Vestiaire Collective is this a scam? Review and Customers Reviews

Specialists Vestiaire Collective act as intermediaries between people who sell clothes, shoes, jewelry, textiles, sports equipment and other products of famous brands and those who buy them. At the same time, each product, we are promised, is checked for brand compliance and condition. For this online store takes a commission from both parties to the transaction. However, the cost of things, even with this in mind, is more favorable than in regular stores.

Is everything really as interesting as it seems at first glance, and will we not be cheated by asking an inflated price for a product that is not worth it? The question on the agenda: is vestiairecollective.ru a scam or a serious service?

 

Why Vestiaire Collective?

Online store vestiairecollective.com has a number of advantages:

• Branded stuff is at least 30% cheaper than in the stores.
• In the product cards, in addition to the usual add to cart option, there is an option “Make an offer”, when you offer the seller your price for the selected item, and he agrees or refuses.
• It is possible to sell your own used item profitably.
• Each product is checked and quality assured. Representatives of the company ask each seller for detailed photos at the time of display and before shipment, and the buyer, if he finds discrepancies or defects, takes his own photos and can get a refund.
• A simple 72-hour return of an item you don’t like. Even if you just don’t like something. You get the proceeds from reselling it.
• Several dozens of product categories (more than 25,000 items appear every week).
• Express delivery in 24-48 hours.

What can I buy at Collective Wester?

The catalog of Vestiaire Collective includes a variety of products: clothing, shoes, bags and accessories, watches and jewelry, children’s, sports and designer goods, as well as products for animals.

Clothing

Coats, trench coats, jackets, dresses, knitwear, tops, skirts, shorts, pants, jeans, jumpsuits, swimwear and underwear for women. Sweatshirts, shirts, polo shirts, t-shirts, jeans, pants, swim trunks, shorts, suits and outerwear for men. There are several hundred thousand items in each category. The minimum price is 7.78 euros.

Shoes

Sports sneakers, slippers, sabots, sandals, high-heeled shoes for women and classic shoes for men, shoes with laces, rivets, with snaps, zippers and no buckles. Condition – from new (not yet worn) to good (no visible damage). Price range from 7.78 to 29,317 euros per pair.

Bags & Accessories

Designer bags, purses, suitcases, cases, belts, sunglasses, scarves, neckerchiefs and ties, hats, gloves, cufflinks and other accessories from €13 and a half. The products are scattered under several headings (Women, Men, Bags, Lifestyle).

Watches and Jewelry

Watches from 70 well-known brands (such as Versace, Apple, Casio, Cartier and Rolex) with automatic and manual winding and ceramic, fabric, leather, metal or plastic bracelets. As well as rings, bracelets, pendants, pendants, necklaces, earrings, cufflinks, tie clips and other precious metal jewelry or costume jewelry.

Baby Products

All the same as for adults, but in a different size range and with the addition of several new brands like Baudou and Ugg. Models for boys and girls of different ages. A total of over 70,000 open items.

Sporting Goods

Skateboarding and longboarding boards, sports (baseball, soccer, volleyball, rugby) balls and gloves, golf sets, sports equipment (ropes, weights, expanders, etc.), flippers, swimming laps and caps, masks and socks for diving, towels and bathing suits, rackets and much more.

Goods for animals

Collars, leashes, costumes, carriers (as baskets, bags, containers), cots, bowls and toys for pets. The cheapest item in this category will cost you 20 euros.

Design and Fashion

The most unusual and sometimes exclusive items: vintage photos, magazines, padlocks, guidebooks, suitcases, boxes, photo albums, stationery, cases, postcards, masks, etc. All in all, 2,000 plus items priced from 15.79 to 30,000 euros. In addition, you can look at the most popular brands.

 

How do I find the right product at vestiairecollective.com?

Search for the right products at vestiairecollective.com in the usual ways:

• Using the navigation bar (enter brand, product type).
• Through the catalog, which is divided into headings (categories) according to several principles – who things fit (women, men, children), what they are (clothes, shoes, accessories, etc.), what brand and retailer (regular or professional – the We love section). Novelties and products with express delivery are listed separately.
• Through filters (subcategories, designers, color, size, country of shipment, condition, composition/materials, etc.) in each of the headings

The list of found items can be sorted by newness, recommendations and price (ascending/descending). In addition, you can adjust the number of items displayed on the page to make it easier for you to navigate. Already open products can be saved by adding to favorites. And those that are not yet available can be placed in the wish list (notifications of their appearance will be sent to your personal cabinet or email, if this option is configured for you).

