- Robyn Turk
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Rent the Runway is doing damage control. The womenswear rental
service announced via email and Instagram this morning that it is
pausing reserve orders and new memberships until October 15, as a
response to recent customer service issues.
“Some of our customers have recently experienced unacceptable
issues with their orders,” the Instagram caption read. “We’ve let you
down and we’re taking immediate steps to fix it.”
Although Rent the Runway’s post did not specify the nature of the
recent order issues, customers left comments on the post to shed some
light. “Yep, happened to me,” one customer commented. “2 days before
the event I got an email saying the dress I ordered was not
available… and neither were the 5 back up dresses I had requested
[sic].”
Another customer shared a story in which she wanted to rent a dress
for a family event over the weekend of September 27 and called
numerous times beginning on September 20. Rent the Runway returned her
call on September 23, though all the dresses she wanted to rent were
unavailable by then. When she found a dress the following day, she
discovered that she would need to pay an extra one-day shipping fee to
ensure it arrived in time for the event. “No one could answer me as to
why I couldn’t receive a dress later in the week/ weekend,” she
wrote.
Most comments spoke to complaints with long wait times or no
responses from the customer service phone line. One customer shared an
experience of receiving a top when she had ordered a skirt.
Rent the Runway tries to right its wrongs
Rent the Runway explained in an email sent to its customers that
the delays began on September 13 “due to unforeseen issues associated
with a significant software transformation that we are executing in
our fulfillment operation.” While the company’s technical team is
working to fix the issues, Rent the Runway is putting a hold on
sending reserved orders before October 15, and putting a hold on
accepting new membership subscriptions until the same date.
“We expect this upgrade to be completed by Oct. 15 or sooner, at
which point you will experience much improved availability of styles,”
the company said in its email.
Rent the Runway said that it will continue to fulfill orders for
its current Unlimited members, who pay a membership fee of 159 dollars
per month plus taxes to receive four items at a time with unlimited
swaps. The company warned that these orders might continue to be
delayed by a day or two.
“You rely on us for meaningful events in your life and to get
dressed everyday. We realize we have let some of you down, and we need
to fix it,” the company compassionately wrote to its subscribers.
Photo: Rent the Runway facebook
