Vestiaire Collective experiences?

[bisousx]

Hi,
We’re terribly sorry to hear about your experience! It is not fair how they told you to relist the bag instead of getting a refund. It can take months to get rid of an item or you’ll have to sell for really low...
We buy and also sell on VC for many years now. To be honest the standards of their curation team and compliance team have been gravely questioned by us in recent years.

On the curation team: The photos the sellers uploaded, while being extremely low in quality, sometimes somehow get passed by the curation team. It’s also frustrating to ask the seller for clear photos because the person either doesn’t know how, or the new photos aren’t approved for unknown reasons. Therefore, we always need to make triple sure not to bother, no matter how good deal it can be. If you insist to buy such items, you don’t have clear photos to inspect. Asking sellers questions usually don’t get you anywhere. It’s not worth the risk.

On the compliance team: There were many times we receive an item and realized the is not as described. We make sure to include screenshots of photos and descriptions when complaining to the customer service. We have long and frequent experiences dealing with them that 99% of the times we would get our refunds, and that 1% we had to relist the boots we bought. It may sound easy to say, but may we suggest you be really firm, very matter of fact, extremely persistent in pursuing a refund. They want to drag out the negotiations so you will settle for a relist in order to not be bothered anymore with the time spent. Don’t give up, be determined, it is not your fault it’s theirs. It’s not about the money it’s about principles. Don’t take **** from other ppl’s mistakes.

Our other feedbacks: The app and the website have frequent glitches that in a few occasions cost us thousands euros of sales. When we complained, they said they would pass the issues to higher management to deal with. They have this policy of relying within 3 days but we still haven’t heard much from the “higher management” for weeks. We’re also very unsatisfied with its algorithm system under “New In” section. The “we love” items will forever stay on the top no matter many days have passed since the items have first been listed. Many times the same items they love will stay on top of all “new in“, “ready to ship”, and “We love” sections it is frustrating to have to scroll through the same things three times in order to see what really is new. It’s also very unfair to those who listed new items that aren’t “loved” by the curation team but loved by many potential buyers.

With all being said, it seems services of such corporations (VC, REBELLE) all eventually would go downhill, just to see who dies down faster. So if we still need their service perhaps, especially sellers, we will have to pick the one with lower commissions, and more reliable shipping, literally the one making less mistakes. VC definitely wins on those, hence they still have business from us.

Thank you for this.
Do you have any advice on how to pursue the partial refund without sounding like a broken record?

I don't want to return the bag per se.. it's a rare bag and I have an emotional connection to this style (I once owned it, had to sell for financial reasons and finally could buy it again except it was so rare of a style that after searching for months with no luck, I randomly found it and pounced on the Vestiaire one as soon as I saw it.. must have been at 2am, I read through their FAQ just enough to feel comfortable to buy the bag but not enough time to research all the different buyer feedback from websites like trustpilot, site jabber etc.)

In hindsight, of course I would have asked the seller to post all the photos.. but excitement got the best of me. I also noticed on Vestiaire (in my dabbling as a seller), that when I upload additional photos, not all of them post. A bit scary for the buyer TBH. After selling on all the other apps for years, I make sure to post detailed photos and description not only out of principle but also because I'm accustomed to buyers trying everything to force a return. Vestiaire seems to be covering up for this seller's shady practice.

I still don't want to return the bag because who knows when I will see it again. I just feel duped because their quality control team isn't living up to their promise of checking for discrepancies and informing the buyer / offering at a discount if flaws are found.

 

[Annie J]

Thank you for this.
I also noticed on Vestiaire (in my dabbling as a seller), that when I upload additional photos, not all of them post. A bit scary for the buyer TBH.

