This honest selling site (marketplace) review is like a Netflix Documentary - it starts off as one thing then, half way through, it reroutes with unexpected twists and turns along the way. Strap and get ready for a review unlike any other… this content should seriously be a movie... Check it out -

*imagine birds singing, the sky is bluest of blues, the sun is shining upon your skin*

My initial impression was that I liked Tanga a lot because their “story” is really similar to BigBrandWholesale.com’s story. We started our business in 2005 and they started in 2006. We started off selling individual items and they started off selling board games. Both of our companies completely changed our business over the course of the next 15 years. Small businesses have a special place in my heart so right out the gate I was like “Awwwwwww!”

One compliment I can truly give Tanga is that I really like their website. Actually, it’s a lot like ours, which is probably why I enjoy it so much. The layout is VERY simplistic, easy to shop and reviews are predominantly displayed:

TRAFFIC LEVELS

Tanga is on the Top 150 Marketplaces in the World list, but it's ranking is up for debate.  For comparison:

• eBay gets over a BILLION Visitors a month
• Walmart gets around 470 MILLION
• Bonanza gets 5.4 Million visitors per month
• Jet.com gets 1.4 million (Jet is owned by Walmart.com)
• Tanga comes in at about 500,000 (according to Crunchbase it is 300,000)
• eBid get 300,000
• MassGenie, who I wrote a terrible review about because they seem to make fraudulent claims, gets under 90,000 visitors a month. Actually, now that I think about it, I am still mad about MassGenie. Thanks for making me relive that review.

IF Tanga gets 500,000 hits per month, it would come in #133 out of 150.  If it gets 300,00 it would come in at #138, which would be a tie with eBid.

It is absolutely a FACT the Tanga sells stuff. We know this for sure because there are at least 25 reviews (forcefully) written per day. Yes, you read that correctly, FORCEFULLY written. Remember when I said that there’s twists and turns like a Netflix doc? Yep, yep. Keep readin’ my friend…

*birds are still singing, a playful frog jumps in the green-green grass*

So, if you have had success on eBid then you *should* have better success on Tanga, especially if you sell in one (or more) of these main categories:

• Clothing (Mens and Womens)
• Health & Beauty
• Electronics
• Home Goods

They also have other categories, but these are their heavy-hitters according to the navigation categories on their home page.

There are many Clothing SubCategories with VERY FEW LISTINGS, which gives you the opportunity to step in and load these categories up! For example, in Womens Clothing there is a Subcategory called Sweatshirts. It has literally like 36 total listings 

Another example, there is currently 1 listing for “bras and bra sets”

If you go to the “lingerie and sleepwear” category there are a couple more bra listings 

*Snow white is now signing and the animals are happily dancing around her.*

There are a couple of things you need to know about selling on Tanga. Specifically:

1. This is NOT a site for used clothing. Keep the used items on eBay.
2. Modified items are also not allowed. I *assume* this means if you use your creativity to tie dye a Calvin Klein top to hide an ink stain, you would not be able to sell this on Tanga because it is technically “modified” from its original version.
3. This would also mean you have to pass on refurbished goods, store returns, some shelf pulls and anything that could be expired

There’s a list of other no-no’s that you can read here .

I know, right now you have that Lego Movie “Everything is Awesome” theme song playing in your head, right? Keep reading...

SHIPPING RESPONSIBILITIES

Tanaga wasts everything shipped within 2 days of purchase (make a mental note of this, please… it will be ironic later in this article). You MUST ship using an “approved carrier”, but the list of approved carriers encompasses pretty much every legit carrier:

COST

Listing is FREE. There is a commission / closing cost list:

The fees are comparable to Walmart (who also charges nothing to list) but Walmart gets like 410 MILLION more visitors per month.

OTHER STUFF:

RETURNS

Tanga aims for customer satisfaction but does aid the seller more than eBay or Amazon. With Tanga a return can be made for the following reasons:

You and I both know that people will intentionally break stuff just to return it, so let’s just say after 30 days the buyer officially owns it.

*A stream trickles softly in the background, you are in a total state of blissful zen. Everything is so perfect that you are wondering if this is a dream. You giggle and think about all buyers keeping their purchase without complaint after only 1 month*

BUT WAIT….

*dramatic music begins*

Before you sign up to become a Tanga seller… Here’s where this “documentary” takes a dark turn… Like Carole Baskin from Tiger King….

*Your heart races as you await a major jump scare. You grip your computer chair seat, eat another Cheeto and keep reading like it’s a sultry romance novel*

REAL REVIEWS vs DISHONEST (forced) REVIEWS…

On ResellerRatings.com they have an average of ONE STAR out of over 6,000 REVIEWS. BUT, of course you simply can’t make everyone happy. You could give every customer a free diamond along with their purchase and SOME people would still complain, “Why is the karat so small? Why is the band gold? I only wear silver!”. BUT… crazy customers would account for a small percentage of bad reviews, right? If the reviews are 99.999% 1-star-awful, that’s cringey, agreed?

