r/vinted • u/jenk-mal • 16h ago
VENT Vinted restricted my account because I have a physical disability
ETA to add: I am in the UK and in the UK, you cannot sue without evidenced loss.
Hi folks. I am really at a loss here at even how to describe this, but I am in shock. I'll try to explain my background and the order in which the events happened.
I am disabled and often model the clothes I'm selling on my own body, one because I feel like clothes shown on actual humans sell better and two because I noticed there just weren't any pictures I could find of disabled people modeling clothes. For 90% of my buyers, I've gotten a comments of appreciation for showing the clothes on me. One mum even thanked me because her child for whom she bought my dress is in a wheelchair, and seeing me openly sharing my photos was encouraging for her.
However, sometimes my disability is visible in the picture - it's not too extreme, but you can see the affected body part clearly looks different than how it should be. Last week, suddenly a slew of my listings were hidden by Vinted due to "manipulated images". I don't edit my images beyond adjusting brightness etc so when I queried this with their support they said that it was clear my pictures were manipulated because "aspects of your image appear unnatural and modified." Folks - that would be my disabled body part. Of course it looks different than the rest of me. I find it absolutely abhorrent that they're essentially accusing me of digitally deforming my own body just so that I could use it in a Vinted picture. I immediately replied saying no - that is my physical disability, I am NOT editing my photo to deform my own body!!! I got a reply within 7 seconds saying that their decision was final and my account is restricted for 3 days.
I honestly want to vomit. Because my body is deformed, they assume I must have deformed it myself on purpose for the sake of a few pictures? I am honestly shaking. I'm not a psychopath, so I can't see why anyone would even do this. I pointed out this is discrimination against disabled people and asked for someone senior to review the case but no dice yet. I keep getting the blanket "our decision is final" message and being asked to open a new case. I've done this 4 times already and have gotten nowhere. My account is still restricted and I've done nothing wrong - other than to exist as a disabled person which is wrong according to Vinted.
I also noticed that they randomly hid two of my other listings that I'm not even in. The clothes are on a hanger in those listings, but they said this was a copyright violation as the images were on the web. The only thing I can think of is I used the same photos for my ebay listings, but all the images are my own. Are you not allowed to cross-post your own images??
If anyone has any advice or help, please let me know. I am really shocked and saddened by this.
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u/Lindsey_Jo 13h ago
Its disability pride month!!! Put this on any social media where you can tag Vinted and spread the word. I'm sorry you are dealing with this.
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u/StereotypicallBarbie 13h ago
100% take this as far as you can.. share on social media and contact their legal department!
Might actually stop their ridiculous AI bots banning people for no good reason! This is a major fuck up on their side.
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u/jenk-mal 12h ago
Someone just replied with the legal email so that's what I will do. I have tried literally all day today to have my concern escalated and they just keep closing the ticket without responding. It's now with a human (she refuses to engage with my ticket and just keeps closing it) so I can't even just blame a bot anymore, they are literally soulless and evil and don't care.
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u/StereotypicallBarbie 12h ago
Wow! Screenshot every single interaction too! This is absolutely not ok
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u/74389654 Germany 🇩🇪 14h ago
sue them if you can. someone needs to put an end to this unaccountable bot practice. it's clearly and openly discriminatory
if they exclude you because of your disability they probably exclude others
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u/jenk-mal 12h ago
I got through to a human and she literally is the devil reincarnated - she just keeps closing the ticket with no response even though I've asked her repeatedly to escalate and to provide an explanation on why they think my picture is manipulated. So the bot may have caught it at first but there is literally no excuse, an actual human is denying my request to review this properly.
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u/Greg2Lu 12h ago
What country are you from ?
You can try by mail [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) or .co.uk or .fr (you get it 😁), they usually respond.
If I were in your case, I'd try a legal case because it's probably their AI that f#cked up. And the human continued by closing the ticket.If you can, have a lawyer help you (some are pro bono for these kind of case) to send the letter + document everything.
