Consumers abuse Vinted as cheap parcel service

In the Netherlands and France, consumers are abusing Vinted‘s cheap shipping service to send large packages to themselves or family and friends. The second-hand platform says it is taking action.

“This undermines trust”

Because Vinted’s shipping costs are a lot lower than those of major postal and courier companies, users can save substantially on transportation costs for personal packages, journalists from AD.nl in the Netherlands and France Info and Le Parisien in France discovered. It suffices to put a package up for sale for a symbolic amount on the second-hand platform, after which an acquaintance buys it and has it shipped. In this way, one can send packages abroad for as little as five to six euros, while it costs many times that via regular parcel services.

Vinted says it is taking measures against this form of abuse. Accounts that violated the rules have been removed and blocked. “Even if it is only marginal, this kind of abuse undermines trust between members and can affect the overall quality and experience”, the company told the AD newspaper. Courier companies working for Vinted reacted with surprise. Transportation economist Roel Gevaers of Antwerp University expects parcel companies that have cheap b2b contracts with Vinted to raise their prices if the abuse continues.