RealReal rips off consigners by creating fake sales for close to nothing

What happens when you attempt to consign clothing that you purchased at the RealReal and it is flagged as inauthentic?

It is worse than you may suspect

The RealReal recently rejected a Celine sweater that I had purchased from them, citing questions of authenticity.

I immediately reached out to customer service. I informed them that I had purchased the sweater from them, sharing the purchase details.

I argued that, if there were indeed questions about its authenticity, which would prevent them from listing it, then they should refund me for my purchase (since that meant they sold me a fake) and dispose of the sweater.

To me, this seemed like a very reasonable solution. However, this is not what they did.

I checked the status of the consignment a few times a day, and one afternoon I found a surprising update on the Celine sweater. According to their system, they listed and sold the sweater in middle of the day, several hours after 10am EST and before 7pm EST, when the RealReal publishes its new daily inventory.

It was clear that they never actually listed the sweater for sale at all, and not just because this happened outside of the standard inventory postings.

Here’s the evidence:

1. According to my consignment summary on the RealReal website, two items in the consignment are still “processing” when there were should have been no outstanding items. (I’ll address the second item below.)
2. On the RealReal website and the RealReal app, there is no option to “view listing.” This and another item, which, again, I will talk about below, are the only ones in my list of over five hundred consigned items that do not have this option.  
3. Unlike my hundreds of other sales at the RealReal, this item is still has a “price” of “Coming Soon” on the RealReal App.
4. The sweater did not appear at the end of the listings for “Celine Sweaters” with other sold Celine sweaters.

The RealReal’s handling of this matter, unethical as it perhaps may be, wouldn’t be that big of an issue if they ensured that I received what I had paid for the fake sweater.

But, with this fake sale they only paid me a small fraction of what I paid. But when I called them about this, they assured me that they had posted the item and that it immediately sold.

Here’s how I interpret this:  

1. They would rather claim to have knowingly listed an inauthentic item than admit to what really happened.
2. They faked a listing to avoid compensating me for selling me a sweater with questionable authenticity.
3. People consign with the RealReal in large part on an assumption that the two parties (the RealReal and the consigner) are invested in selling for the highest price possible. But in this case, the RealReal’s motivations ran counter to this.

A second item, a Gucci Skirt, in the same consignment was also rejected, in this case purportedly because of it had been altered. This too was something I had purchased from the RealReal a couple months earlier and simply tried to consign exactly as received.

(Side Note: When it arrived, I actually thought it was fake immediately, because I had tried on the same skirt IRL in the Gucci store, and the material was different… cheaper. So, I think the real reason they did not accept it was because of questions about its authenticity. There WAS a reason to question its authenticity, but NO reason to question if it had been altered.)

As the pictures illustrate, they responded to this complaint the same way they responded to the complaint about the Celine sweater, and simply created a fake post to minimize the damage to them.

To anyone who has noticed the same discrepancies in their consignment summaries, please reach out. We want to know if this is a common experience.  To the press, please reach out for additional details as needed!