Rent the Runway stops taking new customers, new rental orders — temporarily

A system upgrade at Rent the Runway is taking a big toll on the company’s business.

The fashion rental pioneer has put a temporary hold on accepting new subscribers and new event rentals after a tech system upgrade in its warehouse caused some orders to be delayed.  As of September 27, Rent the Runway was running a short statement at the top of its web site that stated: “While we complete a system upgrade, we are not accepting new event reservations for delivery before 10/15.”

In an email to current subscribers, Rent the Runway co-founder and CEO Jenn Hyman cited “unforeseen issues associated with a significant software transformation that we are executing in our fulfillment operation.” 

“So that we can focus entirely on you, our current customers, while we fix these issues, we will not be accepting new subscribers or new event rental orders to be delivered before Oct. 15,” she wrote.

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

In related news, the head of supply chain, Marv Cunningham, for Rent the Runway will be stepping down at the end of the month, Business of Fashion reported.