The dark side of Vinted that users don't know about

With the second-hand clothes market booming, journalist Ellie Flynn has investigated Vinted, an app that has seen rapid growth, to find hidden dangers that users are not aware of.

Interviewer: Ed Campbell
Production: Oli Johnson, Fin Talbot-Jones

Vinted’s Dirty Laundry: Dispatches airs Friday 18 October, 7.30pm on Channel 4.
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[amalali]

Vinted customer service is shockingly bad. Once you get past the automated responses, you're dealing with a "Computer says NO" type of employees.

[sciencefliestothemoon]

the seller threatens the buyer with violence and the police can't help him?
Is that not something that should be looked into?

[TheStevenWhiting]

The growth has happened as its easy to do online. We've had or we had in the 80s jumble sales, regularly at the church hall. I'd go regularly as a kid in the 80s. Its nothing knew, its just easier to do than a jumble sale.

The problem with these apps is lots of people can't be bothered to do their own research. Being in IT I see it all the time, users not being interested in the history of apps, not bothering to do their own research.

Lets take Temu for example. Heard someone at work raving about buying cheap t-shirts. Ignoring the human rights issues of China, the sweat shops, never questioning why its so cheap and not thinking about shipping all that tat from China.

The issue here is much like Fast Fashion. That was clearly a bad idea but influencers and buyers gave no shits so kept buying.

[CRingsing]

Re affordability, it’s a mostly (not only) British thing. I live in the U.K. and recognise how tight money has become. I however have 3 grown-up kids in Denmark between 24 and 30yo, and there things are very different. They all live independently, none of them have any debt (universities are free, and you are paid an allowance whilst studying), wages are way higher that here, my youngest is working for a cleaning company which clean at hospitals, and he’s just under £40k a year, and their living costs (they all rent) is about 1/5th of their month take-home income. They use bikes to get to/from work, so no cost on that either, but public transport is ridiculously cheap anyway. Point being, none of them are short of money.

My youngest however do use Vinted, but mostly to source very particular things he wants that are no longer in shops.

Point being, costs of many things have gone up globally, but thinking that this has caused a living crisis all over, is simply untrue.

[DavidManser]

Men being disgustingly awful regarding women online? Colour me totally depressed and unshocked!
I hope that Vinted are now taking the necessary technical and legal steps to safeguard their users and that they rapidly expand their customer service team!

[hippdip]

Two major points you forgot to mention :
- a lot of the female Vinted users being exposed to sexual harrassment are minors, being targeted specifically, for example by men posing as buyers to get them to send more photos.
- the most common complaint about Vinted is the huge amount of scams and the fact Vinted offers absolutely zero support in these situations, often refunding the wrong person

Another smaller point but still worth noting, is that Vinted is in violation of EU privacy laws by ignoring RGPD personal data erasure requests.

[matthewdalley]

Top tip is aftershave immediately after Christmas 😂 can pick them up sealed for a 3rd of the retail price

[VBoo]

Ugh, its horrific. I'd recommend everyone to use a 'drop off' point for everything, but even then...your billing address shows anyway. How shitty.

[PurityVendetta]

The seller threatened to come to the buyer's home with a gun znd you claim the police 'couldn't help'. Either the statement is untrue or the police aren't fit for purpose. Which is it?

[Pqag]

I suppose Vinted could create a program that checks the sellers item name against a database of recalled items, and that would be great, but I don’t think eBay or Facebook marketplace have anything like that in place. At the moment the onus is on the seller, and I don’t believe platforms are legally required to do anything other than forbid it in their terms and services, which they all do. It would be nice if there was some legislation enforcing something like that.

Other than that, I don’t see what Vinted is reasonably expected to do about pretty much anything talked about here. These are just all issues of using the internet more generally.

[paigeconnelly]

Used makeup can be sanitised. Makeup artists have been doing this for decades. Or do you think they buy brand new full sized products every time they work on a new client?

[HometownUnicorn]

These things that have been banned end up in charity shops all the time. Any more regulation on vinted means we don't get all the money for the item that we've sold and it may as well end up just like eBay

[davidpalk]

This anti-Vinted docu, at exactly the same time eBay first drops all fees to sell clothes, and then drops all fees generally, in an aggressive move to shut down Vinted, their main business rival. Coincidence...? Threats of violence are a matter for the police, not for an online selling site. Will there now be a similar anti-eBay docu, where there are pretty much all the same problems? I very much doubt it.

[de]

I would want her to qualify that statement of saying you wouldn't be able to buy this on other online retailers. How is Gumtree or eBay not falling under this type of problem? I don't see why Vinted are the only relevant target?

Even more concerning after watching this for a while. Why did the police not have a way to help? What was the reason? Why would you ever go to Vinted about an issue of this severity? None of that makes sense at all.

[JehanineMelmoth]

Lazy journalism. Dispatches has gone downhill. There’s no boundary here between what is Vinted’s fault and what isn’t, and what (if anything) is unique to Vinted among online reselling platforms.
And does anyone else laugh at the cheesy 90s camera techniques? Show the person talking and then show them from a side view… or wobble the camera a bit to stop it being static… oh puh-lease…..:)

[andrewchristofi]

With the number of items on Vinted that are unworn with tags, is it just a way for shoplifters to sell items.

[Mariolenna]

As far as I know it's not possible to list makeup as used on vinted, ppl just list it as unused and write in the description to write a message before buying

[andy]

If you don't enjoy watching things twice, the video actually starts at 0:20

[fbridge]

I would appreciate not promoting GAILS's - they don't accept cash.

[RedSntDK]

"Vinted’s Dirty Laundry airs on Friday" nice pun