Ice Maker Is A Bust

I am SO annoyed - after finally figuring out how to order the ice maker, when I took it out of the box it smelled horrible - like the smell any kind of new electric appliance might smell - gas? plastic? chemicals? When I opened the box I put it on the dining room table and that night Mike couldn't even eat next to it because it smelled so bad. I was hoping it was just a newness thing, so I plugged it in and made several batches of ice with it. The cubes were perfect, not too hard,  a little wet and almost chewy if that makes sense - perfect for crunching!! I figured once I started using it a lot the smell would go away. Sometimes I wouldn't smell it but then other times I would - I washed the inside a few times with vinegar and water as per the instructions. One night we came home and it was pretty hot in the house, I made a nice big glass of ice water to bring to bed with me and when I got up into the bedroom and bit into the cube all I could taste was that smell. YUCK! I was so mad. Obviously I am not going to use it because who knows what kind of carcinogenic chemical is covering my ice cubes now. My bigger problem was how in the world do I find out if I can return the thing. And even if I can, the thing is huge so how much was it going to cost me to mail it back, and how would I even find a UPS-type place to do it. I have noticed that European return/exchange laws are pretty strict, i.e they really suck in that things usually have to be returned within 7 to 14 days. How stupid is that? On a side note Mike once bought me an expensive wallet in Dublin (that I didn't really want, I liked it but thought he spent too much for a little wallet and that it was a waste of money). I tried to return it but he had bought it for my birthday so bought it a few/several days before he gave it to me, so by the time I got to the store to return it and get my money back they wouldn't let me. Things like that really piss me off. It's not like going into a Babies R Us with some Carters clothes you got for a gift that you don't even know if they came from BRU, but you go in and they don't even give you a hassle when you try to return it - without a receipt. Anyway, I digress. It took me a day or so to open the ice maker and then by the time I finally got around to cleaning and using it, then letting it sit for a few days and then using it some more to try to get rid of the smell and then finally deciding to return it, a couple of weeks passed. Finally I forwarded the confirmation email I received after I bought it to Michal to translate to see if he could figure out the return policy. He ended up calling the company and of course, the policy is 10 days. They did say they would go to the manufacturer and see if it could be replaced by the warranty, but I am not really holding my breath. I am so upset, I was so happy with the thought of fresh, juicy ice cubes constantly at my disposal. Bum-mer