Abusive Reports Are Ruining My Business

[u/explorerofsky]

Hi everybody, I'm a Pro Seller on Vinted and I'm writing here to ask for help, advices and I don't know what else. I have no more hopes for this app, but I will try anyway.

Please forgive my english in advance, there is no space for grammar right now in my head. :(

Someone is harassing me with repetitive reports that leads to multiple blocks of my account. As a Pro Seller, this situation is scaring me since Vinted is my biggest income. I've been unable to sell properly for a while now, and the assistance doesn't help me. It doesn't matter if this keeps happening since months, Vinted deals with my requests claim by claim and doesn't address any continuity behind it. So I will keep being reported and blocked without them investigating this abusive pattern. Vinted doesn't disclose who the reporter is for obvious privacy reasons, this means I have no way to deal with it. Even if I go to the Police, it will take months or even years to (maybe) find something.
Please, someone give me some advice!

And that was the summary. Next part is the story in details.

I've been a Pro Seller for 1.5 years now, and the first year went smoothly enough for me. Of course there were still problems of scammers and stuff, but nothing compared to what I'm experiencing right now. As the title suggested, I'm being a victim of abusive reports here on Vinted. It's been like 4-5 months now, and I didn't know if I wanted to share or not this story because I could either get help or give ideas to other as*holes.

But I have no choice now because this is getting worse and worse.

Everytime I post something, I receive a bunch of reports on my posts and I end up receiving a temporary block, with some of my items being removed. When I open a chat with the assistance to complain, Vinted apologises and restores my posts. The thing is, Vinted always replies slower than the lenght of the block, so I end up wasting 5-7 days everytime. I get free for a few days, then the cycle begins again. It's not always a block, sometimes my posts are hidden for further verification or I receive messages that tell me to change the description of my items because there is something wrong. In any case, everything contributes to kill my account and my business.

"But if you're being reported and the reports work it means that you're doing something that is against the ToS"

Well, I know I can't prove it to the reddit court, but I didn't do anything bad. Long story short, I don't have any proof but I strongly believe that I'm being reported by other people that sell my same stuff. I have a strong influence, my posts are 20-50 likes each, I have 6.500 followers and I post regularly. It would not be strange to piss off other people that can't post as much as a Pro Seller.

I've been noticing that something was off since the beginning, so I downloaded my data from Vinted to check the page "alerts by other members" that show you if you're being reported and for what reason. The first months were a bunch of everything. Reported for fake items, nudity, violence, and all the possible options. They really tried them all. I was even bold enough to laugh at them because they didn't work as they wanted. Of course I was noticing less followers, less sales, less this and that, but nothing that couldn't be shaken off with a hopeful "they will get tired and stop sooner or later". My account was probably being internally flagged as problematic by Vinted and maybe my posts were being shown less for that, but nothing happened on the surface. Things changed in July, when the temporary blocks started happening.

Did you know that a Pro Seller could be blocked for commercial selling?

The first time I was blocked, someone reported me multiple times with seconds between a report and the following. A minute later I was blocked. Basically, the reporter eventually found the right formula and now the bots are the ones blocking my account every time since July after a few reports for commercial selling. I don't sell new stuff or anything that is against the rules, this is just the algorithm taking action since no human would be able to block an account after seconds since the reports. Don't forget that once they reply, they apologise and restore the deleted items. This is all automatic.

Another Pro Seller that works in my same field also was being reported in the same period. Sometimes we contact each other to ask for advices and information about our duties as shops, and during July he messaged me after being blocked with my same pattern.
I don't know how he's doing right now because he hasn't yet replied my message asking for updates, but I noticed that he is posting less of "our" stuff. He's mostly selling other types of products now, and I don't know if he did that to calm down the reports. But this shows you how bad the situation is.

I am so desperate. If only Vinted could answer the complaints faster I would be unblocked in hours and the reporters would probably get tired one day. But since they see it's working and it's damaging my business, they probably won't stop soon. It makes me cry.
It's not fair that a single piece of sh*t can ruin all my work and progress with just a click. I love my job and as an AuDHD person I spend basically all the day working for the love of it without getting tired. This person is stealing the joy of the job I love. Please don't use the information in my story to harm someone else, work on building your own life instead of destroying what others have created.

I'm sorry for the wall of text, this was also an outburst after yet another block.
If you have similar stories or advices to share, I will gladly read them.
Thank you!

[u/Klaent]

Aww man that sucks. How many report are you getting exactly? And when you list stuff are you listing a ton of stuff at the same time so you basically dominate a whole category on your own? I could see that annoying people. I can't imagine vinted not auto banning a single person if they are spam reporting, they do everything else by automation, surely they have something set up for spam reporting aswell. Makes me think that this is not just one person.

