A woman was fuming after she received a £300 Coach handbag from a seller on Vinted
Second-hand shopping has become the go-to way to snap up coveted designer pieces at a fraction of the original price, with platforms like Vinted making it easier than ever to bag a bargain. But one shopper’s dream purchase quickly turned into a nightmare after she splashed out £300 on a designer Coach handbag — only to be left fuming when she clocked how her prized purchase had been delivered.
The buyer, who’d been excitedly tracking the international parcel, was gobsmacked when it turned up on her doorstep in nothing more than a flimsy plastic carrier bag knotted at the top.
She revealed there wasn’t so much as a strip of tape securing the item, leaving it vulnerable to the elements during its journey spanning thousands of miles. For a £300 purchase, that simply wasn’t good enough.
Taking to the R/Vinted community on Reddit, the disgruntled shopper vented: “Which sane person puts such a high-value item in a plastic shopping bag, with NO TAPE, just ties a knot on top and says ‘Yep, looks good to me’ and sends it?
“I have yet to open this, but I’m really hoping that it’s complete. Like, ANYONE could open this bag while in transit. How can someone do this? Just how? Ugh… I’m so upset.”
Eventually, the buyer plucked up the courage to open the un-taped bag and inspect the contents. To her enormous relief, the Coach handbag seemed completely undamaged and perfectly intact.
Yet despite this stroke of luck, the near-catastrophe left a sour taste.
Mulling over what had happened, the shopper turned to the Reddit community for advice on how to rate the transaction, questioning whether knocking off a star for the anxiety-inducing packaging would be fair.
She said: “Okay, so the bag seems to be ok, but I’m still not satisfied with how the seller handled the packaging. I really wish to give 4 stars because of this. What do we think?”.
Those who commented on the post made it abundantly clear that they felt four stars would be far too “generous” given what the buyer had gone through.
One person said: “I think 4 stars is generous. That’s absolutely crazy.”
A second said: “Unbelievable! And meanwhile I drive myself crazy gift wrapping the items I sell for $5. For $300 item could at least get a box from DT or a free box from a store. The only way this could be understandable is if they were local and hand delivered it. Even then I would wrap with tissue paper.”
A third said: “This is way less than 4 stars. I personally would give 1 star based on the cost of the item and the absolutely appalling packaging.”
Future buyers need to be made aware of this behaviour. Make it stand out.
