I agree. It’s frustrating because we pay a commission to them and then have to babysit our listings to make sure they don’t change something.
Vestiaire Collective experiences?
- Thread starter Kopisusu
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And for all the trouble they cause us, they "only" charge a
25% (! ) commission, unless you list for $500 or less, or over 8K
Dear all, I need you help!!! I am from EU and ordered something very expensive from the US through Vestitaire Collective. I paid directly to Vestitaire Collective the price of the item and additional 1800€ on custom fees/VAT. Now I got the item and it is definitly not excellent condition as described. Vestitaire Collective offered me to send it back for a second check. MY QUESTION: If they agree and take back the item, do I also get my custom fees back? PLEASE HELP
You have to get the VAT back if you are technically not purchasing the item anymore.
I suggest start bombarding them with the emails. I know it is very painful because I just was in the same situation with my return item and quality of the customer support is like you are trying to call the hell directly. Do you still have the original packaging, documents and waybill?
Because there is another way (in case VC flushes you down the drain like they usually do) - it is to contact your own customs with supporting documents and demand VAT refund. This is what I did in Singapore when VC refused to help me with the taxes on my RETURN item. Although I did not even ask them to pay the tax, just to contact DHL and customs to tell them there's mistake in customs declaration/label, so that these guys do not change GST (VAT).
Another advice to everyone receiving high value goods is to videotape opening of the package and showing whole unwrapping process. I believe the item still has VC tags attached, so I advice taking clear pics of the defects affecting item's condition, listing them one by one and making some sort of a report against the original listing. Send this to the VC support, then print out, sign (+ beneficial to ask someone to witness and also sign) and then it back to them. Let them know the whole process is documented and witnessed - just to minimise chances of the BS they might try to impose on you.
I was thinking already about creating instagram account where I would post links and pic of fake listings on different platforms. Not only Vestiaire does this of course, although their fake rate if just amazing. People pay serious money for this stuff and authentication in many places as I see it is a total joke.
"Curation team" you mean those who approve the listings? Same people who "authenticate in the warehouses?
I am figuring out my refused listings now one by one. They responded to me saying the following:
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What on Earth is that? Now I am submitting all the same items with the same pics and prices one by one and next one only after the previous one appears online. Somehow now they are all okay. Once all 9 are up, I will send another email with the screenshots. It obviously was some sort of a jerk just hitting "refuse" button for all of my submissions.
Yes, their curation team (those that approve the listings) are also their authenticators. I was told that by customer service when one of my listing was refused based on authenticity (it was such a simple item to authenticate, I was perplexed), and I demanded that they open a case and have their "experts" (LMAO) look that my listing, instead of a bunch of inept curators.
That's when I was told that their curators are also their experts (authenticators).
I remember saying "What? OMG, that's so sad", and linked a bunch of fake listings for them to see the skills of their experts. I suggested they just use reputable authentication services from now on instead relying on their in house experts.
So after CS opened a case for me to have their experts look at my listing again, it was approved.
You probably had an incompetent fool looked at all your 9 listings and decided that if s(he) had doubts about 1 listing, the rest must be bad news, too.
I'm glad to hear that they are all active now, but dang (!) , what a unnecessary waste of time for you.
I'd definitely contribute listings to that IG account. I look at H bags there frequently. Even now that I have what I wanted (from eBay, of all places. The private seller was a dream to deal with in comparison to VC). Just to see what kind of deals are out here and how prices are developing.
And another refusal, second one already. I even want to share pic of the stamp here so that everyone can see what gets refused:
Earrings are in perfect condition, without any flaws, almost good as new.
And I found around 3 the same earrings on their website for sale after looking through 17 pages of their Chanel earrings, haha. I am thinking of writing to their CS but the moment I am thinking about this interaction, I don't want anything at all.
That explains a lot in some way. On a number of occasions I was perplexed in the same way when I sold items and I understood they don't know how to authenticate them. And these were not some rare unusual brand vintage items - not at all, pretty standard stuff. And I believe even if one does not feel competent enough, they have to have specialists in Paris/New York etc who have to be able to figure this out in a glance. I can spot VCA replica fairly quickly if I am given good detailed pics, not even talking about holding an item in my hands, and this is really expensive stuff!
