Extremely frustrated with Catawiki's submission process. I have tried to list great Pokémon items multiple times, only for them to be repeatedly rejected.
Initially, the experts claimed my items did not meet their €50 minimum value threshold. To fix this, I grouped more items together to easily clear that threshold, but they still rejected the lot anyway. Their valuation is completely inaccurate based on current market prices.It feels like the experts are highly biased, they accept identical objects from other sellers while constantly rejecting my lots. They make it incredibly difficult for genuine sellers to get approved. Catawiki's expert system needs a major upgrade and a serious review for consistency and fairness.
I purchased a Capocine bag (Order #*******) through Catawiki. The item arrived in an unusable condition – it smells strongly of damp and moths, clearly from poor storage over many years. It is impossible to use and completely misrepresented. I contacted both the seller and Catawiki immediately to request a refund. To date, I have had no proper response from either. The seller has ignored messages, and Catawiki has failed to step in or provide any resolution. This experience has shown me that Catawiki does not protect buyers. Once they have your money, their "support" is non-existent, even when goods are clearly unfit for purpose and not as described. Warning to others: Do not trust this seller or Catawiki. If something goes wrong, you will be left fighting for your money back with no help. I will be pursuing this further through my payment provider and consumer protection authorities, but I want to warn others: avoid Catawiki and avoid this seller – they do not stand behind what they sell.
Catawiki is a platform that facilitates and protects consumer fraud. I purchased what was explicitly advertised in a dedicated "Fur Auction" as a "Fur Coat" (Lot *******). Upon receipt, the garment was a cheap Alpaca/Wool textile blend. Marketing a textile as "Fur" is a "Bait and Switch" and a violation of EU Directive 2005/29/EC and the Italian Consumer Code (Art. 21).
When I alerted Catawiki to this factual, material misrepresentation, their "Experts"—who are supposed to verify these listings—refused to honor their "Buyer Protection." They ignored the physical garment labels that proved the item was wool, and they ignored the fact that the coat was a German Size 46 (3XL) despite being listed as a "Medium."
Furthermore, the listing used deceptive photography; the coat appeared floor-length on a misleadingly small model, but barely reaches the knees in reality.
Catawiki does not protect buyers; they protect dishonest sellers to secure their commissions. I have had to escalate this to a bank chargeback/stop payment and am out an additional €73 in return freight because the seller and platform refused to acknowledge basic European consumer law.
Advice to others: Do not trust their "Expert" labels. They are a facade for unverified, misrepresented listings. If you are scammed, bypass their customer service immediately and go straight to your bank.
Date of experience: February 2026
Legal Fact for the Reddit person (Re: Age of the coat)
If the Reddit commenter is questioning the age/ISO standards, here is the legal response regarding why the seller's description is a violation regardless of the coat's age:
English: "The age of the coat is a distraction from the legal breach. Under the Italian Civil Code (Art. 1497), a seller must guarantee the 'essential qualities' of the product. Whether it's 1970s or 1990s, 'Wool' is not 'Fur.' Furthermore, using a 1990s label to claim a 'Medium' size for a German 46 is a failure of conformity. Sizing standards (ISO 3635) have never classified a 108cm chest (Size 46) as a Medium. The seller intentionally misclassified the size and material to inflate the value."
On February 9th, i won a bid on an item at Catawiki. After one month and since the item ordered never received, i requested an ivestigation to be made by Catawiki and to proceed with total refund. After repeated messages, i received a message from Catawiki on March 26th asking me to confirm i wish the total refund in order from their side to proceed threafter with crediting my account. Even though i immediately confirmed in written, up to now April 16th no refund received by Catawiki and they also stopped replying to my messages.I dont feel safe bidding on catawiki anymore cause it seems to me that if a seller doesnt send you the product or any other problem arise with its shipping, things get complicated, contact with Catawiki is not efficient and generally i feel unacceptable for Catawiki or any other company not to refund a customer after over 60 days without receiving the item.
Please do not buy anything here. They never respond is you have a problem after the purchase. No customer service whatsoever. Be aware that it's a scam, no one will return you money, respond or help to fix it. As soon as you made a purchase, you stop existing to them.
1/ their seller verification tool sucks. They partner with Stripe who perform this for them and the accue of Stripe AI algorithms isn't very good. Took me multiple attempts with various docs to verify my address.
2/ The 'experts' will refuse your listings simply if they think your listing isn't interesting enough!
You promised it was being investigated. AND I HAVE JUST CHECKED - YOU HAVE REFUNDED THE BUYER
AS YOU HAVE BEEN AWARE, THE Order shows it was DELIVERED on seller postal site ROYAL MAIL and BUYER received NL - the Netherlands post. As DELIVERED TOO ON THE 18TH DEC 2022
Finally you were about to close the case in my favour and release the money, as indeed you admitted the above was correct- and in the next week you overturned it, as the buyer was again nasty on the phone to you.
