2nd Time Around

Not sure why all the shade on this location! Have had great luck at this STA — just scored a $ 29 vintage Missoni skirt in great condition — saw a cute $ 29 pink Chanel silk skirt and a beautiful $ 29 taupe Valentino front-​gathered skirt (not my size). Beautiful furs, great sweater selection, tons of skirts and dresses. Friendly staff!

Honestly, screw this company, their policies, and their employees. If you’re reading this, I don’t care who you are, NEVER EVER consign here. You are a better person, and deserve better. I consigned two items back in October 2015 — a luxury brand trench coat, and mid-​range brand heels — and have had non-​stop misery ever since. I wish I read read the read the reviews here before trusting these swines with my possessions. 1. They put my trench coat on a 50% sale WITHOUT asking my permission, if it was okay for them to reduce the initially agreed upon price of the item. 2. These items sold in October 2015, and it’s currently JANUARY 12TH 2016, and despite dozens of phone calls, my check has yet to arrive. I have never received worst customer service in my life. 2^nd Time Around, not only the 176 Newbury Street location, but the brand as a whole, has forever lost me as a consigner and a shopper.

Do NOT consign your clothes at this store or with this company. Their policies are terrible. If you have designer things, send them to
. Way better customer service and they pay 60%, not the paltry 40% STA offers.
I brought in a few things, they took 3. Of the 3 items one went missing before the consignment period was finished. I called several times to speak with Lesley, the manager and Lauren, the assistant manager. They couldn’t find my clothing. They said they would speak with the district manager and see if there was anything they could do. I called 6 times, they never called me back. I stopped in and they apologized but said «it’s store policy, they aren’t responsible for your belongings once you consign them.» What? Are you kidding me. Oh so it’s a consign at your own risk kinda deal? That’s a good policy. No accountability for the store, just profit. Who’s to say the employees didn’t just take the clothes. What’s to stop them? How about get better security or compensate consignors something when their things are stolen. Such horrible customer service. I certainly will never give them anything ever again.

Not only do they steal from the consignors, and never paid me for my sold merchandise, but they also lie and tell you that your items are fake! They promised to value my cross body LV bag and call me with a price. I had to contact them after waiting for 2 weeks with a price. The manager claimed that my bag was fake after showing her paperwork from the actual LV store! I had my husband pass by the next day to pick up my «fake» bag! They are thieves and liars! I am not sure how they remain and stay in business. They are able to sell to a customer for so little because they don’t always pay the consignors!

HISTORY: I stopped consigning with STA (AKA Second Time Around AKA 2^nd Time Around), back in 2011, because ¹⁄₃ of my expensive, designer clothes, which I consigned to sell at their store, went «missing.» This means the staff and/​or customers stole them… and I got NO MONEY for the clothes valued at thousands of dollars… not even a tax deduction for my «donation.»
CONSIGNOR COMMISSION: I returned to STA on 10/​20/​2015 because they emailed me, claiming they «missed me» as a customer and offering me a 50% commission, 10% more than their regular 40% offer. I called and made an appointment to consign 30+ pieces of clothing.
CONSIGNOR CLOTHING: I spent 2 days gathering up 50 items from my designer closets: 7 Coach purses; Chanel sunglasses; 8 Georgio Armani and other pants; Karen Millen and other dresses; 12 pairs of shoes by Chanel, Versace and John Fleuvog of Newbury Street. Items ranged in condition from New w/​Tags to gently worn. I cashed in a favor and had a strong male carry 3 HUGE BAGS from my Clarendon Street apartment to their Newbury Street store. (Yes, I live only a few blocks from them and want to do business!)
STAFF: The young girl who greeted me was patient and polite, explaining their new form and online clothing tracking system to me. I was told they would take ½ HOUR to go through my clothing, and assured them I could shop longer than that!
CUSTOMERS: As I was shopping, a woman asked to purchase one of my Coach purses. The staff dismissed her, confessing they did not know if they would accept them for sale at all. The woman repeated that she wanted to BUY ONE, and the girl repeated that she could not. The woman left confused and I stayed… stupified. In an «Ally McBeal moment» I mentally saw myself grabbing the purses and stopping the women in the middle of Newbury Street to offer one to her directly, haha! I am a professional, patient woman. So, I waited the ½ hour…
THE DEAL: After I spent 2 days gathering clothes, and carried 50 pieces 4 blocks, STA consigned… NOTHING. Their reason? We have no room. Common courtesy would have dictated a simple phone call telling me this BEFORE I exhausted myself emptying my closets. I left feeling a toxic tonic of negative emotions: confused, rejected, frustrated and disrespected.
THE LESSON: Always READ Unilocal REVIEWS FIRST! This is a rule I live by, and only broke it this once because I was already familiar with 2^nd Time Around. Yet, if I had read the recent STA Unilocal reviews, I would have known that this is how they regularly treat customers and consignors. They do not value me or my business. I won’t get fooled again.

