Channel 4’s latest dispatch uncovered the dirty laundry of Vinted, a second-hand clothes app. In the documentary, Ellie Flynn uncovers Vinted dark secrets.
Vinted has grown rapidly in recent years with people becoming more environmentally conscious of the clothes they consume. It is also a great way to save money and make money by selling with a simple and easy interface.
However, the rapid speed of Vinted’s growth has left it ill-prepared for the challenges it now faces.
The app claims to have high levels of customer safety, with a 24/7 customer service line and proactive anti-spam or harassment software. However, Channel 4 found major flaws in its system.
The app was found to have violated consumer rights, allowed for the stealing and sexualisation of pictures as well as turning a blind eye to banned products being sold.
The implications of this are putting women in danger of sexual harassment as well as all consumers who may get scammed.
Consumer rights
One of the first issues identified in the documentary is the inadequate rights of consumers. Vinted gives a 48-hour window in which to lodge a complaint after the sale is complete. This means that if you fail to notice an issue on time, your rights no longer exist.
This is problematic for people noticing days later that the items they have received are in fact fake. Despite fake products being against Vinted’s code of conduct, if the rights window has passed there is nothing you can do.
The customer service line claims to be a 24/7 chat. However, when logging a complaint you talk with an AI chatbot, with many people never getting through to a real human. This means that the help can only go as far as automated simplistic responses.
Some people lodging complaints never got a response at all.
Banned products for sale
Another avenue of the investigation was the selling of hazardous, recalled and banned products.
Channel 4 found over 100 products featured on the government’s recall list for sale on Vinted. These include self-feeding baby pillows which are not commercially available due to the risk of sudden infant death.
Many of these products also possess high fire and electrocution risk and should not be being sold on platforms like Vinted.
These products are being unknowingly passed on to often vulnerable people looking for a cheaper alternative. Recalled products, which are banned by Vinted terms and conditions, should be removed from the website by Vinted in order to protect consumers.
Channel 4 also found prescription drugs being sold on vinted, a practice which is both dangerous and illegal. Getting prescription medications illegitimately cuts out the information on dosage and timeline for usage putting customers in danger of adverse reactions.
This practice is something which Vinted should closely monitor and the fact Channel 4 was able to find medication for sale is a cause for concern.
Lastly, many used makeup products are being sold via Vinted. The postings are clearly marked as used, something which again is against Vinted’s terms and conditions, but continue to be purchased and not removed by the website.
Customer safety
Vinted can also act as a social media site with direct messaging allowed between users. Messages are supposed to be filtered by Vinteds software to reduce harassment. However, Channel 4 spoke to a man who has received death threats after a sale went wrong.
BLANK had purchased a backpack off a fellow Vinted user. He was later alerted by Vinted that the sale was cancelled after the seller’s account was banned for suspicious activity.
However, the seller could still message blank and told him he had already posted the parcel and demanded to be paid. When blank refused the seller got increasingly angry telling blank “i know where you live” and threatening to show up at his house with a gun.
When alerting Vinted they said that there was nothing they could do and instead urged him to call the police.
Many women have also reported being sent unwanted sexualised messages and images through the Vinted platform.
This scary incident is just one of many. The broken regulations allow people to be harassed within Vinted’s infrastructure.
Stealing of pictures
On the darker side of Vinted is a website (now taken down) called VintedSluts with the tagline ‘“when you sell your clothes, but you want the attention.” This website stole images women have posted on Vinted, and posted them on this forum, trading pictures with other users. The posts are frequently accompanied by sexualised comments and even link users to the womens real vinted profile.
Women are innocuously posting photos of themselves in clothes they are trying to sell. The photos have then been taken and sexualised against their will. The link to their real profiles on this website posing a dangerous risk to these women. Giving access to their full name and personal details such as the region they live in.
One customer Lydia had her images stolen and put on this website. After contacting Vinted about this, she received no response. Lydia said vinted have a responsibility to protect their customers against abuses like this and that vinted is not doing enough. She commented: “It’s very disturbing. I had no idea this was happening, and it has made me feel extremely unsafe.”
Vinted eventually got the website taken down after Channel 4 approached them.
The issue is that Vinted as a platform has a responsibility to protect consumers from harassment and scamming. They need to improve their software and customer service to ensure the safety of customers comes first.