How can I ever sell in confidence on your site again, when, as a seller- I HAVE NO SUPPORT AND LOSE NOT ONLY MY EXPENSIVE CHANEL MEDALLION BAG BUT ALSO- the MONEY THAT YOU GAVE BACK TO THE BUYER AFTER PROMISING ME THE SELLER- YOU WERE GOING TO CLOSE CASE DUE TO STATUS SHOWING AS DELIVERED?...
I am lost dismayed and disappointed you cancelled this order. NOW I HAVE NO MONEY - 510 EUROS AND I PAID TO POST IT = ANOTHER 35 = SO I HAVE LOST 545 EUROS AND AN EXPENSIVE CHANEL BAG WORTH ANOTHER 500 EUROS=1000
And NO BAG. The buyer has been protected, catered to and refunded. The seller - Myself- HAS Nothing. No BAG and NO MONEY. The bag has been stolen- not 'lost'
You, Prematurely, without investigating, not instigating liaison between Royal Mail and the Netherlands Post Office instead, hastily refunding this buyer who I now know did indeed receive the bag...
Ultimately, I am still out of bag and out of £450 Please pay me my £450. Of course now you have refunded the buyer, it would have to be a goodwill gesture from yourselves.
Beware! I put in a $1750.00 Euro bid on an item with an estimate of $1200-1500 Euros. The reserve on this item was $1200 Euros. I confirmed this reserve with the Buyer after I paid for the item. The second highest bidder was $270 Euros. That's right, $270 Euros. So rightfully, I should have been the successful bidder at $1200.00 since that was the reserve. That did not happen. I was charged the $1750 plus commission and shipping. What is worse is that I confronted Catawiki about this issue and they ignored my request for an explanation as to why I was charged $1750. Other reviewers mention the total lack of response from Catawiki. Just know that if there is a problem with your purchase, Catawiki will act as if you don't exist. Buyer beware! Note: I have posted two photos. Look very closely above where it says "What happens next" in the first photo. There you will see barely legible in green, "Your winning bid: €1750". The second photo shows all 4 bids.
Bought a watch that didnt work and appears to might be fake, support ignored the request for months after claiming it would give quality control! The seller now no longer responds and support has said its not their problem, AVOID as you will get scammed
I order my item before New Year, and now it is 21st March but I still did not receive the silver bracelet that I was charged for. I tried to email the seller a few times but no response, and I did not receive a response from customer service either. This is so shameful, I am so disappointed!
Catawiki does not comply with EU legislation. They don't return products that don't match the description, the answers take weeks and the "justifications" are legally indefensible. AVOID until the end if you want to get your money's worth.
I was a private seller on Catawiki, I'm selling my unused watches, I am not a watchmaker. I have 42 sales and my customers were satisfied. My feedback and shipping performance is 100%. An item I sold was canceled after 3 months, claiming that it was not original. However, before putting the item on sale, its experts confirmed that the watch was original and it for auction. After 3 months they said the watch was not original. Parts of the watch might have changed during this time, but they didn't even think about it. They did not send the watch back to me. They stopped paying and I also didn't get paid for my uncanceled sales. I've been waiting for 1 month, they don't answer my emails, they don't answer my phone calls. The result is disappointing! I still have not received my money, reconsider your plan to sell on catawiki.
A terrible platform, like a seller, I want to say that the attitude is just so bad, you can't even imagine. There are experts who do nothing like in the latter case. I laid out the lot in excellent perfect condition. The same one has already been sold on Catawiki. And the expert confirmed and then began to literally mock. Allegedly, he doesn't like the price for sending. I tried to explain to him, I was ready to take a screenshot, and show him a check payment for the last delivery. They're just incompetent people who don't want to lift their $#*! off their chairs. I have good feedback from customers, it's my hobby, not work. There are a lot of bad people there. They not respect the sellers, and clients also.
Trusted seellers sells fake items. Custom destroyed item amd I got penalty. And after four months customers service didn't help and answer to any question. They are answering (once per month not in 48 hours) but they don't answer. Don't trust and buy on this platform. Worst expericence
Item received did not match the lot description 'new/unused'. This limited edition crystal figurine arrived with brand packaging box missing - which is an integral component - and remaining brand packaging arrived damaged, marked & torn which reduces the overall value and appeal of the item. Damage was not shown in lot photos & seller claimed missing box had been included and sent and that customs staff must have lost it/caused the damage (Customs had not opened the parcel). Claim submitted to Catawiki supported by photographic evidence of the damage but the so called experts stated the item matched the description! A complaint from me about this decision resulted in the original decision being reviewed - with same outcome and no further feedback from Catawiki - even though the seller acknowledged the issues in writing to me offering a 30% discount/refund if I kept the item and Catawiki knew this. Despite Catawiki deciding there was no issue with the item received, I was offered a 50 € Catawiki voucher compensation when claim first denied then this increased to a 100 € voucher after the review also turned down my claim. Why would you offer 'compensation' if everything went well? Doesn't make any sense. I am seriously unhappy and stuck with a damaged item costing well over £1000. Also, the customer service turnaround times for claims is ridiculous. I waited one month for a final decision and had to chase this up several times by email and phone to get any response. I do not recommend Catawiki and would urge caution when using.
