If it is not too forward, I tried to list a few genuine vintage items (I collected Rive Gauche and the Tom Ford era of YSL, and quite a few of the classic designers during their "golden" eras) and Etsy told me I can't list them as they are not made by me, I now find myself with a ton of items that I do love, but moving to a different country, do not want to ship for the off chance of wearing it once in a blue moon, I had totally given up on Etsy, have I maybe overlooked something there?
Vestiaire Collective experiences?
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If it is not too forward, I tried to list a few genuine vintage items (I collected Rive Gauche and the Tom Ford era of YSL, and quite a few of the classic designers during their "golden" eras) and Etsy told me I can't list them as they are not made by me, I now find myself with a ton of items that I do love, but moving to a different country, do not want to ship for the off chance of wearing it once in a blue moon, I had totally given up on Etsy, have I maybe overlooked something there?
@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!
Tbh the negative reviews, first of all people who had a positive experience hardly make noise about it, somebody who's p... off about something tends to make a lot of noise...
As for Trustpilot, I honestly do not rely on them a lot, some companies seem to pay them to remove negative feedbacks, another site that gets highly praised on Trustpilot and hardly has negative feedback (as it tends to get removed) might look better, when in fact they are a lot less transparent. I made the experience myself when I had an issue with a company, they blanked my calls and ignored my mails, so I left a comment on Trustpilot with the request to get in touch with me, the company replied on TP and got in touch with me, and then TP claimed they could not authenticate my review (yet the company could) and it was removed, I wrote them and forwarded them copies of the order, their mail, no reply and no review... So if a company only has praise on TP, I assume that I need to be very very careful.
I did a bit of digging around after that and found a few interesting things:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4790697
So calm down, seriously, do not stress because of TP, you should be more alarmed if you would read only good reviews.
As the buyer you are in a stronger position, it is just important that you contact them ASAP as soon as you get your item with any doubts, weeks later it will look strange, have a white sheet or background ready where you can take your own pictures and show any discrepancies. You also have to remember they are in France, France takes a very dim view to any item that is fake, I really doubt VC can afford to get into trouble with one of the big fashion houses.
If you write to their customer service, you should get an automated email back that they received your mail, this will have all their numbers listed so you can call for a cheap country rate, I would also follow it up with a call.
As I said, I am a compulsive buyer and up to a certain amount of disposable income, often do not think about how much use I get out of an item, so I might end up with something that looks great - just not on me and resell it, quite a few of my purchases were late night VC "Ohhhh I like that" buys and I honestly only had an issue once.
The delay in delivery seems to be more with the delivery companies.
As for affirm, never used it so really do not know anything about it, but why not contact them and ask about possible protection?
For now, you have everything in place should something have gone wrong, before you got the item, there is nothing you can do anyway, so don't stress and waste your energy on that. I recall my first purchase with VC, I was pretty much in the same state you were and everything went fine.
Thank you - will check next time (though I really hope not to have to sell at all)
This is what I keep thinking myself, lol!
This is what I keep thinking myself, lol!
I've run numbers on how much it cost me to buy impulse bag or jewellery and then sell. That's life changing experience - I could really use the money now so feeling pretty low about further purchases. Started shopping bag at Hermes as the prices impose consideration.
I write it off as "therapeutic" - seriously, sometimes I have days at work where I am willing to murder "the kids" (I call clients that as they often behave like not too bright brats), if buying something which I then might resell a week or two later keeps me sane, stops me from having fantasies about throttling one of the PR clients and gives me the boost I need to do a great job (and charge for that), I'm honestly not too fussed. In all honesty, buying the odd thing on VC is usually cheaper than a weekend at a good spa or flying off for a quick weekend away, that I then couldn't enjoy because as soon as I am on vacation, it is the trigger for a PR crisis
@fleurdeliv I absolutely agree with Gabs, I’m always saying this. People happy with their experience don’t so often bother writing reviews to say everything was ok. People go looking for help or just for somewhere to vent when there’s a problem. And, as someone who has tried to post her positive experiences to try to help and share, wow, there are people out there who take umbrage at that and try to stop you! It feels from where I’m sitting that you have to be quite determined to go online with your positive experiences because you draw a lot of fire! There are those who seem to think complaints must be genuine but praise must be fake (I think Taylor Swift had a song about this sort of thing
). So one way and another, you’ll probably see less feedback from all the positive experiences that exist. This is the internet ...That is not to say there are never problems, VC is a human organisation and therefore imperfect, sometimes slow and blunt (getting better) and problems have occurred, but those of us who’ve used VC a lot have found the negatives to be far fewer (especially for buyers) and more easily sorted out than you’d think from the tone of the reviews. On top of that, quite a number of the negative reviews are from people complaining about things that are not really VC’s fault (e.g. they just didn’t read the T&Cs before they bought, or the seller is unhelpful, and VC has limited control over a rude or slow seller except eventually to remove their recommended status, if they have it, or not give it in the first place, or to offer the buyer a lower negotiated price for an item found to be less than described at QC), or are subjective and sometimes (but not always) fair disagreements about condition of items, not often about fakes (in fact I can only think of one here I read recently and that sounded as though it might potentially be about a genuine manufacturer’s sample with slightly different characteristics to the norm rather than a fake).