However, I've been wondering whom on Earth do they hire? Let's say I am offered such a job after my years of experience with branded items - what sort of salary would they offer for the expertise? And given the fact that they outsourced support to the Philippines where every second person in the chat does not understand customer's request I strongly suspect they cut the cost wherever possible including "experts". Disgrace.
I am seriously thinking of starting this project as I think someone has to start bringing awareness to this issue which works both ways as there are also numerous occasions when actual authentic items were "authenticated" as fakes.
Authentication is a complex process which required deep skills and knowledge of the brand, especially when we are talking about vintage items or modern super fakes.
As I've written in one of my other topics, crazy example was when Posh sent Chanel earrings for third party authentication and the report they issues was absolutely ridiculous. It said the backings were different colour from the earrings themselves hence item is likely a counterfeit. For goodness sake, those backings were collected from the NYC Chanel flagship store to replace the old ones! If this is how luxury items are authenticated, I am just simply speechless and have to make it as public as possible.
Earrings are in perfect condition, without any flaws, almost good as new.
And I found around 3 the same earrings on their website for sale after looking through 17 pages of their Chanel earrings, haha. I am thinking of writing to their CS but the moment I am thinking about this interaction, I don't want anything at all.
That explains a lot in some way. On a number of occasions I was perplexed in the same way when I sold items and I understood they don't know how to authenticate them. And these were not some rare unusual brand vintage items - not at all, pretty standard stuff. And I believe even if one does not feel competent enough, they have to have specialists in Paris/New York etc who have to be able to figure this out in a glance. I can spot VCA replica fairly quickly if I am given good detailed pics, not even talking about holding an item in my hands, and this is really expensive stuff!
However, I've been wondering whom on Earth do they hire? Let's say I am offered such a job after my years of experience with branded items - what sort of salary would they offer for the expertise? And given the fact that they outsourced support to the Philippines where every second person in the chat does not understand customer's request I strongly suspect they cut the cost wherever possible including "experts". Disgrace.
I am seriously thinking of starting this project as I think someone has to start bringing awareness to this issue which works both ways as there are also numerous occasions when actual authentic items were "authenticated" as fakes.
Authentication is a complex process which required deep skills and knowledge of the brand, especially when we are talking about vintage items or modern super fakes.
As I've written in one of my other topics, crazy example was when Posh sent Chanel earrings for third party authentication and the report they issues was absolutely ridiculous. It said the backings were different colour from the earrings themselves hence item is likely a counterfeit. For goodness sake, those backings were collected from the NYC Chanel flagship store to replace the old ones! If this is how luxury items are authenticated, I am just simply speechless and have to make it as public as possible.
When you think about it, the art of authentication of the brand is a master skill, probably learned over long time through close encounters with the brand (eg. like bababebi, herself being a collector if I understand correctly). Therefore there is only a few companies that have good reputation for authentication. Now how on earth VC would be able to have such expertise in house if they process thousands of items? Running such place that is just not eg. small local boutique in Warsaw (where you get just flagship items like Chanel flap or LV neverfull that can be +/- authenticated by a non-expert if the fakes is bad and inconsistent) is a suicide mission.
I totally feel for you, they rejected once a Chanel brooch for me as I didn't have a receipt (like that's probably their way of authenticating or with a authenticity card eeek).
Hi there,
I'm a seller on VC, but fairly knew. I was wondering is there any reason that socks can never be sold on VC (as they have no option for socks) or why there's no listing for men's wallets, only women's, meaning you have to list wallets as women's only. I have seen people list socks on there, but they're either as lingerie or trainers.
I think I made an issue with myself as I managed to get socks approved as "trainers" by VC. Someone's just purchased them from France to which it will get authenticated. I can already see it going wrong, as although the pictures match up, it doesn't match the description as trainers. I'm wondering what's most likely to happen regarding this predicament.
I'm a seller on VC, but fairly knew. I was wondering is there any reason that socks can never be sold on VC (as they have no option for socks) or why there's no listing for men's wallets, only women's, meaning you have to list wallets as women's only. I have seen people list socks on there, but they're either as lingerie or trainers.
