Vinted has quickly grown into one of the world’s largest second-hand free online platforms, mostly for used clothing and accessories.

However, sometimes you read ‘horror stories’ about Vinted support and negative experiences on the internet, but are they justified?

Is Vinted a safe platform to sell or buy second-hand clothes? 

The short answer is yes, but we’ll explain what happens when there’s a possible dispute.

Can you get scammed on Vinted? 

Unfortunately, it is possible to get scammed on Vinted, but the customer support experiences are generally quite helpful, although some have also said that resolving a dispute can take a long time.

We’ve decided to take a look into Vinted’s trustworthiness and asked a couple of bloggers and avid Vinted users to share their personal experiences with us.

How long has Vinted been around?

Even though Vinted’s massive success is fairly recent, the Lithuanian company was actually founded in 2008 and started flourishing when a Dutch investor acquired it in 2016.

Vinted quickly became the market leader in The Netherlands and neighboring countries, even acquiring its main competitor United Wardrobe in the process.

Vinted’s success started in Europe but has expanded into North America as well, becoming a well-known name in the fashion industry.

The company is definitely trustworthy and is backed by serious, legit investors. Its total market value is estimated to be more than a billion USD.

Is Vinted safe?

Generally, people believe that Vinted is quite a safe platform – both for sellers and buyers. All payments are done with industry-standard processing systems and are encrypted.

One of the main reasons why Vinted is considered safe is because of the buyer protection fees that the platform uses.

Whenever someone buys a product on Vinted, you’ll have to pay a flat fee of 70 cents and 5% of the item purchase amount as a ‘protection guarantee’ that you’ll receive your items. This buyer protection service is not optional, so you’ll always be protected.

You can use our handy Vinted buyer fee calculator to calculate the fee costs beforehand.

Consider it an insurance policy for your purchases – one that can definitely come in handy.

Is Vinted also safe for sellers?

Worried that you might get scammed on Vinted by buyers who claim they haven’t received their package?

Even though the rotten apples that do this are definitely present, you are not likely to get scammed on Vinted as a seller – on the condition that you use Vinted’s seller options with tracking.

With a tracking code, you can prove if a package has been delivered. Without it – Vinted will be more inclined to believe the buyer in case of a dispute.

Below, we’ve compiled a list of comments on Vinted’s support service and its general safety from frequent Vinted users and other bloggers. I’ve also included a personal experience.

There’s also a user review system on Vinted, which makes it easy to spot untrustworthy sellers or buyers.

1) Lost package on Vinted, completely refunded without issues

Personally, I’ve used Vinted almost a dozen times to buy and sell clothes, and I’ve never had any negative things to say about Vinted support.

One time, I bought a rather expensive leather jacket on the platform, which then got lost in the mail.

After a few days of chatting with Vinted support and providing tracking information to back up my claim, they promptly refunded the total amount.

2) “My coat was never sent, but I got a full refund without requesting anything”

“I have been using Vinted for about 2 years now and during the COVID lockdown, I spent a lot of time on the app selling and buying clothes to keep myself busy.

For the most part, I have had positive experiences. I bought about 50 articles and sold 23. Sometimes you can receive pieces that smell bad or that look a bit more used than on the pictures.

One time, I bought a Massimo Dutti coat from this seller in Spain. The process is the following: you pay for the article and then the seller has 7 days to send it to you.

You receive notifications when the seller has printed the label and when the package has shipped, you can also follow your package via the app.

This one time though, nothing happened for days. I could see the seller was online but she didn’t print the label or send the package.

She was not answering any of my messages asking her when she was planning to send the coat. Vinted support will only help you after 7 days if there is still an issue.

Eventually, after 7 days and still no activity or answer from the seller, I canceled the transaction.

Vinted refunded me the full amount without any question or request from my side.

They have a system where the money you paid is blocked on an account until you confirm having received the article and that it’s in good condition. That makes the refunding process very smooth.

I recommend Vinted to everyone I know, I love finding beautiful pieces for small prices and knowing that I am doing an eco-friendly gesture for the planet.”

– Melanie Manard, The Conscious Insider

3) “Numerous scam attempts against me, none of them worked”

My name is Oliver and I buy quite a lot of watches from vinted in order to make minor repairs and sell them. I have done this on eBay too so I can offer some comparisons.

Vinted is mostly a safe platform with reasonable security. Lost packages are time-consuming – but you will get your money back no problem (around 14 days).

Scams are a little more strange than eBay. From my experience, it is usually organized teams of scammers who are pulling legitimate listings from other sites (using scripts) and then listing these items themselves.

You can usually spot them since they will have several different backgrounds for various items – it’s unlikely someone has a marble floor, carpet, and a hardwood floor in their house, yet these are the backgrounds of the photos.

When you get scammed and sent an empty box or some fake useless thing, Vinted support is not bad, but not the best. If you follow exactly what they say, you should get your money back.

I have around 250~ transactions on Vinted and have had numerous scam attempts against me – none of which have worked. Vinted support is not as sophisticated as eBay and it takes a long time to get refunds. However, overall you will get your money back.

– Oliver Douglas, Almost on Time

Summary

Are there scammers on Vinted? Unfortunately, there are. Luckily, as a buyer, the buyer protection service will give you plenty of insurance that you’ll either get the item you purchased or your money back. As a seller, definitely make sure that you send all your packages with reputable tracking to avoid any possible disputes.