In recent years, sustainable shopping habits have gone from a best practice to reduce textile waste to a fashionable and affordable way to participate in the trend cycles taking social media by storm.
Where customers once roamed the aisles of their local Goodwill or Salvation Army looking for a steal—even better, vintage—or bought and sold their items on platforms like Mercari or Poshmark, now new services are being created to whisk unwanted clothing away from the closets of their fashion and environmentally-conscious owners.
One of these services, known as Trashie, allows consumers to purchase bags to send their unwanted clothing to the business’ sorting facility, where the secondhand clothing is sorted before being recycled or sold to retailers of used clothing.
What’s Trashie?
When customers purchase these bags—known as Take Back Bags—they can earn a greater value in TrashieCash, which can be redeemed for gift cards, retailer discounts, and classes, according to the company’s website.
The service has even appeared on Good Morning America, where Ginger Zee and the GMA crew provided a deeper look into the business’s operations.
However, a would-be customer says the company might actually be a scam after she paid for Take Back Bags to be delivered to her and received nothing.
In the video posted to TikTok by @sambearrr, a content creator known for calling out “see something, say something” signs at the self-checkout of her local grocery store and attempting to donate breast milk to a mother in need, she says she ordered her six Take Back Bags for $100 in mid-April and had yet to receive them a month later.
“By the way, look up some videos of what happens if you do even receive the bags,” she says. “Because in the videos I watched, you could exchange them for gift cards to places, and that’s not what it is. They give you bogus coupons like $15 off of $200.”
She continues, “But that aside, because I didn’t even receive my bags. I filed a dispute with my credit card company on the fourth, so almost two weeks ago, and they haven’t responded which isn’t a good look.”
The poster says the business has 45 days to respond to her dispute with her credit card company for the charge for the bags, which she says feels too long a period of time to withhold her funds.
“I’m sure that they’re hoping people will just forget about it, or at the very least they are holding your money,” she says in the video. “Don’t let them do that. Don’t buy from them. Just don’t do it.”
Is Trashie legit?
While the poster and several viewers questioned the legitimacy of the business, calling it a “scam” because they did not receive their bags, the business has refuted this claim.
The official Trashies TikTok account replied to the video from @sambearrr, offering to look up their order to determine what the issue is.
“Not a scam :),” one of the comments from the account left on the video reads. “I apologize you haven’t received your order, I would be happy to look into why you haven’t if you’d send me a message as I’ll need your email and order number to look it up.”
Other comments address the poster’s concerns about what the TrashieCash can be redeemed for, claiming that the cash offer can be redeemed for coupons and that videos advertising the service do not mention gift cards specifically.
In a post to the official @Trashie account, the company has shared a statement to its customers regarding the video.
@sambearrr #trashie #trashiebag #clothingdonation ♬ original sound – Sam
“We are so sorry her bags didn’t ship,” the statement reads. “That’s our fault. We also could have replied with more speed and clarity when she raised the issue. We have expedited her refund. We listen and take all of your feedback seriously. We are working hard to improve all processes and communication. If you have any issues with your order please reach out to help@trashie.io and we will get back to you quickly.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to @sambearrr via TikTok direct message, as well as to Trashies via email regarding the video.
Many viewers said they had also bought into the service based on the impression that they could redeem their rewards for gift cards, which are listed as a redeemable option for TrashieCash on the company website.
“When i ordered mine they said they were offering gift cards and when i went on none of the gift cards were available anymore and now they’re tryinf to act like they never offered that???” one commenter wrote. “Insane.”
“I sent back 6 bags and the only thing ive wanted was a FIFTEEN DOLLAR ulta gift card??” another said. “Like I swore when i signed up it said you could get gift cards before they made the cashback browser extension.”
“I almost did this because of the giftcard thing,” one wrote. “Signed up but had yet to order bags. So glad I didn’t!”
Commenters were also critical of the company’s response, leaving comments referencing the gift cards on the post containing Trashie’s statement about @sambearrr.
“What about the part where you said there were no gift cards, only coupons, when you’ve explicitly advertised gift cards?” one commenter wrote. “Or the part where you were backhanded in all your replies?”
“In short you’re using Free coupons as an incentive to get customers to spend their money to use your service,” another commenter wrote. “You don’t think that’s unethical?”
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