SARA Mallon knew something was wrong as soon as she picked up the parcel that was supposed to contain £50 vintage Louis Vuitton shoes that she’d bought on the popular selling app, Vinted. " I was so shocked. I’d clicked for them to be delivered to my local InPost locker - but immediately I realised the parcel didn't contain shoes.” said Sara. Instead, the 54-year-old legal receptionist found a bundle of Shein clothes.

"I sent a photo of the parcel to Vinted less than a minute after receiving it, and the seller - who is 5 star rated - was insistent that she posted the correct item. “Initially, she questioned my honesty, as I did her. But the parcel looked like it had been interfered with, it had a lot of brown parcel tape. "It seemed that the shoes were stolen and replaced with a cheap Shein filler. “I’m furious about it, and felt really distressed too. It’s been nearly three weeks, and I’m still waiting for my refund, as is the seller. It’s totally unacceptable.”.

Sara is not the only one. Joe Donzé bought a Fujifilm camera from Vinted, but opened his parcel to discover … a pink lacy thong. “It was the second time I’d received the wrong item, but this time was more embarrassing,” Joe admits. "I felt awful as the woman who sold me the camera thought I was scamming her.”. Joe, who is 32, had to send photos of the thong “and I explained that it was common for Vinted parcels to be sent with switched labels.

I’m very cautious going forward about whether to use Inpost, as Vinted’s customer service was pretty poor, and it can take 35 days to resolve problems.”. Joe, who is a regular buyer and seller on Vinted and other sites, says he does not have delivery issues with other providers. "This issue is specifically isolated to Inpost.”. InPost lockers have soared in popularity since the pandemic: there are now more than 11,000 across the UK.

Sellers on sites like Vinted drop off their parcels in a locker they access with a personal QR code, before they are picked up by couriers and delivered to the buyer, or a locker local to their house, which the buyer unlocks with their own QR code. But the reality is not so simple. Sara and Joe are just two members of the 22,000-strong Facebook group InPost Lost and Found Parcels, which is populated almost entirely of Vinted customers who have paid for something they wanted on the shopping app - but received something entirely different, or nothing at all.

Jamie Herron sold three Funko Pop collectables as a bundle for £70 late last year. “The locker was apparently jammed when I put the parcel in, but was finally picked up after two weeks. "Then it vanished into thin air and was never delivered to the buyer.”. Finn Abraham bought a Joules baby outfit, but received a pair of ladies’ Nike trainers, which the seller of the baby clothes knew nothing about.

"It was obviously a mix-up on Inpost's side. "Someone somewhere is probably wondering why they received a Paddington knitted babygrow they didn't order!". It happened to me, too. I loved the convenience of InPost lockers when sending out Vinted bundles. Unlike other options such as Evri shops or Royal Mail post offices, I could visit the locker any time of day or night. I’d put my parcel inside, and wait for it to arrive at the buyers’ home days later - when funds would be released and I’d be paid.

Only, when three different buyers said that they’d failed to receive the items I had diligently sent, I started to wonder what was going on. That’s what led me to the Facebook group - and realise the problem is wide-scale. There are hundreds of posts on Vinted complaining about wrong parcels arriving, and more listing the same issue on MoneySavingExpert and Mumsnet forums. A particular problem seems to be that InPost allows sellers to leave unaddressed parcels in the locker, with the label attached when the courier picks it up.

One logistics expert claimed this led to mismatched labels: Inpost's system relies on each parcel having the correct code, but when mislabelling occurs by couriers during various stages of the delivery process, items are misdelivered. Other victims of Vinted wrong (or non) deliveries, like Sara, claim deliberate theft is occurring due to parcels appearing to be tampered with. All agree that complaining to Vinted or InPost was protracted and difficult.

A spokesman for InPost said: "We successfully deliver millions of parcels across Europe every day… Our Trustpilot service score in December 2024, during a busy festive period, reached an all-time high of 4.7. "However, regrettably, mistakes can sometimes happen, and we sincerely apologise to the minority of customers who have recently experienced lost or mixed-up parcels.". Most delivery errors seem to occur when sellers use the digital label option on InPost - so if you can, print the label at home to cut the risk of misdelivery.