Single mum Emma Neil was a huge fan of Vinted, using it most days to sell old things and buy clothes for her children.

That was until she bought a pair of sandals for £3, found they didn’t fit so relisted them for £2 then was permanently banned. Vinted said there had been “fraudulent activity, such as selling counterfeit items”.

“I did feel like a criminal,” says Neil – one of several thousands complaining of being wrongly suspended or permanently banned, spending days trapped in a system of what they believe are AI generated responses.

Vinted’s preloved buying and selling community has grown rapidly with 17 million UK users – it says the “overwhelming majority” have a positive experience.

However, Neil is one of more than 4,000 Vinted users who have logged their experiences on sadvintedfaces.com, a website set up by freelance marketeer Catherine Warrilow, who became so frustrated with the platform she decided to find out if others were having problems too.