It is sometimes a bit hit and miss when photos posted go up. Sometimes if you list something with lots of photos when they’re really busy, like a Monday morning, they get a couple up quickly then get back to it and post more later, and sometimes posting additional pictures they go up immediately, but mostly it takes an hour or two, or sometimes longer over the weekend. I have had photos specifically rejected if they decide they’re duplicates or if they decide it’s not my own photo or something like that (though of course it always is), and sometimes they reject photos of clothes on dummies, but not always. Guess it depends who is on? I’d suggest resubmitting your photos till they get through, and never buy without sufficient photos from the seller because then they can justify relying on only meeting the condition criteria and can be vague and subjective in the description, and you want to be able to hold them and VC to specifics.

@Oikasecondhand gave really good advice and pointers for the emails to chase your refund/reduction, I thought! Sounds like they have lots of useful experience. Hopefully they’ll have more ideas to share too. If the bag didn’t meet the condition criteria (found using the i in a circle in the drop down ‘More description’) or objectively didn’t meet the description or photos, do point the specifics out again to get your full or partial refund, even if you’ve already shown them, and really show them it’s objectively rather than subjectively divergent, because they might not have fully taken that on board yet.

ETA it did strike me sometimes reading some reviews that VC must be fielding so many calls and emails from people trying it on unfairly for refunds, that they might operate a sort of first hurdle system, so that the chancers get winnowed out, which unfortunately might mean anyone with a real discrepancy in condition like your Chanel bag has to work a bit harder to get to their satisfactory outcome.

 

[Oikasecondhand]

Thank you for this.
Do you have any advice on how to pursue the partial refund without sounding like a broken record?

I don't want to return the bag per se.. it's a rare bag and I have an emotional connection to this style (I once owned it, had to sell for financial reasons and finally could buy it again except it was so rare of a style that after searching for months with no luck, I randomly found it and pounced on the Vestiaire one as soon as I saw it.. must have been at 2am, I read through their FAQ just enough to feel comfortable to buy the bag but not enough time to research all the different buyer feedback from websites like trustpilot, site jabber etc.)

In hindsight, of course I would have asked the seller to post all the photos.. but excitement got the best of me. I also noticed on Vestiaire (in my dabbling as a seller), that when I upload additional photos, not all of them post. A bit scary for the buyer TBH. After selling on all the other apps for years, I make sure to post detailed photos and description not only out of principle but also because I'm accustomed to buyers trying everything to force a return. Vestiaire seems to be covering up for this seller's shady practice.

I still don't want to return the bag because who knows when I will see it again. I just feel duped because their quality control team isn't living up to their promise of checking for discrepancies and informing the buyer / offering at a discount if flaws are found.

Hi again! May I ask exactly what discrepancies there are, and if you can compare photos of the bag and irl? In some situations, they will ask you to send back the item (free of charge) so they can do another inspection. Perhaps you should pursue that with VC, telling them you love the bag, but the discrepancies cannot be ignored.
Because during a normal transaction, if the compliance team finds flaws that deems the item in a less ideal condition as claimed, they would offer both buyer and seller a chance to agree on a discounted price according to the actual condition of the item. If the item is in worse condition than described (such as listing a “fair condition” handbag as a “very good condition” bag) they would even return the item to its seller and give its buyer a full refund.
Seems like your case is a miss, I’d suggest you to get all relevant photos ready, list out what the problems are, and refer back to their condition guide. They have listed in details (somewhere, I think when you’re listing an item for sale) what would cause the items be refused. Use that guideline as your back up statement, ask for re-evaluation (sometimes they don’t even ask you to return the item to the team or inspections if you can produce enough evidence), and get that partial refund you deserve.
Let us know how it goes and good luck!

 

[Oikasecondhand]

It is sometimes a bit hit and miss when photos posted go up. Sometimes if you list something with lots of photos when they’re really busy, like a Monday morning, they get a couple up quickly then get back to it and post more later, and sometimes posting additional pictures they go up immediately, but mostly it takes an hour or two, or sometimes longer over the weekend. I have had photos specifically rejected if they decide they’re duplicates or if they decide it’s not my own photo or something like that (though of course it always is), and sometimes they reject photos of clothes on dummies, but not always. Guess it depends who is on? I’d suggest resubmitting your photos till they get through, and never buy without sufficient photos from the seller because then they can justify relying on only meeting the condition criteria and can be vague and subjective in the description, and you want to be able to hold them and VC to specifics.

