"Currently from a smoke free home", smells like smoke

[mylittELLEpony]

My husband just bought me a Rainbow Brite doll lot on ebay. The description just said they were clean and currently from a smoke free home. I could tell they needed some restoration work from the photos, but did NOT expect them to reek of cigarette smoke when they got to me. They came today and they do. I feel like the seller used the word "currently" to skate around the fact that they came from a smoker before they themselves got the dolls (I assume that's why they listed the dolls to begin with.) I'm really upset. I want to try to fix them but I haven't even seen a Rainbow Brite toy in real life since my childhood in the early 90's and honestly feel like the seller was intentionally deceptive in their description.

What would you do?

[Leave a Whisper]

Well I would definitely complain to the seller about it. I mean they straight up lied in their description to you and that's totally bogus, that would get a bad review from me, if I were looking for a smoke free toy. Then you can decide from there, whether you want to get a refund and send her back or you can keep her and get the smoke smell out, but either way don't let them get away with straight up lying to you.

[mylittELLEpony]

Well I would definitely complain to the seller about it. I mean they straight up lied in their description to you and that's totally bogus, that would get a bad review from me, if I were looking for a smoke free toy. Then you can decide from there, whether you want to get a refund and send her back or you can keep her and get the smoke smell out, but either way don't let them get away with straight up lying to you.

I think you're right. I'm so anxious about having to possibly try to get a refund, and I really wanted these toys. I would NOT have let him pay this much (maybe half what he paid) if I knew they were gross like this. I just went through another eBay situation where we had to open a case bc the seller had something in multiple photos that I thought was included and they worded the description in a very shady way that didn't say it wasn't included. I was hoping to not have to open another eBay case again after that mess. There are six dolls, five small sprites, and one large sprite in this lot. It was A LOT of money to us. I was excited to own these dolls, but I'm not confident that cleaning them won't damage them because they are SO gross (smell wise.) 

[Leave a Whisper]

Well I would definitely complain to the seller about it. I mean they straight up lied in their description to you and that's totally bogus, that would get a bad review from me, if I were looking for a smoke free toy. Then you can decide from there, whether you want to get a refund and send her back or you can keep her and get the smoke smell out, but either way don't let them get away with straight up lying to you.

I think you're right. I'm so anxious about having to possibly try to get a refund, and I really wanted these toys. I would NOT have let him pay this much (maybe half what he paid) if I knew they were gross like this. I just went through another eBay situation where we had to open a case bc the seller had something in multiple photos that I thought was included and they worded the description in a very shady way that didn't say it wasn't included. I was hoping to not have to open another eBay case again after that mess. There are six dolls, five small sprites, and one large sprite in this lot. It was A LOT of money to us. I was excited to own these dolls, but I'm not confident that cleaning them won't damage them because they are SO gross (smell wise.) 

Not necessarily my friend, smoke smell isn't impossible to get out. I've had several toys come to me  from eBay that stunk so bad I thought I'd never get it out.

 But washing and airing them out by the window and sometimes even spritzing them with really good odor eliminators really did the trick.

Heck I had a Breyer come to me that reeked so bad , even the outside of the box was gag worthy. Made me wonder if the horse lit up a few on the way over here? 

Since you seem to want to keep them, at least leave the seller with appropriate feedback. They need to learn that lying to their customers will cost them.

[Taffeta]

I think that it is possible to get smells out with good airing and so on. My North Star was clearly a chain smoker when she came to me but now she smells just fine. One of my birthflower ponies stunk of car oil but she's also better now after spending time outside.

Definitely complain to the seller, though. That seems deliberately misleading to me.

[Carrehz]

That's definitely deliberate deceit - it's worded in such a way that you wouldn't necessarily think anything of it, but isn't technically lying (assuming your guess is correct and the sellers weren't smokers themselves). They knew what they were doing. I'd definitely take it up with them, that's so unfair! Why do people have to do stuff like this >__<

I hope you can get the smell out of them and maybe come to some sort of resolution w/ the seller Good luck.

[Leave a Whisper]

I think that it is possible to get smells out with good airing and so on. My North Star was clearly a chain smoker when she came to me but now she smells just fine. One of my birthflower ponies stunk of car oil but she's also better now after spending time outside.

