Mali Osmelak took Vinted and Mangopay to the small claims court after she could not withdraw almost £6,000 from her Vinted wallet. In June, she won a default judgment when neither company responded, but she still has not received the money.
She said the dispute began after she started trading on Vinted in 2024 to earn income while managing Crohn's disease and caring for her four-year-old daughter. By March, she had become a professional seller, signed up for a Vinted Pro account and, within weeks, generated almost £6,000 in sales.
Mali Osmelak in March
Osmelak said she was unable to complete Vinted's verification process after becoming a professional seller in March. She said, “I thought, 'That's OK. It's not rocket science,'” and added, “I'd set up the business with the help of an accountant and had all the information they needed.”
She then discovered her account had been restricted when she tried to withdraw the funds. After she spotted what she said was an error Vinted had made with her name, she contacted Mangopay in an effort to break the deadlock.
Vinted and Mangopay
Osmelak said she was left with thousands of pounds inaccessible in her Vinted wallet and spent £455 in court fees to pursue the claim. Three days after the court claim was filed, she said the account was verified and she could withdraw the money, which she described as “magically verified”.
In June, the court ordered Vinted and Mangopay to pay £1,207.50 after neither responded to her claim. That amount has not yet reached her, and she has been told the companies have applied to have the judgment set aside.
Vinted says 98% of transactions are completed smoothly without needing help from its support team, but Osmelak says she was trapped in automated responses for weeks before going to court. The marketplace has 17 million users in the UK and sellers are not charged a listing fee, but this case shows how quickly a payout can stall when verification fails.
A hearing is scheduled for December, and the result will decide whether the default judgment stands or the case starts over.
