Rent The Runway

Short version: Use a burner debit card like Privacy. You can't see what is available to rent until you've put money down. You can't see what the real-life quality is until it's in your hands. They make it very hard to cancel your membership. Penalty fees are straight theft.

Be aware of what the service is. There are no high-end brands. The brands they do have are roughly Macey's quality brands - but you're not even getting those, really. You are getting weird, ugly designs and outlet-quality garbage that those brands specially license to RTR. AND its from two to five seasons ago.

Any garment you get has been worn hundreds of times. It will be faded, pilled, stretched out, frayed at the edges, and worn tissue-thin at the elbows and $#*!. Every time someone rips or damages a garment, the RTR team of "seamstresses" - and I put that in the scariest scare quotes I can make - reassembles it bass-awkwards and sideways and re-lined with - from the looks of it - an empty contractor bag and a glue gun. Think gapping, lopsided seams, cheap zippers basted in wrong, puckered hems, liner hanging out the bottom. And that's if they repair it at all. You will get things that were clearly not cleaned or inspected or repaired at all. They just mist a stranger's skid-marks with Febreeze and send it out the door. You get things that have pit stains or reek of BO or have things still in the pockets.

I was a loyal member pre-COVID, but I watched the quality get worse, the clothes get weirder, the selection get thinner, the fabrics more raggedy, the store more chaotic, the service worse and worse… I thought I'd try again after a few years away, and I was shocked at just how bad it has gotten. And it was bad back when I cancelled! Getting my membership shut down was really hard - I had to go to my credit card company for help.

Just run. There are other services out there.

I was so excited to join the unlimited membership for $139 for 3 pieces. The concept was ideal to have a program where you can rent nice clothing brands for an affordable rate. But like everything in life, once one thing seems too good to be true, it is because something must be off, and I had to find out by myself that this business is not mature enough to deserve my money. I was a member for 3 months, and I received my 1st order in a perfect way. I had 3 lovely dresses, which one of the 3 had a zipper problem and I was not able to wear it, but since I have 2 other dresses, I did not mind. I ended up having a beautiful valentine's day with a fashionable dress. Good start! Unfortunately, the second order was the same. I quickly selected my dresses since I was planning to travel a week after I returned my 1st order. I waited 4 days to find out that my order was sent via UPS and it was never delivered at my apartment. I was counting on the dresses to spend a lovely trip outside of the US, but I never receive it. If you are one costumer living close to the warehouse, DO NOT EVEN BOTHER WITH THE SERVICES BECAUSE YOU WILL NOT GET YOUR DRESSES. This problem happened to me FIVE times in 3 months. RTR was kind enough to give me discounts on my monthly rate, or by sending me additional dresses replacing the order. They asked me to do my orders with the costumer service and ask for a FEDEX delivery instead, but this was not sufficient to fix the problem since the costumer service and the warehouse are not intimately connected and there is very little communication internally. So all my orders were still sent via the UPS delivery method and the boomerang effect always occurred in my orders. I spend hours on the phone with RTR and UPS to resolve this problem, but it did not go anywhere.
I wish I had more patience to keep the services, but until they fix this problem, I will warn you not to have your hopes too high. Also, if you do not have time before your event, do not even risk using their services because the risk is too high for not receiving the dresses on time.
I hope that they fix this issue, but for now all I can do is warn everyone.

