Vestiaire Collective experiences?

[Gabs007]

Thanks for your input on the holiday sales question.

Sorry you’re having bad luck with price offers; I have found I can usually get it sorted out satisfactorily. Actually the one item I did find I couldn’t get a satisfactory price for was coincidentally a new Diane von F. They just don’t seem keen. Maybe it’s a French thing, different taste? I listed for the low price but there were no takers anyway. I took it off sale and gave that one away to charity in the end.

I’m waiting a little longer than usual for a reply (other than the automated acknowledgement) to a query I sent on Thursday at the moment too; it looks like the 15th was a French public holiday so that could have something to do with it, maybe a backlog. I’ll phone tomorrow if still no reply because I know I’ll get it that way.

You could maybe upload your high quality pics to the app if you can upload them to an iPad? I’m not speaking from experience on that, it’s just a thought; I don’t know how it works. I only use my iPhone to take pics, send them to my iPad so I can see them bigger and clearer, upload to the app from there and I don’t get problems.

It is one person gone rogue, seriously, about most of my things go through without a hitch because I do list them super duper low for a quick sale, but then on occasion it is the mad person (or possibly on drugs) making totally ridiculous price suggestions, I think I will just invest in a registered letter to management because this is simply insane, I usually do the counter proposal with 1 lower and it gets accepted by somebody with a working brain cell, but it is a total waste of time and if you see that they try and downprice Alexander Wang or Alexander McQueen stuff so that you get a payout of between 15 and 30, do they actually think anyone is accepting that? All it does is make people angry.

€150 for an Alexander Wang full length silk dress in superb condition, worn once and freshly dry cleaned is totally reasonable, then nutter suggests I should sell for 40, that person needs a job that works for his or her abilities, I think sweeping the streets might be a bit too challenging and would tax his or her ablities....

 

[BelleZeBoob]

In case someone is interested, here is what the VC's authentication looks like:


My shoes have arrived in that black vlieseline-looking envelope with button closure.
Information on the white card in in French:
"Delivery note
In case of any doubt on quality control, please keep the label attached
Inspected by__
Date __
Very good condition
Good condition
Fair condition
Matches item description
Origin has been verified'.

 

[Wentworth-Roth]

My shoes have arrived in that black vlieseline-looking envelope with button closure.

I now have a couple of these envelopes in various sizes and they are very handy when I travel: I store delicate clothing, worn clothing, toiletries or medicines in them.

 

[Gabs007]

In case someone is interested, here is what the VC's authentication looks like:
View attachment 4523528

My shoes have arrived in that black vlieseline-looking envelope with button closure.
Information on the white card in in French:
"Delivery note
In case of any doubt on quality control, please keep the label attached
Inspected by__
Date __
Very good condition
Good condition
Fair condition
Matches item description
Origin has been verified'.

I think they use those bags if the dust bag is not provided? I got a pair of very genuine YSL heels in a bag like that, the seller said they come without box or dustbag, I think the bag is courtesy from them?

On the other hand, horrendous experience with direct shipping, website didn't accept the code, so had to ring DHL, ended up for hours in the waiting line, then connection was cut (they charge premium) called again, somebody tried to sell me their service and kept on asking really off the wall stuff, like how many items I sell and would I not like to ship directly with them and sign up for a deal (all the time I am being charged an extra rate for the call), I kept on asking them to just arrange the pickup, nope, they are trying to do the hard sale... Then connection was cut, so I called VC and tried to explain the problem, they went "Oh if zee label is wrong we sent it to you again..." What the same label? So I just went "Can I bring it to the DHL shop myself with your label?" 10 more minutes to explain to somebody speaking rudimentary English that I am using their label, I am just physically carrying it to the DHL shop up the road... Finally "Zis izz OK" me "Could you confirm this as an email, please?" I got an empty email back with the same label attached....

Brought it to the DHL shop, wrote back "Regarding our telephone conversation, I confirm that I brought it to the shop as instructed, attached please see the confirmation signed by the DHL shop with printout" - nothing back, a week later, tracking still does not work I check, somebody replies with "Here is the tracking" - item got delivered and was signed for by the recipient 2 days ago, i contact VC, totally meaningless reply how they do understand my concern but it can take 2 weeks to reach THEIR warehouse... WTF? Their warehouse? It was the new direct shipping, buyer already has had the item for 2 days, they don't seem to look at tracking at all or actually do read the emails. This whole customer service thing seems a bit like lip service

 

[BelleZeBoob]

Me, too, I think hat the black bag is a courtesy from VC. The shoe bag was also provided by the seller.

