Revenge reviews and unjustified complaints on Vinted: what you can do

You did everything right. The item was as described. You photographed what needed photographing, described the condition honestly, shipped fast. Vinted investigated the dispute and ruled in your favour. And then, a day later, a single star lands on your profile. One star. With a comment that makes no sense at all.

That’s called a revenge review, and it’s one of the most frustrating things that can happen to you as an active reseller. Not because it stops your sales outright, but because it feels like a verdict you can’t appeal.

This article covers how that mechanism works, what you can reasonably do about it, and what to do structurally to keep the risk small.

How Vinted’s review system works

Vinted gives buyers the option to leave a rating after every completed transaction. That system has no neutral setting: it’s entirely oriented toward the buyer as the reviewing party. The seller can ask the platform to remove a review, but the bar for that is high. Vinted only removes reviews when they’re demonstrably false, contain abusive language, or are clearly unrelated to the transaction.

A negative review based on personal frustration, even if that frustration is unjustified, usually doesn’t fall into any of those categories. Vinted gives the buyer the benefit of the doubt, even when the transaction itself was resolved in the seller’s favour.

That’s the structural reality of the platform. There’s no point fighting it. What you can do is understand when the risk is highest, and adjust your own behaviour accordingly.

When revenge reviews happen most

Revenge reviews aren’t a random phenomenon. They follow a recognisable pattern. They almost always arise from one of three situations.

The first is a rejected return request. The buyer opened a dispute, claimed the item didn’t match the description, and Vinted, after investigating, decided the seller was right. The buyer gets no refund. That buyer is frustrated, feels the system isn’t on their side, and looks for an outlet. The review is that outlet.

This is documented in my own dispute archive. A buyer who opened a fraudulent dispute, contesting authenticity on an item that was clearly authentic, was overruled by Vinted after I submitted proof. The response was a negative review that had nothing to do with the transaction but everything to do with the outcome of the dispute.

The second situation is a rejected offer. A buyer bids well below the asking price, the seller declines or counters, the buyer doesn’t buy, but the frustration lingers. Since there’s no completed transaction, that buyer can’t leave a review, but in rare cases it does lead to a report to Vinted, which costs administrative time even if there’s nothing to it.

The third situation is a misunderstanding about condition that escalates into a heated conversation. The buyer is disappointed, the seller stands their ground, the tone deteriorates, and the review reflects the tone of the conversation rather than the quality of the item.

What Vinted will and won’t remove

Vinted formally has the ability to remove reviews, but applies that standard restrictively. A review that says “bad seller, not honest” with no further backup usually doesn’t get removed, even if the claim is factually wrong. A review that says “seller is a scammer and a fraud” contains an accusation that goes beyond opinion and can qualify for removal.

The distinction is subtle but relevant. If you submit a removal request, back it up as concretely as possible. Tie it to the outcome of the dispute if it was resolved in your favour. Add the transaction number. State specifically which claim in the review is factually, demonstrably false. Vague requests get rejected systematically.

The platform also lets you reply publicly to a review. Use that. Not to hit back, but to give the factual context. A buyer scaring off future visitors with a negative review gets neutralised by a calm, factual reply from the seller. Show that you had the dispute investigated, that it was decided in your favour, and that you remain willing to stay constructive. That’s the only thing you can do, but it’s more than nothing.

The best defence is a solid paper trail

Something a lot of resellers discover too late: Vinted decides based on evidence. Whoever has the strongest file has the strongest position. That means keeping a trail of evidence for every transaction, especially the expensive ones.

Photograph the item before shipping. Not just for the listing, but also a photo of the packaged parcel right before it goes to the post office. That photo proves the condition at the moment of shipping and is essential if a buyer later claims the item arrived damaged.

Save screenshots of the Vinted conversation. If there’s a dispute about an item’s condition or authenticity, the full communication sits in the chat thread. Vinted has access to that thread during a dispute, but it’s good for you to have an overview of what was said too.

