To think vinted's 'buyer protection' is a load of 💩and what to do?

[Worriedaandconfused]

Has anyone else had a terrible experience with a vinted seller? I'm fairly new to the platform but bought a few items from one seller.

One item was listed as new and the listing description said 'never been worn'. It arrived with multiple stains! When I questioned the seller about this, she admitted it'd been worn multiple times. Another item was supposedly 'very good condition' but was faded, bobbly and generally well-worn. Other items were branded incorrectly. To top it off, they all had a strong smell of smoke.

Despite all of the inaccuracies, the seller refused to cover return postage costs and expected me to be left out of pocket for her false listings. I messaged vinted to try and resolve the problem but they just kept citing the returns policy and how it's up to the buyer to pay for the returns.

I cannot understand why I'm being charged a 'buyer protection' fee for every purchase when in reality I'm not fully protected against the cost of the order.

AIBU?
Yes you are - buyers should always cover the cost, even in the cases of faulty/damaged items of inaccurate descriptions.
YANBU - vinted need to fully cover the cost of the order and returns in these situations.

I forgot to add, has anyone had experience of this? Did you manage to get a resolution? Any tips on this and how to go about next steps would be great!

No advice on what you should do, just make sure you leave the seller an honest review to warn other buyers.
Sorry this happened to you, I've had no issues as of yet buying or selling on vinted, I love it so far

@LoverNotAFighter, I definitely will be leaving a negative review as, like you say, it’s important for others to know the seller isn’t 5⭐️. I do worry they’ll retaliate and leave me a bad review too, which would impact my current 5 star rating. 😩

I've luckily been okay so far but vinted seems to be full of stuff listed as 'new without tags' which has clearly been worn/used. Or they will list as 'new without tags' but then write 'worn once' in the description.

I wanted to sell DS outgrown Nike tech fleece, these are £110 new for but I noticed there were lots listed for £3...it's turned into a jumble sale.

This happened to me after buying a new w/o tags cashmere jumper- seller had loads of positive reviews. However, it had been stitched in lots of places to repair holes and alter the fit not even an apology!! I had to pay to return it. Tbh it put me off so much i only ever buy new with tags now

YANBU Vinted is a load of shite. It masquerades as a legit business but there is no protection whatsoever.
I had one where a seller sent me and another person the wrong items, I learned then Vinted’s policy was for ME to pay to send the wrong item back, even though I had already paid shipping and the ‘buyer protection’ and didn’t have the item I ordered. In that case the seller was decent, I paid to send back the item and eventually she sent me the item I ordered but she refunded the order. In the end I paid nearly the right amount anyway with 2 lots of postage and the fees.

Then I received the wrong item but the seller said she didn’t send it and it wasn’t hers. Vinted’s only comment after trying to report the issue was for me to post the item to the seller even though the seller said it wasn’t hers and she didnt want it!

I think I’ve given it enough chances now and will be steering clear.

Buyers need to understand you are essentially gambling with your money and you may or may not get your item. There is no protection like with eBay.

Wouldn't bother selling clothes, give them to a charity shop unless they are designer etc.

You won't get anywhere with your complaint OP, their customer service if something goes wrong is a nonsense...fine when all is peachy but any issues and they absolutely wash their hands of it in my experience. It is a commission and in no way a buyers protection fee in reality.

I had a situation whereby a free shipping offer did not apply to my purchase when it should have done. Vinted admitted it should have done, that it was a technical error and not my fault. But they 'had' to stick to their policy and would not refund the incorrect shipping cost to me regardless. The fake 'we understand exactly how you feel, we would also be disappointed' lines they gave me were so infuriating and insincere, I will never buy another thing from Vinted again (of course they don't care about that either but certainly will not be getting any more of my money dressed up as buyer protection fee).

I didn't receive a parcel (seller had posted it as I had tracking info) I got a refund from the seller for the item but not the postage as the seller doesn't get any postage money it goes direct to Vinted / delivery company. Vinted kept telling me I needed to ask the seller for the postage. There is no comeback on the delivery company if a parcel goes missing which is a red herring to me.

