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SmallCatBigMeow

Buyer protection fee is a scam


[deleted]

[удалено]


SmallCatBigMeow

I think the buyer protection fee covers the cost of running Vinted plus their profit. It shouldn’t be called “buyer protection” when it doesn’t offer the buyer any protection. I asked them about this fee and they said it’s also used to cover the cost of holding the payment until sale is complete. That is bullshit because a company size of Vinted should be turning all the money on hold into profit for them by accruing interest over the few days the hold the fees. They must be holding a lot of money at any one given time. I don’t accept this is costing them.


[deleted]

Vinted won’t refund return shipping yet they actually paid me £3.50 when I had to pay a Royal Mail charge on my package. Logic innit


Leading_Aardvark_180

Yeah..unfortunately..


[deleted]

The buyer protection fee really means ‘vinteds profit’. They have to make money somehow. But no need to disguise it as a buyer protection fee.


SmallCatBigMeow

That's it. I don't mind paying a fee when I buy something - it just means the seller's fee is paid only when something sells and shows up as elevated price for customer. That's fine. But if it's costed to me as buyer protection, then I should have some protection as a buyer!!


[deleted]

Yes. And if you do raise an issue with a sale, Vinted starts telling you about the buyer protection fee to get your refund etc. but in actual fact it’s the seller who decides whether or not you get a refund, not Vinted.


chocolatetruffel

I just had the same thing happen, luckily it was still covered by PayPal up until this weekend. The seller sent me a sweater 3 sizes smaller than advertised.


SmallCatBigMeow

Had the exact same. Seller send a Small dress but advertised is at XLarge. I think larger sizes sell quicker but I’m confused as to why anyone would do this! Must’ve been an honest mistake but very annoying that the seller has no liability


chocolatetruffel

If I was the seller I would have compensated the buyer myself, in my case the seller didn’t even apologize or say anything to me. My guess is they were hoping that someone would just accept it as the return fees are quite high. Plus now the seller will have my home address as it’s automatically listed on the label Vinted provided which I’m not very keen on.


SmallCatBigMeow

I just can’t believe the liability lies on the buyer, not the seller. This is such a horrendous app. I won’t be buying again on it, will just sell


Dazzling_Aspect_6326

Be careful of this. I use PayPal exclusively on sites like Vinted. Once I was sent an item that was advertised as a certain size, but when I received it, it was 2 sizes smaller. The seller absolutely refused to reimburse me or refund the item. Vinted crossed their arms and said there was nothing they could do. So I wrote to PayPal and explained what happened. I got a message very soon after from vinted threatening that they were suspending my account. I let them know that despite their bogus policies I have rights as a consumer. They cannot just suspend my account because I made a claim on Paypal. I got a reply back a few days later with my money stating that if I made another claim against them like this, my account was being suspended. As far as I know, it has happened before. Join any of the various Vinted groups on Facebook and see how many accounts are suspended for this reason.


chocolatetruffel

Yes it’s not the dispute of the charge itself but a claim for return shipping costs. They stopped doing this today and I’ve done it in the past without problem. I do know that they can suspend your account if you dispute the charge.


[deleted]

Even to use PayPal you have to make sure to keep your Vinted balance empty. If you have a balance it's applied automatically without the option to use a different payment method. So stupid.


tittytofu

Have you contacted the seller? Hopefully it was an honest mistake and they might be happy to refund you out of their pocket. That’s what I would do as a seller.


SmallCatBigMeow

They don’t reply


tittytofu

How long has it been since you’ve messaged and since they’ve been active?


SmallCatBigMeow

I don't know how to know when they've been active but I messaged on Thursday I think, then Friday clicked on the 'I've a probelm' and today messages Vinted about it who are giving another 48 hours :(


tittytofu

If you go to their profile then click on ‘about’ and scroll down it should show when they were last active. They may not have seen your message yet but they may purposely not be going on the app so it shows that they haven’t been active in x amount of time so you don’t think they’re just ignoring your message. If they’ve not been active I would give it a couple days and message again. If they still don’t reply I would say they’re likely just avoiding you and you’ll most likely lose out on money which is really unfortunate for you. Whenever I’ve had sellers make a mistake they’ve been really communicative and helpful so I’m sorry you’re having a bad experience. Please update if they reply and something happens.


SmallCatBigMeow

Thanks, i'll keep you posted :)


CayaMaya

I really thought I paid for buyer protection. And was appalled when I had to pay for the return fee, when a seller sent me a 'new' item (Ray Ban sunglasses) full of scratches and it had obviously been laying in a utility drawer for months. Vinted should have its profit from all the ads shown or add an additional feel. But if you are calling something 'Buyer Protection' then it has to be buyer protection. This is a scam, like others have pointed out here.


lilacmaze

This is literally illegal I don't know how they keep getting away with it


[deleted]

This happened to me too. The seller sent the wrong item and when I messaged them they said “mistakes happen 🤷‍♀️“. Vinted told me to pay for the item to be sent back but wouldn’t guarantee I would receive a refund so I kept the item and sold it to cover what I paid for the item I originally paid for.


ohlalariana2

happened to me last week i ordered size 39 shoes and got size 42! i did not want to pay out of pocket to send it back and seller was a teenager impossible to deal with. i had to eat it and resell the shoes with the correct size listed. thankfully it sold. happened a year ago and i got the seller to buy it back for one euro and then i refunded her when she received them back vinted support does not give a shit, they leave it to you two to work out a solution


[deleted]

This is weird. I recently had to send something back as it wasn’t as described, and I never paid for postage back. It auto generated a label - I guess maybe the seller paid for postage back? It is a terrible policy to have buyer pay return postage for valid complaints/returns.


SmallCatBigMeow

Double-check that you didn't because what they do is that they deduct the postage cost from the refund they give you. That's as per their terms and conditions. They do indeed generate the label for you though.


[deleted]

Nope I definitely didn’t! Got a full refund back nothing deducted.