VINTED - Letter Before Action

TGH

I'm not sure if any of the Facebook Vinted Q&A Group has discussed this latest bombshell with anybody here on MSE.

One of Vinteds' sellers has been scammed out of £65 and has decided to take action.





It's long overdue in my opinion, what do you think?

soolin

There’s talk on forums about taking Vinted to court for all sorts of things, the issue is that they appear to be registered in Lithuania with just a token forwarding address on England. There are also reports that letters sent to the UK address receive no response so I will be interested to see if a LBA will elicit any response. If there is no response where are the papers going to be served? 

Personally , and others may well disagree, I think there is more mileage in taking the buyer to court, they will be in the UK and a formal LBA may well be enough to get a result without having to proceed to court.  

Obviously there is a cost in taking some one to small claims, it might not be much but possibly worth spending where there is hope of a resolution. 

Spoonie_Turtle

soolin said:

Personally , and others may well disagree, I think there is more mileage in taking the buyer to court, they will be in the UK and a formal LBA may well be enough to get a result without having to proceed to court.  

If anything came of it, it might put the frighteners on other buyers tempted to scam.
Well, we can only hope.

TGH

It's hard to know what to suggest in these circumstances that's for sure. I for one will be following this story to see what happens.
Vinted are not consistent with how they decide the outcome of different cases, It's like trying to swim through mud sometimes!

There are so many changes going on in Vinted now and there are a lot of unhappy people joining our Facebook Q&A Group. We currently have 885 members in our group now and are still taking requests daily from people wanting to join.  It's easy to do - We are Vinted UK ~ Questions & Answers Community Help & Support and to become a member all that is needed is the Vinted username and the agreement to abide by the rules/guidelines. 

It is a friendly group, set up to help people recognise the scams and pitfalls anybody can encounter on an online buying/selling site. We can only give advice based on experience gained personally, we are NOT professionals and do not claim to be. But any questions or problems people have, we will answer them or point them in the right direction 
It is a group for Q&A though, not for trying to promote your sales there are plenty of others for doing that. But with Vinted closing their onsite forums, we felt there was a need and we acted on it.

RFW

TGH said:

It's long overdue in my opinion, what do you think?

I know very little about Vinted but it sounds like a waste of money taking them to court for this. The chance of winning a case and subsequently getting any money out of them is slim at best. They do appear to have a UK company but it doesn't seem to be a very wealthy one.

Purely on the case Vinted facilitated payment, a refund and a return. That the item received back is probably not the one sold is not Vinted's fault, it's the buyers. A judge will look at whether Vinted have either been negligent and/or profited at the seller's expense. The judge would probably ask why Vinted were in court and not the buyer.

Incidentally the fee for filing a court claim is £35, for appearing at a hearing is another £27. So that's another £62, plus wasting a day in court, if they lose.

GDB2222

RFW said:

TGH said:

It's long overdue in my opinion, what do you think?

I know very little about Vinted but it sounds like a waste of money taking them to court for this. The chance of winning a case and subsequently getting any money out of them is slim at best. They do appear to have a UK company but it doesn't seem to be a very wealthy one.

Purely on the case Vinted facilitated payment, a refund and a return. That the item received back is probably not the one sold is not Vinted's fault, it's the buyers. A judge will look at whether Vinted have either been negligent and/or profited at the seller's expense. The judge would probably ask why Vinted were in court and not the buyer.

Incidentally the fee for filing a court claim is £35, for appearing at a hearing is another £27. So that's another £62, plus wasting a day in court, if they lose.

It’s expensive for Vinted to appear in court, so they may pay up as it’s cheaper than fighting the case. 

RFW

GDB2222 said:

It’s expensive for Vinted to appear in court, so they may pay up as it’s cheaper than fighting the case. 

They might. I wouldn't gamble £35 on a chance of getting back £65 and a possibility of losing more. You'd get better odds betting on the horses.
There are so many possibles chasing Vinted through the courts, several of them end up throwing more money at it and never getting any back.

auntienoname

soolin said:

There’s talk on forums about taking Vinted to court for all sorts of things, the issue is that they appear to be registered in Lithuania with just a token forwarding address on England. There are also reports that letters sent to the UK address receive no response so I will be interested to see if a LBA will elicit any response. If there is no response where are the papers going to be served? 

