Insults, abuse, and violence on Vinted

Vinted Problems
1

Hello everyone!

I’m new to the platform, although I’ve already read many posts here, but I didn’t think I’d ever have to share my own personal experience.

For several months now, I’ve noticed an increase in people using insults, abuse, and other forms of easy violence on Vinted, and it’s starting to seriously exasperate me.

Especially since Vinted, let’s be frank, doesn’t do much with reports other than protect the aggressors.

Today, I received this message (I don’t know if it’s allowed to share the usernames of these individuals) on Vinted:

« Wesh, the nerve (…) don’t come acting like a tramp for a minute, please, you filthy whore. »

It seems to me that there is no justification for this type of language, even less so on a resale platform for individuals. Personally, I’m not on this site to be gratuitously attacked, insulted, or abused because I was properly raised and don’t have anything else to do with my life.

Since when is it permissible for someone to call a stranger a « filthy whore »?

What shocks me almost as much as the message itself is the reaction of the platforms. I have already reported several insults of this type in the past, and I often get the impression that nothing happens. The perpetrators continue to use the service calmly, while the victims simply have to accept this verbal abuse.

By constantly trivializing these kinds of remarks, we end up considering them part of everyday internet life. However, an insult is still an insult, whether it’s said on the street or behind a screen.

I am, of course, taking all the necessary steps to ensure my reports have an impact, but the lack of moderation when it is justified does not seem normal to me at all.

I would be curious to know if other Vinted users have experienced the same thing. Have you ever received insults after putting an item up for sale? Have your reports had any effect?

2

block the account and move on

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3

Thank you for the valuable advice, but that’s not what I’m asking for.

4

Hello

Welcome to the forum!
It is indeed very unpleasant and inappropriate to receive this kind of message. Unfortunately, Vinted’s moderation is carried out by bots… it is often not very effective.
However, I second the advice already given: it is better to block the senders to have some peace. (once the report has been made to Vinted.)

Good luck

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5

Hello ,

Already made reports as well, Vinted couldn’t care less. So now, same here, I block and that’s it :frowning:

Often this type of insult happens when you refuse a too-low offer, so now when that happens, I don’t even reply anymore.

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6

Thank you for your feedback.

I still find it sad to have to conform to this type of behavior when it should be severely punished.

Not too long ago, in a similar case, Vinted threatened me. While I was once again the victim of an insulting and inappropriate comment.

Frankly, I don’t even understand how they can manage customer service properly while protecting harassers like this.

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7

they don’t manage anything, their customer service is managed mainly by an AI… it’s always automatic responses :frowning:
I completely agree and that’s not normal!

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8

I post photos of myself wearing clothes, and I’ve reported sexual harassment multiple times (comments about my body, ambiguous remarks, etc.). I think the accounts received some kind of warning. The accounts are still active.

I even received the exact same message after my account was reactivated. A guy in a hurry asked me for additional photos of ALL my pants, supposedly to create a bundle (or to share them on some obscure forum).

I’ve come to the same conclusion: reporting is useless.

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9

Personally, in 3 years of Vinted as a pro, I have never received the slightest degrading, insulting or abusive remark. I have practically no interaction with people, they occasionally ask me for measurements, but mostly it’s price requests, or requests for quick shipping, and that’s it. I’ve had disagreements with some customers a few times, but the most « abusive » words I’ve received are more like « Bad faith » or « Gall », « Scammer » at most.

What do you sell? What are your interactions with people?

Even if it doesn’t justify such exchanges in any way, do you overprice your items a lot, to the point of « offending » some people?

In my experience, the ones I hate the most are Vinted themselves, not their users.

10

I’m selling a whole bunch of things at different prices.

I’m not exaggerating on the prices because I always take the time to estimate each of my products based on their initial market value and to make hyper-detailed descriptions. And all this takes a lot of time when I’m not a professional. So I think I’m being more than fair.

When I get offers, I accept them as much as I refuse them.

It’s not the prices that cause this kind of drift, but the offers I refuse in proportion. When someone makes me an offer almost half cheaper on a unique and collector’s item, I find it becomes sheer provocation. To which I don’t respond anymore because of it, except that some insist and when you politely explain that the price is firm after two or three same proposals from the same person, that’s often when the tone rises.

