Vestiaire Collective experiences?

[Gabs007]

I’m not a dog person at all, but I do think your dog is gorgeous. I love that pose above all the destruction

He does look very innocent and almost offended to be accused of being destructive, when he only found a new chewie... Btw the 1900 chaiselongue that I had restored and upholstered and loved to bits, he showed us that it was really stuffed with horse hair, he was very pleased that he killed it before it had a chance to attack us...

 

[Annie J]

Actually I think you need to sell at least 2 items within a very short time frame or you are just a "seller" not 6 months

Yes I couldn’t remember what it was. I’ve just dug out these screenshots I posted before. So a trusted seller has to have made 2 successful sales of compliant items in the past 4 months, and advise them if an item is not available within 5 days of a sale. An expert seller has to have made 5 successful sales of compliant items in the last 3 months, and advise them within 3 days of a sale if the item is no longer available. I’m currently ‘expert’ but I can see I could easily slip back to ‘Trusted’ when I don’t have much to sell. So it addresses some issues for buyers but can leave us sellers a bit fed up if we lose it too quickly just because we’ve nothing to sell.

 

[Gabs007]

Yes I couldn’t remember what it was. I’ve just dug out these screenshots I posted before. So a trusted seller has to have made 2 successful sales of compliant items in the past 4 months, and advise them if an item is not available within 5 days of a sale. An expert seller has to have made 5 successful sales of compliant items in the last 3 months, and advise them within 3 days of a sale if the item is no longer available. I’m currently ‘expert’ but I can see I could easily slip back to ‘Trusted’ when I don’t have much to sell. So it addresses some issues for buyers but can leave us sellers a bit fed up if we lose it too quickly.

I did, sold 8 items within 3 months, shipped all, only issue was the beige/nude colour of the shoes which they claim is pink, so I am not only trusted, they are making a bit of a mockery out of their badges or they simply only want professional sellers?

 

[Annie J]

I did, sold 8 items within 3 months, shipped all, only issue was the beige/nude colour of the shoes which they claim is pink, so I am not only trusted, they are making a bit of a mockery out of their badges or they simply only want professional sellers?

Yes I agree it’s imperfect. It’s really annoying for you to slip from expert to trusted on the basis of the shoes but I don’t think I’d worry too much about being trusted rather than expert, because buyers can see that may relate only to bulk, and any of us is likely to slip that way simply on number of sales. I think I saw the percentage compliance somewhere, I think it was 95%, but of course you’d have to sell 19 items in 3 months to retain expert status so if they decide something isn’t compliant among the 8 items you sold, that puts the 3 month rate at 87.5% compliance (and I know it wasn’t fair about the shoes, and I’d be a bit fed up with the buyer as well as VC about that too, because if she’d accepted them anyway, they would have counted as compliant, and I can’t see why she thought they were any different from what she thought she bought, based on your your description). I suspect I’ll oscillate between the two regularly, I’ve got 100% compliance historically (always possible to slip if they find something tiny I really hadn’t noticed) but given that I put more online at some times than others I might not make the numbers regularly.

I think it’s an improvement but that it still needs tweaking to be fair to good sellers who don’t shift enormous quantities. It’s easy for professional sellers to fulfil the terms with lots of stock (having said that though, a lot of professional sellers seem not to have trusted or expert status, so much so that I once thought they didn’t supply it to professionals, until I finally noticed one that did have it; I guess a lot of stuff from professionals falls foul of the condition criteria? But at least you can always return to them anyway so it’s not that worrying for a buyer). It gives buyers some extra reassurance but puts us at risk of losing status easily. It’s likely to be harder for those of us who sell perfect stuff conscientiously just from our own possessions, but who don’t sell for a living. I think, watch this space, because it’ll affect the status of a lot of sellers like us, I think it’ll become clearer to them and they might adjust it again. I think maybe if they made the period six months or even a year it would be fairer to us non-professionals.

Another thought is that they might be doing it to encourage people to sell exclusively with them, with the incentive being that the sales will help earn the status rather than selling the same thing elsewhere and it not counting. It’s a bit blunt because it could affect sellers like me who only sells on VC anyway but doesn’t always have a lot to sell.

ETA: I didn’t put that quite clearly, I mean to retain expert status after 1 item was deemed non-compliant you would have to have sold 19 other compliant items within the same 3 month period. Which is annoying for you because the shoes were just fine but represent 12.5% of the items you’ve sold in the three months which takes you underneath the 95% requirement.

 

[Annie J]

He does look very innocent and almost offended to be accused of being destructive, when he only found a new chewie... Btw the 1900 chaiselongue that I had restored and upholstered and loved to bits, he showed us that it was really stuffed with horse hair, he was very pleased that he killed it before it had a chance to attack us...

Lol!