I think I made an issue with myself as I managed to get socks approved as "trainers" by VC. Someone's just purchased them from France to which it will get authenticated. I can already see it going wrong, as although the pictures match up, it doesn't match the description as trainers. I'm wondering what's most likely to happen regarding this predicament.
I totally agree this is an art, especially when we are talking about vintage pieces, unusual pieces and those which require real expertise and not only some basic knowledge of the brand but also history of the brand and evolution of the collections.
For example, Vintage Alhambra has a long history and this jewellery evolved quite a bit over the years. There is difference in stamping, workmanship and design. Tiffany Schlumberger is my favourite. Although this design is old, it also evolved with modern rings being quite different from the vintage ones.
Only recently I ran into a SA who knew about these details: before that everyone could not understand what was going on when I brought my vintage rings in for cleaning. The other time I brought my husband's vintage Tiffany's cufflinks for a clean and the whole shop was puzzled as they did not know what to do and how to authenticate vintage items so that they could provide the service. And these were people who work for the brand itself!!!
But when we are talking about more or less generic pieces, common ones, one should be able to authenticate in a blink of an eye. I can spot modern VCA replica very quickly, not even talking about a situation when I have a real piece in my hands. So this should be pretty much doable and robust but no.
I noticed it has not been like this previously: the whole experience has been spiralling down quite quickly. I really gave up on Vestiaire and not even considering them as my serious selling platform anymore.
Attaching screenshot with the response from customer support. I am not even upset anymore. One of these items in the list, for example, is that one mentioned above, with the service documents from Chanel. So I asked this guy back politely, that whether basically Vestiaire Collective is trying to say that the original brand Chanel itself repaired the item, provided service documents, but failed to figure out that item was a fake despite physically having it in their hands? Is Vestiaire Collective trying to say that the level of Chanel's expertise is so low, while Vestiaire Collective are such unprecedented experts that they can authenticate better than the original brand without even looking at the photos?
What sort of business can you do with the people like these?..
I am not disagreeing with you, guess my point is that they are just unbelievably arrogant setting up the business that whole idea is around authenticating the items and in reality they only check 'original' receipts (unable to handle even the repair ones like in your case).
One my last three VC purchases was seriously odd. I purchased a pair of (inexpensive) designer jeans and chose direct shipping. One week after purchase, the jeans were not yet shipped at that point in time, the sale was cancelled, and I never figured out by who. However, on the 8th or 9th day the jeans suddenly were shipped by the seller and arrived two days later, just like my money was returned to my cc account through PP. Very odd, so I contacted VC cs to inform them of this strange issue and that I want to return the jean either to them or the seller, but I never heard from VC.
Regarding VC indifference towards fake listings and its blind trust in their curation team, I can tell you this little story.
I collect LV ready-to-wear and am therefore somewhat knowledgeable in that area. I noticed that ever since Kim Jones' last collection more and more counterfeit LV ready-to-wear is made and sold, especially the easy-to-copy, yet sought-after designs by Virgil Abloh, the company's latest menswear creative director.
However, the counterfeiters don't bother to copy the item codes on the care tags they sew into their fake clothes. So you find various 2019 / 2020 / 2021 designs with the same item code from a random 2018 collection.
I flagged a couple of items with that item code and wrote VC customer service a lengthy e-mail with examples etc. and below is what they replied to me.
Buying on VC is getting riskier by the day, as they basically don't know how to authenticate the items they approve for sale or for shipment to the buyers. Not to mention how dangerous direct shipping is in regards to authenticity.
I collect LV ready-to-wear and am therefore somewhat knowledgeable in that area. I noticed that ever since Kim Jones' last collection more and more counterfeit LV ready-to-wear is made and sold, especially the easy-to-copy, yet sought-after designs by Virgil Abloh, the company's latest menswear creative director.
However, the counterfeiters don't bother to copy the item codes on the care tags they sew into their fake clothes. So you find various 2019 / 2020 / 2021 designs with the same item code from a random 2018 collection.
I flagged a couple of items with that item code and wrote VC customer service a lengthy e-mail with examples etc. and below is what they replied to me.
Buying on VC is getting riskier by the day, as they basically don't know how to authenticate the items they approve for sale or for shipment to the buyers. Not to mention how dangerous direct shipping is in regards to authenticity.
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