On the same item that is at the origin of my post, I was insulted by a German a few weeks ago, particularly about my profile picture. After a while, I’m willing to accept it, but I’m not going to consent to attract all the possible and imaginable crackpots on the platform ad vitam aeternam.

In any case, as stated in your message, nothing explains such behavior and being inveighed against in this way. It’s not the Vinted jungle either, people need to calm down.

11

Personally, my accounts are never « personalized. » I have generic, AI-generated profile pictures. My item photos are not worn, all flat lays, on neutral backgrounds.

The offers I receive are all processed automatically by Clemz, with a neutral message and a counter-offer, regardless of the initial offer.

I believe that in an online sales approach, personalizing the experience on a site like Vinted, such as having a Facebook or Instagram-like profile picture, and chatting with people is counterproductive. Vinted is no longer what it was in 2012, the soul of the classified ad between individuals with human interaction is largely gone. I’m not saying it’s nonexistent, but I think it’s no longer the soul of the platform.

If I can just give a personal opinion, being outraged by offers at -40% makes no sense. That’s the point of the platform, to negotiate. The second-hand market is centered around negotiation. If some people make offers at -40% without thinking, it’s simply because it works. To feel outraged by this is to attach too much importance to the items you sell. The price is no longer the value of the item, but a reflection of your ego and the personal investment you’ve put into it. Receiving an offer at -40% then becomes an insult to you, and I think that’s looking at the problem the wrong way. The item has an intrinsic value, regardless of the work you’ve put into it. Ultimately, the value of an item is never more than what people are willing to pay for it, regardless of the personal investment you had to put in to make the item available as it is.

I always overprice by 20% to have room for negotiation. My experience tells me that a 20% discount is the sweet spot that sells the most.

Finally, I don’t think you can ever eliminate this kind of behavior. Whatever the platform, toxicity is omnipresent on the internet, that’s just how it is. You can try to fight it, but I think an approach that allows you to simply divert it from your activity seems like a more coherent and effective strategy. Neutral profile, neutral photos, neutral responses, without taking sides, without judgment, and above all, without personal attachment. If the goal of your Vinted

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12

The same insults, I take them with a laugh and wish them all the best, I don’t give a damn about their yelling nicely and that makes them even crazier than getting angry.

Then block and move on.

13

Precisely, mine too :slight_smile:

This is what earned me an insult like « you’re too ugly to show yourself », we can’t stop progress.

I also never wear the clothes, I take clean photos with a neutral background, I’m not a novice… I’ve been selling since 2017.

I don’t use Clemz and I don’t « chat » with people either.

In fact, I asked for feedback, and not really to be judged in turn on what I do or don’t do, which in any case will never justify gratuitously assaulting someone.

Precisely, if I don’t have to be « outraged » by an offer of « -40% », the person on the other side of their screen doesn’t have to be outraged that I refused it. That’s the crux of the issue, which seems not to have been understood. Because the problem isn’t that I took an offer badly or not, but the fact that I refused it.

Moreover, sorry, but I am far from being the only one to adopt the same codes and to be astonished at being gratuitously insulted, but apparently it is legitimate and acceptable for some.

I’m not going to debate about the ego because you are clearly going way off track regarding the origin of my post and I find that personal considerations, when one doesn’t know the other at all, are useless.

I thank you nevertheless for your contribution :slight_smile:

14

I think there’s a slight misunderstanding.

No one is saying that an insult is justified. On that, I think everyone agrees.

I’m not trying to justify insults, but to understand why, in your case, they seem to come up regularly while other sellers almost never encounter this problem.

Where I find the discussion gets stuck is that we don’t know the complete exchanges. You show the insulting message, but not the messages that precede it. It’s not to know « who is right », but because it’s precisely in those messages that the key to the escalation might be found.

If you simply reply « firm price, thank you » and the person insults you, then your testimony effectively shows a Vinted moderation problem.

If, on the other hand, the discussion becomes tense before the insult, then it’s likely that very neutral communication would make more sense, even if that obviously doesn’t make the insult acceptable.

