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.

No I don't think you have grounds to return it, I often buy thing which smell heavily of fabric softener which I hate, it often lingers but I wouldn't consider returning anything- it's reasonable it smells of laundering. Is this a leather jacket- I get the feeling you can't launder it. Put it in an airtight laundry bag with 4-6oz of bicarbonate of soda-after a week the smell will be gone.

I have had a buyer return an item on the grounds it smelt strongly on fabric softener. It was brand new with tags on and I hadn’t sprayed it with anything, like fabreze.
I suspect it was too small, as it was a size 4, but I accepted the return.

I find it hard to believe that washing hasn’t got rid of the smell already! I’m not saying you’re lying, I’m just amazed. Do a simple water rinse, and then try another 30C cycle, but a longer one. Use a biological powder instead of a liquid detergent, and don’t use fabric softener. A good idea might be to also add a scoop of Oxy cleaner, Pink Stuff do a very reasonably priced one (got it off amazon recently).

oh the amazon branded one is cheaper currently https://amzn.eu/d/0iyLtjrj

A pre soak in it might be useful too

Doesn't sound fair to me. Why are you selling bobbly jumpers? Unless you marked the condition down to satisfactory or fair (I can't remember what the lower one is) and the bobbling was clear on the photos, I would not be happy to pay postage to return it.

Two things I've tried to get smells out of clothing:

Soda water, I'd probably soak overnight.

Halo sports wash (from Sainsbury). It is antibacterial and anti fungal and has removed sweat, mold, fox/dog poo and vomit leaving no traces of the smell. Designed to be used at low temperatures on synthetic fabric - might be worth a try.

A second hand polyester coat 😳

It’s often quite easy to resolve and not everyone minds doing so for £5.

Really, you must have more to do with your time than dig in. I’ve explained that I didn’t buy it to be fashionable, I bought it for specific features and it was something have been looking for over a year. I saw similar coats sell for this price and there aren’t many.

Have you tried spraying vinegar on it? That seems to work on smoke, so may neutralise the smell.

Anyway if I can’t get the odour out I’m not going to sell it on. There’s a clothes library that deals with these types of functional clothes so I’ll give it to them and hopefully others will get something out of it. It’ll make me feel better than the stress of trying to sell it on and likely not making my money back.

There should be a special place reserved in hell for sellers who do this.

I’m curious to know what the special features are.

Its the nature of polyester to hold on to smells. Might not be actual perfume but build up from detergent/fabric conditioner.

@Mamma272 ,have a look on the link I posted.

£150 does not sound too much for a specialised coat.

That’s useful to know. Makes sense, DH used to wear the most awful polyester shirts for the gym. I rarely buy it aside from outdoor jackets. Very expensive mistake.

I hope OP doesn’t say, it’s their own business and irrelevant.

Do the washing instructions stipulate any kind of detergent?

Yes, it may well be something like a ski jacket or similar.

I’ll have to check in a bit but it’s something like mild detergent or mild wash. Does that exclude using oxy or Dr beckman’s?

If the jacket is still in the same condition as when you purchased it, I would request to return it stating that you are allergic to perfume and it’s therefore unsuitable. You have a certain time frame for returns with Vinted. The seller may offer you a discount for your trouble and to avoid having to process a return.

To some of us, perfume is as disgusting as poo or fags or chips.

I hate perfume, especially patchouli (fruit mould) and chanel (old lady powder)

Sell it on, you should be able to get some money back on it. Just state it has an aroma

Former dry cleaner here. Dry cleaners don’t just dry clean, they’re specialists in cleaning fabrics. They could help.

Polyester is man made remember so it’s pretty tough. I would soak it in bicarb and a cap of white vinegar, then wash it again and see how that goes. Green fairy liquid is what we used to use to remove most things so I’d even try soaking it in that as well if the first one doesn't work

Maybe it was doused with perfume to hide an underlying musty smell?

When you say you've wash it, do you mean handwashed or machine?

Ive put jackets through the washing machine on the delicate cycle and that's got rid of smells. Drying outside helps also.

Hang it outside for three days.