Vinted; this can’t be right can it?

[PeacockPalace]

I bought a dress from Vinted for £50. It’s an expensive brand. The dress was described as ‘new without tags’.

Dress arrived today, and it’s a knock off Chinese copy of the dress and definitely isn’t by the brand it was listed as being.

I opened a dispute on Vinted and got a really angry reply from the seller saying that as she said it was new without tags then I shouldn’t assume that it is genuine but that she bought it from EBay and it was listed as being that brand, and that she’s going to take it up with Vinted.

I thought counterfeit items couldn’t be sold on Vinted so surely they won’t side with her, will they?

the devil is in the detail, it will depend on exactly what her listing said. If she implied it was genuine and did not mention anywhere that it wasn't, then you should hopefully have a good case.

Vinted can be odd though. I had refunds for slightly damaged books, but nothing for a bag that was torn and dirty.

Very dishonest of her

"New without tags" is not an acceptable code for "is, or might be, fake".

She could get banned for selling counterfeit.

Isn’t it that vinted offer a verification service and if you choose not to pay extra for it you buy at your peril 😬? Shell probs be banned though if you report it and you’ll probs eventually get a refund but takes a while

Look at the description - what does it say in the section of the listing which states ‘brand’?

if she has falsely claimed it’s this brand then your case is fair.

If she’s getting angry then it must be because she knows you have a good case. Just who do these people think they are??

No, the seller has to allow the verification service or choose it I think.

Vinted require you to show a close up of the brand label and/or branded care label when selling things listed as said brand. As others say - if she listed it as a brand and it isn’t they will side with you.

Yes, as pp states was it listed as said brand ?

Vinted is a bag of shite - I bought some Birkenstocks and they were clearly knock-off. Vinted did nothing... it's the same as Ebay now.

I bought something and I didn’t think it was genuine. The seller had to prove it was and couldn’t and I got a full refund and kept the item.

Yes, she said in the listing that it was the brand and there was no alluding to it not being it. Looking at her feedback she has sold fake items before. Hopefully Vinted will side with me over it

I bought a Coast dress years ago from eBay when it arrived it was obviously a Chinese fake. Think I just wrote it off to bad luck.

Just for anyone else looking at Birkenstocks on Vinted - almost all of them are fake. If you know what to look for it is shocking how many are fakes. Almost all the 'new with tags' Bostons and most of the Arizonas are cheap, bad knock-offs. The used items are not much better as people are selling on the counterfeits that they have worn and unsurprisingly found to be very uncomfortable!

Back to the OP's problem - one way to catch the cheap Chinese copies is to do a google image search with the listing photos. The copies are almost always listed on Temu etc, usually at far cheaper prices than Vinted. If the item you are looking at has been faked it will be on one of those cheap clothing websites. In fact if the item is not branded but listed as 'vintage' then it will also probably be available on Temu or AliExpress. I'm afraid Vinted has become the new platform for the ex-MLM huns to have their 'businesses' by buying cheap Temu tat and selling it on Vinted and making their pin money that way until they inevitably get banned for selling counterfeits.

The real problem with Vinted though is that the customer service is done by AI bots and they can really get it shockingly wrong. EBay has far better protection for buyers than Vinted and is a far safer platform, but also tends to be more expensive. Even if you have been sold a counterfeit and even if you follow their dispute process there is no guarantee with Vinted of getting the correct outcome of a refund.

On the plus side there are some amazing bargains to be had!

I worried about this. I have noticed some people posting items that clearly aren't the brands I buy, but are a similar aesthetic.

Yes this, when you list an expensive brand it flags warnings to photograph the label etc to prove its genuine.

I only buy new with tags now, and I make sure I can see the tags clearly in the photos. I saw a dress I liked a few weeks ago, listed as a particular brand and the brand was also written in the title and description. However there were no photos of the label or tags so I messaged to ask for one. No photos were sent, just a message saying they could post out the same day if I bought it! I looked later and they’d removed the brand from the item, so I had a lucky escape. It wasn’t even an expensive brand.

And I stick to new with tags because I think only a small percentage of items listed as ‘new without tags’ are genuinely that, based on the ones I’ve bought (clearly worn/ washed/ not in new condition).