I have used RTR in the past for events and loved it. I currently use Gwynnie Bee and have used Infinite Style and Le Tote as well and RTR is by far the most expensive (double the cost) so I expected more. What I like about RTR is that you can pick the items you want to receive so long as they are in stock. Most of the time I had more trouble picking things out because there were so many choices. This is unlike other services where they pick what you get. I like that you can rent bags and jewelry too. Finally I like being able to return one think and get another rather than having to return all at once. That being said the turn around time to get new garments means you don't get all that many pieces. I live in DC and yes there is a store and a drop box near me but they are not near enough for me to pop over during normal business hours. If I do that a spot opens up immediately. If you order before 2:00 you are supposed to get it by the next day but that rarely happens. When it works well I put the item in the UPS box on Monday they get it Tuesday and I select before two and get the new item the next day. But this is rare. Usually I put the items in UPS Monday they don't check them in and open up a spot until Thursday or Friday. They don't work weekends so that means I'm not getting another item until Monday or Tuesday making it not worth the 135.00 per month. And it's not UPS as I can track the item and it gets to them in one day, it's RTR. I have also received more items that were stained, damaged or too worn to wear then with any other service. If you can reach customer service then normally will give you a credit and open up a spot for you. But I don't have hours to spend on hold or 4 days to wait for an email response. The chat never works and every time you send them an email you have to fill out a captcha! They also only published my positive reviews. When I confronted them they denied it but the reviews are not there. I took a lot of time to write them and was specific as I personally rely on them myself and they only publish what they want. It can be annoying if you don't have regular access to a UPS stop box but there is one at my office so that's fine with me. Otherwise you have to calm UPS to do a pickup or go to the store neither are ideal. They send the items in cloth bags which is fine but they are all very dirty some were covered I.min mud. Overall they lowered the cost to 70 or less a month I would keep the service. I think that's about the value I get based on the turn around time but I doubt they will do the anytime soon.

I'd like to share my experience with your company, and really highlight how you all managed to make a frustrating experience... infinitely worse. In February, I placed an order for my April wedding - a pair of earrings for the wedding day, and a dress for a party the day before. The day before the rental was supposed to arrive, I received an email letting me know that the earrings were no longer available. Despite the fact that these were the ones I'd worn before and I felt good about wearing in my wedding, I found another pair and ordered them instead. A few hours later, I received another email from your customer service team, letting me know that the dress I'd ordered was not available. The email did not seem to indicate that anyone noticed you'd already cancelled another item on the order. At this point, I called and asked you to cancel the order because I did not see another dress I liked, and I didn't feel comfortable risking another mishap so close to my wedding. As you can imagine - I was a little busy. I asked about any kind of apology over and above a full refund and you said you could give me 15% off my next order - an offer I literally get daily in my email inbox. But, I figured we were done and I would hopefully not be dealing with RTR again for a long time. The next day, I received the replacement dresses you'd already sent and promptly took them to Staples/UPS to send back. I didn't even open the package. The day after that, I received the replacement earrings. I wore them in my wedding. The next day (a Sunday), with my sister in the car with me (if you'd like a witness), I dropped the earrings off at a UPS drop box near my parents' house. Today, I find out that I've been assessed a late fee - $56 on a $15 pair of rental earrings! Which is really pretty amazing when you look at the context of the last week I've had with you all! This has to confirm my experience that nobody on your customer service team is reading through customer history before acting - a process I assume is based on faulty company-wide policy, which you all are responsible for. I would REALLY appreciate that innacurate late fee being refunded, and I would really love for you to delete my credit card info from your system. After years of happy rentals with you all, this week has been unbelievable - the rental changes I understand come with working with a rental company - but the poor customer service is within your control.

First, let me say that the regular rental service offered is actually really great. Yes, occasionally items will arrive with issues, but if you have a buffer day (always have a buffer day) they can overnight replacements to you. My experiences with this have been AWESOME. Thus, I was expecting the Unlimited membership to be more of the same greatness.
It wasn't and isn't.
First, they take FOREVER to ship items to you or register that the items have been shipped back. You'll need to allow 2 days from selecting the items before they ship and then ATLEAST another 3 days (although, MUCH longer in some cases) before you have the item in hand. Returning an item usually takes 5 days for reasons I don't understand and that no one seems able to explain. What this means is that from when you start to when you can exchange anything is about 2 weeks into the first month membership. Not good if your first few selections were duds (which mine were).
Secondly, if there's an issue with something they were supposed to ship, you don't find out until the day it doesn't ship... so you've now lost 4 days in turnaround time.
Third, according to their customer support folks, the policy states items can take 5-7 BUSINESS days to ship. That's right. And they don't care if it takes longer. I had a shipment get delayed an extra 6 days and they didn't care. No apology, no offer of a refund or to send another item expedited... absolutely nothing.
Fourth, if you decide to cancel this subscription, they will demand to have the items back in their hands by the end of the subscription or you have to pay as if you bought it. Considering how long that return has taken each time, this means you'd have to cancel the moment you placed that second order to be able to get the items (which takes a week minimum) and return them in time, without even wearing them. This is completely unrealistic, but unfortunately, is exactly what you agree to when you sign up.