@Oikasecondhand gave really good advice and pointers for the emails to chase your refund/reduction, I thought! Sounds like they have lots of useful experience. Hopefully they’ll have more ideas to share too. If the bag didn’t meet the condition criteria (found using the i in a circle in the drop down ‘More description’) or objectively didn’t meet the description or photos, do point the specifics out again to get your full or partial refund, even if you’ve already shown them, and really show them it’s objectively rather than subjectively divergent, because they might not have fully taken that on board yet.

ETA it did strike me sometimes reading some reviews that VC must be fielding so many calls and emails from people trying it on unfairly for refunds, that they might operate a sort of first hurdle system, so that the chancers get winnowed out, which unfortunately might mean anyone with a real discrepancy in condition like your Chanel bag has to work a bit harder to get to their satisfactory outcome.

Hehe thank you! We have a VC shop and have been selling our items through them for a year. We’re also faithful customers so we gained quite many years of hindsight. We didn’t list as Pro seller because we don’t have manpower to handle returns (and our Swedish import law is whack on returned products), this is why we have to be extremely careful when listing products for sale, in order to not have our items rejected which would disappoint our buyers and discount our credibility leading to decrease in sales.
I’ve just joined this forum today and find it very interesting. Learning a lot myself! So if you have any questions regarding VC and Etsy (where we sell all our vintage items), send me a message I’ll do my best to share my knowledge!

 

[Annie J]

Hehe thank you! We have a VC shop and have been selling our items through them for a year. We’re also faithful customers so we gained quite many years of hindsight. We didn’t list as Pro seller because we don’t have manpower to handle returns (and our Swedish import law is whack on returned products), this is why we have to be extremely careful when listing products for sale, in order to not have our items rejected which would disappoint our buyers and discount our credibility leading to decrease in sales.
I’ve just joined this forum today and find it very interesting. Learning a lot myself! So if you have any questions regarding VC and Etsy (where we sell all our vintage items), send me a message I’ll do my best to share my knowledge!

That’s great, thanks, two heads are better than one!

I think VC is great, with some potential pitfalls, mostly common to all second hand buying, and mostly avoidable by arming yourself with knowledge, like you said earlier. I am really careful how I list too, and I don’t like vague sellers who give too little info. I can see you would have to be really accurate with your listings and careful to maintain your reputation. I feel the same way about my trusted seller status, I actually take pride in it (largely I’m a people pleaser who can’t handle being disapproved of anyway ) and I also really like to know my no longer wanted items go to happy homes, it cheers me up! Have you ever tried Joli Closet? @Gabs007 really likes it, and I have listed a few things there, it does look nice, there were some odd hiccups over pricing although nothing serious, but it just happened by chance that the same things sold quicker on VC, so I don’t have experience of sales going through, and I’ve nothing listed there right now. And I like to take my earnings via PayPal, which JC doesn’t do, but that’s not a significant thing for most people, I expect.

I’ve noticed some of your listings, you have lovely Scandi fashion, and other gorgeous things too, and I saw your website, it looks great. I may well become one of your buyers one of these days but I’m trying to be good right now because I’ve bought way too much (hence the selling!). My friends laugh at me for spending so much time thinking about selling stuff from my wardrobe and even more about posting here, but I do it because I wanted advice and experiences about selling myself when I started year or two back. My friends are taking bets on whether I go professional with it one day, but I don’t think I’d have the application, I do it in great flurries of activity then stop for ages. The biggest thing that worries me about it is that it makes me buy more new stuff in the first place because at the back of my mind I’m thinking “I can always sell it and recoup some of the money or get something else if it doesn’t work out”...

I’ve shopped on Etsy in the past but only new things so far. I found some handmade jewellery I liked there a few years back. I can’t wear earrings for pierced ears and I don’t like clip-ons, and there were a couple of people making really good ear cuffs before they got trendier and easier to find. I should take a look at the vintage too!