Ultimately, I think we agree on one essential point: insults have no place on Vinted. Where we diverge is on their origin: you see it mainly as a moderation problem and individual behaviors; I think rather that part of these situations can be avoided by the way we conduct exchanges. Without the full context of the conversations, it’s difficult to have an objective opinion.

I may have misunderstood the objective of your post. If it was primarily to gather testimonials and denounce the fact that insults have no place on Vinted, then I think we all agree on that. On the other hand, if there is a debate to be had, it seems to me that it concerns rather the way in which these situations arise and what we can do, individually, to reduce their frequency. It is in this perspective that I was trying to analyze the situation, not to judge you.

You say « In fact, I asked for feedback, and not really to be judged… »

And I reply with my experience: « I never have this problem, this is how I operate. » Then, I draw hypotheses. If you consider this as a judgment, it is absolutely not the case. Rather an attempt to explain the difference between our experiences.

I think we simply have different expectations for this discussion. You seem to be mainly looking to share an observation and denounce a moderation problem, which is entirely legitimate. On my side, when someone presents a problem, my reflex is to try to understand its causes and see if there are levers to reduce its probability. This is not a way to minimize insults or justify them; it’s simply a different approach to the discussion.

15

Okay, very good :slightly_smiling_face: Thank you anyway for all your explanations, your time too, and your very gentle way of explaining things, I appreciate it. Indeed, I didn’t provide more context because I didn’t know if screenshots were allowed, and in any

16

Hello

Unfortunately, I think some are irrecoverable, they literally « shit » on their lives and decide to project their frustration onto others.

Don’t try to understand them, it’s a waste of time and energy!

To give you an example, I’ve been harassed for several months by an Italian man. He reports all the items I list (so I get my account blocked into the bargain). No matter how much I block his profile, he comes back with other accounts, taunting me with « Well, you’re back, » « It’s been a while, » etc., always with a remark about the French, saying we’re dirty, losers, etc. (in much less delicate terms).

He’s clever; it’s never insults, or he deliberately misspells a swear word so the bot doesn’t detect the insult; e.g., marde=merde.

I searched through my past transactions and interactions, telling myself I must have dealt with him before, but it was impossible to know the origin of the problem. It seems completely gratuitous.

I think he must have been dumped by his French ex!

You’ll never be able to avoid the nutcases; there are literally them everywhere. My biggest frustration is that Vinted or others do nothing, even though they’re supposed to maintain a framework of security and kindness on their platform. I’ve written to them, but nothing has ever been done against him and his multiple accounts. On the other hand, my account is constantly restricted for bulk commercial sales; I dared to post 2 ads, and now I have to sell 1 product per month. Because yes, even if you block them, these cockroaches can still report you.

To conclude, what I want to say, especially as a woman, and this is also true in real life, is that no matter what you do (or don’t do), no matter what you say (or don’t say), for some people there will always be grounds for criticism or insult. The problem is them, certainly not you.

Courage​:heart:

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But sometimes you just need to refuse an offer to get insulted (I even received a death threat), without even needing to negotiate.

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18

Yep, quite shocking. But it might also explain why I never received one. I never refuse an offer bluntly.

I refuse, I make a counter-offer, and I add a nice message.

« Thank you for the offer, I can’t go further than -20% on this item. I hope that will suit you! :blush: »

In the worst-case scenario, I get a « seen », and that’s it.

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19

You are not alone. For most people (individuals), Vinted should be a pleasant experience. We are not in a factory. We often sell clothes (or other items, but less so) for 10% of the original price. It should be a nice and, at the minimum, courteous moment. Or just polite (via Vinted’s automated messages like « Hi, I’m X, here’s my offer ») without being obliged to chat. Vinted has provided standard polite phrases. There are people who don’t like to talk, are discreet, shy, or indifferent. You have the right to think what you want, how you want. To be bothered by « lowball » offers or to find it normal. If you want to tell someone that their offer is disrespectful, you have the right to do so. Respectfully. But no one has the right to insult or discriminate. That is non-negotiable!

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Oh, I also received the threat of *. With the blessing of Vinted, who found that it didn’t break the rules. The dirty p* I also got treated to. It didn’t break the rules either. This platform drives you crazy

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