I sold a few items and almost every time they put my items in the wrong category and they edit your copy for your item. I had a PROMO sealed Rolling Stones LP from 1965 and I stated that in the listing and took great photos to show it was still sealed. Michael Saffrie was the "expert" who sent me an email and asked me for pictures of the LP label. It's still sealed how do I do that? When he listed it, he edited that it was sealed and my $500 LP sold for $26. The Saffrie guy is killing the music section. I watch his auctions and they are all super low. He's running everyone off. We stopped selling on it. When Saffrie is gone we might go back and sell our great stuff.
I bid for the above and paid £150 for 3 bottles I wasn't notified that my wine was sitting in parcel force depot waiting for payment. It showed on the tracking that I would receive a letter advisory of clearance charges. I found the number and found that the seller had put on customs declaration price I paid not actual value. I was charged £50 plus to get in cleared. I could have got the same in UK for less. I realise that after Brexit there is a duty payable now, so the seller should have advised what he was going to do then I had a choice to accept outrageous charges or to advise to put value at £70 not auction value. That's my last dealing with them I can deal in UK and forget 33% duty.
Bottom line great product listings great user interface BUT 1. If seller doesn't get their price they will just cancel the sale or not fulfill their side of the transaction, not ship the product and Ghost you until the electronic refund rule kicks in. Juanla1 has done this repeatedly even recently on a $1k tag heuer that sold for $470 catawiki image listed below. There's no enforcement and no consequence for a bad faith seller. There's no consequence to the many complaints being filed. Look at the seller profile, if they don't fulfill the transaction you can't leave a bad review so there's no disclosure.
2. Careful of indentity theft. Same seller tried telling us we had to provide our personal identification for them to ship. Catawiki does a great job providing the seller all information needed to sell. I've had 100 transactions deliver when fulfilled by seller (4 not fulfilled) so the information is there. Seller tried to get unneedeed personally identifiable information against US Customs rules... no consequence to them. They are still selling with no reprimand or investigative results. Imaged below. Seller is still selling and probably pulling their scam as they also didn't send product. Fake product sale with request for ID... fraud anyone?
3. If you email support for any issue product question etc it will be at least 2ndays to hear back if at all. It's very unmonitored, sellers are unregulated, and violations are unconsequenced. As a buyer you are on your own.
I have bought a ring through Catawiki from Allegra's Ĺegend Israel with an emerald. Was provided a certificate from AIG. Ring evalustio made by Catawiki " experts" was 6500 to 7500 euro. I went to 2 evaluators in my country and the stone is a hydrotermic sintetic emerald worth 10 euro
Pros - Diverse product selection, easy to use interface, fairly consistent and functional phone app on android. Cons - slow to respond to buyer inquiries about product, lacks the ability to ask seller questions prior to sale, no authenticity guarantees or certificate, repeated errors and overcharges on multi sale freight shipoing costs while generally unresponsive to customer support emails at least 50% of the time, other responses took 2 days minimum. General failure ton prioritizie buyer protection and buyer process support. They will 'accidentally' charge you excess fees by not consolidating shipping. This is done by dispersing a single sellers identical product across several auction curators and then trying to charge shipping fees for each curators "individual auction" on the same day from the same auction event at the same time. When you catch it they are either unresponsive or delayed and you have to find ways to back door communicate with the seller because they restrict seller message access until after you pay the excess fees at which time it is impossible for the willing seller to refund. Cancelations of sale - had this happen multiple times where an item didn't go as high as seller probably wanted. So after the sale, seller claimed product quality issue only to see it show up again on the same auction or on Ebay. Refund then took 2 weeks. I actually bid on the same product on Ebay that I had bought already on catawiki while the seller was 'cancelling" my sale due to lack of product availability? Catawiki never responded to that information. Separately a seller sold product but then didn't have it for fulfillment. Seller supposed to ship in 3 days took 3 weeks and over 21 days with 5 help requests sent, catawiki never answered or followed up. They won't step in and help or protect a buyer. Over 80 transaction on platform and now suspending use until they resolve service, payment and communications issues. Oh and one last thing when a seller contacted me saying he hadn't been paid by Catawiki and threatened me, they never responded to repeated requests for help. Had to secure my own legal support and file my own complaint with law enforcement. When offered that information, Catawiki never responded. Great website terrible serivce.
Answer:There is customer support but you'll have to be patient. It can take weeks for them to get back to you. Buyers are protected, you just need to push and keep pushing. Sellers are required to send everything with tracking and insurance, so you should be OK.