Photograph the wash label and neck label as a standard part of your listing photos, the same principle I lay out in the photos that sell. That’s your authenticity proof. If a buyer later claims the item is fake, those photos are your first and strongest defence. In authenticity disputes, the seller gets 48 hours to submit additional proof through Vinted’s support chat. Whoever has that proof ready is in a strong position. Whoever has to go looking for it in the moment loses valuable time.

Unjustified complaints about condition

This is the most common type of complaint, and also the most preventable.

A buyer opens a dispute claiming the item doesn’t match the description. The most commonly cited specifics: a stain that wasn’t mentioned, a hole not visible in the photos, wear that wasn’t named. In my sales data, 30 percent of all complaints fall under sizing and fit, 25 percent under condition, and 15 percent under authenticity.

For condition-related complaints, a hard rule applies: what you don’t describe can be used against you. And what you do describe, however small, does the opposite. My review data, across more than 1,296 ratings, shows that buyers who receive an item that’s better than the description suggested almost always give five stars. Buyers who receive an item that’s worse than promised open disputes.

The margin isn’t large. A phrase like “a bit of pilling here and there on the sleeve” in the description doesn’t cost you a sale but can save you a dispute. It’s no coincidence my estimated return rate has stayed under five percent for years.

The profile of a buyer filing fraudulent claims

Not every buyer with a complaint is acting in bad faith. Most disputes come from genuine disappointment, not intent. But there’s a category of buyers who deliberately try to game the system.

Those buyers have a recognisable profile. They tend to have relatively few reviews, sometimes a freshly created account. They ask a lot of pre-purchase questions, but those questions are aimed at extracting information that can later be used in a dispute. They sometimes send photos of damage that aren’t from the item they received, or photos where a label is missing that was present at shipping.

If you suspect fraud, act fast. Respond within the 48-hour window Vinted gives you. Upload your evidence: the listing photos, the pre-shipping packaging photo, the chat history. Keep your response factual and unemotional. Vinted runs on automated policy and tends to favour the buyer, but a well-documented rebuttal has a real shot at succeeding.

What negative reviews actually do to your score

Across 1,296 ratings in my sales history, 1,235 are positive, between four and five stars, and 43 are negative, between one and two stars. That’s a negative rate of just over three percent. My average rating across that whole period sits at 4.81 out of 5.

That buffer protects you. A reseller with 1,000 ratings who gets three negative reviews has a more stable profile than a beginner with twenty ratings who gets one negative review. Volume is your best long-term defence.

The pattern in those negative reviews is also informative, and it lines up with what I saw earlier in how my buyers spread across different countries: see the geography of Vinted buyers. Dutch-language buyers account for 9.73 percent of the negative ratings in my data. French buyers for 2.35 percent. That difference doesn’t reflect item quality, it reflects the buyer’s communication style and expectations. Dutch-language buyers are transactional and critical of efficiency. A small deviation in delivery time or a slightly less sharp photo can cost a point. French buyers demand more in pre-purchase chat, but once they buy, they’re generally more satisfied.

That information is actionable. With Dutch-language buyers, I add extra specific condition information to the description. With French buyers, I answer questions more thoroughly and make sure the authenticity stack is complete.

The financial reality of disputes

In 2025, the gap between my gross revenue of €35,102 and my actual payout of €29,736 was just over €5,366. Part of that gap is platform fees and shipping. But roughly €800 is directly attributable to cancelled orders and refunds, including resolved disputes.

That’s not a disaster on a volume of 774 orders. It’s a bit over 2 percent of revenue. But it’s also a number that can structurally go lower by working to prevent complaints instead of just handling them.

Every misdescribed condition that triggers a dispute costs more than the refund alone. It also costs you the time of handling it, the potential negative review, and the capital tied up in a returned item.

In one sentence

You don’t build a solid paper trail after a problem starts, you build it while you photograph, describe and ship the item. Do that systematically, and you’ll face fewer complaints, stronger dispute positions and a stable score, even when someone occasionally tries to game the system.