Click, clic … boom! How secondhand clothes shopping turned very sour

Apps like Depop and Vinted are hugely popular, but an online culture of scams, rage and suspicion is now the default between buyers and sellers, with communications quickly descending into hurling abuse at a stranger

Here is a real-life conversation on a secondhand shopping app: a buyer of two items asks if a seller could combine postage costs. The petulant seller refuses. After a grating plea from the buyer, the seller retorts, “Fine, I’ll refund you, but I’m doing it my way.” Eventually, the buyer receives a large piece of card with a load of grubby coppers stuck to it with Sellotape. On the back it says, “Enjoy the refund!”

And there’s nothing odd about this – these sorts of exchanges between Brits on marketplace apps are so commonplace they have become part of the texture of the shopping experience. Maybe even part of the fun. But why do we communicate like this? What is happening that we can’t be remotely polite and normal? Where have our famous manners gone?