Another order I was sent a jumper with a hole seller agreed to a refund but wouldn't pay return postage and since it was a £3 kids jumper it was pointless for me to pay to post back as I'd lose postage twice.
I'd only been using it for 3 weeks, I've stopped using it as their custom service is diabolical.

I have had a skirt where the elastic had gone but everything else has been ok. A couple of things have smelled really strange but I just put them in the wash.

Everything seems to be listed for £1 now when Vinted suggests a selling price. Even kids Boden stuff. For £1 it's better off going to the charity shop

The site is full of fake items too.

I exploded over the same problem you have yesterday on here. I was SO angry but venting definitely helped. Buyer protection is basically a tax. You get nothing for it. You are relying on the seller being decent and honest with every transaction as there is no comeback. Customer service is as useful as a chocolate teapot. Either stop using the app altogether or just got very low cost items you want to take a gamble on.

Btw I was told in here yesterday that if you return the goods you are unable to write a bad review. So it’s lose, lose, lose.

You’re right it’s a waste of time and just to make Vinted £s, at least eBay are up front with sellers paying their fees. However I do buy and sell on there and it’s mainly a good experience.

Our tales of woe, DH bought some AirPods which looked new / genuine and worked OK, so he clicked “everything is OK”. 2 days later he took them to Apple to see if they could help remove the buds so he could fit the larger ones, he found out they were fake. Vinted couldn’t give a damn and didn’t help him resolve it. I bought some Marc Jacobs perfume which was sold as an unwanted gift for roughly £15 less than retail. Looked legit but the smell lasted about 10mins before fading, again no way of getting any recompense as I’d clicked everything is OK.
A buyer claimed the trousers off DHs hardly worn suit were shortened by sending measurements that I couldn’t see where they were taken from. I could have asked for them to return it, but for £5 I couldn’t be arsed so I just refunded their money and told them to give it to charity. They tried to haggle me down before they bought it so I guess it was always going to be their tactic.

I just stick to 2nd hand things now.

It's so disappointing to see I'm not the only one having these issues! It's really rubbish that the site are allowing such poor sellers on there without any consequences for them. @RudsyFarmer, I've just checked and you're right - now I've initiated the return, I can no longer give feedback! This is diabolical! 😠

So you will never get a true idea of the seller from their feedback. Absolutely full of scammers.

I avoid buying anything on vinted now as have had so many ‘very good’ condition items turn up filthy, faded and with holes and vinteds ‘buyer protection’ does absolutely nothing. Their customer service is non existent.
you’re effectively gambling with your money and id rather take through charity shops than risk it.

I wonder if there's a case for some sort of false advertising. I haven't bought anything off vinted but had been looking at it. If the buyer protection doesn't protect me what's it even good for?!

I sell a lot on vinted (over 300 5 star reviews) and it makes me so so angry when other sellers drag the platform down. Honestly I hear such bad stories (items sent in bing bags, stained, dirty etc) it's disgraceful!

This

I have to say I've been lucky so far with vinted, but a few items have been described as "very good" which is stretching the truth! I always think it's better to be honest and photograph every flaw but not everyone seems to follow this!

I did however receive a half size too small pair of shoes which thankfully fitted fine but some sellers are clearly pretty lazy about checking what they are selling.

@Fawbs89 I'm new to the app but so far all of my feedback has been 5 stars and lots of comments about the quality of items and accuracy of descriptions. Like @LookingForRubies, if there are any imperfections I always make buyers aware, which is exactly how it should be. I suppose some sellers don't care to do this knowing that there aren't any consequences for being inaccurate with their descriptions.

I also find it infuriating that vinted leave automatic negative feedback if an item is cancelled (I haven't had to do this personally) but they don't do this if a an order has to be cancelled for a refund.

How are they able to get away with all of this?! 😤