 

[Gigi1]

Hi Ladies
So I just received one more successful purchase. Again. No complaints another great purchase. Shipping took little bit longer. I was worried for a minute, because it was no communication from the seller whatsoever. I guess that August time in France( I read here , that you ladies were discussing the August slow period for business in France) . But all is good and I got an amazing deal on Chloe Maxi Dress. Like everything I always purchase it’s in perfect, like new condition. And I paid probably around 10-15% of original price. Lucky me , it’s summer dress and it’s the end of the summer , well not here in South Florida Anyways through all the process, it was no communication from the seller at all. I even tried ask questions in French. But was no luck. So I was pleasantly surprised, that once I submitted my offer, the offer was accepted within a few hours. So my experience with Vestiaire is great. But also helps, that I research my sellers very well, the same way , that I do on EBay. So I will continue shopping on Vestiaire

 

[marysweetie7]

I have also had good fortune on VC. I have bought a few items and am very happy. There was an issue once with an item not matching the description but they refunded me right away. I am waiting on another bag as we speak. It needs patience and research anytime you buy preloved.

 

[De sac]

I too had a very good experience with VC, responsive seller and reasonable offer accepted after the item had been listed a while. Sending / verification/ shipping took a bit longer than Jolicloset which was max 24 hrs for each step, but all in all was reasonable (I think two weeks).

It does annoy me when sellers don't respond though.

 

[Annie J]

Hi Ladies
So I just received one more successful purchase. Again. No complaints another great purchase. Shipping took little bit longer. I was worried for a minute, because it was no communication from the seller whatsoever. I guess that August time in France( I read here , that you ladies were discussing the August slow period for business in France) . But all is good and I got an amazing deal on Chloe Maxi Dress. Like everything I always purchase it’s in perfect, like new condition. And I paid probably around 10-15% of original price. Lucky me , it’s summer dress and it’s the end of the summer , well not here in South Florida Anyways through all the process, it was no communication from the seller at all. I even tried ask questions in French. But was no luck. So I was pleasantly surprised, that once I submitted my offer, the offer was accepted within a few hours. So my experience with Vestiaire is great. But also helps, that I research my sellers very well, the same way , that I do on EBay. So I will continue shopping on Vestiaire

I have also had good fortune on VC. I have bought a few items and am very happy. There was an issue once with an item not matching the description but they refunded me right away. I am waiting on another bag as we speak. It needs patience and research anytime you buy preloved.

I too had a very good experience with VC, responsive seller and reasonable offer accepted after the item had been listed a while. Sending / verification/ shipping took a bit longer than Jolicloset which was max 24 hrs for each step, but all in all was reasonable (I think two weeks).

It does annoy me when sellers don't respond though.

It’s nice that more people are posting their good experiences; my own have always been good, rarely poor.

With regard to checking out your seller, and shipping time, I think it’s getting easier to know you’re getting a decent seller now too (I speak as a seller and as a buyer).

They’ve tightened up and made it really explicit how people get to be ‘trusted’ and ‘expert’ and it’s no longer vague (it’s in the FAQs for seller and buyer). It’s now visibly highly dependent on quick shipping (within 5 days), and description/condition criteria conformity and authenticity at QC. It’s also now based on seller behaviour over previous months, with slightly different timeframes and requirements for the different badge levels. They’ve been tweaking it as it plays out, I think. They started off saying for expert you had to ship in 3 days but that seems to have changed to 5 which is more realistic in case of national holidays with no service, illness etc (given that most of us sellers aren’t actually businesses).

People can lose the badges if they don’t maintain their good practices so someone who used to be good but isn’t much good any more will not keep it after just one item isn’t authentic, as the authenticity rate has to be 100%. The rate of condition conformity has to be 80% for trusted and 90% for expert, and could be lost after only one item didn’t conform, if it’s one of two, say, but it allows for a bit of subjective difference when you’ve sold 10 items but 1 or 2 of them were considered to have been non-conforming. And you’ll get it back if you up your game. So it now works dynamically and does actually mean something.

I’ve been watching this quite closely because speaking specifically as a seller I was worried I might lose my badge simply because nothing had sold in the previous few months. It’s true I could, but there are also labels on each seller’s page indicating ‘Conformity’, ‘Shipping’ (meaning within 5 days) and ‘Volume’. So if I lose my badge because my volume has dropped, people can still see that my items conformed and were shipped quickly. So I’m less worried about that now.

Another thing I like as a seller is that I can cancel a sale if I really need to without losing my badge, as long as I do it within 5 days maximum so the buyer knows quickly. Previously, one cancelled sale meant badge lost, even if it was for the fairest of reasons. And now as a buyer, if someone has that badge, it’s a fair bet they will let me know within 5 days if the item isn’t available any more, or they’re going to lose their badge.