Product card

In the product cards of the online “flea market” you will find not only the photo gallery, characteristics and order/select buttons, but also control conditions (what procedures are carried out to make sure you get exactly what is shown), payment, delivery, return and support, information about the seller (and the possibility to go to his account), comments (reviews) of other buyers, recent views and recommendations. Conveniently, the owners of the resource have built an automatic translator from Google into the product pages to make it easier for users who don’t speak basic languages of the resource.

 

How do I order from Vestiaire Collective?

Order in Vestiaire Collective only through the cart site vestiairecollective.com. You either just add the product there with the Add to bag button in the item card, or send the seller your price offer using the form that opens with the Make an offer button.

How to register at vestiairecollective.com

Without registering on the site you can’t even see the product cards. To go through the procedure, click Sign up in the upper right corner of the resource and enter your e-mail in the window that appears, after which the Join the community button will become active.

Then we enter the password (we make it up ourselves), our name, country of residence, the category we are interested in (men’s/women’s clothing), and agree to the terms of the site. Then we are redirected to the main page, but already authorized. Another option is authorization through your Facebook account. In this case you have to sign in to your page and give the service access to the personal data published on it.

Personal account of the Wester Collective

Vestiaire Collective has two types of menus: the main menu (opened by clicking on the profile icon) and internal menus (See My Profile and See My Account, which are displayed when you click on the items of the same name in the main menu).

The main menu, in addition to the above, contains several other sections:

• My items for sale. The items you put up for sale.
• My orders. Order history with details.
• My wishlist. My wishlist (selected products not yet in stock – you will be notified when they arrive).
• Help Center. Go to the Help Center.

See my profile includes items:

• My stats. Statistics of purchases and sales, general information about you (country, date of adding to the network, status – an empty line where you enter your text).
• Selling. Selling History.
• News. News in your chosen topic – men’s or women’s products (who registered, who added new items, etc.).
• Looks. Upload a photo of your images in branded clothing.
• Favorites. Favorites.
• Wish list (duplicates the My wishlist section of the main menu).
• Network. A list of vendor profiles that you can subscribe to so that you receive notifications.
• My alerts. Notifications (they are also shown at the top with a bell icon).

See my account – a single tabbed page:

• Information. Data specified during registration, plus photo, date of birth, sizes, payment information, shipping addresses. And also settings of mail notifications, privacy, activation/deactivation of premium subscription (we’ll come back to it later) and account deletion.
• For sale (analog of the My items for sale section of the top menu).
• Alert (analog of My alerts from the See my profile menu).
• Orders $ Sales. Summary information on sales and purchases.
• Payment. The history of transactions with the possibility of downloading.
• Consignment. Status of shipments.
• Refer a friend. Registration in the referral program (we will also tell you about it a little later).

How to place an order?

After adding an item (or several items) to the cart using the Add to bag button, go to it (Proceed to Checkout). If you want to go back to the catalog, click Continue shopping.

Study the return policy (not always 100% compensation) and shipping costs (free for premium account holders) and move on (Next).

Specify the delivery address (if you start typing names in Latin letters, you will see prompts) and personal information about yourself (first name, last name, phone number). Choose the method of payment and go to the payment gateway (the site has a prepayment option), and then we are redirected to the confirmation page. Details of the issued order will be available in the personal cabinet (section My orders of the main menu) and will come to the e-mail specified during registration and in the application.

Additional features of the Vestiaire Collective

The additional features of vestiairecollective.com (in addition to the standard for an online store, albeit in a somewhat non-standard format, sale of goods) we have included the sale of personal branded items, newsletter, blog, online shipment tracking form, premium subscription and express delivery.

Selling personal brand goods

If you register on the site and click Sell Item, you can upload information and photos about the items you want to sell so that the administration will display them on the site. You need to meet a number of requirements – for example, the images must conform to the format (white background, several angles, clarity, etc.).

Newsletter and autosettings

At vestiairecollective.com you can set up a newsletter so that only certain emails are sent to your email address: news from the platform itself, its partners, price change notifications, etc. You can also make certain events that happen to you automatically appear on your Facebook page – for example, a sale, a comment or a like.

Blog

The site features several articles from so-called “fashion activists” who talk about sustainability in fashion and everyday life in an interview format. Of course, it can hardly be called a blog, but the materials are interesting, “tasty” and immersive.

Online shipment tracking

To find out where your package is, just open the form under the link Order tracking in the bottom menu of the Internet resource or go to the section Orders & Sales in the menu of your personal account called See my account. And then specify the shipment number. The system will display the current data.

