Vinted - stained shirt sold to me as new, but I have to pay return?

YorkshireJames

I've just started using Vinted after being recommended by a friend after using eBay for years. I've bought a few things and now suddenly found out buyers are responsible to pay for all returns even if they are for falsely advertised goods or faulty items. This seems to be against the law.

What approach should I take?

soolin

Unfortunately it is the way Vinted work - sellers can choose to pay for returns but cannot be forced to - it comes up a lot on the various Vinted groups.

There has been a lot of talk about trying to enforce your legal right to a free return by taking Vinted to court, but I've not seen anything reported about anyone actually following that through yet.

Alderbank

YorkshireJames said:

...buyers are responsible to pay for all returns even if they are for falsely advertised goods or faulty items. This seems to be against the law.

Which law would that be?

Vinted, like eBay and much of Amazon, is a marketplace. The actual contracts of sale, which is where Consumer laws would apply, are between buyer and seller.

Vinted T&Cs begin with

What we do...we act as an intermediary between Buyers and Sellers - we don’t buy or sell Items on the Catalogue and aren’t a party to any Transactions.

Your rights under consumer laws depend on whether your individual seller is defined in law as a trader. Roughly speaking, they are if they derive some of their income from buying and selling clothes.
Many Vinted sellers are just selling items from their own wardrobe which they no longer want. They are not considered traders.

I assume @YorkshireJames that you are a consumer (ie. just buying clothes for your own use). 

First question: do you think your seller is a trader?

katejo

YorkshireJames said:

I've just started using Vinted after being recommended by a friend after using eBay for years. I've bought a few things and now suddenly found out buyers are responsible to pay for all returns even if they are for falsely advertised goods or faulty items. This seems to be against the law.

What approach should I take?

That's why I will never use Vinted or similar. I wouldn't even donate a stained garment to a charity shop let alone try to ask for payment for it. 

Alderbank

Vinted themselves do seem to offer a degree of protection to buyers who buy from private sellers so do not have the protection of consumer laws.

They claim they hold your payment 'in escrow' which means they don't pass it on to the seller until the transaction is completed to the satisfaction of both parties.

Where the buyer claims the goods are SNAD (significantly not as described) they offer a further service as well. The buyer can post the disputed garment to Vinted who will examine it independently and determine whether the claim is valid. If they decide it is they will refund your money which they have been holding in escrow.

An example of SNAD they give is of a stain on the garment which is not listed in the seller's description, which is exactly your case.

Note that this service is not part of the purchase as such, it is an optional separate service between you and Vinted.

YorkshireJames

Alderbank said:

YorkshireJames said:

...buyers are responsible to pay for all returns even if they are for falsely advertised goods or faulty items. This seems to be against the law.

Which law would that be?

First question: do you think your seller is a trader?

Thanks for your help.

The law seems to be the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (I looked on the Money Helper site.)

No I don't think they are a trader.

eskbanker

YorkshireJames said:

Alderbank said:

YorkshireJames said:

...buyers are responsible to pay for all returns even if they are for falsely advertised goods or faulty items. This seems to be against the law.

Which law would that be?

First question: do you think your seller is a trader?

Thanks for your help.

The law seems to be the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (I looked on the Money Helper site.)

No I don't think they are a trader.

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 only offers protection to consumers making purchases from traders....

soolin

This is a link I often see posted on Vinted groups about items from a private seller needing to fit the description.

Buyer beware? Your rights when buying second-hand | Saga

If you buy from a private seller, you won’t get the same rights as you would from a business. Under the Consumer Rights Act, a private seller is only obliged to provide goods “as described”. 

eskbanker

soolin said:

This is a link I often see posted on Vinted groups about items from a private seller needing to fit the description.

Buyer beware? Your rights when buying second-hand | Saga

If you buy from a private seller, you won’t get the same rights as you would from a business. Under the Consumer Rights Act, a private seller is only obliged to provide goods “as described”. 

I appreciate you're just quoting from a third party link but do you know where that reference comes from?  I can't see anything within CRA that covers sales by non-traders - the key parts each start with definition of applicability only to contracts between consumers and traders....

soolin

eskbanker said:

soolin said:

This is a link I often see posted on Vinted groups about items from a private seller needing to fit the description.

Buyer beware? Your rights when buying second-hand | Saga

If you buy from a private seller, you won’t get the same rights as you would from a business. Under the Consumer Rights Act, a private seller is only obliged to provide goods “as described”. 

I appreciate you're just quoting from a third party link but do you know where that reference comes from?  I can't see anything within CRA that covers sales by non-traders - the key parts each start with definition of applicability only to contracts between consumers and traders....

Unfortunately it is just one of those links that someone posted once and now gets posted to show that even buying from a private seller online gives the buyer a right to receive what they expected.

I agree It would be useful to have a definitive link that went to more of an official site, as we often get queried on the ebay and other boards where goods from private sellers have been completely different to that advertised . It would seem strange though if private sellers had complete impunity to send whatever they wanted regardless of what the for sale advert said. Even if that link showed that private sellers have complete freedom to send what they liked, a link would still be useful.

eskbanker

soolin said:

eskbanker said:

soolin said:

This is a link I often see posted on Vinted groups about items from a private seller needing to fit the description.

Buyer beware? Your rights when buying second-hand | Saga

If you buy from a private seller, you won’t get the same rights as you would from a business. Under the Consumer Rights Act, a private seller is only obliged to provide goods “as described”. 

I appreciate you're just quoting from a third party link but do you know where that reference comes from?  I can't see anything within CRA that covers sales by non-traders - the key parts each start with definition of applicability only to contracts between consumers and traders....

Unfortunately it is just one of those links that someone posted once and now gets posted to show that even buying from a private seller online gives the buyer a right to receive what they expected.

I agree It would be useful to have a definitive link that went to more of an official site, as we often get queried on the ebay and other boards where goods from private sellers have been completely different to that advertised . It would seem strange though if private sellers had complete impunity to send whatever they wanted regardless of what the for sale advert said. Even if that link showed that private sellers have complete freedom to send what they liked, a link would still be useful.

I could be wrong but suspect that private sellers will be bound only by the likes of Ebay or Vinted Ts & Cs, rather than CRA as such, but happy to be corrected!