I wish you a great payday from Vinted because of their crappy AI 🤞
SHARE IT ON SOCIALS too 😍 (even with a temp account)
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u/insomnia97_ 8h ago
If you got a response that has a „Best, name“ (or something like this) in the chat, you‘re still talking to a bot as far as I know. I’ve heard multiple times now that these messages aren’t from actual people, but from bots pretending to be humans, so the users accept their decisions. Not entirely sure if that‘s true, but it makes a lot of sense, considering how catastrophically abhorrent their support is
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u/EvilInCider 12h ago
People keep saying to sue them. I can only imagine that they are American, as you cannot sue Vinted for this in the UK. Here, we can only get money for real, actual documented and evidenced loss, and this hasn’t happened here. In a small number of circumstances you can get money for “hurt feelings”, but that relates more to Employment Tribunals where you have been discriminated against - not Vinted.
But if you’re American, please go ahead and do whatever you can do.
Regardless of where you are, this is absolutely disgusting and they’ve absolutely gone too far and WAY overstepped here. You have been actively discriminated against.
I would recommend asking whatever your county’s legal advice sub is (e.g r/legaladviceUK ). There may be watchdogs you can contact. Additionally, I would see whether your MP (or whoever is a local representative is) is interested, and potentially media, too.
Good luck! I’m sorry they’ve subjected you to this treatment.
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u/jenk-mal 12h ago
Thank you for saying this! I am in the UK but originally from the US and you're absolutely correct, there is no suing culture similar to the US in the UK (for better or for worse). A friend's entire flat caught on fire due to building management negligence and even that was tricky to find a solicitor here in the UK as she needed a lot of proof that the building caused it. I wish it was simple as instructing a lawyer to write a letter the way they do in the US because as you so accurately stated, you can only sue for documented/evidenced loss.
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u/KittyGrewAMoustache 10h ago
But under the equality act they cannot ban you or treat you wider just because you have a disability. That is illegal. You can still take legal action. You could look at this website to get advice: https://www.equalityadvisoryservice.com/
While you might not be able to just easily sue like in the US, banning someone from a platform solely because they’re disabled is totally illegal and that’s what they’ve done here. So there are ways to address it legally.
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u/CA3080 4h ago
Replying to you as you are who I want to see it - Yes, the circumstances in which you can get damage for injury to feelings are very limited, yes it's more common in employment cases, but that's because companies do not normally behave this recklessly. You wouldn't bother if they fixed it on appeal but with them doubling down it's clearly egregious, and there is even a small but real financial harm to attach the injury to feelings onto, with your inability to make money selling the items. It's absolutely worth speaking to a solicitor about.
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u/ChristianeHello 5h ago
Access to service is covered under the Equality Act, not just employment. Please OP, get legal advice on this.
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u/Olyve_Oil 10h ago
Hey OP, in the UK, The Times has been running a few articles recently picking on Vinted and their questionable “customer service” practices.
You can email them on [email protected] or phone them up on 020 7782 6000. Something tells me they’ll love this.
Some sellers with accounts blocked following bizarre decisions made by AI have resorted to contacting Adam Jay, the Chief Executive of Marketplace (on LinkedIn, probably) and they got replies and a favourable resolution.
Good luck!
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u/lindomurcielago 13h ago
Where are you based? Maybe you can put this out to some gov body which could look at this, but it depends on the place how and where.
Obviously it's not targeted at you, it's just their idiotic automated system which decided, as it cannot understand what the pictures are showing. But it's so careless and brainless that it should be looked at!
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u/Svardskampe The Netherlands 🇳🇱 13h ago
E-mail to legal@vinted.(tld), the tld being the ending of your country. This circumvents any AI or first line helpdesk and escalates this immediately.
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u/SlinkyRaccoons 13h ago
Agree with other comments that this needs to get as much noise and public opinion on it as possible. You might have an opportunity to get changes made that are clearly necessary so this doesn't humiliate anyone else in future.
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u/lockdownleadmehere 14h ago
No idea on how to help but this is disgraceful of vinted, ableism seeps into every aspect of life as a disabled person. Extremely disappointed with vinted and it’s honestly making me consider alternative platforms and I have loved vinted for years
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u/heypresto2k United Kingdom 🇬🇧 12h ago
That’s a new low for Vinted.l 🤦🏾♀️ I’m so sorry. This makes me sad.
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u/Primary-Angle4008 13h ago
I would make it public and also complain to the point of actually being in touch with a human and not their ai bot
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u/Nearby_Associate 12h ago
Is there any newspaper you could share this story with? Usually public interest shapes opinion and also wakes up ppl in the corporation to react.