Personally , and others may well disagree, I think there is more mileage in taking the buyer to court, they will be in the UK and a formal LBA may well be enough to get a result without having to proceed to court.  

Obviously there is a cost in taking some one to small claims, it might not be much but possibly worth spending where there is hope of a resolution. 

 @soolin The LBA was sent to legal@vinted.co.Uk which is the UK address to be used for legal and law enforcement correspondence.  I don’t think they can afford to ignore it and risk getting a CCJ against them. Won’t look good when they offer the rumoured IPO. The seller is looking at whether she can pursue the buyer at the same time. 

It’s about time Vinted are called to account for the high handed way damaged in transit claims are assumed to be due to ‘inadequate packaging’. Hardly the fault of a seller when the courier deposits the parcel in a wheelie bin of water.  

It’s Vinted’s policy of refunding the buyer without return I find egregious. If the seller hasn’t been paid they retain ownership and it isn’t Vinted’s property to gift to the buyer. 

 

soolin

auntienoname said:

soolin said:

There’s talk on forums about taking Vinted to court for all sorts of things, the issue is that they appear to be registered in Lithuania with just a token forwarding address on England. There are also reports that letters sent to the UK address receive no response so I will be interested to see if a LBA will elicit any response. If there is no response where are the papers going to be served? 

Personally , and others may well disagree, I think there is more mileage in taking the buyer to court, they will be in the UK and a formal LBA may well be enough to get a result without having to proceed to court.  

Obviously there is a cost in taking some one to small claims, it might not be much but possibly worth spending where there is hope of a resolution. 

 @soolin The LBA was sent to legal@vinted.co.Uk which is the UK address to be used for legal and law enforcement correspondence.  I don’t think they can afford to ignore it and risk getting a CCJ against them. Won’t look good when they offer the rumoured IPO. The seller is looking at whether she can pursue the buyer at the same time. 

It’s about time Vinted are called to account for the high handed way damaged in transit claims are assumed to be due to ‘inadequate packaging’. Hardly the fault of a seller when the courier deposits the parcel in a wheelie bin of water.  

It’s Vinted’s policy of refunding the buyer without return I find egregious. If the seller hasn’t been paid they retain ownership and it isn’t Vinted’s property to gift to the buyer. 

 

What time frame were Vinted given to respond, are they getting near that deadline yet? I ask because if they are getting close then the seller will need to start the small claims quite quickly once that time frame has passed , there is no point in making threats if they are not followed through. , I believe (and am happy to be corrected) that that will need to be served in the first instance by snail mail, and of course any case would then be heard near to their legal address which is London. 

Even if small claims is won by default if Vinted fail to defend , the seller is still left trying to recover the money as that is a separate matter 

I would also suggest that the seller perhaps take advice on one of the other boards on here concerning debts etc , as I am not sure what the legal position is around chasing 2 separate entities for the same debt, and I would hate for the seller to end up out of pocket for one set of court fees if one is thrown out. Assuming that this is a small claims that is being threatened in the LBA then that is served purely to recover money, so as soon as one party pays up, the claim against the second can’t go ahead as there is nothing more to claim.  Personally I still think that the buyer is the person to chase as I suspect they will just be frightened into paying up . I have in the past chased two buyers this way (sort of similar issues but on eBay) and both refunded me rather than allow me to proceed with small claims. 

Worth remembering as well that small claims court sets no precedent, and cannot be relied on to change practices or to help others. Again this is something that one of the other boards can be better placed to advise on. 

martindow

It has been said that an email address is acceptable for a LBA, but to actually open a claim, I'm sure that will need to be send to a postal address to be valid - does the OP know this?

And what do you do if they just ignore a judgement?  There could well be no assets for bailiffs to potentially seize if it is no more than a mail forwarding address.  Getting a judgement in your favour can be just the start of it and doesn't guarantee seeing any money back. 

Having said this, like others, I will follow this with interest and if it does prompt Vinted to change their business practices that would be a good thing.

RFW

auntienoname said:

It’s about time Vinted are called to account for the high handed way damaged in transit claims are assumed to be due to ‘inadequate packaging’. Hardly the fault of a seller when the courier deposits the parcel in a wheelie bin of water.  

 

Do Vinted provide the courier?