 

[Gabs007]

Yes I agree it’s imperfect. It’s really annoying for you to slip from expert to trusted on the basis of the shoes but I don’t think I’d worry too much about being trusted rather than expert, because buyers can see that may relate only to bulk, and any of us is likely to slip that way simply on number of sales. I think I saw the percentage compliance somewhere, I think it was 95%, but of course you’d have to sell 19 items in 3 months to retain expert status so if they decide something isn’t compliant among the 8 items you sold, that puts the 3 month rate at 87.5% compliance (and I know it wasn’t fair about the shoes). I suspect I’ll oscillate between the two regularly, given that I put more online at some times than others.

I think it’s an improvement but that it still needs tweaking to be fair to good sellers who don’t shift enormous quantities. It’s easy for professional sellers to fulfil the terms with lots of stock (having said that though, a lot of professional sellers seem not to have trusted or expert status, so much so that I once thought they didn’t supply it to professionals, until I finally noticed one that did have it; I guess a lot of stuff from professionals falls foul of the condition criteria? But at least you can always return to them anyway so it’s not that worrying for a buyer). It gives buyers some extra reassurance but puts us at risk of losing status easily. It’s likely to be harder for those of us who sell perfect stuff conscientiously just from our own possessions, but who don’t sell for a living. I think, watch this space, because it’ll affect the status of a lot of sellers like us, I think it’ll become clearer to them and they might adjust it again. I think maybe if they made the period six months or even a year it would be fairer to us non-professionals.

Another thought is that they might be doing it to encourage people to sell exclusively with them, with the incentive being that the sales will help earn the status rather than selling the same thing elsewhere and it not counting. It’s a bit blunt because it could affect sellers like me who only sells on VC anyway but doesn’t always have a lot to sell.

ETA: I didn’t put that quite clearly, I mean to retain expert status after 1 item was deemed non-compliant you would have to have sold 19 other compliant items within the same 3 month period. Which is annoying for you because the shoes were just fine but represent 12.5% of the items you’ve sold in the three months which takes you underneath the 95% requirement.

I think it is to encourage professional sellers a bit more, maybe they want to go that way?

 

[Annie J]

I think it is to encourage professional sellers a bit more, maybe they want to go that way?

Maybe. Hope not because it’s useful to me! I just edited the post you replied to, must have been while you were replying, by the way!

 

[rurorjuror]

Hi everyone! Hope that this is the right place to ask this: has anyone here recently gone through the experience of making a purchase through VC where the quality control team at VC rejected the item due to being fake/inauthentic?

I am interested in a few bags there and wanted to get a sense of how some of the more experienced TPF'ers feel about it lately. TIA

 

[bisousx]

Hi all,

Just wanted to update you on my Vestiaire experience as a buyer.

To sum up, TLDR version:

1. I bought a rare Chanel flap from Vestiaire from a seller in Russia, who turned out to be slow and not completely honest when describing the item. Because Vestiaire has no centralized review system, I didn't know this seller was a little shady. I had read a bit about Vestiaire policies and felt ok to buy it anyways. Seller took until the last moments possible to mail the bag to Vestiaire's quality control center, I threw a hissy fit online, then was a little relieved once it was received knowing it was in VC's hands.

2. I received the bag and although it was listed as "fair" condition, the seller's description described it was in "otherwise perfect condition except for 4-5 missing cc's [hardware]". I thought she meant that it was in fair condition because of the missing hardware. The bag turned out to be missing 9 cc's, and had a crease/dent at the bottom and missing stitches.

3. I immediately reported this to VC, who tried to brush me off first by saying that because it was listed as "fair" condition, this is why it passed inspection. Their website states if their QC center finds discrepancies, they will notify the buyer and make a different price adjustment for the buyer to determine if they still want to proceed.

4. I wrote back and said this was unacceptable because it is in direct violation of their own stated policies. And that their quality control team handles dozens of beautiful luxury bags a day, and they should not be accepting a Chanel bag as "acceptable" if inspections are their main job. They offered me a $50 online credit. I wrote back that I could not possibly fix their mistake with a $50 online credit. They needed to reimburse me for the damaged bag, and for their laxed quality control team missing the damage and incorrectly described listing.

5. Probably after a glass of wine, I had this idea to contact Leather Surgeons and asked if they could source the CC's and of course do the repairs on the bag. By some miracle, turns out they could - I knew they could work miracles but this is really a miracle! So they were willing to fix all the CC's and re-stitch the bag. After emailing Vestiaire again, Vestiaire agreed to my proposal of paying 50% of the cost (except shipping), which was fair since it would cover 50% of the cc's not disclosed by the seller and missed by their quality control team.

Overall, I think the right thing was done but certainly disappointed that I had to fight them to do the right thing. I would be happier if they covered my shipping costs to and from Leather Surgeons, but I'll give it a rest.