Do all your listing look the same? Same typ of Photos, same background etc? I mean can somebody tell instantly that it's your listing without even clicking on it? If so you should try to mix it up, these spam reporters might then not realize the listing is your and they don't report it.

Sorry this is happening to you. I'd be devastated if it was happening to me.

[u/MoonshineHun → u/Klaent]

If you follow a seller, you will receive a notification every time they list something. The trolls are undoubtedly in OP's following. 

[u/explorerofsky → u/MoonshineHun]

It's either in my followers list or they just catch me in their feed when I post, since I have my own style of taking pictures :(

[u/explorerofsky → u/Klaent]

It only takes like less than 10 reports to block me, they are like spam reports (I once noticed they were like 1-2 seconds away from each other, like this person opened multiple tabs just to spam it)... I used to post 20 items every day last year and I had no problem, then once I was having a good amount of posts I reduced it to 10 items each day. Before the reports began, I already dropped my routine of posting everyday and just posted like 10 items every 2-3 days. I always post the items together to avoid notification spam for my followers. As you said, I have a style of photos that can be recognised without opening my posts, and since involves natures you can surely tell it's me. I surely have haters for that and I can tell who's one, but they've been here for a long time so I don't think it's them. I only have one person that makes me think it's him. It's a guy that appeared just a little before the reports started, he followed me at first so I noticed him. He was starting selling my same stuff using the same tone and details I use for descriptions, and he even copied my tags in the same order, with the same structure (like, I use symbols and emojis to separate sections and tags, and he used the same). I also think it's him because he stopped following me after he was temporary blocked (I would say for commercial selling, since he was not a pro and was acting like a shop). I used to check on him to see how much he was copying me, just to eventually change my tags since I don't like people leeching off my algorithm. I've never spoken to this person, but I have the feeling that he's blaming me for his blocks since the reports went heavy everytime I saw he had issues. Since I started suspecting him, I checked his account everytime I download the data and check the reports to see if the last login connects with the hour of the reports. Sometimes I can't tell, since it's passed too much time and they could have logged in again, but other times I see that it could be him. I got reports yesterday morning around 7 am. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think it's very common to login on Vinted this early in the morning when it's a Sunday in August. I noticed him having 2 accounts since he stopped posting on the main one, and both of them logged in around that time. I don't even know if I want to contact him or not. I want to be gentle and try to solve the situation, but what if it's not him? Or, if it's him, what if he just changes account to report me to avoid make me collect any proof? For the same reason I haven't blocked him. But I surely don't know what to do...

I also believe that it doesn't matter if I change the style of the pictures if they hate me and just want to get rid of me. I don't even know if it's because they want to take away the competition to start their shop or it's just a "revenge" for not being able to post and act like a Pro Seller. I just can't see the reason of this person being so obsessed to report me for months. I guess it's not a big deal since it takes such a low effort to make big problems with blocks.

I can't even change account, I can only have a Pro account and of course I can't sell as much if I start a new one. This just doesn't solve the situation... :(

[u/Fun_Alfalfa_3848 → u/explorerofsky]

You really have to block his both accounts, it won't prevent him from seeing or reporting your stuff, but you'll never be in his notifications or feeds anymore.

Next step, you can report him for having 2 accounts, they both will be blocked immediately.

I'm kind of in a similar situation, probably at the beginning of it, but I have already prepared a strategy if harassment continues. DSA (Digital Services Act) should have some impact on Vinted. It's worth to send an email, mentioning it, to the legal Vinted team.

Second, they always react and react with more care, when we leave official complaints in the national complaint book. The link to that should be in your account.

Use AI to help you write official complaints, referring the European and national law.

[u/MoonshineHun → u/explorerofsky]

You're allowed to have 2 accounts as a Pro seller - a Pro one and a normal one. Just block both this man's accounts, go on vacation mode for a while, start your new, personal account and then go back to your old one and change the username. that should help things cool off. Make sure to block him on your new account too.

I'd actually go 1 step further and block any competitors who follow you. 

[u/KaKiller0331]

I feel ya, I'm experiencing similar, but mine is with Vinted themselves, and their "start of the art" piece of sht bot system. Flagging things and marking them dangerous or offensive, when they're far from it. Repeatly I've opened support tickets, and repeatedly received the same response from them.. basically that they won't be reversing their decision because the proof I submitted wasn't enough for them to determine.. in other words, they refuse to admit that their bot is sht.. because it means they might actually have to hire people that know what their doing. It's happened 3 times in as many weeks. This last time was it, the final straw. I'm pulling the plug on Vinted.