I have never had to write a review like this, but thought that I should. Buyer BEWARE!!! I spent $ 270 in the downstairs store. I then went upstairs and bought a pair of Sam Edlemen booties with straps. They had been put out on the floor that morning. I was there at 11:30. When I took them out of the bag once I returned home a few hours later, one of the straps was unattached from the boot. Turns out it had been glued to the boot by someone! It was not sewn, as it had appeared in the store. They were not marked low because of the strap. They were $ 60. I called them and explained the situation. They insisted that they could not give me a credit because the item had left the store! This is ridiculous. They had not paid the consigner. It had only been a few hours after the sale and the sale was mis-​represented. Either the consigner or the store had been dis-​honest and did not sell this item with full disclosure. I have been a consigner with this chain for may years and a loyal customer. No more. I will never shop here again.
Believe me, I understand bargain shopping and consignment shopping. I have been doing it for years. I understand the risks and look items over carefully. But this is plain wrong. They had total disregard for attempting to do the right thing and allow me to return these highly damaged shoes. Be very careful with your purchases in this store.

CONSIGNING REVIEW:
For a second hand store, they are so picky and strict with the things they buy back. Unless your items are all top notch designer things that are only 2 – 3 seasons old, they won’t consider anything. When selling they only give you 40% of what STA sells it for. I read reviews that they saw non-​designer clothing as well, so I brought those clothes in as well. My advice: don’t even try cause there is a very high chance that it won’t be taken.
And I thought Buffalo Exchange was tough.

absolute worst rip off ever known if you are selling … they basically take your clothing, sell it and give you nothing… I brought 7 bags of great clothes in and I made $ 100
a lot of the clothes even still had tags on them…
Then I brought 2 bags to another shop out of the city and made over $ 700
DON“T waste your time bringing anything here… .RIP OFF

I normally do not write these sort of emails however I wanted to comment on Leslie at 176 Newbury — I believe she is the store manager there…
I made a phone purchased the other day and I couldn’t have been happier with the quality of customer service. She was not only extremely friendly and accommodating over the phone, but she made me feel like one of her regular customers (and I had never shopped there prior). I have had several unfriendly experiences at a few New York City locations (where I am from) the past few weeks, making me question if I wanted to continue any sort of relationship with the company, however Leslie changed that with not only her friendly disposition but also the hand written note she sent with the wallet. Leslie is a complete class act :)
I absolutely loved working with Leslie and I can’t wait to continue shopping and hopefully selling through her location.
If you are ever in the neighborhood of 176 Newbury I highly recommend you stop in!

Used to be a good place to consign, now not so much. Staff was very polite but the manager rejected a very large selection of higher end items (for the average Bostonian who is not a celebrity) that I recently brought in to consign. Earth to STA management: this is Boston, not Monte Carlo. Most normal girls shopping at a second hand store think labels like Prada, Alice and Olivia, and Coach are too expensive brand-​new and buying them gently used is what makes shopping in a store like yours fun. In addition, making the staff call a consigner to say that management decided the items aren’t worthy of their establishment is poor form. Overall quite disappointed

Worst experience ever. Beware. My clothes brought in on hangers and hung in garment bags were returned in black plastic bags. Terrible customer service. They didn’t even call to inform me that items were not being taken. Rude unapologetic and will never use again.