So maybe you’re wondering “What exactly are people bitching about?” - and I also wondered this too, because there’s a big difference between a 1-star review saying “USPS left it on my porch in the rain!” and a 1-star review saying “Your company literally stole from me!”, so I dug and dug and came up with the top complaints being that:

• Customer Service is horrendous
• Meaning, Customer Service doesn’t reply, at all…like, ever.
• Which means they never issue refunds
• Which means they actually keep your money and leave you with nothing… or crap. Which is worse? Would you rather have nothing…. or a turd?... when you look at it like that, you ask yourself “What does the turd look like? Is it petrified? Can I use it as a paperweight? If not, give me nothing”

So you’re thinking, “Well some people are just outrageous idiots” - and I do agree with you. But this isn’t one or two people saying the same thing… it’s thousands upon thousands…upon even more thousands...

On TrustPilot they have a 2-star rating out of almost (bad) 100 reviews 

Those are just the first 8 reviews on TrustPilot, there’s plenty more.

BUT what is very odd is that on Tangas website they have a section called “Why Trust Tanga”:

And on this page they brag about, and encourage you to click, “Reviews.io” where Tanga has nothing but AMAZING reviews; everything is so perfect, every experience is great, 0 issues, *birds start chirping again*, Incredible Customer Service, nothing but the best-of-the-best experiences, *prairie dogs frolic in the grass*,... Interesting eh? This just didn’t make sense to me at all. How can EVERY OTHER review site be filled with seemingly endless miserable customers, yet Reviews.io is only happy people? Weird. It just didn’t make sense, and, when something doesn’t make sense there is usually a reason why. So after marginal digging, I figured out why there’s so many 5-stars…

*creepy music starts playing again. A Dracula is seen standing in the background, waiting for you to fall asleep*

And THIS:

So basically, what Tanga is doing is having people review them AS SOON AS THE PURCHASE IS MADE instead of (what every other company in the world does, which is) having people review AFTER the merchandise is in their hands and the customer can ACTUALLY say you did a 5-star job, start to finish. In fact, Tanga buyers (claim that they) can’t even access their RECEIPT until they leave the flippin’ review. So what happens is that Tanga ends up with a ton of artificially positive reviews, for example, they got a 4-star out of this guy who clearly didn’t even want to leave a review but wanted to access his receipt:

Or these reviews which have absolutely nothing to do with the shipping speed, quality of the products or customer service because none of these people know what to type since they literally just ordered, so instead they leave a good review for no reason other than wanting to totally complete the purchase:

But what really doesn’t add up is the Review.io “Seller Metrics” versus the immediately-after-order-reviews on this same site:

And the people who did wait to leave the review (or took the time to go back and REVISE their old review) are pissed:

BUT WAIT, SH*T GETS CRAZIER…

In 2018, a Tanga seller posted this email publically, which he claims he was sent by Tanga regarding his pay (don’t worry, I’ll tell you the highlights of this email so you don’t have to read it if ya don’t want to):

According to the email shown above, Tanga stated they are filing Chapter 11 Bankruptcy to deal with financial stress. The email asks this Tanga seller (who is owed money for their Tanga sales) to essentially “work with them” during their difficult financial times and to allow Tanga 20+ days to pay the money due to the seller but ALSO, it would appear, Tanga threw in a little “bait and switch”, which I shall explain momentarially BUT first, let me say this; I think a lot of people don’t understand the different TYPES of Bankruptcy. In the USA there are 4 main types of bankruptcy:

• Chapter 7 - this is when you go out of business completely
• Chapter 11 -this is the most complicated type of case. This is when some debts are “forgiven” (AKA: Erased) and other debts are restructured or settled but you stay in business. Mostly used by bigger businesses. It’s basically like, “Ok, I owe you $1,000. How about I pay you $100 and you get over it?”. As crazy as this may sound, many companies, such as credit cards, are ok with this because they feel like “something is better than nothing”.
• Chapter 12 - Only applies to specific industries; farmers, fishermen, so just ignore this entirely.
• Chapter 13 - Most Debts are paid back using the income the company makes during the next couple years.

Tanga filed Chapter 11.

BUT…. with that being said, what Tanga did during the Chapter 11 was, in my opinion, really, really wrong, but people probably don’t realize it, so, to put this in easy-to-understand-terms, in 5 simple steps:

1. Tanga files Chapter 11 bankruptcy in court in Arizona on 6-1-2018 

2. As soon as Bankruptcy is filed, everything is on a “stay”. That means debt collectors CAN NOT ask for payment due to “Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection”. This usually lasts around 180 days which is 6 MONTHS. So if you sold anything, sorry Charlie, no payment for you!

