82 Dramatic Exchanges Between Vinted Buyers And Sellers That Went Off The Rails

Vinted has clocked up an impressive user base of over 70 million people globally. But it seems the bigger it grows, the more unhinged it gets.

The online platform is increasingly featured in the media for its “lawlessness.” It’s like the Wild West of the Internet but instead of cowboys, it’s ordinary people arguing over a $10 pair of cowboy boots almost as if their lives depended on it.

But ironically, this unsupervised chaos seems to be one of the reasons buyers, sellers and lurkers are so addicted to Vinted.

"Honestly, the wildness, the badgering... and rudeness is kind of… outrageous," wrote Cosmopolitan U.K.'s Features Editor, Jennifer Lavin. Lavin believes some buyers and users are deliberately rage-baiting each other. Meanwhile, at least one expert says the internet gives people the courage to be even ruder than they would be in real life.

“Surprisingly, people are more emotional on the internet not less,” says Dr Bernie Hogan, an Associate Professor and Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute. “You can more get emotionally dysregulated online, because there are fewer moderating features helping you assess how to react in a situation... it's just harder to think of other people as people. There’s no disincentive to not behave poorly.”

Ellie Muir began using Vinted in 2022 and has made over $1,300 since then. The culture and lifestyle reporter says it's been a mainly pleasant experience but things have now changed - and not for the better.

"I’ve noticed that Vinted users have developed a slight decorum problem – social boundaries and common decency have been thrown out of the window entirely," wrote Muir.

Her personal experience on the platform prompted the journalist to look into whether other Vinted users felt the same way.

Muir found several people with horror stories to share. One told of how the second-hand t-shirt they'd bought off Vinted arrived wrapped in a Pampers diaper. The buyer, known only as Sophie, said that she's also had a few "prickly and strange" encounters with other Vinted users.

“I’ve had people message me demanding that I ship the item the same day because they need it the day after, even though I have a day job,” she told Muir. “I find that people can be quite bossy in general... you wouldn’t treat an actual store employee like that, but I think people just hide behind screens.”

Another Vinted user told of one experience on Vinted that was such a nightmare even the police got involved. Rhiannon Picton-James had ordered a second-hand luxury brand cardholder on the platform. Instead of a cardholder, the buyer received a broken Gucci watch.

Picton-James claims the buyer admitted to accidentally sending the wrong item but they didn't seem interested in rectifying things.

“The woman sent me a barrage of messages saying she’d reported me to the police and registered the item as stolen,” the buyer told Muir. “She said that if I ever take the watch anywhere to get the battery changed, they will know I’m a thief!”

Someone on the motherhood app Peanut posted the following question in an online forum: "Does anyone else think Vinted is getting worse?"

There was no shortage of wild answers. "I ordered a bundle that all of the baby clothes were advertised with tags on. It turned up and the clothes were dirty (they had food and baby sick on), no tags and bobbly with wholes in," read one response.

"I literally had this yesterday, something sold as 'very good condition' came with nail varnish on it, seams ripped, rips on the arms, thread coming loose," revealed another angry Vinted user.

"Absolute state," continued the rant. "They told me to return it but the drop off for it isn't convenient for me so I've had to keep it! And when I left them negative feedback, they replied and said no idea how that happened, so sorry. What do you mean no idea how that happened? What a joke."