Report: Rent the Runway cites warehouse system in service issues

The fashion rental pioneer is reportedly facing widespread complaints of late and missed deliveries.

According to an article original published Sept. 24 on Recode, within the past week or so hundreds of customers have been posting about canceled deliveries and three-hour-plus customer service wait times on Rent the Runway’s Facebook and Twitter accounts. In particular, the article states many complaints were posted by women who needed to rent an item for a specific event and did not get it in time.

In an emailed statement to Recode, Rent the Runway CEO/co-founder Jennifer Hyman said a major technology upgrade in the retailer’s warehouse created the situation.

“We upgraded a huge tech system in the warehouse this week which caused some orders to be delayed by a day, which then in turn caused an influx of incremental calls into customer service that we’re digging through,” Hyman said in the statement. “Good news is, [the] new system, which will be in full effect next week, dramatically improves inventory availability and our warehouse efficiency. So short-term pain for long-term better experience for our customers.”

Rent the Runway also reportedly had to apologize to customers for long customer service waits in July. Read the whole article here.