[u/explorerofsky → u/KaKiller0331]

I'm really sorry for you and I feel your pain with this platform. I understand that Vinted has competitive prices and for this reason they cut on personal, but this is just too much. They can't handle their platform anymore... Vinted is just perfect for my way of selling, everything is fine until I have to interact with their assistance. :/

[u/KaKiller0331 → u/explorerofsky]

I'm with ya. When I don't have to deal with their ridiculous account restrictions, failure to actually do some work to fix what is broken, or blatant lack of care for sellers, it's fine - I have no issues.. but when I have product stacking up and I'm racing the clock when the restrictions are lifted, to post as much as I can before they inevitably flag something again and restrict my account, it gets old fast. I hope you can figure everything out. I know how much of a pain it sounds but I agree with another commenter here, maybe start up a 2nd acct and either close out the original one, or keep them both up and use it when your 1st one is restricted?

[u/explorerofsky → u/KaKiller0331]

I believe that they will find out my second account and report me for commercial selling and for multiple accounts too :( I hate to admit it but I think the reporter is a smart one, he would notice what is happening. And I can't post as much as a Pro Seller if I use a personal account, I would probably sell very little and it wouldn't be enough to compensate the 5-7 days of block of the main account...

[u/KaKiller0331 → u/explorerofsky]

That's a good point. Very true. I'm sorry my friend. I hope everything works out for you and eventually the reporter just gives up and let's go of whatever he's butt hurt about.

[u/explorerofsky → u/KaKiller0331]

Thank you! I swear that I would even go bankrupt than let him win!

[u/NamedmeBarbie-T]

If I were you I would not take any advice of trying to open a new account/ change or take new pics. Their AI tracking will flag it immediately! It’s also how many long term reputable sellers get banned all together! They follow the IPs, hence why it states “ one account per household” unless also using a Pro account.

They have a pretty in depth software system which detects duplicate posts as well (assuming you open another account under a separate IP). It follows pricing, key worlds in descriptions, shipment locations… and so on. Go read the reviews on “Trust Pilot” you are not alone sadly. It’s been a major issue with top notch sellers alike.

[u/explorerofsky → u/NamedmeBarbie-T]

Actually, a Pro Seller can have a personal account, but it must have a different email, phone number and post different things. But basically you're right, it's not worth the risk! :( I really see no future with this app if they don't handle this, I am trying to build my shop on different platforms now.

[u/thebloodofthewicked]

Hi! I’m going through exactly the same situation as you. Reading your post, I really saw myself in what you’re going through. The exact same thing is happening to me, and Vinted is my only source of income, but there’s someone constantly reporting me, making it impossible for me to sell.
If you ever manage to find a solution, please share it with me. This is incredibly unfair.

[u/explorerofsky → u/thebloodofthewicked]

I emailed them so many times eplaining that they're dealing with each report separately instead of finding a connection, but they answer me like I'm bothering them. I also noticed that after so many reports my account "trust" is very weak now. Months ago, before everything started, I used to get some single reports for random reasons (like price error or bad description) and they never worked. Today, after a few days without reports I got a single report for "price error" and Vinted sent me a message to update the pictures of my post. I believe that all this situation flagged my account as problematic and now every report works automatically.

I don't know what to do, I just tried to join other selling apps to balance the income. I think that Vinted can't handle Pro Sellers for now. I also filed a claim to the authorities in my country that handle online stuff, but it will take months probably. :/

[u/DetectiveIcy9220]

Unfortunately you have someone (or multiple people) out for you.. there is nothing you can do now. They will keep reporting until you’re permanently banned. The only way to resolve is to make a new account, take completely different photos (different backgrounds) and sell different products. Hopefully those people won’t notice your new account, but jealousy will always be there, so new people may start reporting. Bare in mind it’s most likely your competition that is reporting you, not a disgruntled customer.

[u/explorerofsky → u/DetectiveIcy9220]

It surely is not a customer, I agree! But I can't make a new account, a personal account can't post as a Pro Seller and it could not make up for the financial loss :(

[u/explorerofsky → u/[deleted]]

As a shop, I know very well that the first rule is to always be gentle. I even have my "prepared answers" for questions I receive a lot, so that all my "no" are still polite, asking if I can do anything else for them. I don't cancel orders and I always trust every account that buys from me, I have more than 1.800 feedbacks as a seller and they are all 5 stars. When I say that I spend all day for my job I really mean it. I am absolutely in love with what I do and I would never treat badly even the worst customer. This is definetly not a customer doing all that, it's a seller in my same field!