Just editing re Joli Closet: and to be fair to VC I’ve been pleased enough with how it’s worked with them anyway, and have no reason to look elsewhere unless I want to spread my items over more than one platform and increase chances of sales that way, but I’m happy keeping things simple. I’m sure I’d be happy enough to buy from JC too but it just happens I haven’t tried that yet.

 

[Annie J]

I’d suggest you to get all relevant photos ready, list out what the problems are, and refer back to their condition guide. They have listed in details (somewhere, I think when you’re listing an item for sale) what would cause the items be refused. Use that guideline as your back up statement, ask for re-evaluation (sometimes they don’t even ask you to return the item to the team or inspections if you can produce enough evidence), and get that partial refund you deserve.
Let us know how it goes and good luck!

@bisousx & @Oikasecondhand - I couldn’t find it for a bit, but it’s in the ‘View More’ section in the table in the description:

 

[Oikasecondhand]

That’s great, thanks, two heads are better than one!

I think VC is great, with some potential pitfalls, mostly common to all second hand buying, and mostly avoidable by arming yourself with knowledge, like you said earlier. I am really careful how I list too, and I don’t like vague sellers who give too little info. I can see you would have to be really accurate with your listings and careful to maintain your reputation. I feel the same way about my trusted seller status, I actually take pride in it (largely I’m a people pleaser who can’t handle being disapproved of anyway ) and I also really like to know my no longer wanted items go to happy homes, it cheers me up! Have you ever tried Joli Closet? @Gabs007 really likes it, and I have listed a few things there, it does look nice, there were some odd hiccups over pricing although nothing serious, but it just happened by chance that the same things sold quicker on VC, so I don’t have experience of sales going through, and I’ve nothing listed there right now. And I like to take my earnings via PayPal, which JC doesn’t do, but that’s not a significant thing for most people, I expect.

I’ve noticed some of your listings, you have lovely Scandi fashion, and other gorgeous things too, and I saw your website, it looks great. I may well become one of your buyers one of these days but I’m trying to be good right now because I’ve bought way too much (hence the selling!). My friends laugh at me for spending so much time thinking about selling stuff from my wardrobe and even more about posting here, but I do it because I wanted advice and experiences about selling myself when I started year or two back. My friends are taking bets on whether I go professional with it one day, but I don’t think I’d have the application, I do it in great flurries of activity then stop for ages. The biggest thing that worries me about it is that it makes me buy more new stuff in the first place because at the back of my mind I’m thinking “I can always sell it and recoup some of the money or get something else if it doesn’t work out”...

I’ve shopped on Etsy in the past but only new things so far. I found some handmade jewellery I liked there a few years back. I can’t wear earrings for pierced ears and I don’t like clip-ons, and there were a couple of people making really good ear cuffs before they got trendier and easier to find. I should take a look at the vintage too!

Thank you for the compliments! We live in Stockholm so we feel it’s good to promote our fashion and logistically more sensible to source local. I’m so used to (and proud to) saying “we” because the other owner is my 5.5 year old. She has lots to say in what to source, with few occasions doing real work like shipping and receiving. She was the one approving the vintage dresses we listed recently, and I’m glad she’s learning about sustainability and value of everything. Because it’s a tough business so now she also learns it’s not easy to make money.
Wish we could search each other on VC. One thing I don’t really like is we can’t share our VC store. I’m sure they have their reasons, but it will be a win win situation if we could send links to potential buyers. We make sales, they make commission, and if the buyers aren’t members yet and for this reason joining the community, the growth will be even more exponential. Plus new buyers get their first purchase with a discount! It’s win win win!
Xxx not allowed

 

[Oikasecondhand]

@bisousx & @Oikasecondhand - I couldn’t find it for a bit, but it’s in the ‘View More’ section in the table in the description:

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Ah amazing you have found it! It’s very useful to refer back to when you have doubt in your purchases, which I really hope won’t happen again.
Keep us updated, and I sincerely hope you get what you deserve! xx

 

[Annie J]