So all in all, you can really tell if someone is an iffy seller if they’ve sold loads but have no badge and also don’t have the ‘conformity’ and ‘shipping’ labels at the top of their page. And you can tell if someone is probably ok even if they’ve only sold a couple of things over the last 5 months, if they have no badge but the ‘conformity’ and ‘shipping’ labels are on their page. I think VC should make it a bit better known about those three labels because if you don’t know about them, you won’t notice their absence and its significance, but I think they’re being quite clever and this new system is going to lead to quite a lot of weeding out of rotten sellers.

It’s much clearer than it was before and sellers are more incentivised to behave well. I’m really quite pleased as a seller how it’s working out and as a buyer it makes meaningful judgement easier. Most of my few old gripes have been sorted out with this and my worries about the change have not proved to be problems so far.

It does annoy me when sellers don't respond though.

it was no communication from the seller at all. I even tried ask questions in French. But was no luck.

I really agree about this. It used to be one of the criteria for getting the old recommended badge that you responded quickly to comments. It doesn’t specify at the moment that’s still the case. Maybe it’s too many things to program for, I don’t know. I hope it is still there, but at least all the other criteria help protect against the main pitfalls of a lazy seller. Rudeness is hard to make rules about! I also hate it when a buyer asks something, I go out of my way to give a polite and full answer and obtain any more info they’ve asked for, then they disappear without so much as a ‘thanks’! However, from both sides, it’s also the case occasionally that messages I’ve sent don’t show up and it must happen from buyer and seller side. A glitch occasionally, or possibly some non-permitted keyword tripped it up. Glad your purchase was fine despite the seller not replying to your messages, @Gigi1 !

Edited to correct mangled cut and paste.

 

[Annie J]

I think they use those bags if the dust bag is not provided? I got a pair of very genuine YSL heels in a bag like that, the seller said they come without box or dustbag, I think the bag is courtesy from them?

On the other hand, horrendous experience with direct shipping, website didn't accept the code, so had to ring DHL, ended up for hours in the waiting line, then connection was cut (they charge premium) called again, somebody tried to sell me their service and kept on asking really off the wall stuff, like how many items I sell and would I not like to ship directly with them and sign up for a deal (all the time I am being charged an extra rate for the call), I kept on asking them to just arrange the pickup, nope, they are trying to do the hard sale... Then connection was cut, so I called VC and tried to explain the problem, they went "Oh if zee label is wrong we sent it to you again..." What the same label? So I just went "Can I bring it to the DHL shop myself with your label?" 10 more minutes to explain to somebody speaking rudimentary English that I am using their label, I am just physically carrying it to the DHL shop up the road... Finally "Zis izz OK" me "Could you confirm this as an email, please?" I got an empty email back with the same label attached....

Brought it to the DHL shop, wrote back "Regarding our telephone conversation, I confirm that I brought it to the shop as instructed, attached please see the confirmation signed by the DHL shop with printout" - nothing back, a week later, tracking still does not work I check, somebody replies with "Here is the tracking" - item got delivered and was signed for by the recipient 2 days ago, i contact VC, totally meaningless reply how they do understand my concern but it can take 2 weeks to reach THEIR warehouse... WTF? Their warehouse? It was the new direct shipping, buyer already has had the item for 2 days, they don't seem to look at tracking at all or actually do read the emails. This whole customer service thing seems a bit like lip service

I think the direct shipping is a work in progress with a few teething troubles. Let’s hope the hitches vanish quickly. Your experience sounds annoying. I’ve done one or two now and they went fine, I’m less worried than I was at the start. I think the reason CS can’t always answer your case properly right now is that it’s all changing so quickly that they aren’t wholly up to date until hitches have been dealt with. I guess that’ll get better over time as the process beds in more. They did say it was being trialled so I suppose that’s how they work out the bugs.

With DHL I don’t think they ask about “your shipping needs” until the end of the call, do they? I always just say, nope, thanks, I’m only ever using return labels, thanks and goodbye. I find them thankfully a lot less hassle that WH Smith forever trying to sell me giant bags of sweets I don’t want (or shouldn’t want - I do have a sweet tooth) every time I buy a newspaper

 

[Annie J]

So all in all, you can really tell if someone is an iffy seller if they’ve sold loads but have no badge and also don’t have the ‘conformity’ and ‘shipping’ labels at the top of their page.

I ought to clarify that, because they could have sold lots in the past that conformed and shipped quickly, but sold nothing recently so the labels aren’t showing because they apply only to the previous few months. Hmm. Maybe a hole in the logic I thought helped me know that a seller still had good shipping and conformity in the past but not recently, so lack of ‘volume’ and loss of badge would be no big deal. Though the time period is four or five months so I suppose if someone has been inactive that long, it might not be relevant anyway. So I guess I still think the system is a lot better than it was.