3. Tanga owes money to sellers in addition to other debt (credit card debt, loans, investor repayment or whatever it may be). Their goal of the bankruptcy is to END as much of these debts as possible and start again with less money owed… meaning, restart WITHOUT having to repay the FULL AMOUNT of the debt, because, obviously, if you were planning to repay 100% of the money you owe, WTF would be the point of spending a small fortune on filing bankruptcy? With Chapter 11 the people you owe money to can essentially “settle” to be paid a lesser amount than what is owed; Like I said earlier, “I owe ya $1,000 but will you take $100 and leave me alone?”. But sometimes you might not pay back debts at all. In many instances, in Chapter 11, you can even have numerous debts completely erased (providing it isn’t “nondischargeable debt”. Nondischargeable debt are things like child support or back taxes… typically debt related to the government that will never be erased.)

4. BUT, When Chapter 11 is filed, anyone who you owe money to has the legal right to protest (“object”) and tell the court, by basically saying, “I insist this company / person pays me IN FULL!!” BUT if you don’t show up to protest, you will end up getting whatever the court decides you should get….and the way the court works is that they “prioritize” debt. Meaning the governmental debt (like taxes) take 1st place, then the other “nondischargeable debt” comes in 2nd. After that, the rest is up to debate via lawyers and a judge if you aren’t there. BUT if you do NOT legally object, the debt will likely be “forgiven”, mean totally canceled or, absolutely lessened to a much smaller amount. Meaning, you will likely never get a dime you are owed because you didn’t tell the court that you don’t want the debt written off as a loss. I know, it sounds nuts, but if you know the law it does make a bit of sense. I promise. Anyways….

5. So Tanga did what they are legally required to do, which is to notify everyone they owe money to, that they will be going to court for Chapter 11. However, Tanga clearly knows that people don’t understand this. That is why their email said stuff like, “This process will take several months to work through the court system to come up with a plan of repayment of outstanding debts. Any future notices, decisions, and processes will come from the courts. If you believe you have a claim against Tanga, you will need to file that claim through the court system.”

…. Do you genuinely think the average Joe from the beautiful mountains of Tennessee, selling mens Hanes boxer shorts online for $4.99 understands WTF that means let alone how to Object??? Of course not. And Tanga knows this.

But wait, do you remember the seller who posted the email he got from Tanga that told him to wait “20+ days for pay”... well, if this seller agrees to patiently wait and if the bankruptcy proceeding is within the timeframe of whatever “20+” means (could mean 30, could mean 200, who knows), it is absolutely possible, and likely, that the bankruptcy court will “discharge” the debt due to this seller. So while the seller is waiting, watching his calendar, thinking that Tanga is going to eventually send him SOMETHING, Tanga is actually in court (or trying to get in court), attempting to get the debt to him lessened or erased completely. Nice, eh?

Anyways….

The bad reviews don’t stop there…

984 BBB Complaints 

And, this will REALLY bake your bagels, but even CUSTOMERS of Tanga.com who had issues were told that they won’t get assistance with their order errors and to file a legal “objection” as part of the bankruptcy.

If you’re currently thinking “There is NO WAY this is all real”, I assure you, this is not a Lifetime Drama, this actually happened!

So, now is the time in our review that we have to give a star rating.

Regretfully, we are forced to give a….

I know, you’re like “Wow. That is the lowest possible score! Why so harsh, man? Don’t you have a soul??”

Here’s my reasoning:

It really nukes my potatoes that Tanga does that bogus upfront-review-if-you-want-a-receipt crap. Stuff like that isn’t cool. How can ANYONE give an honest review when their merchandise hasn’t even shipped yet? And I know that Tanga knows this. I couldn’t imagine doing this to our customers. Sometimes we include a little flier in with the order asking the customer to review us…. The customer gets the paper when their order arrives and they open it.

The fees are insane for what you get. As mentioned, for 15% commission you can see on many other sites, including Walmart, which is in the top 5 in the WORLD.

Stuff has REALLY went down hill. Here’s a screenshot from 2016:

Fast forward to today, 4.15.20. Here’s a screenshot:

So, according to their own content, in 3 years they went from 40+ employees down to 8! EIGHT!!!! I am NOT knocking 8 employees; our company has LESS. But to decrease from 44 to 8 in 3 years is mass downsizing, meaning something is VERY wrong during a time that the economy and online sales are growing.

On top of that, their "Deals" just aren't deals.  Let me give you an example.  Here's OUR deal:

25 SETS (50 Pieces) of QVC Designer Bag Sets for $89 with free shipping:

But a Tanga "Deal" is this 1 Olay for $15.99:

But the IDENTICAL item is the same price on Amazon:

Or ebay:

So I just don't really "get it" I guess.  

Lack of social media and site upkeep. On their own Blog, which is a part of their site, their last 3 posts are March 2020, October 2019 and December 2018 (so they average 1 post per YEAR)

Their facebook, which they brag has “170,000 followers” (I almost guarantee they aren’t organic) hasn’t been updated since December 2019:

Their Twitter hasn’t been updated since 2018:

And their instagram hasn’t been updated since 2018:

In closing, I have no clue WTF is going on with this company.  Personally, I would not sell with this company, but check it out and form your own opinions.  Good luck!

Next, check out our reviews about other places to sell:

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