Thank you for the compliments! We live in Stockholm so we feel it’s good to promote our fashion and logistically more sensible to source local. I’m so used to (and proud to) saying “we” because the other owner is my 5.5 year old. She has lots to say in what to source, with few occasions doing real work like shipping and receiving. She was the one approving the vintage dresses we listed recently, and I’m glad she’s learning about sustainability and value of everything. Because it’s a tough business so now she also learns it’s not easy to make money.
Wish we could search each other on VC. One thing I don’t really like is we can’t share our VC store. I’m sure they have their reasons, but it will be a win win situation if we could send links to potential buyers. We make sales, they make commission, and if the buyers aren’t members yet and for this reason joining the community, the growth will be even more exponential. Plus new buyers get their first purchase with a discount! It’s win win win!
If you have anything you want to sell, send us an email and see cuz we’re constantly looking for new items.
We’re listing on Joli Closet too but because i’m not quite familiar with it, that’s why I joined this forum today. So nice to meet you here, and we must keep in touch

Ah amazing you have found it! It’s very useful to refer back to when you have doubt in your purchases, which I really hope won’t happen again.
Keep us updated, and I sincerely hope you get what you deserve! xx

It was me again who found it actually, lol, but I’m hoping @bisousx can make use of it and make sure she gets her fair deal!

How sweet, about your daughter! Good to encourage those business skills so she grows up to be an independent young woman! Mine would have loved playing shops for real at that age (grown up now and probably wouldn’t be impressed if I asked her to join me!). Nice to meet you too, and yes, it’s odd how we can’t search on VC, I don’t fully understand it because there is something in the settings on the website about allowing/not allowing people to search for you by name, but I’ve never seen how it works, and I’m not sure it does anything! A poster here a few pages back was wondering if we could suggest sellers we had good experience with on VC, but I was thinking that was difficult because this is a strictly no-selling platform (so you are going to have to be careful here with your posts!), although there’s somewhere you can post your auctions, I think, but I don’t have any of those, and there wouldn’t be a way to ensure people weren’t promoting themselves, because people don’t necessarily have the same ID here and when selling. Also on the other hand I was worried about people posting bad experiences of other sellers because we might inadvertently unfairly malign someone based on a misunderstanding or similar, which I’d hate to do too.

If you’re interested in more experiences with Joli Closet you might want to tag @Gabs007, I think she knows more about that.

Have a lovely remainder of the weekend!

 

[bisousx]

Thank you @Annie J and @Oikasecondhand - I didn't want to give a short reply since you have put in a lot of time to help me, but I wanted to acknowledge that I read and appreciate your posts. I will be re-reading and putting some thought into my challenge with Vestiaire and see what I can do.. will report back!

 

[Annie J]

Thank you @Annie J and @Oikasecondhand - I didn't want to give a short reply since you have put in a lot of time to help me, but I wanted to acknowledge that I read and appreciate your posts. I will be re-reading and putting some thought into my challenge with Vestiaire and see what I can do.. will report back!

No worries, I always write too much and don’t expect replies in kind! Fingers still crossed!

 

[fleurdeliv]

@Gabs007 @nicole0612 @Oikasecondhand @Annie J

I am so touched by the thorough guidance and reassurance that words are not enough. Thank you all. I appreciate each one of you taking the time to explain my options and Vestiaire's services. If I'm being honest, I was feeling unfocused at work the whole week because I was overwhelmed. Now that I have more information, there's less for me to worry about! I also learned so much about the luxury market simply by panicking to y'all (LOL).

To answer AnnieJ's question, I bought the item from a Private Seller via Affirm. This explains most of the panic. I don't have as many layers of insurance compared to if I'd made the purchase via CC or PayPal. Lesson learned there. More lessons learned:

• I had no idea that many bags don't actually come with authentication cards, or that some sellers prefer to hide their bag code numbers (for good reason).
• Also surprised that sellers can't add additional photos after an item has been sold. This kind of makes sense from an IT point of view, but this can also be scary for the buyer.
• VC sends sellers shipping reminders even if the seller has already shipped the item. (Love that for them...)

