I know some of the posts here are quite old now but thought people still might like more answers about Vestiaire Collective! I would really have liked some more information from other people’s experience before I started buying and selling there as I was very wary. I started slowly and carefully and have been buying and selling on VC for about 2 years now, have had 99% good experience, and on the whole I think there are a lot of negative myths about it that aren’t really true. In my experience they are completely genuine and endeavour to do the right thing in all circumstances. Like any company, sometimes things can go a bit wrong, but I haven’t had any disasters. In answer to some issues raised, from my experience, here’s a bit of an essay including things I’d like to have known before I started!
VC is to a great extent dependent on the behaviour of sellers who sell on the platform, but in my experience to date they do offer you protection against out-and-out fakes, or items which don’t match the seller’s description, or have flaws the seller didn’t mention.
As a seller, I missed a slightly unravelled seam on a dress I sold. VC flagged it up, sent me and the buyer photos, offered the buyer a chance to reject the dress, but she decided to take it anyway. They would also have offered her a lower price if she’d been unhappy.
It works both ways. I have bought items which they have offered me the chance to back out of at the quality control stage - one was simply a matter of an original receipt not having been provided with a handbag I bought, and the seller hadn’t even originally offered one, so they were going above and beyond in protecting me there. I was confident when they told me the bag (a really nice Fendi) was genuine and in very good condition, and indeed it was.
They refunded me automatically in the stated time period (30 days) when another item I’d bought failed to show. It’s difficult to see how they could do this much more quickly when they are dependent on sellers shipping on time. In this case a courier lost it. They are good about chasing sellers every week after sale if an item hasn’t been sent, and they notify the buyer that they’ve done this too.
If a seller pulls out of a sale immediately, you get an immediate refund. This happened once to me with a handbag I bought.
VC lost the belt to a dress I bought and shipped it to me without it - they gave me the option for a full refund and then would have relisted the dress on their own behalf, no loss to me at all.
With regard to returns, some sellers are professional, which is clearly stated, and you can get a full refund for returns within two weeks of receiving the goods. Return shipping is free, though as with any other refunds you’ll have paid the original shipping fee.
It’s true you can’t return an item you’ve bought from a non-professional seller which was compliant at quality control (unless you’re querying the quality control, like I had to with the lost belt), but you can relist and they only charge a small transaction fee, not the same high commission they charged the seller again. Of course it might not sell, or for the same price. It’s a risk, and depends how much you think you want the item, really, and an occupational hazard of buying pre-owned goods. I don’t have much experience on EBAY so I don’t know how that would compare.
It’s not actually true that there is no system of rating sellers. Some sellers are ‘Recommended’, and this is based on their record of items sold matching their description and photos, shipping sold items to VC quickly, and responding to messages and offers online quickly. You can see how many items a seller has sold. If they haven’t sold many yet, they won’t have had much chance to build up to ‘Recommended’ status, so there’s a grey area, but there is something. If you download the app, you can see on each seller’s page if there is a little gold flag attached to their profile picture, and if you click on it it tells you what percentage of their items have been compliant at quality control. If it’s high, they’re pretty reliable.
Personally I’m quite glad that buyers aren’t the ones doing the rating because not every buyer is going to be scrupulous. VC offers some protection against that and stood by me when a buyer falsely claimed that the beautiful suede jacket I sold her wasn’t suede (it was!) and left a derogatory remark on the item page. VC removed the comment, because it was verifiably not true. (In this connection, I also thought about selling on HEWI, but after several contact attempts just to find out what protections try could give buyer against seller and vice versa, and HEWI just never bothering to respond, my confidence wasn’t high!)
As regards wondering whether something that’s been online a long time is really still available, and not wanting to tie your money up for 30 days just to find out, I’d suggest messaging the seller before buying. If they reply it’s a good sign. If they keep ignoring your message, I wouldn’t buy.
I’ve bought several high end bags (up to £3000ish) all at very good discounts, very much the real thing, and in excellent condition - in fact, all unused or used just once. I expect there are fakes out there but mostly you can tell from the rare instance of something obviously fake appearing on the site. There’s a weird looking ‘Gucci’ or ‘Givenchy’ occasionally turns up, because I suspect it’s difficult for VC to reject everything, but I’m pretty confident it wouldn’t pass quality control and you’d get your money back. From some reviews you’d think the site was riddled with fakes and they pass quality control - you can never say never, but from my experience, I honestly doubt that this really happens by and large.
They pay sellers for sold goods twice a month, and I have never had to chase this. They are as regular as clockwork, so on this and the issue of refunds for non-appearing goods, they do adhere to what they say in the FAQs and T&Cs. You just have to know what to expect.
As a seller the most annoying things are (1) when they want you to sell something for less than you want - but you can try bargaining on this, there’s a system. When they’re putting a massive amount of stuff online they might be paying less attention and rush valuations through. You can query this. If they stick to a lower price it’s often that they really know it just won’t sell higher, or are hoping for a quicker sale, which you as a seller might want too. They won’t want to price something a lot higher than comparable items already listed, either, which is reasonable. (2) Commission is high. But on the other hand they offer a pretty smooth service. If something sells, I just print out the DHL label they provide included (Hermes option not so good — very slow!) and get DHL to collect my goods. They’re in Paris next day and through quality control within two or three days. And they protect me against unscrupulous buyers in a way I wouldn’t get if selling on EBAY, I believe (but again, I don’t know much about EBAY, I just like the way VC takes care of everything for me). (3) Buyers whose offer you accept who can then hold on to the option for 24 hours so you can’t accept other offers, then don’t buy anyway. There’s not a lot you can do about this, however the item is still available to other buyers at the full price during this time, so there is a balance. And from the buyer’s point of view I can see that the time frame gives you a chance not to rush into something you might change your mind about, or see if alternative offers get accepted etc. The one thing I think VC could improve about this is to keep track of buyer behaviour and bar people who very frequently and repeatedly fail to purchase things they’ve had offers accepted on.
In truth on balance, I think the basic question I wanted answered when I started using VC is ‘Is it genuine, competent and honest’, and actually, I have to say, yes it is, and shortcomings are more about the nature of selling and buying preowned goods than about VC itself.