Just wanted to update yall and thank you for your help/time spent

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.

I’m really sorry to hear that, @bisousx, that’s very disappointing. I imagine they are justifying it on the general condition of the bag according with the specific ‘condition’ the seller selected? I always hate to rely on that because it’s subjective, but if there are specifically more ‘CC’s missing than the seller specified, you should have your money back, and if I were you I would definitely pursue that point further with them, trying to get management involved. This is not fair if the bag definitely doesn’t match the description even if it matches the ‘condition’ criteria. Best of luck, it’s very annoying, and I hope you can get a good outcome. I would have thought there is also the possibility of getting a refund via your credit card or PayPal as well?

ETA when I had my one similar situation, they offered me alternatives of either a return/refund, within 10 days or 2 weeks, can’t remember which now, or a reduction and a site credit. I chose to go with the latter. Mine was obviously missing an integral part (lost in QC) so it was clear.

 

[Annie J]

Hi all,

Just wanted to update you on my Vestiaire experience as a buyer.

To sum up, TLDR version:

1. I bought a rare Chanel flap from Vestiaire from a seller in Russia, who turned out to be slow and not completely honest when describing the item. Because Vestiaire has no centralized review system, I didn't know this seller was a little shady. I had read a bit about Vestiaire policies and felt ok to buy it anyways. Seller took until the last moments possible to mail the bag to Vestiaire's quality control center, I threw a hissy fit online, then was a little relieved once it was received knowing it was in VC's hands.

2. I received the bag and although it was listed as "fair" condition, the seller's description described it was in "otherwise perfect condition except for 4-5 missing cc's [hardware]". I thought she meant that it was in fair condition because of the missing hardware. The bag turned out to be missing 9 cc's, and had a crease/dent at the bottom and missing stitches.

3. I immediately reported this to VC, who tried to brush me off first by saying that because it was listed as "fair" condition, this is why it passed inspection. Their website states if their QC center finds discrepancies, they will notify the buyer and make a different price adjustment for the buyer to determine if they still want to proceed.

4. I wrote back and said this was unacceptable because it is in direct violation of their own stated policies. And that their quality control team handles dozens of beautiful luxury bags a day, and they should not be accepting a Chanel bag as "acceptable" if inspections are their main job. They offered me a $50 online credit. I wrote back that I could not possibly fix their mistake with a $50 online credit. They needed to reimburse me for the damaged bag, and for their laxed quality control team missing the damage and incorrectly described listing.

5. Probably after a glass of wine, I had this idea to contact Leather Surgeons and asked if they could source the CC's and of course do the repairs on the bag. By some miracle, turns out they could - I knew they could work miracles but this is really a miracle! So they were willing to fix all the CC's and re-stitch the bag. After emailing Vestiaire again, Vestiaire agreed to my proposal of paying 50% of the cost (except shipping), which was fair since it would cover 50% of the cc's not disclosed by the seller and missed by their quality control team.

Overall, I think the right thing was done but certainly disappointed that I had to fight them to do the right thing. I would be happier if they covered my shipping costs to and from Leather Surgeons, but I'll give it a rest.

Just wanted to update yall and thank you for your help/time spent

Great news! Thanks so much for updating us. I’m really happy to know you got an outcome that worked for you in the end! From my experience I always feel fine buying through VC as long as I’ve done due diligence with the seller because I know there are layers of protection (QC, dispute with clear indications of what wasn’t right with the order if somehow it makes it past QC, at which point CS should be helpful, and hopefully quickly). I know I’ll get what I was expecting, or if not, then compensation or a refund. And CC or PayPal is an additional failsafe. I’m glad they did right by you in the end, I really did think they would, though also I do really think they should absolutely have acted more quickly than they did to sort yours out if it clearly was not as described; however my impression is they get so many false and unfair claims based on people not getting the way it works and sometimes just trying it on, that sometimes they may resist a bit too long in the cases where they’ve obviously not got it quite right themselves. I honestly think the key is to be persistent, logical, realistic and human. I sometimes feel sorry for them when I see evidence in reviews of the way some people approach them and I can almost understand their resistance! I’m so glad it’s not my business, pre-owned is a minefield! You shouldn’t have to fight for the right thing but being cool and emphatic generally gets you there when they realise you’re right. I think one area they could really tighten up on is when sellers describe something as “in great condition” in the description, while at the same time selecting “Fair” as the condition category, because it’s an obvious source of discrepancy when they apply the published “Fair” criteria at QC but the seller has been a bit too generous in the description. I’m glad they put it right in the end when it accorded with the “Fair” condition but not with the seller’s over-generous write-up, even if they didn’t do it all that quickly, because I know you really wanted that bag for personal reasons and didn’t really want to pass up the chance! I hope the refund covered the renovation? I would love to see pictures! I’ve bought some Chanel stuff there myself since we were chatting before and I’m really pleased with it!

