Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Is it me, or are all Dry Cleaners crazy?

This morning I got a call from the doorman in my building who said the dry cleaner wanted to speak with me (is that like being sent to the principal's office?). So...he gets on the phone (without introducing himself) and proceeds to yell and tell me that there is a $15 minimum for pick up and did I have anything else. Well, let's see - why would I keep my dirty laundry in hiding upstairs and just drop off one pair of pants? NO, I DON'T HAVE ANYTHING ELSE, OR YOU WOULD SEE IT?!?!?!?

I said I was never told that there was a minimum and besides, because I was so annoyed I told him just to leave my dirty pants in the lobby and "fugget abowd it" I'll come get them later.

Because I was on the phone with a client, I did not make a big deal of this however, afterward I thought "you've already made the trip to my building anyway, what's one more pair of dirty pants? and...why would you turn down business, especially from a new customer [with a blog?!?!?]" then, I got angry when I started thinking of all my other dry cleaner exeriences of late and thought "is it me?"...

So...as anyone who has been reading this blog knows, I have recently moved. Therefore, I need all new services including dry cleaning. So far, I have gone to 3 local dry cleaners, only 1 of which has been even civil to me despite that I have spent lots of money with them and gotten abused in various ways.

The first one didn't speak English and neither did his workers when he is not there. This is all well and good if it's a simple drop off but not when you have questions (which I did) or need alterations (which by the way are a HUGE income stream for them)....

The second one was closed even tho the sign on the door said they should have been open....

The third one was nice enough and even did a good job of alterations (since I was still in need from drycleaner #1), however the parking is horrible there and it is otherwise not in a convenient location for me.

So now, I come to find out that my building has this service (shouldn't the owner of this company have some kind of marketing in place to notify all new homeowners of this. I've been here for 6 months???) so I figure, OK I'm busy - I'll give it a shot. And so...once again, I find myself at the mercy of some crazy dry cleaner.

So...I went downstairs to pick up my dirty pants (thanks very much) and the doorman gave me a printout of this service's prices on which it says there is a $15 minimum (sure, NOW you tell me)...also there is his phone number. Which I just called. The outgoing message gives no indication the phone number is a business (yet another marketing mistake) and just says to leave a message, which I did. I leave it to your imagination as to the content of my message.

Is it me, or are all the dry cleaners in the world independently wealthy and just doing this service because they're on a mission to keep the world clean?

Do you have a dry cleaner (or other similar business) experience? If so, I'd love to hear about...