Vestiaire Collective experiences?
- Thread starter Kopisusu
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If your lawsuit is open or any chance this can be a class action, I'd be interested in joining. I am not a professional seller, but within a few short months of selling on the platform, I had some really frustrating experiences.
Thank you so much for the comment! I did send the exact same screenshot and was told Vestiaire’s FAQs now list “good condition” as allowing small tears. They have complete disregard for the fact that it’s defined differently in two places on their site! Buyers beware. Hopefully my credit card won’t be so casual about it.
I, normally, don`t do fora, but am visiting to find the best place to sell my Chanel Coco top handle mini bag and was considering Vestiaire Collective, with whom I have shopped since they opened. During the last 2 months I have had to return 2 different items to Vestiaire and it went exceptionally well, there were obvious mistakes in the listings and I enclosed photos of the listings and the reality. It took 2 minutes to get the return slip. Maybe they have upped their game, now that they are seeking crowd funding ? I sell very well at Vinted, France, but can`t really ship my mini Chanel, if it should sell, through my usual point relais in a random supermarket, which is why I am looking for another platform to sell my little, beloved bag.
They are cutting corners, their customer service is horrendous, a while ago I read something, that a seller got returned a worthless item, because the buyer claimed she or he received that, she couldn't appeal because they closed the case. I have the feeling that everything is outsourced to call centers, they don't seem to be interested and don't respond.
They have become bigger but they didn't really invest in qualified staff. The direct shipping is really really worrying. in the past I had really annoying incidences, like people wanting an item for an event it is urgent so you rush out to ship the same day, then returning it, claiming there is a stain, when it was returned there was no stain (I assume they sprayed water on it) but you could smell there was BO and perfume (I had it dry cleaned before listing it), they have 72 hours for "assessment" and then 5 days to return, so they got an outfit for an event and then returned, OK it could be dry cleaned again, but you are totally at the mercy of the buyer as for them it was returned. Or if somebody doesn't pick up the item they had delivered to a shop, takes weeks to get it back.
Last experience (the one that made me decided to not use) I had to fight to get my dust bag back, the fact that the bag was totally scuffed due to the horrible packaging didn't register at all, no interest.
That is another issue I have with them, changing conditions, however if they allow now small tears, they still have to be mentioned and shown, which you said they didn't. I just checked again, under bags, definitely NO TEARS allowed. Now I don't want to libel them, but in the past, people have reported that items that they forced them to take back due to not being authentic, were relisted by Vestiaire as being shipped directly from them with the speed shipping available. It might be worth investing a bit more money to get reliable 3rd party authentication.
They also contradict them selves, here they do allow them:
Seller: The Condition of Items on Vestiaire Collective
When you list an item on Vestiaire Collective, several elements need to be specified, including the price, origin and condition of the item. The condition of an item helps buyers decide whether or ...
faq.vestiairecollective.com
When I went and looked at a bag and clicked at the pop up that came up as good condition, the following showed up (see attached picture) it is definitely not allowed, I consider that as very misleading, as a seller/buyer you do not know what is allowed as if you list it says it isn't however under their FAQ it now is, I would consider that as deliberately misleading.
Attachments
I only can guess your item is low value so they don't want to take it to resell?
CondeNast is one of their major share holders, which would explain why they hype Vestiaire in their publications. Your best cause of action might be to post on every review platform there is, as detailed as possible, mention that their FAQ is different to what it says next to the item, do a charge back through the credit card company, look up the company information (I don't know in which country you are) and send a registered letter there to the top brass, keep the documentation and then contact the media, also if you use hashtags on social media, they might take notice.
With the reviews they only give generic answers, it is ridiculous, you can literally see they don't read and only use auto-reply, I think they make so much money, they do not care, but if there are too many people being disappointed and complain, something will hopefully change.
I am a massive fan of the environmental aspect, but with Vestiaire it seems window dressing. I am truly baggled how a company that invests so much into advertising has such little interest in quality control and customer service. How they get away with it, I don't know. With so many people having bad experiences with them (I literally don't know a single person who has bought or sold regularly who wasn't let down, and I hail from an area in the UK where the Kelly, Birkin or a Chanel is part of the uniform you are expected to wear - personally I am more of a Loewe fan - so quite a lot of friends have turned to the website to sell or buy something, some good experiences, but if something goes wrong, it really does and there is no help available. eMails receive auto replies, the chat, they simply don't answer.
