To think I've been ripped off / scammed? Vinted

[TemuMuggedOff]

I was browsing vinted for a (BNWT) handbag to treat myself to for my upcoming birthday.

I came across this one (advertised with these pictures) for £35 and thought it looked lovely. The seller has dozens of positive reviews.

Well, the seller posted it out to me today and after she did she promptly sent me a message afterwards with a bunch of additional photos that weren't visible on the original advert.

It's absolutely shit quality and so flimsy. I would not have bought it with those images on there. The advertised pictures are misleading. She also told me she has sprayed it with antibacterial spray.

I asked why that was necessary and she assured me it doesn't damage the bag as she has sold this same bag 7 times and done the same with all. Apparently it's a spray for bags (?)

Long story short, I've discovered that she's buying them in bulk on Temu for under a tenner and upselling them for over three times the price.

Bags from Temu/Shein arrive smelling of strong chemicals (or fish!) so that's why she's claiming the BS about antibacterial spray.

I don't want a smelly temu bag.

Her profile states no refunds or returns.

Do I have a leg to stand on here and am I being unreasonable to raise a grievance with vinted?

WWYD?

OP didn't realise the photos were of a Manu Atelier bag until a PP pointed it out. I'm not sure OP had even heard of Manu Atelier, she just liked the look of the bag in the listing. Not everyone is familiar with brands and Manu Atelier isn't exactly a household name.

Plenty of good quality bags to be found on Vinted for £35 and under (I bought a Sandro bag for £32 not so long ago).

Ignorance is not a defense

The fact that the OP didn’t initially realise the extent of the scam is irrelevant. The simple facts are - the seller used photos of a different bag to sell her item (perhaps unintentionally). The photos on the listing are of a good quality leather bag. The photos sent to the OP since purchase are clearly a different bag altogether. All this contravenes vinted’s selling rules.

Not a scam at all, she said the bag was unbranded. You're acting like you've lost £3500 rather than £35. You'll get your money back from vinted, there was no need to post this and send those messages. You come across as unhinged

I would at least wait to get the bag and see how it is. I don't see the difference between the photos.

I just scanned your photo and put it into Taobao (China's better amazon and my absolute addiction) and you can buy it for anything from 3.80 to 23 GBP. Add transport and taxes, you'd be looking at anywhere from 15 to 35 GBP I guess in the UK, so it's not absolutely terrible. I have a similar one here (I live in China at the moment) and it's actually good quality. Based off a Zara bag I think.

I am struggling to see how exactly this is a scam? I use Vinted all the time. Never buy unbranded stuff. The fact she is making a healthy profit isn’t scamming - it’s entrepreneurial. Ok I get she’s breaking the photo rules but a lot of Vinted sellers do that. It’s not a scam - she advertised a bag, OP bought it.

Seddy_01 has disappeared from Vinted.

So she's deleted her account?

But the bag that was in the photo wasn't the bag she's selling. She only sent photos of the bag she was selling after she had posted it. Surely that's a scam?

She’s set her account to “on holiday” and it says her items are all hidden.

If you weren’t doing anything wrong why would you do that

Because it's a lie.

The friend does not own a shop. The seller is buying crap from Temu and selling it on for inflated prices.

I don’t think apart from the photos she’s done anything wrong and people shouldn’t have gone on Vinted and messaged her. The bag just needed returning and you would have got a refund.
Vinted and EBay aren’t interested if about selling for profit on a personal account. HMRC are but if she’s only selling a few bags it won’t be over the 1000 trading allowance. If it is all she has to do is a tax return

Lots has been said but just to add -

Hearts/ likes is different to Interested. Interested would be people contacting the seller with offers/ questions. The bag was clearly popular.

Every time I reported something to Vinted they took action- much better than EBay or social media (Meta is terrible).

The U.K. market is flooded with Ali express/ Temu items. Amazon is flooded. It's particularly annoying as many people use it for presents, directly delivered to the recipient and never realise they spent their money on tat or that the present ended up in the bin. Sadly, things will get worse before they get better as we are desperate for a bargain.

Op has realised her mistake but many would just take it for what it is and use the bag (potentially chemically laden as op said) unaware.
The consumer loses and so does the conscious product maker, who can't afford to compete.