 

[Annie J]

Hi everyone! Hope that this is the right place to ask this: has anyone here recently gone through the experience of making a purchase through VC where the quality control team at VC rejected the item due to being fake/inauthentic?

I am interested in a few bags there and wanted to get a sense of how some of the more experienced TPF'ers feel about it lately. TIA

I’ve bought several expensive bags through VC over the last 18 months and they’ve all been good. Only one was stopped at QC (I’m repeating myself again and again, lol!). It was stopped because there was no receipt, but the seller had already told me it had no receipt, I have that bag and all the others now and they’re all authentic, as described and as expected. Some people feel differently, @bisousx had a Chanel bag that was authentic but not in the condition she was expecting (see the relevant post above and all the previous ones - seller’s description and the declared condition didn’t really match up) and after a bit of kerfuffle VC gave her a solution but that’s for her to say, not me (sorry @bisousx, not meaning to speak for you, not my place). I’ve seen fakes on the site pre-authentication/quality control stage (see my remarks about Antigonas, earlier today) but they’ve been removed. I honestly doubt that a real fake would make it past QC, though human error happens, and superfakes could be harder to be certain about. I’ve never bought Hermès from them or anyone else so if that’s what you’re considering you should probably ask people who know about those specifically, and also go the pre-authentication route to protect against superfakes. I’ve happily bought Prada, Miu Miu, Fendi, Dolce & Gabbana, Balenciaga, Chanel and others. I don’t worry buying from VC because I know QC is generally ok, in my experience as buyer and seller, and if anything slips through I’ll get it sorted out with them one way or the other. They gave me a partial refund (or a full refund if I wanted it) when they lost an accessory to an item I bought. There are quite a lot of posts recently you could read. VC has been updating a lot lately (new CEO, new era, I think) and I rather feel it’s working well on the whole for buyers, but those of us who are also sellers may suffer a little by having to sell increasingly regularly in order to retain our ‘trusted’ or ‘expert’ status.

 

[Annie J]

Because Vestiaire has no centralized review system, I didn't know this seller was a little shady. I had read a bit about Vestiaire policies and felt ok to buy it anyways. Seller took until the last moments possible to mail the bag to Vestiaire's quality control center

By the way did you see the posts here about the changes to ‘trusted’ and ‘Expert’ seller status? I posted about it a while back when it first appeared and also today when @Gabs007 and I were debating how we felt about it! It makes it clearer to buyers what they’re getting from a ‘trusted’ or ‘expert’ seller but is a bit rough on anyone who is a good seller but just happens not to have made recent sales. They’ve linked it to sellers advising if the item is still available in the few days after purchase as well as to compliance, which is good, but also to recent sales volume, which might be a bit tricky for those of us who aren’t professional. At the moment you can see it on the website but not yet on the app, apparently that is coming soon.

 

[Gabs007]

Hi everyone! Hope that this is the right place to ask this: has anyone here recently gone through the experience of making a purchase through VC where the quality control team at VC rejected the item due to being fake/inauthentic?

I am interested in a few bags there and wanted to get a sense of how some of the more experienced TPF'ers feel about it lately. TIA

I mentioned it before, bought a ton of items, if I could not authenticate myself I paid for having it authenticated right after the purchase, only one item that did slip through but was a super fake and possibly human error, since I paid with a credit card, it was one call to the bank, eventually got the money refunded and the seller disappeared (read was kicked off), from purchase and sales I made lately, they claimed an item was only good and offered a reduction and I took it, when the item arrived I thought it was new, felt bad about the reduction and told them I would like to pay the seller in full as it was already a bargain, apparently can't be done, I think they have now swung the other way totally

 

[rurorjuror]

Wow! Thanks so much for sharing. Happy that things resolved for the better for you!! Many thanks to all the folks who have replied

 

[Pravda]

Totally new to Vestiaire. Found it a week ago and now I'm scrolling brands 24/7.
I found a seller who sells right up my alley. She sells a lot of fun and unique clothing and it's cheap! Does it mean she sells a lot of fakes? I'm really concerned about making my first purchase... I'm not talking just about purses but everything she sells. I can easily spend a grand or two there and feel that it was a total bargain ...if it is the real deal. I don't understand why some of them sell that cheap! There is not a single second hand shop where I live that matches their prices. And she has my dream bag, a big black Chloé Heloise in fair condition (which I don't mind) for only 186￡. She also sells a Fendi set that I'd die for. Literally! I can see that she's a trusted seller but still... Worried. Should I buy one cheap thing and see if it is the real deal or buy everything I want to save me some shipping costs? It costs so much in freight if you buy one thing at the time. I mean, some items cost almost like the shipping fee.