I didn't even realise that VC had their own account. I always had a feeling that they may buy things from sellers themselves to sell on, only because things I have had for sale have been purchased with no enquiry, questions, negotiation etc. I am surprised to read the stories on here about being so strict on authentication, as some things I've sold were for example, Ferragamo earrings that were about 10 years old, they came with no stamps on the back at the time, and there was not one question over authenticity (I was a bit worried that they may question since most items these days have stamps).
Vestiaire Collective experiences?
- Thread starter Kopisusu
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@Ylesiya Thank you for your great tips, too!
It's such a shame that the VC user experience has deteriorated over the years as it was such an exciting and trusted platform before. All the recent frustration and negativity around their customer service really brings down honest and solid sellers (like us) after the huge effort we put in.
For newcomers - I also want to touch on VC's suggested prices and their incessant bullying to bring down prices. Always trust your gut with this and don't listen to them if you really feel your price point is correct. There have been several instances where my items have been sold at the price I listed them for and what I truly feel it's worth. Had I gone with VC's suggestions for those very items I would have earned around 70% less. We're all savvy shoppers on there - we know what something is worth and if it's hard to find. A bag I sold recently did so for over £600 more than VC's "expert" price suggestion .
Secondly, I've read on here that people are nervous about using Hermes as a courier. I hope it puts minds at ease when I say that I've used them for all of my eBay listings and in all these years I've never had an issue with them. Also, whichever courier is on your shipping label, is selected by VC and therefore it's their responsibility to communicate with their shipping partners and resolve the issue for you. Try not to take disputes on yourself directly with their own partners.
Thirdly, why won't VC reinstate the contact number? A few years ago everything could be swiftly resolved over a quick phone call with a human being. They lied and said that they discovered in "research" the chat function was "our customers preferred choice of communication". In what world do customers prefer typing aimlessly into a void dodging robots, over discussing and resolving matters on a quick phone call? Ummm no. I find this difficult to believe. In actual fact, they leveraged on the pandemic and took away the privilege of the phone number and here we are now, crossing our fingers for a competent robot to magic away our problems. If VC wants to keep their community, they need to start talking to them again and not making them feel anxious in a chat box. They need to get better at putting our minds at ease rather than copying and pasting generic text.
Lastly, the counterfeit Van Cleef situation is shocking. Thank you to this community for all the red flags!
Having said all of this... my general experience over the last few years has been far more positive than negative. In fact, only up until recently it has been excellent. It's sad that we've had to vent like this and afraid that it will put off potential buyers and sellers of the pre-loved movement, especially as there are still great people on VC. VC needs greater competition to pull itself together.
It's such a shame that the VC user experience has deteriorated over the years as it was such an exciting and trusted platform before. All the recent frustration and negativity around their customer service really brings down honest and solid sellers (like us) after the huge effort we put in.
For newcomers - I also want to touch on VC's suggested prices and their incessant bullying to bring down prices. Always trust your gut with this and don't listen to them if you really feel your price point is correct. There have been several instances where my items have been sold at the price I listed them for and what I truly feel it's worth. Had I gone with VC's suggestions for those very items I would have earned around 70% less. We're all savvy shoppers on there - we know what something is worth and if it's hard to find. A bag I sold recently did so for over £600 more than VC's "expert" price suggestion .
Secondly, I've read on here that people are nervous about using Hermes as a courier. I hope it puts minds at ease when I say that I've used them for all of my eBay listings and in all these years I've never had an issue with them. Also, whichever courier is on your shipping label, is selected by VC and therefore it's their responsibility to communicate with their shipping partners and resolve the issue for you. Try not to take disputes on yourself directly with their own partners.
Thirdly, why won't VC reinstate the contact number? A few years ago everything could be swiftly resolved over a quick phone call with a human being. They lied and said that they discovered in "research" the chat function was "our customers preferred choice of communication". In what world do customers prefer typing aimlessly into a void dodging robots, over discussing and resolving matters on a quick phone call? Ummm no. I find this difficult to believe. In actual fact, they leveraged on the pandemic and took away the privilege of the phone number and here we are now, crossing our fingers for a competent robot to magic away our problems. If VC wants to keep their community, they need to start talking to them again and not making them feel anxious in a chat box. They need to get better at putting our minds at ease rather than copying and pasting generic text.
Lastly, the counterfeit Van Cleef situation is shocking. Thank you to this community for all the red flags!