I actually have that bag from shein...it's quite nice.
I get lots of positive comments on it.
Agree...it's not a scam. The seller listed an unbranded bag.
She used photos from another website but I'd have thought that was obvious looking at the listing, it's clear there not the usual photos vinted sellers have up.
Lesson learnt for th OP

She is lying about the spray as a way to explain the Temu smell. Do you really think she is spraying bags with an antibacterial spray?

The scam is that she sent the real photos after.
Why were these not in the listing before? Because she wouldn’t get the money.

Why did she post the pics after? To cover her arse and say that she was “transparent” even though she wasn’t.

If you were posting with good intentions you wouldn’t lie about an antibacterial spray and post pictures after. She has clearly had some come back in these bags already.

It’s not the done thing on Vinted to be posting pictures after you post an item. Communications are minimal, you might get a message saying posted, but that’s all.

I know that. I was musing about it. I don't know why she thought that would be an accepted reason.

Has that ever worked out for you or anyone you know? Not trying to be sarcastic, I’d just genuinely like to know. When I raised a genuine issue with Vinted (clearly damaged ‘brand new’ trainers), they washed their hands of it. The seller wouldn’t refund and I was stuck with them. Loads of people on MN say the same. I don’t know what the buyer protection is for.

Definitely don’t click everything is ok on order instead of I have a problem. I accepted what I thought and ordered what was a silver bracelet only to find the charm was silver but the chain part was not a day or two later (I admit I didn’t look at it properly at the time) When I tried to complain vinted wouldn’t do anything saying I had accepted the order as ok despite me sending them photo evidence that the bracelet was brought from Temu and the seller blocked me! Vinted are useless if you have a dispute later

I'm a bit confused. It looks like the bag you are getting is just like the one in the pictures (both sets of pictures, before and after purchase). It's not a counterfeit, the appearance and fabric are just as it says in the listing. Many people have bought the bag and it appears to be a good price point because hundreds of members are interested and made offers. Does her feedback demonstrate that people have been happy with the identical bags she has sold?

You've decided you don't like the bag, and you realise that the seller is making a profit, but as you cannot return it, you're going to destroy her business and reputation via mumsnet, so you can keep your 35 quid at the loss of her livelihood. I understand that you're pissed off with yourself for not working out that the glossy lifestyle photos are for the original bag, for which this is a dupe, or not buying direct from TEMU yourself, but your reaction and desire for revenge is disproportionate. You know full well that the seller is going to get hassled and abused by posting details of her listing, but anything to get your £35 quid back, eh?

You'd have been better off just negotiating with her for a return on the basis of the smell, or the fact that she has sprayed it with a chemical.

This thread has been quite frustrating to read. “NA” obviously means not applicable, 217 interested just means people who have love hearted it - there is no way on Vinted to see how many people have made offers on an item, also £35 for a bag on Vinted I’d expect to be getting a bag that usually retails for HUNDREDS of pounds because everything sells so cheaply on there.

never buy items where the photos are just professional/stock photos as Vinted stipulates you are meant to upload home photos of the item only. Avoid unbranded items, even some of my Nike and Boden items I’ve sold for under a tenner so no unbranded item should be over a couple of quid.

Also I believe you can report the photos on Vinted as she did not take them herself.

Agreed.

It isn't a scam to buy something with the purposes of selling it on.

Of course it's a scam.

The seller is purchasing bags from Temu and selling them at a 3x markup by using stock images of a different bag to the one she is selling. She isn't sending photos of the actual (different) bag to the buyer until after they have already paid for it and she has dispatched it. Why would she do this if if wasn't a scam?

The seller claims to be using antibacterial spray on all her listings for 'hygiene reasons' but it's obviously to cover up the chemical smell you often get from items purchased on Temu. Why would she do this if if wasn't a scam?

Finally the seller claims she 'doesn't accept refunds or returns' which is often a red flag (it's usually an indicator that the seller isn't being entirely honest in their listing and incorrectly thinks that by stating this in their profile/listing the buyer won't be entitled to a refund for legitimate reasons). It's an even bigger red flag when the seller only sends actual photos of the item after she's posted them. Again, why would she do this if if wasn't a scam?

I think this is a lesson for OP in what to watch out for on Vinted, but the seller is absolutely in the wrong here.

It’s against Vinted terms to use photos that aren’t your own in the listing. You should report the seller.

i dont think its a scam to buy cheap items from elsewhere and sell them for a marked up price. Thats how all shops work.
Unfortunately since brexit, we have been flooded with shit quality goods from sweatshops and prison labour camps that would have never met EU standards. Thats the real scam