If ever an item you receive really diverges from the description or stated condition criteria because it has slipped through, follow all the useful advice people have given from experience above. An out-and-out fake is much less likely to slip through, but if it does, is readily challenged.
Really agree about the unreliability of review sites. TripAdvisor is full of appalling reviews of restaurants and hotels where I’ve had nothing but wonderful experiences. The world is sadly full of people who like to exaggerate or even invent negative experiences, and some of them will be exaggerating to hold the place ransom to a payout of some sort. And the opposite; I’ve seen endless rave reviews (many by people with different names yet strangely similar turns of phrase and linguistic quirks!) about places I know to be the absolute pits! So, review sites, unbalanced, not transparent ... pinch of salt.
All good advice. And I confirm again that delivery delays are mostly the couriers at the moment, with occasional minor delays of 1-2 working days for VC to acknowledge receipt from seller/completing QC when they have higher volume than usual. I just had an item sold pass QC today. It was shipped the day after purchased (evening purchase) had taken a full week to reach VC on Friday, reminders being sent to me by VC all the while, passed QC today (Monday).
We are bombarding you with responses, I’m repeating things I know, have probably said it all now! Looking forward to hearing what happens!
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I’m so sorry you’re feeling like this. I deliberately don’t look at the actual losses, because I know that even if I can afford this as a leisure activity, money spent on things I never use and then sell, well, that money was worked for and could possibly have been used for something longer-lasting. My husband can’t see why I want any of it anyway, but I disagree with him on that, I do enjoy this stuff on the whole! Try not to feel low, maybe those things gave you pleasure for a while and that does brighten up your life a bit; we are entitled to a bit of pleasure in our lives. If you’d spent the money on an expensive meal out, it was a nice experience but there’s nothing left to show after it, but it doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth it. And at least some of the money can be recouped with a piece of jewellery. A certain amount of retail therapy as @Gabs007 says is nice!
We’re all prone to impulse buying while it’s all put under our noses so attractively online ... It’s the first-world modern epidemic. I’m trying to be more careful to buy things that won’t date, now my wardrobe is bursting, and to increasingly buy only what I really will use, and to check before I buy whether I’ve really got anything similar enough already. I think I’ve got quite enough of the quirky impulse buys ... though I still have trouble resisting (and please see my posts and those of @nicole0612 from post 2699 and 2705 and onwards!!).
Well in a way yeah, it is therapeutic/motivational spend. I don't buy on VC therefore I typically get 50% loss on each item (my stress level is so high that I don't really want to deal with disputing fakes or not as described, think my every VC purchase except from one Chanel bag wasn't what i expected). I reckon at this point counselling (if I need to sooth my pain of working where I work) will actually cost me less than for example selling unwanted but immaculate condition top of the range designer bags lol
My problem was a fake, but a so called superfake and the only way I found out was by checking the number, I totally get how that slipped through and in all honesty, I only found out about it because I had written an article about it and could contact somebody at the company who confirmed that the number was legit but never assigned to this colour and they checked with the buyer of the item with that genuine number and she had not sold it. I believe the design house requested information about the seller from VC to shut down that scam. I put that down as human error, which really can happen anywhere, I was a bit annoyed that they tried to brush it off (that was years ago and the guy was quite arrogant with "We check, you are mistaken! We are the experts") so instead of trying to reason with them I went to my credit card company with the info from the design house, pictures of the number and the bag and they stopped the payment (I assume they contacted the publicist who checked for me, I gave them the contact info as well and the eMail that the item with that number is still in private possession), within a short time I had a return label and said seller (who had listed more of those bags) was gone.
