Last year I They bought a pair of leather designer shoes from Vestiaire Collective. They went through Vestiaire‘s authenticity check and they looked fine when they arrived. However, when I wore them for the next few months, it became clear that they were not up to the standards of the designer’s original shoes: first the body of the shoe separated from the sole of one shoe, then the other. I wore them in the rain and the glue almost seemed to have disintegrated. Now the shoes are unwearable.
Vestiaire’s terms state that if you have any doubts about the authenticity of an item, you must contact them within 48 hours of receiving it – which seems like a very tight timeframe. I contacted Vestiaire to see if they could help me, but I never got a response. I was surprised as their reputation is based on selling genuine designer items. Is there anything I can do?
– Nadia From Victoria
Kat says: The rise of second-hand markets for quality items is a great antidote to fast fashion, and I think it’s a great step towards extending the life cycle of used clothing. But it’s not without its drawbacks – some argue that it can foster a “throw-away” culture, with consumers buying and selling unworn or barely worn clothing in a seemingly crime-free process. It can also leave buyers and sellers vulnerable to questionable practices, especially in international markets where middlemen like Vestiaire Collective facilitate sales between private individuals.
In your case, I think there are two elements to what happened to you: first, the shoes may not be authentic, and second, the shoes may not have passed the pub test in terms of a buyer’s reasonable expectations of what the shoes should do.
Vestiaire’s website states that you can file a report for a return of an item that “doesn’t match the description” within 72 hours of delivery for private sellers and 14 days for professional sellers. Even if those timeframes have passed for you, it doesn’t affect your case.
Relating to: My speakers are not working properly and Apple will not give a refund. What are my rights?
Critically, a business cannot create rules that undermine Australian consumer law. Vestiaire is headquartered in Paris, London and New York, but the ACCC says that “if an online business is based overseas and provides goods or services directly to consumers in Australia, the business must comply with the Australian Consumer Law”. In this case, if the product you purchased is indeed a fake, the business has engaged in misleading conduct – whether intentionally or unintentionally.
According to the ACCC, misleading conduct is when information provided by a business to a consumer “creates a false impression about goods or services”.
You can try an authenticity check with Vestiaire if you haven’t already; there doesn’t seem to be a timeframe specified on the help page.
If that doesn’t work and you believe the shoes are fake, make your case and write to Vestiaire via their customer service function. What makes the shoes fake? What is missing from the shoes that makes you think they are fake? Take and attach photos to your letter and remind the business that the Australian Consumer Law applies in this case.
There are also consumer guarantees under Australian consumer law, which means that when you buy something, you have the right to expect the product or service to work in a certain way. This means that the product must be of “acceptable quality”, meaning it must be safe, durable and free from defects, and do all the things that similar products are commonly used to.
When it comes to shoes, designer or not, a reasonable person would expect a pair of shoes to last more than a few months with normal wear (if you’re going to do extreme sports in them, that might be different). And unless the business selling the product explicitly states otherwise, it’s reasonable to expect a pair of shoes not to fall apart in the rain. So you definitely have consumer warranties working in your favor, and you should include that in your letter.
Under Australian consumer law, you have the right to a repair, refund or exchange. As the shoes are second-hand, it is unlikely that Vestiaire will be able to provide you with a replacement, but you should request a refund. The worst case scenario is that Vestiaire insists that the shoes are authentic – in which case you are still entitled to a repair at no cost to you.
You definitely have a case. The hard part will be getting an international business to cooperate. You should also use social media to your advantage: messaging the business through private messages and public forums is often more effective than going through the official communication channels they provide on their website.
If you have no luck with Vestiaire, the next step (I don’t say that intentionally) is to complain to the ACCC or Consumer Affairs Victoria.
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A Vestiaire Collective spokesperson said in a statement that they had not received any communication from the reader about the shoes, but had since contacted him directly. The spokesperson said that “lower value” items generally do not undergo an authenticity check, but customers can ask questions about an item’s authenticity at any time after purchase.
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Kat George is a board member of Australian consumer advocacy group Choice. Her Guardian column is written as a policy expert and does not necessarily reflect the views of Choice.
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