Messages to Vinted CEO Adam Jay

Hi Adam,

I'm writing partly as a fan. I've used Vinted for 5 years and genuinely loved it. So this isn't an attack, quite the opposite. A few weeks ago I started gathering reviews from UK users because something has clearly shifted, and I wanted to understand what.

Over 1,000 people have responded so far (sadvintedfaces.com) and the patterns are striking:

• Account bans that don't seem to make sense — particularly the loop where users are told they must convert to Pro, do so (often with HMRC sole trader registration), then get banned again for commercial selling on a Pro account.
• A reporting system that feels inverted — genuine fakes and scammers go unactioned, while a buyer maliciously reporting a seller (often after a declined offer) can result in an instant ban.
• Buyer Protection that doesn't seem to protect anyone when something goes wrong — sellers losing both item and money, buyers having to pay return postage for misdescribed goods.

65% of respondents say their CS contact was ignored or got a useless reply. Self-reported losses across the sample run to £38–43k.

The reason I'm reaching out: would you consider speaking publicly about what's changed? People aren't angry because they hate Vinted — they're upset because they loved it. A real, human acknowledgement from leadership would land enormously well right now.

Happy to share the full dataset privately if useful.

Warmly, a previous Vinted lover who really wants the good old days back.
Catherine

No problem, you can see the headline stats here www.sadvintedfaces.com/report. I'll email over the full database in due course.

Out of interest do you have an account yourself? Have you bought and sold personally?

And one other question — would you do a Zoom call with me? We record it, we put it out on TikTok — we show the world that you're willing to listen to users' feedback and try to do something about it…… what do you say? You can approve the questions in advance…. and the final content before it goes out.

Or maybe a written Q&A — three questions. Your PR team can approve the answers…. what do you think?

We want the old Vinted back. Imagine the positive outcome that could be possible here if an actual person, and the CEO at that, showed they were listening to users and actually cared about their situations.

Thanks Adam — I really want to understand how the following are examples of keeping people safe? Because this accounts for a huge proportion of the complaints and reasons people are leaving Vinted and so upset:

• Being told they must create a Pro account and then being banned
• Being suspended for selling "counterfeit" items which are simple high street fashion items — even books!
• Being unable to access customer support when something goes wrong
• Buyer Protection not being used to protect buyers
• Significant loss of money when a buyer is scammed and little or no support from Vinted to resolve the matter.

I'd really love to understand more what keeping people safe actually means, and whether your approach therefore means that issues like these don't fall within keeping people safe?

Thanks Adam, I appreciate your time.

Thanks Adam, that feels like a closed door on getting into the specifics? I hope that the 1,169 and still growing user experiences, equating to an average rating of 1.47 out of 5, make useful reading.

This doesn't feel like a simple issue of improving a few small things to keep users safe. This is people's livelihoods in some cases that you — or your AI bots — are playing with. The way issues are being handled is causing huge amounts of stress and upset.

It's such a shame as Vinted used to be a fantastic platform for both users and buyers. Now it's a minefield of bans, suspensions, people being scammed, endless hours wasted trying to navigate irrelevant or inappropriate customer support.

I'm appealing to you Adam, on behalf of thousands of Vinted users — do something positive about this. Own it, find fixes, stop treating the people you're making billions from as an inconvenience.

Thank you for reading. I do really appreciate your time for this. It matters to a lot of people.

OK Adam, that sounds like a positive step — and we're grateful for that. All the best, and we'll follow keenly and very much look forward to seeing the hopefully positive improvements and results. Have a good day.