I used to stop here to browse pretty much every time I was around Back Bay. I loved the wide selection (but still curated!) and I have found many DVF wrap dresses for a song, so despite a few negative interactions, I was still a happy-​ish camper. They recently got a new CEO for the entire chain, and you can feel the changes. I went to the store yesterday and it had maybe 35% the amount of merchandise it had before. And with those Newbury St. rents, you just know they jacked up the prices on the rest of the selection. I saw a new with tags, non in-​season DVF dress for $ 199 — that’s what I’d pay at Saks on sale! I get that they’re trying to do «designer for 50% off retail», but a lot of this stuff has been worn before and it is SEASONS old. Again, I can go to Saks/​Neiman Marcus/​Nordstrom and get 50% off at the end of the season.
This just doesn’t feel like the treasure hunt it used to. I hope they get the high-​end customers they’re looking for, but as for me, I’m cashing out my store credit and not coming back anytime soon.

The great deals here aren’t worth the terrible customer service at this store (and I love a great deal). I’ve visited many times only to be greeted with snotty, thoughtless attitudes. Today, the store «closed early» and wouldn’t let customers in before their closing time on the door. Very frustrating.
Do yourself a favor and head up the road to 219 Newbury or take the T up to Coolidge Corner. The selection may be a bit smaller, but the staff at those stores actually care about helping customers.

I dropped off a bag of clothes containing some on trend and in-​season leather purses, and a spring/​summer season Diane von Furstenberg dress, and other designer items. They make you fill out a form if you’re just dropping off your items that states they will donate items they don’t accept to Goodwill. Short on time, I agreed, sure of the fact they would take at least a few of my designer items. How could they pass up the Diane von F dress… seriously? No way. It’s a no-​brainer, I thought. I got a phone call about 3 hours later from the store at 176 Newbury asking me what the bag of clothes was, after the sales associate assured me I had done all I needed to do by filling out the form. Disorganized. Clearly the girl who had me fill out the form was not competent. I just received my yellow carbon copy form of what I filled out at the store, hoping to see many of my items on the inventory list. The form had a note at the bottom that said «Sorry had to pass due to brands. Thanks.» …Had to pass due to BRANDS!?! When I just called and expressed concern about my items, the girl sounded like a robot, like she was reading off a script.
I have consigned so much of my former closet with STA when I was in college, and I brought very similar items this time, maybe even better! I definitely expected at least $ 100 from the bag I brought. As you only get 40% of what they sell, you always think you’re going to get a lot more… but they keep 60% of what they sell the item for. I find it very hard to believe that they did not keep anything. I don’t know what goes on there, but it seems like either the sales associates kept the items for themselves, or they are going to sell the items and keep 100% of the profit. I may go in to check on this, but I’d just rather stay away from this place all together now. Crappy staff, crappy policies. Save yourself the loss, and sell your stuff on Poshmark or find a different, more people-​oriented trustworthy company all together. My mother has also dropped of at STA and she has many designer things. She just shared her experience with me. Same situation. SERIOUSLY… Go somewhere else to consign.

I love Second Time Around! I always seem to find the best clothing items here! This specific location of STA seems to have the best selection of all of them (I’ve been in the others). The service is great, everyone is always helpful and greets you with a smile. This is always a go-​to for me on Newbury, I have bought so many essentials for my closet here, everything still had the original price tag on it!
I have only bought clothes from STA– I haven’t brought any clothes to be sold there. I have read reviews that this part of the company isn’t so great, so my review is strictly on the buying end.