The problem is also contacting them, the chat is awful, I don't think the people are remotely trained or interested, if you try to email them, you often don't get the confirmation to your email, also you email them through their website, so you have no evidence that you sent the mail if there is a snag with their IT (which seems to happen frequently and makes me a bit concerned about the safety aspect), happened to a friend of mine who received the wrong item, sale was finalized (she received a dress in a different size and colour than what she bought, also a different brand), they claimed she missed the 72 hour window and offered her to relist, then relisted it as what she intended to buy but now what she received, she was waiting for them to reply. If an item gets lost in transit, they make you jump through hoops and email them a copy of your ID and a personal letter, hand written, detailing that you have not received the item (even if tracking shows you haven't), if it goes to an outsourced call center, I'm very concerned about the amount of personal information, especially since identity fraud is rife. It doesn't matter if you buy or sell, there seems very little customer protection or actual concern for the customer.
One of the positives is, that often sellers included a little note and their email with direct shipping, I'm in contact with several lovely people from all over the world who have also stopped using Vestiaire or use it very hesitantly and have bought items directly and without the inflated postage and "service" charges. I have bought and sold items without a problem, but that had more to do with the buyers and sellers being fantastic than with Vestiaire.
That’s the reason I challenged them, then the “customer service” agent shut down our chat session…so rude!
Maybe you’re right. I listed it at a low price, then accepted further bargains from the buyer. I think it was around 80 euros. Then I’m being punished. I will never entertain any price negotiations anymore if I ever sell on Vestiaire again. I will also cancel the sale if buyer chose direct shipping. It’s not worth my time to put myself at risk again.
Their definition of customer service seems to be "We don't care" and spam you to death with auto-replies that show they have not even read your question or close the chat, if it wouldn't be for the spelling mistakes they make, I would think they are bots, AI (though I do have doubts about the I), they really seem to be remarkably uninformed, an item of mine for which I had paid the import duty via Vestiaire, they wanted to charge me again as apparently they had not filled out the customs form correctly, when it happened the 1st time they told me to pay it, they would refund me, needless to say this didn't happen, I got a lot of "We haven't forgotten you messages and then was told to sort it out with customs myself, which I couldn't as customs claimed they hadn't received the funds from Vestiaire and Vestiaire went that they can't disclose confidential information and that customs are the duty of the buyer, I totally get that, but if the site charges me import duties with shipping and item price and handling fee, I don't expect to have to pay import duty again, with another handling fee by the shipping company. When it happened again, I just refused to pay it and the item was returned. I apologised to the seller who was very understanding, especially since she had made the same experience previously.
Prior to their relaunch, you could actually get some sort of customer service (not great but some) then they shut all the phone lines down and it really went south.
The bugs in the programming, the fact that customer service often doesn't even know how the website or app works (I got rid of the app when I noticed that it tracks you worse than google, also had to totally reset the phone twice because the app crashed it), that the delivery services they use are unreliable but cheap (Royal Mail 48 is notorious for failures and super late updates, Evri has become a bit better but is still a service I rather avoid due to the amount of "missing parcels" or parcels that have been relabeled or damaged by Evri and you receive random items - they however charge high handling and shipping fees), it makes me think for cost reasons they have outsourced everything to low cost providers, which is often done when venture capital is involved to boost the profit short time, then sell. I could be wrong, but usually no company would drive the reputation to the ground long term for short term profit. Not a company I would care to invest in and in fact deal with anymore.
How would that help? If the buyer claims they received something else, even if you took a picture of what you sent, Vestiaire issues a return label to the buyer and the buyer returns what they claim you have sent. Unless the security label can't be removed without a code and you keep the code, which would then people have complain about it, there is nothing you can do about it. The problem is seriously the customer service, or lack of it, by Vestiaire. I recall being totally shocked when a Marchesa dress (main line) was returned and I requested the problem, it looked like there was a massive stain on the front, so they automatically issued a return label, as I said, the dress I got back had no stain (hence I assume them just used water to make the silk look darker) but it was returned smelling of perfume and BO, they ignored that totally and went "Well you got the item back, we saw a picture with a stain - we consider the case closed", so I doubt saying "Hello, the security tag is missing" would change anything.
The problem is that Vestiaire simply closes the case when they see that on the tracking the item has been returned, if the case is closed, you are stuck, they will not reply. A security label wouldn't change a thing. Even if somebody would return the item without a security label, it would show as returned.
It is easier dealing with companies where everything goes automatically through authenticity and compliance checks. The Vestiaire checks are more than unreliable.
I
It is so people can’t wear your items then return them. Take a photo of the security tag on the item and put it somewhere where it’s noticeable if they try to wear it out.
I understand the principle of security tags, but as I have explained (in epic detail) how would that help? They claim item not as described, they get a return label, they can even claim they received something else and return what they claim they have received, you can take pictures before sending, which I always do, but since Vestiaire has issued them a return label, as soon as it shows as return delivered, they close the case.
So how would that stop people? The ones who do the scams know how to play the game, in the past when that happened, they removed the ability to get items shipped directly to them, now they stopped caring.
I repeat, the problem is with Vestiaire, their lack of customer service, that won't be solved by a tag, because if you tell them they have the tag removed, they would go "But you got your item back", so that tag would just be useless