Having said all of this... my general experience over the last few years has been far more positive than negative. In fact, only up until recently it has been excellent. It's sad that we've had to vent like this and afraid that it will put off potential buyers and sellers of the pre-loved movement, especially as there are still great people on VC. VC needs greater competition to pull itself together.
I would never sell anything of high value on this platform. I know exactly who their authenticators and quality control team are and believe me - none of them are experts, even the ones higher up.
VC has moved their authentication hubs from Paris (where they had real experts) to Tourcoing in the north of France, which is the second poorest region in this country. This town is absolutely miserable, sad, very dangerous, completely different to Lille, which is only a few km from it. They moved there to cut costs on people they hire, it's easier and cheaper for them to hire someone from the area and "train" them, than to hire an actual expert in/from Paris, where people know their worth and actually know what items they are dealing with, how they should look like, how do they feel, etc.
One of my friends wanted to sell a B that was used, but in pristine condition. VC has cancelled the sale, saying the condition of the bag was non-compliant. In fact, they have severely scratched the corners and the angles were really badly stretched by them. It's outrageous this platform treats the items this way, treat their customers even worse.
This is very useful intel! Thank you so much for sharing. I did notice how the shipping label had changed to Tourcoing as a new destination in France, but had no idea how bad it is out there.
I think I've been fortunate with my higher priced / authenticated items as I've never had an issue with clearance - they had always been reviewed and accepted straight away without questions asked. In fairness, they were all pretty much new with authentication cards and the full brand packaging etc. That said, I don't think I'll be selling any more expensive items on there and will instead focus on direct shipping / Lower priced pieces.
Are there any other Europe-based sites you'd recommend for resale of big things? Net-A-Porter has a new service which I haven't tried yet and there's also Reluxe - which has only just been launched. Both services are very unclear on their fees so it's put me off and I've continued with VC for that reason.
I'm in Asia and I've bought from VC four times: 3 times from Europe and once from Japan. The Japan shipment came via Hongkong and was fine. But every time I buy from a seller in Europe, there are problems. VC France hub insists that my address is wrong and I have to provide an alternative address. Once they sent my item via Chronopost and the tracking showed that it arrived in my country and was delivered by a 3rd party last-mile contractor. After many attempts to communicate with VC, they finally discovered that the item was still sitting in their warehouse because, as usual, their system refused to accept my address. They had to override the system each time and send out by DHL.
I don’t know about other brands, but fake accounts advertising counterfeit Louis Vuitton bags are flooding Vestiaire Collective right now. Dozens of accounts with 0 sales, hundreds of bags with ridiculous prices, stolen pictures and unintelligible item descriptions.
I am not following LV but I can see a lot of fake VCA being listed every day. Ridiculously low prices and obvious counterfeits.
It is funny that I did not manage to list my authentic Chanel earrings as they "were unable to determine authenticity". It's a complete disaster.
Also happening across other high end brands too. VC has zero safeguards for spam listings and unfortunately scammers have discovered the back door. Guess their approach would only work under direct shipping where unsuspecting buyers would receive junky items. So much for AI
So disappointed with Vestiaire! I've been on the website since 2012 and the quality of service has been horrible these past 2 years.
Their quality control is the worst and their customer service is unhelpful!
I had to return 4 bags I bought on VC these past 6 months because even after their quality control, they definitely didn't match the description (a hole, a strong smell of tobacco, a gigantic stain on leather, etc.). So disappointing considering the % their taking on each sale.
Their quality control is the worst and their customer service is unhelpful!
I had to return 4 bags I bought on VC these past 6 months because even after their quality control, they definitely didn't match the description (a hole, a strong smell of tobacco, a gigantic stain on leather, etc.). So disappointing considering the % their taking on each sale.
To add to the pool of issues with vestiaire: I just sold a Chanel necklace and received their quality control report from the "expert team" stating that the box, dustbag and care card are missing from the package.
I personally packed everything into the bubble wrap (necklace was INSIDE the box) and handed it over to DHL which sealed the shipment in my presence.
Long story short, Hong Kong "expert team" misplaced the whole packaging of the item and claiming this is what I've provided undermining my sale and reputation. I contacted their customer support which asked me for the photos of the items which luckily I had.
There's no resolution on this situation yet but to say I'm angry is to say nothing.
Please photograph and videotape everything you receive from them or send to them. This is disgusting level of incompetence.
