People who leave less than 5 star reviews on Vinted

[Sallywallywoowoo]

So until the last couple of days everything I've sold has been given 5 stars. Then the last 2 days I've got 4 out of 5 twice and it's really annoyed me! 1 gave me 4 because "dont believe it's new without tags" fair, except I didn't say it was. I listed it as "very good condition". The other one says "item as described" and gave me 4 out of 5. Now I realise it really doesn't actually matter but I'd always leave 5 stars personally unless there's a problem (which there wasn't - both were marked as OK and I've been paid out) so what I'm wondering is whether I'm too generous with my reviews. Would you always leave a 5 star if everything is ok? Or would you downgrade without stating a reason?

3 stars is crap to me and means disappointment but not bad enough to return.

What does above and beyond mean to you?

@SheDragonheart Go to your profile, choose settings and then postage and you can toggle all the options on or off. Took me ages to find this as I expected to be able to edit postage options when you list an item like you can with eBay!

I use Vinted loads and I often leave a five star review.

That being said -

if you took ages to post
if you were really uncommunicative
if you haggled loads
if something I got was more bobbly/stained than the image

I’m leaving you less than 5.

I do say why though

I once bought a pair of shoes for my DS and got sent two in different sizes… by quite a bit as well 😂

That's certainly how my company's performance management gradings are structured:

1 = just joined.

2 = below expectations.

3 = meets expectations.

4 = exceeds expectations in some areas. 5 = exceeds expectations in all areas.

Perhaps the 3 star Vinted reviewers work in similar companies!

My company’s performance rating is the same (ie a 3 is good because expectations are high)

but I’m flexible enough to be able to switch to a different way of doing things when it comes to buying and selling a few bundles of second hand baby clothes online

So how do you differentiate between a seller who does the minimum and a seller who dispatched your item immediately, wrapped in three ply tissue paper with a hand written (in fountain pen!) thank you note?!

One of my all time pet peeves on Vinted is people listing ‘excellent condition’ clothes as new without tags.

This is not hard people, it’s either worn or not.

It’s usually obvious it’s worn so stop frigging listing as new without tags when there is a category for excellent condition.

I am still annoyed about the person who gave me a 3 star review because it didn't turn up on the exact day she expected it to. She even said in the review it wasn't my fault and that the item was excellent 😡

I wouldn’t differentiate. Because I don’t care about three ply tissue paper and thank-you notes! I’m buying second hand clothing to save some money and do my bit for the environment. I’d rather a seller reuse packaging they already have and not waste paper!

@swimminginthesun it might be reused tissue paper! I think that, for some people, there has to be scope for improvement / to differentiate, and that plays out in reviews.

IMO

4 stars should be good, 5 stars exceptional.

3 stars mostly OK with a small problem.

2 stars multiple problems

1 star totally crap experience.

But I just let vinted auto review everyone with 5 stars/give 5 stars if I do give a review manually and the transaction wasn't a disaster, because I know people use it that way and I don't actually care.

Exceptional would be something like really nice items in as good or better condition than I was expecting, for a cheap price, packaged especially well, posted super quickly (not necessarily all of these things at once!). BUT under the system I'm operating on in my head, it's not an expectation that all of these things be provided. It's just supposed to be a little note to say wow - really happy with this seller. If everyone was following this system then the idea would be that you wouldn't need to aim for 5 stars because 3/4 stars is also a good rating.

I don't care for the extra messages either. They are annoying.

I agree that this change in the usage of star systems makes no sense and basically means there is no point in having the option to award any number of stars - instead you should just have two options "The transaction was satisfactory" "There was a problem with my transaction". But it is also meaningless and petty to insist on keeping using an old system that most other people aren't using and will probably be upset by. You have to go with what the majority are doing.

Curious so for the people for whom (ideally) 5/5 = everything is fine, what would you use the other star ratings for?

Because I think it's really interesting that the 5/5 = satisfactory people seem to think that 4/5 = satisfactory, 5/5 = amazing/special is somehow unfair if the "something special" isn't easily achievable.

But that's the whole point of it being a differentiated score!

@BertieBotts I don’t really use the other ratings. I think they are a bit pointless. I’m not looking for exceptional service or pointing out “scope for improvement” as other posters have suggested. Just want the item to arrive as described. That’s it. I think a three star rating would probably work.
3 = all good
2 = minor issue
1 = shit show

I’ve only had one bad review and 250+ with 5 stars

The buyer was an idiot. I was selling a dress for £25 that I’d never worn only tried on and paid £89 for. She offered £23 and I accepted.
I had made it very clear in the description that although label said size 14 it came up big and was more suitable for a size 16.
I also mentioned it to her before I sent it and she replied with 👍

So dress was delivered, she didn’t click everything ok and I got the money 2 days later.
Then another couple of days passed and messaged me saying dress was too big so she needed a refund - well I explained it was too late and I’d clearly said dress came up big. Her response ‘well that’s really out of order I’ll report you to Vinted’ which she did and they came down on my side as I’d done everything correctly.

So I get a 1 star review from her saying I’d mid sold her an item and refused to refund her for my error.

There’s always one 🙄

I’m the same as PP, I have zero interest in differentiating, I can’t be bothered. It’s not a huge dilemma for me. Yes it would make sense to have a three star rating or whatever, but I don’t care that much

i do find it fascinating that some people have this idea of “above and beyond” in this context. I have no interest in providing that sort of service and if that results in three stars where I would have defaulted to five then I don’t care either!

And unless you comment that you only gave 4 stars because of the lack of beautiful wrapping with tissue paper, rather than anything lacking with the item you actually bought, how would the seller know that that is the improvement you are looking for? How would that help other buyers?

The point is if you had a system where 4 = perfect and 5 = exceptional, it's not an improvement you're generally looking for, and 4 wouldn't be "only", it would be "Oh great, I got a 4 star review, that person was happy."

So other buyers would be able to see, oh look this person has mostly 4s, that's good then. That person has some 5s? What have they got that other sellers don't?

@BertieBotts The only things I’m looking for in a Vinted seller are trustworthiness and having an item for sale that I want to buy. No one browses through sellers to choose the best one. You browse the items. Plus, with the number of people selling on Vinted, you may never buy from the same person twice. It’s not as though I’m going to recommend an individual seller to a friend because of their exceptional 5* service. That seller may have nothing my friend wants.

If I was looking for someone to provide a skilled service - a photographer for example - then absolutely I would want to differentiate between the four and the five stars. But it’s just not necessary for Vinted.

We all know this though - it’s just not worth going against the grain or attempting to do what a tiny minority of people want for something like Vinted

My friend buys and sells on Vinted. She gave 4 stars to a seller because they sent the item in a Sainsbury’s carrier bag! She does recycle her untorn packaging to her buyers but otherwise utilisés homemade boxes wrapped in brown paper.

I’ve had loads of things sent well packaged in carrier bags. I would far rather someone used what they had than bought something specially to pack it

@Karatema Oh dear, I’ve used carrier bags before! Can’t imagine complaining about packaging unless it was dirty or didn’t adequately protect the item and it arrived damaged.

As a seller, you're bloody right it is.