Vinted - beware

[Fleurons]

This is a Public Service Announcement.

I bought 6 things on Vinted, all bags and handbags. 2 were good, 2 were awful, and 2 were dirty inside (lazy slapdash sellers) but salvageable.

The worst one was advertised as new, it wasn’t. It stank of mould, dirty inside etc. I paid £79.

He eventually agreed a return then said I’d marked the bag, and not enclosed a (stinky, dirty, old) dust bag and strap. I really believed he lied as I double-checked contents. I was very polite about a possible solution, but he blocked me and gave me a bad review. And by this time he had my money and the bag. Vinted are not interested and have simply closed the matter.

I can’t even leave him a bad review, since I’ve paid him already and in the world of Vinted that means everything is okay!

This is just to warn people who use or want to use Vinted. It is not at the same quality level as eBay. A lot of slapdash, lazy, unpleasant people - and scammers. The ugly side of commerce.

Don’t be fooled by positive reviews. You can’t leave a negative review once the money is gone through after 48 hours. If you don’t leave a review, they automatically get a five star positive review anyway, which is ridiculous. Vinted itself as a platform are completely disinterested in the outcome. Very simplistic AI bots, and you are in a constant race against time. You must raise an issue within two days, you must give a review within 48 hours, etc.

Never had a problem with eBay in 20 years of buying and selling. I have 100% reviews for both. But within two weeks of Vinted, I’ve experienced a non-stop nightmare and had two terrible reviews as a buyer (which they did as a form of retaliation).

As I said, this is a PSA, be warned!

There is actually a Facebook support group for how awful Vinted is. Like the one they had for Hermes. Buyer beware. Be careful.

Think this is very good advice especially regards use of card to buy and draw every penny out as soon as it hits your balance

For vintage and high priced items check eBay and its process. Otherwise, Vestaire Collective.
Be on the lookout with Vinted and Depop.
This is for 2024. The platforms have seriously changed over the years. So buyers need to note which ones are better. Depop was very good but now quite a few scammers. Vinted is not great and sell or buy what you are able to bear losing monetary wise.

It's Ebay all the way for me!

It's not that you confirm it's OK it's that you have 48hrs to confirm OR raise an issue. If after 48hrs you haven't raised an issue vinted mark it as recieved and release funds

You should of raised the issue with VINTED not the seller at first.
Within 48 hours of delivery

I bought a non-existent bag on Vinted. Getting a refund was a slow, convoluted process with multiple time windows, waiting periods and deadlines. I did get my money back - and the seller was banned - and I've bought a few low-cost items since, which have been okay.

All in all, though, I prefer Ebay and its far more sensible dispute system. Ebay sellers tend to provide better photos and descriptions too, even with the new free listings. I'm content to pay a quid or two more for better service.

I have abandoned Vinted after receiving two stained to the point of unwearable shirts. One even arrived with water in the little plastic spare button bag, so they had clearly tried to wash it (a dry clean only silk shirt!)

One the seller was apologetic, refunded me and said don’t bother returning it. The other made me return it for a refund so I was stung for two lots of postage and ended up with nothing! I think Vinted protects the seller whereas eBay protects the buyer

It really is luck of the draw who you deal with. I've had some lovely things from Vinted, a few things which weren't so good but did arrive in the condition described. When I've had an issue with an item going missing, Vinted have refunded without issue.
But I think like all platforms for ordinary people to sell
unwanted stuff, it gets taken over by 'professional' sellers. And Vinted can't control the skanky people who send filthy or damaged items.
It's not ideal for selling - people want brand new stuff for less money than it's worth to post it.

Ive had a mostly good experience too. A few things less then advertised (some 'never been worn' Converse with mud on the soles for example!) but generally good stuff.
My limit is £30 (although it has to be with tags and super expensive normally otherwise I stick to around a tenner). Ive gotten lots of lovely things I couldnt of otherwise afforded.

I did spot a scam the other day though. A couple of people (no reviews and dodgy word salad names) posted a ton of brand new expensive brand sports wear for under £5 each. It was pretty obvious but I imagine a few people were sucked in.

@chucklevisions you don't get charged for two lots of postage- you get refunded the full amount you originally paid, including fees and postage, but the cost of the new returns label is deducted. So one way postage only.

Ah ok, well it was still a waste of time and money to buy something falsely advertised!

Vinted is designed to assist scammers, not protect users. I can’t believe how poorly Vinted handles fraud attempts. I recently reported a hacking incident, and instead of taking action to protect me, they blocked my account, the very victim of the fraud! It’s beyond belief that Vinted’s system is designed to assist fraudsters and scammers while leaving honest users even more exposed. Their reliance on low quality AI is shocking. The system can’t even distinguish between the person reporting the fraud and the actual scammer. Vinted’s response to fraud is to punish the victim, making their app a complete disaster for anyone trying to protect themselves. Stay far away unless you want to deal with a platform that helps scammers more than it helps its users.

I've sold on Vinted with no problems and bought 3 items. One Radley bag, new without tags, perfect and ⅓ price of new. 2 M&S dresses, one perfect, the other (supposedly new without tags, never worn) stank of sweat. It was awful. Even after washing I still thought I could smell it.
I belong to that Facebook group- some horrible things posted on there- trousers with period stains, shoes with dog poo in the sole 🤢.
Customer service seems to be nil.

