u/gokuhiphop

I'm a Pro user and I'm genuinely tired of being restricted/banned by Vinted. It hadn't happened for a while, though I had noticed I was shadowbanned, and today 11 more listings were removed for "poor quality." It's been 6 months since I opened my business — for the first 3 months they wouldn't let me convert to Pro. As soon as I became Pro, within 24/48 hours of having redone all the photos and reuploaded everything, I got banned again. Then about 1-2 weeks of peace, and then out of nowhere they ban me again — they never reply before 1-2 days. As soon as I get unbanned, not even 24 hours later, and after redoing all the listings from scratch, banned again — and so on in a loop for about 10-15 days, during which I also had €50-60 worth of boosts that were never delivered and that I never used. Despite Vinted clearly stating that boosts aren't refunded/delivered if you violate the guidelines, support admitted all the bans were erroneous — so I didn't violate anything, meaning I'm entitled to those refunds. But of course that's not how it works, because they're only good at writing terms and conditions/guidelines and so on, while being the first ones not to respect them. I know what can and can't be posted on Vinted, what risks getting you blocked, and I avoid posting that stuff to prevent all this — but Vinted always finds a way to bust your balls anyway.

Now I have plenty of evidence, including of buyers who were prevented by the platform from purchasing. I have proof that in 6 months Vinted has never given me a single human response, and recently I asked about the famous €50-60 in boosts they owed me from the month before (I haven't done any boosts since, because even with 10 active boosts it sometimes did nothing, sometimes I paid for international ones and got exclusively national engagement — I even have proof with a graph showing that from the day I paid, results literally tanked, the opposite effect of a paid boost). In this ticket, Vinted support initially claimed my restrictions had been removed and everything was fine (I had no restrictions — I'd opened that ticket about the refund from the previous month that they'd never answered). So I kept sending evidence and telling them that wasn't a relevant answer. Then they replied saying they'd checked my 3/7-day boost and it was active successfully (as I said, I was referring to the boosts from 1-2 months earlier and hadn't done any boosts since). Then, after yet another proof of the nonsense they were saying, I sent further evidence and explained everything again from scratch in the same ticket, and they said they'd refunded everything and that I just needed to go to the boost checkout and I wouldn't have to pay anything — and guess what, more nonsense. But in a single ticket they gave me so much evidence to use against them, I just don't know how to proceed. Nobody protects you.

I called 112, they told me to call 113, who redirected me back to 112, who redirected me to the postal police, who redirected me to the questura and to the number for filing complaints — concluding that this isn't a criminal matter, just a contractual one. Given everything they've done, I really don't believe not even one criminal offense has occurred.

I also want to point out that in these 6 months, the first 4 I was unable to sell at all; the following ones I was in almost permanent shadowban with a drastic drop in sales; unable to do boosts because boost = ban. At 19 years old I opened a business only to find myself nearly in debt — on top of everything, because of an accountant who gave me wrong prices: told me opening costs would be €200-300, ended up being almost €800; told me contributions would be -50% for the first 3-5 years, ended up being -35%, so €1000+ more per year to pay (€700-800 every 3 months) + accountant fees, supposedly €50/month, which once I'd opened turned out to be €60-70 with VAT, and within two months the accountant sent me a €380 bookkeeping bill. Nobody protects you, everybody gives you wrong information, and I have to keep going. I opened a few months ago and I don't know if I'll have to close and end up owing money I can't pay because of being blocked by everyone — even consumer agencies tell you "you're not a consumer, there's nothing you can do." Nobody helps you, or at least tells you how to proceed.

I'd like to say we're in a shitty country here in Italy, but I think by now the situation is like this everywhere. "Us young people don't want to work" — sure, what a fucking great excuse — traditional jobs pay you €500 a month if you're lucky for more than 8 hours a day, but yeah, it's us young people who don't want to work. That said, if anyone's in my same situation and wants to talk with me or help me in my venture, feel free to reach out. If you made it this far, thanks in advance.