Hey, I think there's a skunk in my Bearpaw Tama boots - product review

Imagine if you will, that for Christmas you were given a brand new dressy winter jacket, with a fur trimmed hood. It's lovely and now your ancient winter boots, that are cracking and leaking around the soles look very out of place. Well, that is just where my story starts.

After many hours of shopping locally, I was unable to find the perfect boots to both match my style and taste and my new jacket. I wanted comfort and good quality too, because I wouldn't be buying another pair of boots after this purchase until they were worn out. After many additional hours of research and looking online I decided on the black Tama style boots by BearPaw.

I ordered them online on January 5, 2011 and received them on January 12th. They're lovely boots, I couldn't wait till I had the chance to wear them. I took them out of the box quick tried them on for size, at that time I noticed what I thought was a strange rancid rubbery smell. Figured it was the new soles and didn't ponder it further, put them back in the box to take up to my room. A few days later I decided to wear my new boots, so I took them out of the box and removed the plastic sleeves that the boots were packaged in, and the odor hit me again only this time I realized it was skunk! I so desparately wanted to wear the boots. "Maybe they would air out after a day of wear". I shouldn't have worn them to work, it might just be the most embarrassing day of my life. As my co-workers repeatedly commented on smelling skunk, I just wanted to go hide somewhere out of everyones olfactory zone.
by the way - regarding sizing - I wear a size 7 to 7 1/2 shoe, and have a somewhat narrow foot, so per all comments and suggestions I ordered an 8 and they are slightly big, plenty wide, but I would be afraid to order small since it's better to have a little extra room than not enough).

Long story short, after a little over a week of trying to get some resolution on the problem it has now come down to me having to spend MY money to return them to the company at which time they would have to send me a completely different style (although they offered more than one option), none of which was really truly what I wanted. I am having a difficult time justifying paying to return a product that never should have been sent to me in the first place only to receive in return, a pair of boots that I never would have originally purchased.

So one month and almost $100 later I still don't have any boots to wear, and needless to say I am pretty much one very unhappy customer. Oh, and fyi this was a "batch wide" problem from what the person I spoke with indicated and that the retailer I bought them from did not have any replacements in stock for me. When I asked to be able to contact the manufacturer I discovered that the boots are actually made in China (my bad for some reason thinking these were made in the US where the quality control would be better). Maybe a stowaway skunk in a some Chinese factory is to blame for the free smells you get with the boot. At any rate, I have found other online reviews indicating the same problem with the same boot, so it's not just me.

Have you too experienced this - please post in the comments, and as for anyone else considering ordering, be sure to get confirmation from the seller that they have opened the plastic packaging sleeves and done a sniff test first. My recommendation would be to only buy them in person, so you can view the product carefully and sniff it too!

Update (2/10/11): I am happy to report that I have received a pair of replacement boots, sans odor! Yeah! I have another month, maybe, of winter weather left in which to wear them. Thank you to those who helped me.