Online C2C pre-loved marketplace Vinted angers sellers over Royal Mail postage option change

Vinted, a European online marketplace for secondhand items, has upset sellers over delivery options on its platform for the second time in as many months.

It finds itself once again facing backlash on social media, this time for a controversial change involving the firm’s Royal Mail postage option.

Sellers on the platform have expressed frustration after discovering that this is now permanently enabled, with no ability to turn it off. This means that buyers are free to select Royal Mail as the delivery method, even when sellers would prefer not to use it.

The move has caused widespread dissatisfaction among Vinted's seller community, many of whom have taken to social media sites like TikTok to voice their concerns. 

The issue stems from Vinted's shipping settings, where sellers once had the flexibility to choose which couriers were available for buyers to select. By permanently enabling Royal Mail, sellers feel that their autonomy has been reduced, potentially complicating their selling process. 

Lisa’s £1 challenge on TikTok, a prominent TikToker, said: "Seriously, what is wrong with them? I cannot believe this. Someone's been in my inbox asking me the same question: the Royal Mail option for postage has been switched off - like, you can't turn it on and off. It's what I mean, it's permanently on!”

“How did Vinted not get the message the last time they messed about with the postage options? I'm just beyond. I can't cope, like, I cannot cope with these people. What are you doing, Vinted? How did you not learn?”

“Like, I want to scream and shout at them. How can you not learn from your past mistake? It was such a huge mistake that you made, mucking about with the postage options when we couldn't turn off the options that we wanted to turn on and off. Everybody was talking about it - it was in all the papers, it was everywhere, it was on the news.”

She added: "Vinted, listen, listen, Vinted! We want to be able to turn on and off the options that we want to choose, not the one you want to choose. There are reasons for that. Some of us can't get to these places, that's why!”

“And the trouble is, when people then buy and choose their option, it's not easy to say, 'Oh, I can't send it to there.' It's not easy to cancel it. Quite often, when you cancel, you've then lost that sale because people can't be bothered to rebuy - it’s too much of a faff. Vinted, sort your life out."

Vinted did not respond to our request for comment.

Testing times

The latest controversy closely follows on from an alteration of the company’s settings in August that meant sellers could no longer deactivate specific postage options.

Before this, the flexibility existed to select preferred postage options when listing an item for sale. For instance, they could choose to avoid using Yodel and opt for InPost and Royal Mail instead.

The change meant that the choice of postage provider was solely at the buyer's discretion, a shift that caused significant discontent among the seller community.

Vinted quickly abandoned this update, stating: "We regularly test and trial different things to evolve Vinted.”

"Recently, we made some changes which meant some of our members had a different experience with managing their shipping options.”

"We heard the feedback and confirm the shipping options have returned to their previous settings, there are no further actions needed from the members."