To think Vinted were wrong to side with the seller

That's terrible. Think I'll stick to Ebay and charity shops. Vinted sounds trendier, but from some of the threads on here, it sounds like an all-round terrible decision with no protection for buyers or sellers.

I buy and sell a fair bit on vinted. I get that putting in exact measurements is a faff but I do wish there was a box to tick for length of trousers. I was looking for some work trousers for DS and 99% of listings didn't say whether long, regular or short.

I bought a cardigan which turned out to be cropped - you couldn't tell from the picture.
In OPs case I think she was misled by the seller. Regular length should be around 30".
I never pay much so put the odd dudd down to experience.

Vinted customer service is a joke, I agree. I had a situation recently where an item I sold arrived with the buyer irreparably broken. I refunded the buyer but couldn't claim for the value of the item through the courier (Evri) as I wasn't the person who had paid for the courier cost (with Vinted the buyer pays the courier cost at the same time as purchasing the item and I - the seller - simply receive a pre-paid postage label).

Evri basically said because their contract for transporting the item was with the buyer and not me as the seller, it would have to be the buyer who made the claim. The value of the item was £15 and, as I'd already refunded the buyer, there was no way the buyer would be arsed to make a claim on Evri and return the money to me.

I think this is a real downside for sellers if no claims can be pursued with the courier companies.

Not necessarily, if the trousers weren’t theirs originally they might not have known. I sell a lot of stuff on eBay and I once had a dress to sell (had previously belonged to a friend) that had the sleeves altered (friend had forgotten to mention it), they’d been done professionally and tbh if I hadn’t have also had the same dress myself, I wouldn’t have known it wasn’t as the original. I listed it as altered of course but it was only by chance I knew. However, the fact the label says R, and the brand has a standard length for R, means they aren’t as described so Vinted should have sided with the OP. EBay certainly would have done.

Vinted always side with the seller, unlike ebay who are always on the side of the buyer. I've sold quite a bit on vinted with much less hassle than as a seller on ebay, but as PP have said I tend not to buy unless v cheap and I'm prepared to lose the money, have had a top for my daughter described as very good condition with a massive stain on the back and a jumper that had obviously shrunk in the wash, but as only a couple of pounds I cut the loss and left feedback describing what had happened.

It's really frustrating for you OP, I think you're absolutely in the right and it's a lot of money to lose but I'm not confident you'll get anywhere

Oh dear I’ve bought a couple of items from Vinted but seeing some of the posts on this thread I won’t bother buying from there anymore.

Vinted are terrible for this. I now won’t buy anything that costs more than about £10 as that’s all I’m prepared to lose.

I’ve had items arrive filthy dirty, bobbled (described as new without tags), wrong size but label had been removed - Vinted has sided with the seller each time. It’s a joke.

The trouble is, the seller has not acknowledged they were altered. I had an issue once because the seller put the waist and length. The trouble is, they put the actual length rather than the length they were made for (they were a cropped style). It took a lot of explaining for her to realise the difference between the leg measuring 30" and the label saying 34".

I bought a toy that was broken on arrival. Chances are due to the nature of breakage it would have been like that when posted. After a lot of Argy bargy involving videos of said item, I was told to send it back and was given a refund. However the refund was only the item cost and not the initial postage or return postage so still out of pocket by £5 or so.

Another time I ordered something that never arrived. It was lost by evri not the seller's fault. That time I got a refund of the full cost from vinted, the seller also kept the money.

To be honest I never understand why it's popular. The postage and fees add about 3-4 pounds to cheap items and more to expensive ones. So there are rarely true bargains. It's ok for bundles of kids clothes although Facebook marketplace is often better.

I wonder if Vinted is run by men and that's why they're so insistent that losing five inches isn't significant.

(I've only made this comment to piss off the MRAs.)

Unfortunately l think you are correct. Vinted now have this reputation so people are chancing it by selling dodgy / misrepresented items and ruining it for everyone else

Sellers probably know they can get away with selling tat. Some probably either sloppily or cleverly take photos. Either way not good for a buyer.

I am with you there must be a middle ground.

I’m the same. I have been stung a few times. Only low value. I had a balance from selling a few bits. Realised that it is not worth the hassle of trying to second guess if item is ok. Looks like I am going to be stuck with an item. Never mind it is the last time. I’ve withdrawn my balance today.

5 inches is a big change and the seller must have known this. I moved away from EBay as they always seen to favour the buyer but surely one provider can get the right balance?

YANBU, totally understand why Vinted want to protect buyers against minor quibbles and people trying to pull a fast one as otherwise no one would sell. I can sort of therefore see a bias towards sellers being justified as part of the risk is you don’t see the item first. As a buyer, I know that.

But this goes beyond that. The item had been altered such that it was not the same item she held out for sale. Can’t believe Vinted have said that’s ok.

Unfortunately this is what Vinted does. It will be their demise if they don't make changes. I used to buy lots on there but was burned too many times by dodgy sellers and so I've stopped.

YANBU!

is there a dispute you can now put in? I think that’s dreadful customer service and sounds like the person selling is selling on an item they haven’t properly checked themselves.

Unfortunately, very much against the buyer. I assumed that there would be some protection but not the case. I didn’t realise that even if seller accepts return it is up to them if refund your postage.

I have only been stung for low value items. Sorry you got stung for high value item.

It shouldn’t be up to a buyer to ask if item has been altered. It is things like that and my own recent experience which means I’m done with Vinted.

I think that the only thing you can do is list the item and say they have been altered. Unfortunately might take a while to find the right person.

That’s odd. I bid and paid for a purse, seller never sent it said they “didn’t have time” 🙄. I was refunded pretty much straight away and seller was left negative feedback automatically by Vinted.

@Cattenberg yes. Vinted is just the platform that brings sellers and buyers together, it's not the seller it's self. The 'buyer protection' is a misnomer, from what I have seen you are in reality paying an admin service fee for using the platform.

That’s really bad. The same thing happened to me. The trousers had been shortened and the hems glued! Luckily the seller refunded me the item and told me to keep them. If she hadn’t, I would have been mightily pissed off.

Usually, because it's tuppence ha'penny.

But that's why I'd never buy anything from it that was more than about a fiver, maybe a tenner if I really liked it. Not more than I'm prepared to lose. I've been lucky so far but it's a gamble.

So Vinted customers have no more consumer rights than if they’d bought an item at a car boot sale? With the massive disadvantage that they couldn’t see and examine the item before they bought it?

If that’s true, why on Earth would anyone buy from Vinted?

The consumer rights act and distant selling regs only apply to B2C contracts (contracts between traders and consumers)