Express Delivery

Assumes that you will have the product 48 hours after shipment. All other features (quality control, photos before and on arrival) are retained. Express sends items whose sellers are closest to you. To select the one that suits you, you need to set your country of residence in the settings of the site and go to Express Delivery section of the top menu.

Premium Subscription

This option can be useful for regular users of the service. It opens up two additional options:

• Reservation of the selected item for 30 minutes before purchase. During this time, other users will not be able to “steal” it “from under your nose”. This is especially nice if we’re talking about a particularly profitable order, but the issue of payment takes time.
• Free shipping. And no matter what region you’re in.

Subscriptions are paid in GBP and cost 8 GBP for 1 month, 22 GBP for 3 months (i.e. 7.33 GBP/month), 41 GBP for 6 months and 72 GBP for a year. To apply, you need to fill out the form on the relevant page of the website.

 

Mobile application

The online store is represented not only by a web version, but also by a downloadable mobile app for Android (version 5.0 and up) and iOS (no older than 11.0) devices.

• Their functionality is the same:
• Selection and purchase of authentic, used but well-preserved products.
• Sale of similar products owned by you.
• Transactions.
• Delivery.
• Create and manage your personal account.
• Bonus Activation.

Owners of Android smartphones rated the software at 3.5 out of 5, “apple” – at 4.7/5. The main problem identified by the users is that it “crashes” when launching or placing an order.

 

Payment and delivery to Wester Collective

The Vestiaire Collective only supports 2 payment methods:

• By bank cards (VISA, MasterCard, Cartes Bancaires, American Express).
• System PayPal.

You must transfer the funds before sending the order (prepayment 100%). In this case the payment is made in a foreign currency, so you will have to pay a conversion fee.

If the item is in stock at Vestiaire Collective, it should be handed over to the courier/transport company within 48 hours. If not, the seller sends it to the service representatives within a week, after which, again, no more than 48 hours should pass before it is sent to the buyer.

How do I pay for my order at vestiairecollective.com?

At the end of the online checkout on the site you proceed to its payment (Pay button). Depending on the payment option you choose, it may be a bank gateway or PayPal page (you authorize in your account and fill out the form to generate an invoice). All that remains is to confirm the payment.

Ways to deliver Vestiaire Collective

Delivery of orders made at Vestiaire Collective is made by courier services and shipping companies. Their names are not voiced – only in one of the reviews we saw a mention of DHL as the carrier of the supplier. Timing depends on the type of delivery, the region of the recipient (client) and the sender (seller):

• Express delivery (when the seller lives in the same country as the customer) takes 24 to 48 hours.
• Standard delivery is up to 15 business days.

Most of the time, you don’t have to reimburse customs costs (they are included in the price list), but some independent agencies may require them from you. The only way to get your order shipped for free is if you have a paid premium subscription (which we talked about above).

Wester Collective’s return policy

Vestiaire Collective makes it very easy to return an item: to do so, open My Account menu, select Orders and Sales, expand the description of the corresponding order and click Return the Item to request a courier visit. If you don’t want to pay a refund fee, you must process everything within 72 hours of receiving the package. Refunds, minus shipping, are issued if you manage to send it back by the fourth to fourteenth day.

Items that do not fit the description are returned to the seller. Those that do not fit your needs are resold. Accordingly, in the first case you will receive compensation after the return delivery, and in the second – after reselling this product to another customer of the service.

 

Vestiaire Collective bonuses

Bonus Service vestiairecollective.com offers a little bit: it’s the traditional online seller format, discount promo codes, offer of the day, and an affiliate CPA program. Let’s talk about each of the formats separately.

Discount promo codes

Certain catalog items are offered by sellers at a discount – for them there are promo codes that are activated in the cart. Most often a certain condition has to be met: to purchase several items, to place an order for a given amount, etc. Sometimes discount coupons are provided by the owners of the service as well.

Offer of the day

On the site you will see promotional items if you click on the appropriate banner on the home page. The duration of the promotion is limited, basically the offer changes every day. So, at the moment these are such brands as Adidas x Raf Simons, Amiri, Canada Goose, Ganni, Jordan and Lacoste with discounts up to 70%.

Sale

Like any other online marketplace, vestiairecollective.com has ongoing sales.

Affiliate Program

Previously, Vestiairecollective.com was part of the CPA network Admitad and offered its partners a monetary reward for attracting new clients to the online store. The partner here was provided with promotional materials (banners, product showcases, etc.) with a link to the site, which he placed on his own web resources. Everyone who clicked on the link was considered a subscriber of the partner. The latter received 3% from the amount of paid orders. The statistics were traditionally tracked through a personal account.