Be warned consumer, this deal seems too good to be true, because it is.

Although I did enjoy the variety the service promised to add to my wardrobe, the ongoing hassles of shipments, delays, poor customer service, etc. actually resulted in my wearing exactly 3 items the whole month and a very likely charge for a dress I am returning (once I get it) without wearing it because they won't process the return until after my subscription ends. Hindsight tells me the better option would have been to just rent each thing separately or just have gotten a few cute/cheap outfits that I'd own instead.

I used Rent the Runway's bridal package for my very small (12 guests) wedding. I used the 2-event package. Event 1 was my wedding, where I was renting a long white gown, and Event 2 was a small party the following day. Everything went smoothly with the at home try-on for the wedding gown and I was able to reserve the sizes I needed. I really liked both of the dresses I was renting (I got to pick two, the actual dress and a backup dress), and was planning on deciding the week of my wedding which one I would actually wear. I loved both! The Event 2 dresses I thought were OK, but I was considering wearing the wedding dress for both events anyway. I had all of this nailed down about 2 months in advance of the wedding.

On April 19,2 weeks before my May 3 wedding, I got an email from RTR that BOTH my dress and backup dress for my wedding had been returned damaged and were no longer available. The email said I could select two other dresses to wear from the site. When I went to look at the site, there was only one other long white dress in my size (not surprising, since we weren't far out from the date I needed it) and I didn't like it--plus, there was no time for an at-home try on to make sure it fit and was the right length based on my wedding shoes.

I called to talk to someone and was essentially told "that's the breaks, sorry" by RTR. Since I didn't care about the dresses for event 2 and was only using the bridal package for my actual wedding dress, I cancelled the package and got a refund. I ended up going shopping the next day to local stores like Macys, Saks, Dillards, etc. to try and find a dress to wear. Fortunately, I was able to find a $300 dress at Macys that I was able to wear.

I would NEVER recommend Rent the Runway, especially for a bridal package. I felt completely screwed over and finding a dress within 2 weeks of my wedding because RTR didn't have a backup plan for EITHER DRESS I was planning on wearing on my wedding day was completely messed up. Brides beware!

When I started this experience I was so excited that I would get to wear a really nice gown to this black tie wedding I was going to and wouldn't have to pay a crazy amount for it. Looking back... I'd rather just spend the money. My original dress was "lost" and even though the app continued to tell me "it was on the way and arriving on time" I called and found out differently. The first not so gentle-man I talked to told me "well it's past 7pm and if you had called 30 minutes ago, we could have probably helped you" His manager had a better attitude. She told me to pick a new dress and they would overnight it to me, no additional cost. I was pissed and stressed, but fine, they are trying to help. Saturday comes, no dress. The SECOND dress was "stuck in weather." Not to mention that I talked to them at 7:30pm Thursday night, the second dress didnt leave NJ until 9pm Friday night and was supposed to be in SC by noon on Saturday. As a company, you would think they prepare for things like this, right? They would know to mail the overnight orders out asap? And maybe spend the money to hire/train customer service reps that dont say things like "Well if you had called earlier, maybe we could have helped you?" To add salt to the wound, I havent received my refund (4 days later) AND they charged me a late fee for a dress I never received! I can't make this stuff up. I called (again) and they said they would process that refund as well... haven't seen that money yet.

The stress and disappointment of the entire ordeal was SOOOO not worth this. I could have gone to any store, picked out a great dress, paid for it then and there and the employees would most likely even be pleasant as well. Rent the Runway has a great idea but the execution is ALLLL WRONG.