First of all, they say they only accept high end designer brands. I brought in about 50 items to consign (brands ranging from Valentino, Pucci, etc to J. Crew). They only accepted 7 items. If you look around the shop you will see low end brands that no one has ever heard of. As for the process, when you call they say you need an appointment, which I made on a Saturday. When I showed up they had me place my things on the floor next to the cash register and sign a release form. They WILL NOT meet with you. When I said that I wanted to discuss how much some of the items would be sold for, I was told that I will be contacted during the week to discuss. By Thursday, since I had heard nothing from them, I called, and was told that they never call or email people. You have to have an online account to see the status of your items. This was the first I had heard of that. So I quickly created an account to see what was happening. I was shocked to see how little was accepted. Worst of all, the one, most expensive item, a mint condition suede Ralph Lauren bomber jacket that would retail for probably $ 2,000, was sold already. Guess how much? They put the price at $ 50, and accepted a $ 40 offer. This meant I got $ 16. I spent more dry cleaning it. They had no-​name shirts for more than that. I find it really hard to believe that STA would not want to get more money for something when they clearly could have, so the only thing that makes sense to me is that someone from STA «bought» it. I’m convinced that an employee is now wearing my jacket.
When I learned all of this, I told them to take all of my items off of the racks and that I would be there in 2 days to pick everything up. When I arrived, nothing had been taken off the racks, and they lost a Tod’s shoe box and bag that I had a brand new pair of Tod’s loafers in.
By the way, they won’t take responsibility for what they say. I kept hearing «I don’t know who told you that. I wasn’t there that day.»

After several issues with getting payments from STA and the hassle of them being so disorganized, I will cease to consign with them.
This past month I was supposed to be getting a check for $ 147. On the 15^th I started getting calls from corporate letting me know that they made a clerical error and that they sent me a check for $ 2700 and not to cash it. That is a serious clerical error. In addition they said they would expedite the correct payment– they haven’t– But I did receive two more panicked phone calls from people in corporate letting me know not to cash the $ 2000 check.
I have also had items added to my account that I had not brought in and also things «go missing» where they literally had no idea where they were. This place has gone downhill and with so many other options out there– I will be taking my business elsewhere.

Nice store for browsing
I found a nice beige coat here
Prices are okay

This place pretty much robbed me. I only consigned her because they take men’s clothing. I purchased a Vince leather Jacket at a boutique on Martha’s Vineyard for a boyfriend. We broke up, so I wanted to sell it. It still had the $ 1,050 dollar price tag on it. I brought it to STA along with two amazing DVF dresses, a BCBG dress with the tag still on it, and some other high end items. The staff was very excited about the items. When the 15^th of the next month rolled around (when they issue the checks) nothing arrived. I went into the store to see how things were going. Nothing had sold, BUT, they couldn’t «find» the DVF dresses. I came back a few weeks later to pick up the things that hadn’t sold (I was within their 3 month time limit). Not only were the DVF dresses still «missing». .. the BCBG dress was now missing as well. Not sold, but not in the store. The jacket, thank God, sold. I was told I would be credited for the missing dresses.
So, the check arrived. For my $ 1,050 dollar jacket and my 3 missing dresses, I received $ 175. I figured they had forgotten my dresses. When I called the only response I got was «yeah.. . we um sold those at 50% off.» All other consignment shops NOTIFY you before they slash the price of your item. Not to mention my dresses didn’t sell, they were just gone.
Had I known this was going to go down, I would have figured out something else for the jacket and brought my other items to Revolve in Lexington. I consign my old Lululemon at Revolve and receive AT LEAST $ 300 a month.
This place is highway robbery. They had no respect for my clothing and they ripped me off. They should be totally ashamed of the scam they’re running.

I really like Second Time Around. It pains me to give the three stars instead of a higher four, but hear me out.
«Thrift» and «vintage» are trendy shopping methods. Consignment boutiques need to stand above the rest to compete, and STA isn’t doing it as well as they used to. I’ve seen H&M and Forever 21 pieces priced at the same level they would be at their original stores. I have seen outlet store pieces sold for more than they would be at the outlets! Second Time Around is getting a little big for its britches.