 

Complaints against the Wester Collective

vestiairecollective.com receives a lot of criticism. Among the reasons for complaints are the recognition of quality goods, according to users, as non-compliant (and, accordingly, the refusal to pay after receiving them by the buyer), problems with support (when customer questions are not resolved for a long time), and the lack of responsibility on the part of the site for bringing the transaction to the final result.

There are also positive reviews, but in smaller numbers (about 25% of the total mass, if we take into account only serious international reviews). Their authors write that they are satisfied with their purchases (quality original products, favorable price) and with the work of the support team.

If there are reviews about Vestiaire Collective’s online store, we’ll be sure to post on social media. Sign up so you don’t miss anything!

Please keep yourself informed about news and complaints. We copy the most valuable information to social networks, so please sign up!

 

Supervisory authorities

Vestiairecollective.com is owned by the company of the same name, Vestiaire Collective SA (analogous to OAO), registered in Paris under number 517465225. This is confirmed by data from the public registry of the Infrogrette jurisdiction. Distance selling through a general (public) catalog is listed as the main activity. All disputes relating to the activities of Vestiaire Collective SA are resolved primarily under French law, although you are entitled to protect your interests on the basis of local law – it is stated in paragraph 11 of the User Agreement service. It follows that you can rely on the requirements of the Federal Law “On Protection of Consumer Rights”, regulated by Rospotrebnadzor.

• Check the legal information and details of Vestiaire Collective SA in the Infogrette registry

Vestiaire Collective User Agreement

The vestiairecollective.com User Agreement (Terms of Use of the Web Site) defines the rules of working with the site, as well as the rights and obligations of the user and the administration in relation to each other. Let’s look at some of the wording. So, among other things, paragraph 2 states that only adult persons who have the legal capacity to enter into a contract can register with the service.

It also states your obligation to compensate the company for any losses it suffers if a third party gains access to your account.

The site only provides intermediary services between the buyer and the seller. And its owners are not responsible for possible losses and damages incurred by you as a result of the actions of other users (point 4).

Vestiaire Collective also does not guarantee the accuracy and correctness of descriptions, photos and other parameters of goods. All of the above is the sole responsibility of the user who provided the information about the item (clause 5.2).

Offensive, vulgar, pornographic, obscene, indecent, discriminatory, defamatory, rude and any other content that offends or disturbs the audience is prohibited (clause 9).

Your account may be temporarily or permanently blocked if there are complaints about you or the items you have posted, or if you have posted defective or inappropriate items. A special algorithm is used to detect violations (the same ninth point).

The provider does not undertake to provide uninterrupted access to the site either. Although it promises that it will try to do so. However, it can be suspended at any time and without prior notice. For example, to solve technical problems. And if all this will not have a significant adverse effect on the performance of obligations to you, your approval of the administration is not required (paragraph 10).

Customer Service vestiairecollective.com

There is no direct communication with the company by phone or online chat. To contact the customer support service, you can use:

• Through the feedback form in each of the product cards.
• By e-mail – [email protected] (claims), [email protected] (partnerships).
• Vestiaire Collective’s official Twitter, Instagram and Facebook communities.
• In physical sales offices in London, Paris and New York.

Most questions are answered in the FAQ (Support Center).

 

Is the Vestiaire Collective a scam?

Vestiaire Collective belongs to an officially registered company. The policy of the resource states that the client has the right to protect his interests, taking into account the laws of his country. So it’s easier to deal with the supplier. In addition, there is a warranty on all items and a refund within 72 hours, free of commissions and deductions, even if you subjectively didn’t like something.

But the interests of the sellers, judging by the comments on serious feedback sites, are not so fiercely respected. Many Internet users tell us that quality products that they offered (and complied with all the conditions) were returned, destroyed, fined, and labeled as non-compliant. Of course, you can’t say Vestiaier Collective is a scam. Still, there are points to consider if you are going to sign up for the service.

 

Conclusion

Vestiaier CollectiveIt seems to be oriented more towards buyers than sellers: lower prices, strict requirements for items added to the catalog, bureaucratic (complicated) procedures for submitting an order for shipping (when you have to take lots of photos and fill out a number of fields), availability of express delivery in 24-48 hours, the “Make an offer” option (when the buyer sets his price and the seller can agree or disagree), etc. And yet the resource is distinguished by a number of inconveniences, equally unpleasant for both sellers and buyers: no direct communication with the company (no phone, no online consultant) and support problems (if you believe the numerous reviews) and lack of responsibility for user actions, enshrined in the policy of the resource.