received a response. A few days later I followed up and basically said nevermind. If it's going to take days for RTR to respond to an email where I want to buy something I can only imagine the response time when there's a problem. I finally received a response today (over a week later) that didn't address the problem that I was having, told me to do the same thing I had already tried to do, and provided an excuse of "high volume" for the lag in response time.
In the end, I think this company is facing some very severe challenges with their logistics and customer support. It makes much more sense for me to purchase new items for my events or find a better rental service than to waste so much time with RTR!
I had an event on a Saturday so I made sure to order at least a few days in advance. I was at the location I requested delivery an entire day early since their delivery windows are 12 hours and I was told I needed to sign for delivery. I received a one ring phone call at 7pm that I assumed was the courier so I called back immediately. The courier couldn't find my name or phone number at first and by the time they did (7:30) the courier had already gone back to the warehouse. They wouldn't re attempt delivery and I needed the dress by Saturday am. I spoke to 5 people at RTR customer service and had to reeducate each person of my situation. I was promised a full refund and a delivery by 9am. I never received a refund or a dress.
I was a first time buyer who had also paid the annual fee in this purchase for free shipping the remainder if the year. Unfortunately that was a waste of money as I'll never attempt to rent a dress from them again. I only hope they are competent enough to have the courier return the dress to them and not lose it so I'm not charged for a dress I never got. More to come...
Worst part... I wasted 24 hours waiting for them and spoke to 10 people at courier and Rtr and still had Nothing to wear to event
Rent the Runway rents designer dresses, clothing and accessories.