Plato's Closet's competition recently rolled into town and the concept is the same, if not worse. If you come here thinking you're walking out with a bundle of money, you're not. The most you'll take home is $13.00 or way less. Welcome to Uptown Cheapskate where even the name sounds insulting.
On the outside, a passerby can clearly see a fully stocked store. On the inside, you'll be called out to by someone at the register "Welcome to Uptown Cheap!", who you need to look past tall racks of clothes to see. Next, you're informed that the store "is not currently selling, but only buying inventory." Should you intend to sell or walk out is completely up to you. And yes, they drop the 'skate' from the name.
A worker behind the counter will instruct you to "sign in" on the iPad. Okay, but once you begin entering yourself into the system, the information portion requires your driver's license number. When I expressed that I was not comfortable with this, the woman behind the counter chirped, "This is because of pawn shop laws". Sound fishy to you? Same with me.
On my first trip, two items I brought garnered $13.00. The six items I took on a return trip are the reason for this review. There were three people behind the counter: One girl with glasses, a girl with long hair, and a blonde with her hair in a bun. The girl with long hair instructed me to set my bag on the floor in front of the register so they could tend to the person before me. Look, even though I'm parting with these clothes, I will NOT leave the bag in a place where someone can trip. I'm sitting on this seat cushion when I hear the other two employees pulling garments out from a bag they were sorting and MAKING FUN OF THE CLOTHES. The comments ranged from, "Who would wear this?!" to "Oh my GOD, you have got to be KIDDING!" *Insert adolescent cackling and high-pitched giggles*.
That should have been the customer in front of me, as well as my cue to leave. If this is the way they're treating other people's things, ours will not be regarded any better. When it was my turn to sign in, I was given a 25-30 minute sorting time since there were two bags before mine. That was fair and I left the store so I could run errands. Funny how the promise to contact me when the workers were finished sorting never happened.
I returned 20 or so minutes later and the girl with the bun tells me "We're giving you $8.00 because we could only take two of your items." When I asked if there was anything wrong with the clothes, the "Trend Buyer" (girl with glasses) -or whatever she deemed herself to make herself feel important- stepped forward and said, "Well, I'm the Trend Buyer and I determine what will sell. We can buy this one" and held up a v-neck sweater. I mentioned that a knitted blouse in that bag was a set with the v-neck. Trend Buyer replies, "Umm, we didn't know how it worked." I had to tell the three workers that it was a tunic and SHOW them what the set looked like. I even went so far as to tell them how to style the item!
How someone can claim to be so versed in style, yet needs the customer to educate the so-called "expert" is discrediting. One pair of jeans they told me had dirt on them. I was surprised because they certainly weren't dirty when I pulled them from my drawer. Another item was a brand new, unworn leopard jersey zip up for the gym. This other woman -whose purpose was for nothing more than taking up space- was draped across the glass display case behind the counter. She tells me, "Oh, that didn't look like it would sell." I point out, "This is called 'athleisure'. Everyone is wearing leggings and zip-ups like this; that's the trend." Logic would dictate that for people who tout their "trendiness", they can certainly identify the terminology.
So I'm given the receipt and it shows that if I accept store credit, I will be given $8.75. Requesting cash would give me $7.00. I looked at the girl in the bun and told her, "You said $8.00 is what I would receive for two items when I came back." She quipped that "I said that was store credit!" No, there was no mention of that amount being store credit. It's only a dollar, but it's the principle. Then she thought she was being cute when she said, "I read from left to right and $7.00 is what you're getting!" Oh, and I guess we should give you a round of applause because you're so proud of yourself for putting words together to form sentences! Let's give you a gold star! I never glared at someone like I did to her. I signed for my $7.00 and didn't care to bid the motley crew goodnight.
It was irritating trying to speak to people on a professional level who possess such ineptitude. They want inventory, yet as I witnessed, the employees will trash talk the clothing within earshot of customers. Isn't the point of consignment to allow *everyone* to afford luxury? Apparently not, based on how these employees decide to represent this company. read more