I recently bought a skirt and I was told I could get it cheaper due to a flaw, which I did, when I got it, I was totally shocked because it was in such fabulous condition, you could barely tell it was ever worn and I think it was unfair to the seller, possibly somebody trying to show how much they are on the case and being a zealot, possibly the same one who decided that nude shoes are pink....
In all honesty, I think most of the people who complain an awful lot forget that they are buying 2nd hand articles for a fraction of the retail price, but then expect totally new and with all the trimmings.
As somebody who has bought and sold, my experiences as a buyer are much much better than those of a seller.
Think i avoided the losses calculation for a long time but as I'm still an analyst deep at heart, I had to do that and it was an eye opener. All bags bought thinking yeah it's nice i can always sell it when i get bored just materialised in one massive chain of negative numbers. Especially now when I'd love to buy a new Kelly without touching my savings. Heyho. I also don't feel like I want to fund a luxury items for those who are smarter than me.
Having said that we'll see what future brings and thank you for your words
Think i avoided the losses calculation for a long time but as I'm still an analyst deep at heart, I had to do that and it was an eye opener. All bags bought thinking yeah it's nice i can always sell it when i get bored just materialised in one massive chain of negative numbers. Especially now when I'd love to buy a new Kelly without touching my savings. Heyho. I also don't feel like I want to fund a luxury items for those who are smarter than me.
Having said that we'll see what future brings and thank you for your words
True but if you don't like the bags and don't use them, they are also not much use to you, tbh I never buy an item with the "I get a lot when I resell it" for me fashion is what I enjoy, a bit of luxury but not really an investment
Think that was never my intention
I previously took the approach that stuff from non-prime designers are not possible to sell, not to mention high street bags/clothes so I succumbed to the option of just buying prime stuff for the reason of enjoyment and was glad i can sell it at all if bored.But it happened for various reasons recently (size, health related, long story including getting drunk due to my intolerance for alcohol and buying very expensive but impractical for my life LV Capucines a few hours before my flight LOL) I traded almost brand new bags and just felt bad about my effort (multiple price negotations with VC, buyers, handling stupid questions i mean stupid ones) money and time I could have spent on something else/drink/eat/travel (that includes time spent on planning to buy and actually going to London to buy etc.). Also seeing that spreadsheet was tough.
My husband said it would have been better if I kept them but dislike clutter. So you see refraining from shopping or shopping at the houses expensive enough to prevent from the walk-in purchases might be the option for me.
Think that was never my intention
But it happened for various reasons recently (size, health related, long story including getting drunk due to my intolerance for alcohol and buying very expensive but impractical for my life LV Capucines a few hours before my flight LOL) I traded almost brand new bags and just felt bad about my effort (multiple price negotations with VC, buyers, handling stupid questions i mean stupid ones) money and time I could have spent on something else/drink/eat/travel (that includes time spent on planning to buy and actually going to London to buy etc.). Also seeing that spreadsheet was tough.
My husband said it would have been better if I kept them but dislike clutter. So you see refraining from shopping or shopping at the houses expensive enough to prevent from the walk-in purchases might be the option for me.
I think they stopped the price dumping now, but their one (insert charming description) person who does approval and loves to reject good pictures as "Not your own" (sorry for having a high end Nikon and using a white background) is still there, I ended up putting the mannequin (bought it when a shop closed down and even sold the furniture) in front off a magnolia wall and not a white one, to show them that the pics are real, often use my cheap little Canon instead and think "is this person nuts????" Because it still happens, it is so inconsistent, I contacted them a few times, again with the pictures, often they were approved then but apparently nobody ever talks to crazy person, I wonder how much commission they lose due to that, because a bunch of my friends made the same experience and if I am selling a 2K dress for 150, I really don't need to go through the trouble again, the time it costs me, it is actually a total loss then...
As to the stupid questions, yes, but usually they aren't from buyers but just bored kids who pretend to be buyers or people who think they ought to be given expensive items for next to nothing.
They sent me a price offer for brand new LV Artsy in leather £900 (vs £1700 propsoed vs £2200 I paid). Luckily when I sent back £1699.5 (lol) they accepted that and the bag sold next day (had to give futher discount but I want that to be my choice).
As per stupid questions - what's your price or can you sell me for xxx as I can't afford yyy? I'm like 'honey, I'd love a new Birkin but don't have 15k eur to buy it now...'
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