I shot VC an e-mail like Gabs007 recommended. In the e-mail, I gently requested if the Quality Check team could mark my bag for double-checking. Screenshots were included within the ask to explain my suspicions. Hopefully CS will get back to me soon!

As for authentication services, Authenticate4U promised to help me look over the bag once it arrives. If anyone has recommendations for authentication services, please let me know! I'd be interested to learn more about any accepted authenticators. I don't know much about those...

In the event where my bag is authentic but does not match the seller's description, I will immediately contact VC and pursue accommodations.

All of this being said, it's a relief that VC has been working on tightening up operations in lieu of complaints. I've only read negative reviews, and the ratio of bad-to-good feedback was alarming.

Ultimately I am VERY GRATEFUL and less panicked after reaching out to everyone here. Thank you all so much!! I will keep everyone updated. Have a lovely remainder of the weekend!

 

[Oikasecondhand]

Thank you @Annie J and @Oikasecondhand - I didn't want to give a short reply since you have put in a lot of time to help me, but I wanted to acknowledge that I read and appreciate your posts. I will be re-reading and putting some thought into my challenge with Vestiaire and see what I can do.. will report back!

I’m like @Annie J. I tend to write overwhelming amount of words, but I’m just happy my words perhaps can help someone. Sharing is caring! xx

 

[EmilyM111]

I have a ton of anxiety I’m grappling with and would love some feedback from everyone...

In my naïveté, I pulled the trigger and ordered a Chloe Mini Marcie through Affirm. I heard generally good things about VC through Youtubers (lol) so I didn’t think there would be anything to worry about regarding authentication. However, after I did some research, I realized that I should have reached out to the seller and asked for more reference photos of the bag. I only reached out to them after my purchase. When I asked if the seller had an authentication card or could add pictures of the bag’s unique code, they said they “only had a dust bag” and the alarms went off in my head. I’ve since then sent more questions and they haven’t responded or are purposely ignoring me. To make matters worse, it’s been in transit for three days and I’m still in the “Awaiting Receipt” stage of my order. What does that even mean...?

And is there anything I can do to get a refund if the bag ends up being a fake? Low key having a panic attack.

Whilst I totally understand your concerns, the authentication card can be missing - Net A Porter sold me a legitimate Chloe bag without tags (long story, that was already a replacement bag and I wasn't able to receive physically the third bag as I was travelling so gave up). Also the comments post sale show in a super weird way - whilst I get a notification (but not always), most of the time I can't respond (the link doesn't send me to my listing and when I try to get there from my profile there is no comment). Finally - I send my bags the following day (I work so unable to post the same day) and they arrive next working day in Paris, it take sometimes a few days for them to unpack it and acknowledge the receipt.
Hope you get you bag ok and it's genuine.

 

[Annie J]

Also the comments post sale show in a super weird way - whilst I get a notification (but not always), most of the time I can't respond (the link doesn't send me to my listing and when I try to get there from my profile there is no comment).

Just a thought regarding what you say about links not taking you to your listings and there being nothing there when you looked ... A few months back, I thought the same. I was getting multiple email notifications (but not app notifications) that someone had posted a comment. I clicked the link, which looked similar to normal notifications of a comment on my items, but it seemed to take me just to the VC site in general, and not to one of my items. Then I finally realised that it was because I’d posted a question on an item underneath an editorial one time (before realising I should have left the comment on the seller’s page instead!). You know the place, where you get those sellers who say things like ‘Great selection! Come visit my Vestiaire!’. So the emails I was getting were linking to generic editorials and weren’t comments on my items at all, and any actual comments in my items were coming through the app quickly as normal, but with a delay in getting email notification for the same comments. I was mystified before working it out! The links in question have the word ‘campaign’ in them, I think.

Maybe it’s not what you’re seeing, just thought it might be! Sometimes there are delays in seeing comments on items (though it can be hard to be sure because of time zones) and sometimes short delays in replies getting posted too, but I think maybe those email links that seem to take you nowhere are different.