Key facts
- Vinted users are complaining about wrongful suspensions and permanent bans.
- Sellers report issues with automated fraud detection systems incorrectly flagging items.
- Emma Neil was banned for relisting sandals, and Matthew Connor for a used fleece.
- A website collecting complaints, sadvintedfaces.com, has logged thousands of user issues.
- Some sellers have experienced financial losses due to bans.
- Vinted states it uses a combination of human moderation and detection tools, and that appeals are reviewed by humans.
Thousands of sellers on the popular online marketplace Vinted are complaining of being wrongly suspended or permanently banned, with many attributing the issues to an over-reliance on automated systems for fraud detection. Single mother Emma Neil was banned after relisting a pair of sandals for £2, which Vinted deemed potentially counterfeit. Professional seller Matthew Connor also faced a temporary ban for listing a used North Face fleece, though his was later overturned as a mistake.
Catherine Warrilow, frustrated by her own experience, created the website sadvintedfaces.com to gather user complaints. The site has logged over 4,000 reports of bans or suspensions, with many users feeling ignored by customer service and receiving automated responses. Warrilow suggests that the automation is too sensitive, flagging legitimate transactions like price changes or second-hand branded items as fraudulent.
Connor, who relies on Vinted for his livelihood, believes the platform's rapid growth has led to a decline in effective moderation. He experienced significant potential sales losses during his ban. While Vinted states that appeals are reviewed by human teams and that the majority of users have positive experiences, Neil's appeal was unsuccessful. Consumer expert Helen Dewdney has observed a rise in Vinted-related complaints, highlighting the difficulty in reaching human support and the prevalence of bot-like responses.