Vinted is designed to assist scammers, not protect users. I can’t believe how poorly Vinted handles fraud attempts. I recently reported a hacking incident, and instead of taking action to protect me, they blocked my account, the very victim of the fraud! It’s beyond belief that Vinted’s system is designed to assist fraudsters and scammers while leaving honest users even more exposed. Their reliance on low quality AI is shocking. The system can’t even distinguish between the person reporting the fraud and the actual scammer. Vinted’s response to fraud is to punish the victim, making their app a complete disaster for anyone trying to protect themselves. Stay far away unless you want to deal with a platform that helps scammers more than it helps its users.

I’ve been loving Vinted lately and bought tons of stuff. Mostly I’ve been very,pleased with the items.

As pp have said, you need to confirm everything is okay or they don’t get the funds so you must have fucked up somewhere OP. You won’t be back here though since you seem very salty.

You need to do it within a specific timeframe but yes that’s right.

I’ve never had any issues, neither has my husband who has been sold a few things that weren’t as described… @

EBay is so much better in terms of reliability of quality.
I try my best on vinted to sort through the listings and not get stung, but I would say more than half my purchases (I've bought a lot over the last couple of years for my DC) have been fit for the bin, I wouldn't even take it to a charity shop, very often described as 'as new' by the sellers.

I've never bothered with leaving a bad review since I gave an honest review once and was completely trashed (by counter review) by the seller.
I often miss the 48hr deadline because I'm away or too busy when the parcel arrives, which can take 2-3 weeks so hard to predict.

I'm a massive eBay fan anyway, but it's so much better than vinted, never had any problems on there, whereas some of the items on vinted are absolutely gross.

Up to you to raise an issue immediately..

I just realized I’m out £100 for a counterfeit item I unknowingly bought. On top of that, I got hacked while I thought someone had purchased an item from me, forcing me to cancel my card and get a new one – more money wasted, thanks to Vinted’s lack of account protection. And to top it all off, Vinted blocked my account after I reported the scam! The seller not only sold me a fake item but also has multiple accounts, which isn’t allowed on Vinted. Wow, who knew Vinted was designed to assist criminals, hackers, and fraudsters? Never again!

I sell a lot on Vinted but buy very little - I have been sold a few things that were not quite right, but I relisted them with a better description.

I always say - withdraw your money frequently, and always pay for purchases with your credit card so the card use protects you against fraud. The money on your vinted balance isn't yours till it's safely in your actual bank account. I withdraw every time I get to about £25.

These tales are awful !
I have a good outcome story. I recently bought a pair of shoes (over £100) from Vinted, I bought them impulsively (lesson learned) despite the seller having no reviews a couple of other red flag signs because I’d had my eye out for a pair for weeks. Brand new, unworn. The seller sent a photo of the parcel with my address but I noticed the distinctive shoes reappeared for sale again under a different username. I notified Vinted and was refunded almost immediately. The bogus shoe sellers now stand out a mile to
me. There are lots of them. I’ve never had a problem with eBay except for once when someone tried to scam me but they closed the sale immediately and provided written support, it was all very reassuring.

Used it a lot for buying and selling and it's mostly fine, but...

• bought something that never got delivered because the courier lost it (lots of sellers will only do Evri or InPost which are unreliable at best) by delivering to a depot several hundred miles away from me. Never got it, seller never got it back. Felt awful.
• loads of knock-off football shirts sold on there - no problem with people buying bootlegs because the real thing is extortionate, do have a problem with people selling fakes at a markup to people who have never heard of [redacted] and not being honest about it. Vinted do not care
• bought a dress described as 'very good', arrived so bobbly it was unwearable, if it were mine I wouldn't even have donated it. Would have had to pay to return it which was more than the cost of the item, felt incredibly fucked off at the time and effort wasted because seller wasn't honest and no real recourse for the buyer

Like most shopping sites now, when it works it's fine, when it doesn't you get a chatbot basically telling you to eat shit.

Also I really wish they would be less rigid with their size categories - not everything with L on the label is a 12, which makes both listing and searching for clothes marked s, m, l etc a pain in the arse as you can never be sure if it's listed as 12/L because it fits like a 12, whether it's a 12/L because the label says Large but in that brand a large is a 16, or if the buyer just picked something based on how they think it fits but actually the label says XXS and there are no measurements to actually indicate what they think that is.

If Vinted isn’t a scam after this exchange, then I don’t know what is. Here’s a correspondence with their customer service, informing clients they must wait an absurd 120 hours—five days—for a reply (this was sent on 17/10)! Yet, they coldly responded to my blocked account on Saturday, 19/10, giving me just one day to reply under the threat of closing the case. This case involved my request to have my account unblocked after being scammed, hacked, and then blocked! The case was closed on Sunday, 20/10—on a Sunday! Any reasonable person would expect a system that asked customers to wait five days to respond on a business day, not on the one day of the week when most offices are closed. And don’t even get me started on the ridiculous “handwritten note”! Anyone who thinks Vinted is all fine should just take a look at how they handled this simple issue. No, I’m not being salty, I’m not fine with allowing a con company go about their business of fraud and scam. Because that’s exactly what they’re praying on. Just visit their home page, and tell me if you don’t see at least 2-3 adverts on the first page from private people selling a new The Row bag for £79 when the real bag is good for £3999 ! Either you’re a fool or you’re ok to be fooled! Pictures attached.

The handwritten note thing is actually standard for a lot of buy and sell groups on FB so that users know the person selling the items genuinely has them and isn't just lifting pictures off the internet to scam people.

Not sure why you're being asked to do it here, though!