I personally packed everything into the bubble wrap (necklace was INSIDE the box) and handed it over to DHL which sealed the shipment in my presence.
Long story short, Hong Kong "expert team" misplaced the whole packaging of the item and claiming this is what I've provided undermining my sale and reputation. I contacted their customer support which asked me for the photos of the items which luckily I had.
There's no resolution on this situation yet but to say I'm angry is to say nothing.
Please photograph and videotape everything you receive from them or send to them. This is disgusting level of incompetence.
Update to the situation:
Luckily the buyer still approved the sale, so it was confirmed and I will be paid.
Vestiaire Collective support came back to me with the following: their "expert team" advised that the packaging "did not pass brand standards and therefore cannot be shipped to the buyer".
This is one of the most ridiculous pieces of information I've ever received. Not only I have my own huge experience with Chanel jewellery and their packaging but also this particular piece was just out of servicing from the local Chanel store. The necklace was passed to Chanel together with the packaging to replace some of the pearls due to the stickiness of their internal pouch - common problem before Chanel changed their inserts to internal cotton fabric. Full packaging was returned to me by Chanel with the insert wrapped into the plastic and necklace itself (totally like new) wrapped into the branded Chanel paper. And this is exactly how the items were shipped to Vestiaire. I included a care card that came with the pair of earrings I personally bought at the store last year - apparently it also was declared as a fake.
I told them I will make this case as public as possible to beware other people which I will do.
Looking at other people's complaints, my guess is sometimes the folk who works in there steals accessories of the branded items. Boxes, dustbags, inserts, paper bags etc have their own value and I think sometimes "the experts" steal the packaging in full or partially. There were reports from the other users about missing hangers, missing dustbags from branded bags - the list is endless. But this is the first time it happened to me. Maybe it is their new feature to declare packaging fake and item authentic in order to "dispose" of the "fake" accessories?..
Beware and photograph everything you send them in detail.
Luckily the buyer still approved the sale, so it was confirmed and I will be paid.
Vestiaire Collective support came back to me with the following: their "expert team" advised that the packaging "did not pass brand standards and therefore cannot be shipped to the buyer".
This is one of the most ridiculous pieces of information I've ever received. Not only I have my own huge experience with Chanel jewellery and their packaging but also this particular piece was just out of servicing from the local Chanel store. The necklace was passed to Chanel together with the packaging to replace some of the pearls due to the stickiness of their internal pouch - common problem before Chanel changed their inserts to internal cotton fabric. Full packaging was returned to me by Chanel with the insert wrapped into the plastic and necklace itself (totally like new) wrapped into the branded Chanel paper. And this is exactly how the items were shipped to Vestiaire. I included a care card that came with the pair of earrings I personally bought at the store last year - apparently it also was declared as a fake.
I told them I will make this case as public as possible to beware other people which I will do.
Looking at other people's complaints, my guess is sometimes the folk who works in there steals accessories of the branded items. Boxes, dustbags, inserts, paper bags etc have their own value and I think sometimes "the experts" steal the packaging in full or partially. There were reports from the other users about missing hangers, missing dustbags from branded bags - the list is endless. But this is the first time it happened to me. Maybe it is their new feature to declare packaging fake and item authentic in order to "dispose" of the "fake" accessories?..
Beware and photograph everything you send them in detail.
I contacted customer service each time and asked for a 2nd control (they tried to convince me to keep the bags and just put them back on sale on my page each time, which I refused), and after the 2nd controls informed me that indeed bags didn't match the description.
Except for the last one, which was a Celine canvas supposed to be in "great condition" but was definitely not (leather was badly scratched), I asked for a 2nd control, they accepted after a whole week of back and forth with customer service just to tell me that bag matched the description (definitely not!) and they put back into sale on my page without even asking and with a 50€ fee...
Wow, incredible. I'm sorry... thanks for sharing this though. I just ordered a Chanel jacket and I plan to video the opening like you suggested. thanks again.
Has anyone had a problem with getting their packages? I bought a bag from a seller in Germany, then she sent to France for inspection. Then they sent it to me in the US.. but customs had rejected my package twice!!! my order total was 2700 but with all their customs fees and taxes, it came out to 3100.. Now I don't know what to do. DHL ask me the manufacturer name and address.. so I put Vestiaire Collective and their France address. Then it got rejected again!!! IDK if I will get my purchase...Has this happen to anyone?