Expensive vinted mistake

[Mamma272]

I bought a secondhand jacket for £150. It arrived and smells of perfume which I hate! I’ve washed it and it still smells.

I’ve been through this once before - I bought a charity shop jacket and found it reeked when I got home I couldn’t tolerate the smell of it. I tried so many remedies including gallons of white vinegar and even vodka! I also stored with activated charcoal and that didn’t work. I ended up spending more than the cost of the jacket and eventually returned it.

This is by far the most I’ve ever spent on clothes on vinted - I usually buy bundles of baby things that are always clean!

Do I have ground to return it? Give a 1* review? I don’t know if I have the energy to try all the remedies again and as it’s cold it’s going to take longer to dry and limit how often I can have a go.

Don’t put ammonia on your clothes. And if you already have don’t use any more. It just needs to be outside for some time.

Yep, same problem here with some jeans. They stank of Fabreze, which to me is likely worse than whatever smell they had before. Awful stuff.

@CherryKerry , it does. Fabric conditioner smells are hard to get rid of on polyester. Polyester sportswear can be stinky.

It would be helpful to know more about the coat is OP is willing to tell us. If it has waterproofing then it's likely that the smell is trapped in the wax, and it probably needs to be stripped and re-proofed.

Could the smell be the fabric degrading? Plastics don’t age well, sometimes the glue also degrades. Usually it isn’t a perfume smell but I wonder if it’s something like that. Also some synthetics react very badly to bio soap powder and if the previous owner used bio powder when they shouldn’t have - it can permanently damage or alter the fabric.

What about an enzyme cleaner? You could potentially spray it on and then wash after it’s had time to work. You’d need to test a small area first.

I would leave it outside for a couple of days, as long as weather permits. I get what you say about other people’s smells. I often buy stuff on Vinted that’s been beautifully laundered but I still wash it as I want it to smell like “me”. I hope you find a solution. If you can’t tolerate it, I’d relist it and be clear in your description why. Hopefully you’ll make some money back.

It might not be a wax that can stripped, it might be a PFAS type forever chemical that can’t be washed off or removed. The OP needs to do some research into the make up of the fabric.

So sorry OP 💐

If you’re very sensitive, just avoid Vinted and second hand clothes.

Well, you know that now, but you can rescue your coat with bicarb very satisfactorily. Leave it outside for a couple of days.

If it's an outdoor coat with waterproofing you've screwed it with all those different chemicals you've put on it.

I'd have contacted the seller and asked if they'd consider a return and if not I'd have sold it on.

Like I say if it's a waterproof and you've done all that to it you can't in all honesty sell it on as a waterproof, so yep, expensive mistake.

It’s polyester, polyamide and spandex.

I assume its a waterproof coat e.g. like a ski jacket or mountain coat not a wool style coat. Hence polyester and special features

Washing label says max 30 degrees, no tumble dry, can iron.

This is why I never buy anything from Vinted anymore. Everything Ive bought in the past stinks of perfume, BO or is stained. No thanks Id rather buy new in the sales.

Why would you give her a 1 star review? It was sold as secondhand, not new.

This happened to me as a seller on Vinted and I did absolutely nothing wrong. It's horrible and aggressive.

This is the suggestion I just read, too. Also, have you tried washing inside out?

I was taught to never wash cotton and polyester together because the polyester would absorb the dirt and smells. I was wondering why and found this:

Oil-Loving (Oleophilic) Fibers:
Polyester is non-polar and oleophilic, meaning it repels water (hydrophobic) but actively attracts and binds to oily, fatty substances.

I would let the seller know. Some people put on so much perfume they do reek of it and it is nauseating. And not the impact they perhaps are going for.
Whoever sold it needs to know the garment stank of perfume. But so much so it was unpleasant.

I’ve only ever had a couple of return requests, for things that didn’t fit, when Ive sold on Vinted and have agreed to accept them back because I felt sorry for the buyers, but there’s no way I would agree to a return if someone had washed the item.

I feel your pain here - I had similar with what should have been a beautiful camel coloured wool coat - I tried everything to no avail and it had to go. I hate those Fabreze type smells and that awful smell of almost aniseed sometimes? Why do people do that?

Unfortunately it's just the luck of the draw with Vinted, and I always comfort myself thinking of the amazing bargains I have had which have been great, so the odd dud is just one of those things. If I were you because of the price you paid I would resell it on Vinted. A positive one for you - I bought a woven suede look handbag, and when it arrived it had that awful 'fish' poly smell - I turned it inside out and just left it for ages and the smell went.

Is that bacteria though, I wash mine with Dettol antibacterial laundry stuff (whatever its called) and that stops mu gym gear getting that fusty smell.

Have you clicked “everything is ok”?

Fabric conditioner smell on clothes are really difficult to get out. Even after several washes, the smell can be strong. Wash it a few more times (vinegar, bicarb. etc.) and see how it goes.

I have had to throw away some stuff though when the smell wouldn't go.

Oh boy, this might be tricky.

Google tells me -

Perfume is incredibly difficult to remove from a polyester, spandex, and polyamide coat because fragrance manufacturers use oil-based fixatives and chemical binders specifically designed to cling to surfaces. Because synthetic fibers are naturally oleophilic (oil-loving), they lock onto these oily fragrance compounds and refuse to release them during a standard laundry cycle.

If the seller wore perfume regularly they probably didn’t even realise their coat smelled off it. I have no practical advice I’m afraid OP but hope you can get it out.

There was a thread on here recently about an OP looking to sell higher end clothes pn Vinted and they weren’t selling with coats looking for £150. Their RRP was more like up to £1000 but the key point lots of people made was they wouldn’t want to take a punt at £150 even if objectively it could be a bargain. This thread is sadly a case in point.

I had a dress like this before. I’d washed it numerous times but it still stank of perfume. I hung it outside for a couple of weeks, including in the rain/sun and then washed it. It still smelt but nowhere near as bad. Not sure if this is something you could think of doing?