Definitely complain to the seller, though. That seems deliberately misleading to me.

That part about North Star cracked me up! Glad to hear she's uh, kicked the habit.

[Taffeta]

I think that it is possible to get smells out with good airing and so on. My North Star was clearly a chain smoker when she came to me but now she smells just fine. One of my birthflower ponies stunk of car oil but she's also better now after spending time outside.

Definitely complain to the seller, though. That seems deliberately misleading to me.

That part about North Star cracked me up! Glad to hear she's uh, kicked the habit.

Yes. Between her smoking habit and Shady's hallucinogenic sunglasses there were some definite social problems in the movie star set. It just goes to show that not all ponies can handle fame...

[mylittELLEpony]

I think that it is possible to get smells out with good airing and so on. My North Star was clearly a chain smoker when she came to me but now she smells just fine. One of my birthflower ponies stunk of car oil but she's also better now after spending time outside.

Definitely complain to the seller, though. That seems deliberately misleading to me.

That part about North Star cracked me up! Glad to hear she's uh, kicked the habit.

Yes. Between her smoking habit and Shady's hallucinogenic sunglasses there were some definite social problems in the movie star set. It just goes to show that not all ponies can handle fame...

  I love this conversation.

I've decided I'm keeping the dolls, but I'm leaving negative feedback. I don't want to send them back (especially the basically mint besides the smell Tickled Pink) so I'm restoring them. I'm still really irritated that the seller blatantly tried to scam people, though. Hopefully she doesn't leave retaliatory feedback, bc she hasn't left any yet even though we paid literally seconds after the auction ended.

[LadyMoondancer]

Was it on eBay?  To me that deserves a "not as described" strike.  The description is deliberately deceptive.

[bluerose9978]

I've decided I'm keeping the dolls, but I'm leaving negative feedback. I don't want to send them back (especially the basically mint besides the smell Tickled Pink) so I'm restoring them. I'm still really irritated that the seller blatantly tried to scam people, though. Hopefully she doesn't leave retaliatory feedback, bc she hasn't left any yet even though we paid literally seconds after the auction ended.

Since this is on eBay, the seller cannot leave negative or neutral feedback for you, so you're safe in that regard. The worst they can do is leave a positive with comments but you can have them removed by eBay if they aren't true. My guess is they won't leave any feedback for you at all but will reply to your comment on their own feedback.

[mylittELLEpony]

Update to this: We emailed the seller and said that while they may not have come to US from a smoker's home, they definitely came to THE SELLER from a smoker's home and that because of that the description was deceptive and also flat out wrong because they also stated that the "dolls are clean." The seller replied saying they didn't smell like smoke and nobody smokes INSIDE of their home, which makes us think that the seller IS a smoker but thought it didn't count because they don't smoke INSIDE of the house, though the dolls were obviously exposed to massive amounts of smoke somehow be it directly or indirectly. In the end the seller gave us a partial refund, so I get to keep the dolls and we're satisfied with what we ended up paying in the end for the lot.

[Baby Sugarberry]

This is unfortunately common with heavy smokers - they lose the ability to smell smoke / nicotine.  Glad you got a settlement that's (hopefully) fair for all involved.  The good news is as mentioned, it's usually possible to get the smell out of toys with enough time and patience.  Be careful if you're going to wash your RB dolls and/or sprites, and for the love of star sprinkles keep them out of the dryer.   Dryers can be hot enough to partially melt the plastic poly-fur and the yarn hair does not take kindly to rough handling. 

[mylittELLEpony]

This is unfortunately common with heavy smokers - they lose the ability to smell smoke / nicotine.  Glad you got a settlement that's (hopefully) fair for all involved.  The good news is as mentioned, it's usually possible to get the smell out of toys with enough time and patience.  Be careful if you're going to wash your RB dolls and/or sprites, and for the love of star sprinkles keep them out of the dryer.   Dryers can be hot enough to partially melt the plastic poly-fur and the yarn hair does not take kindly to rough handling.

I've already fixed them, and definitely did not put them in the dryer.  All is well in Rainbow Land!

[Baby Sugarberry]

Good to hear it's all worked out for you in the end. n_n