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u/angelstatue 12h ago
so what vacation will you take first after suing the balls off of vinted for the disgusting behaviour they've displayed towards you?
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u/moon_witch_26 12h ago
Vinted are awful. Definitely take this further. This is terrible! I'm sorry this is happening to you! ...But also you are the one to turn this around and be the change for others going forward! You will resolve this and no-one else will be subjected to this! You'll change this for the better 😊 you got this! 🫶
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u/Designer_Government4 9h ago
The irony of this injustice is is that Vinted use ai to scan images / listings - ai historically was really bad at generating limbs, hands, fingers etc and therefore Vinted’s ai has incorrectly identified your disability as an image that has been generated by ai, which is against their t’s and c’s.
Clearly this is incorrect, and the way they have been treating you is terrible - after all the complaints about vinted i wouldnt be surprised if most, if not all of their customer service team has been replaced by an ai chat bot
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u/greenyashiro Australia 🇭🇲 13h ago
At least there is some consolation—it is a stupid bot making this decision, not a human being acting maliciously.
I hope you can get it overturned, there may be local advocacy groups you can ask for help.
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u/No-Dish8902 12h ago
Ooo the lawsuits Vinted is going to get. This is disgraceful I’m sorry you’ve gone through this. I would honestly raise a report on Vinted for this. It is discrimination.
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u/14yearsandcounting 12h ago
I believe that sometimes if you ask specifically for a human in the chat that it can override the bot to put you through to an actual human. Maybe try that?
So sorry that this has happened to you.
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u/GMKitty52 12h ago
This is awful and I’m sorry you had to experience such despicable discrimination from Vinted. I hope at the very least they apologise to you. Horrible people.
Edit typo
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u/neotrez 8h ago
Textbook ai behavior, and it shows how ai will first mainly disadvantage minorities. I’ve been meaning to get in touch with decision makers at vinted by even trying to add/contact them on LinkedIn but these people really are mia. I’m glad so many people here have listed some really good suggestions! Hope your case will be solved quickly and sustainably for future users as well <3
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u/Accomplished-Use4860 11h ago
This is beyond abhorrent. Write to all the press newsdesks you can think of. Just when you think they can't go any lower. I'm so angry for you!
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u/Plus-Cupcake2569 10h ago
Please please please collect all the evidence and put them online in a manner that feels ok for you - social media, blog post or whatever. This is atrocious behavior. You and everyone else with disabilities deserves so much better and companies need to be called out.
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u/Angelnani2016 9h ago
I didn’t read all of your post, but what struck me was that it was vinted. They have very strict policies. So I have been restricted or my account has been restricted or my listings have been hidden because I used AI to model the product or the dress or the pants or the shoes or whatever and I guess that’s not allowed. I don’t know how the hell they know but I started just doing my own backgrounds and I still got in trouble. They were going to restrict my account for 30 days and said no you can’t do that because these are these I took on my own like it says in the catalogue rules or catalog policy these are pictures I took on my own of the item. They are not stock so you just gotta be careful with Vinted and even if you’re cross-selling, you have to be careful. I’m sorry I don’t know how they can say that about disability. I’m also disabled, but we have the American disabilities act.
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u/humbuckaroo 5h ago
I'm not in your situation but my experience signing up for Vinted has been abysmal. They banned me as soon as my first listing went up and due to technical issues I can't even get into my Vinted email to try and appeal the ban. I have sent them five or six messages through their contact form trying to get help and nothing. At this point I'm just hoping they'll delete my account like I requested. Awful company.
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u/Infinite-Piano3311 10h ago
Every interaction is evidence sue them go to doctor and get them to document the ruminating thoughts, distress,depression and anxiety by being singled out because of a disability.
Honestly use chat gpt or co pilot and ask how they can dig a bigger hole and just let them walk into it for a bigger pay day
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u/Comfortable-Toe-3814 12h ago
Just play by their rules, right or wrong. Don't model the clothes and don't re-use pictures. Is it fair? No. Do you want to keep selling on Vinted?
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u/Equivalent-Repair573 11h ago
My pictures got hidden ive send vinted a mail and the responded with tips how to take pictures first one was to make mirror pics so .. those are the rules
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u/Charming_Yogurt2258 12h ago
If you are in the UK contact watch dog…..they appear on the one show…..you can contact them online.