 

[De sac]

So all in all, you can really tell if someone is an iffy seller if they’ve sold loads but have no badge and also don’t have the ‘conformity’ and ‘shipping’ labels at the top of their page. And you can tell if someone is probably ok even if they’ve only sold a couple of things over the last 5 months, if they have no badge but the ‘conformity’ and ‘shipping’ labels are on their page. I think VC should make it a bit better known about those three labels because if you don’t know about them, you won’t notice their absence and its significance, but I think they’re being quite clever and this new system is going to lead to quite a lot of weeding out of rotten sellers.
.

Interesting! Thanks for pointing this out

 

[Gigi1]

I ought to clarify that, because they could have sold lots in the past that conformed and shipped quickly, but sold nothing recently so the labels aren’t showing because they apply only to the previous few months. Hmm. Maybe a hole in the logic I thought helped me know that a seller still had good shipping and conformity in the past but not recently, so lack of ‘volume’ and loss of badge would be no big deal. Though the time period is four or five months so I suppose if someone has been inactive that long, it might not be relevant anyway. So I guess I still think the system is a lot better than it was.

Thank you @Annie J for all the detailed information . It’s so good to know! Appreciate I have a question, since I haven’t purchased nothing as expensive to be charged import taxes. Well I did, but that was from US sellers , so it doesn’t charge it. But i would like to know how this works if I purchased from other countries sellers. I remember, last year, when I purchased. It was suggested to pay flat fee at check out. But not mandatory. Is that still the same? Thank you kindly

 

[Annie J]

I and some others found the details out about this a few pages back I think, but for the life of me I can’t remember exactly how it works now. If you scroll back through the pages it’s there somewhere. Also I’m noticing that the FAQs on the VC site are getting better and more detailed so you should be able to find the info there in detail if you dig around a bit. The FAQs do sometimes seem to be changing a bit from day to day at the moment, it seems to be all change there right now, a work in progress, and sometimes a bit confusing! They don’t do the flat fee any more, I’m sure. I think any applicable taxes and duties are collected at purchase and distributed via the courier to the relevant authorities. If I remember correctly. Somebody else had a question about personal allowances when importing to the US, I can’t remember what the answer was but I think it will just depend on US regulations, and VC will just collect and pay it on as required. I ought to work this out soon because if the UK leaves the EU without a deal next month, all of a sudden the UK/EU transactions might have to be dealt with this way too!

 

[Annie J]

I ought to clarify that, because they could have sold lots in the past that conformed and shipped quickly, but sold nothing recently so the labels aren’t showing because they apply only to the previous few months. Hmm. Maybe a hole in the logic I thought helped me know that a seller still had good shipping and conformity in the past but not recently, so lack of ‘volume’ and loss of badge would be no big deal. Though the time period is four or five months so I suppose if someone has been inactive that long, it might not be relevant anyway. So I guess I still think the system is a lot better than it was.

I think I can clarify that now, having looked around a bit more! The logical hole I thought I’d seen isn’t one after all; it does work. A seller might have no trusted badge or expert badge simply because they’ve sold nothing or just one thing recently, but the labels for ‘Shipping’, ‘Volume’ and ‘Conformity’ go further back in time than the trusted and expert badges to give you more info.

Even sellers who have what they have sold recently showing as “0”or “1” visible at the top of their selling page (as opposed to their all-time sales under their avatar in the individual product listing) do have the ‘Conformity’ and ‘Shipping’ labels showing near the top of their page, so the labels must also refer to their previous, less recent sales.

So the absence of those labels in someone who has sold a lot historically but nothing recently does tell you something extra and useful about them. But you have to be aware of the labels to recognise when they’re absent.

I guess it’s possible a seller like that will have the ‘Volume’ label referring to historical sales, which would concern me a bit if they didn’t have the ‘Conformity’ label too, at least.

It would concern me less with a professional seller because you can return for any reason anyway with them, and with non-professional sellers I have not had trouble with QC when I’ve bought myself and I think they’ve tightened up more now as well, so there’s still that protection for buyers on top. But it’s still useful for a smooth experience to research your seller too.

Sometimes I wish buyers also got statistically assessed on their behaviour. You couldn’t know anything with a new buyer, which would be understandable, but I’d quite like to know if I’m accepting an offer from somebody who habitually makes a lot offers but never buys. Accepting offers that were not genuine in the first place can block other offers from genuine buyers for 24 hours and might lose me a sale.