American Cleaners of Middletown, Inc.

Review: I dropped my clothes off for cleaning on July **, 2014. I prepaid as required, they were due to be done on July * after 5 PM. I went in on July * (on my lunch half hour) and waited about 45 minutes while several employees frantically looked around for my clothes. Twice they came up and showed me pieces, asking if they were mine, but were not. Finally, they found my clothes, I saw them put them in dry cleaning bags and they were handed to me. I complained to the [redacted] (his name is either [redacted] or [redacted], a shorter bald, middle aged man). He said that next time I came in, he would clean several pieces of ,my clothes for free. I asked him to write something down for me, he said it was not necessary as he was the [redacted] and was always there and he would remember me. When I took my clothes out of the dry cleaning bags while away over the holiday weekend, it appeared that some of them were either not cleaned or not fully cleaned/pressed. I returned to the store this morning (July **). The girl at the counter remembered me and tried to call the [redacted]., he did not respond. The [redacted] was there and came over and said what is going on? The girl explained it to him, he replied we do not do that. I re-explained it and was trying to point out where on the clothing was not clean. By this point the [redacted] came over, the [redacted] yelled at him and asked him if he told me that he would compensate me, the [redacted] shrugged his shoulders and said yeah. The [redacted] yelled at him and then told me he had no authority to do anything like that, that he would give me two credits of $1.49 each, total of $1.98. Each item that I paid for was 5.99 per piece, I had 7 items. I stated that was not fair as that is not what I was promised and my clothes were not even cleaned properly. He screamed at me to go away, he did not want my business. I asked the girl at the counter for his name, he yelled at her not to speak to me. When he turned around, she mouthed "sorry, and his name is [redacted]".Desired Settlement: I would like a refund and an apology. This man is very hot headed and irrational, plain and simply a poor business man.

Business

Response:

First we would like to say that it is not necessary to prepay for cleaning. However when an order is prepaid the price is 10% less. [redacted] chose to have her cleaning pre-paid. We acknowledge that when the customer came in to pick-up her garments it did take about 10 minutes to serve her. The clothes had been cleaned, pressed and bagged in a timely manner however the store was very busy and it took longer than we would have liked. [redacted] was agitated. She was very vocal about having wasted her break time from work and demanded some compensation. Although it is not our policy to give credit when there is a reasonable wait time, the [redacted] told her that he would give her a credit for something when she returned. The store was very busy and she was holding up our other customers. The next time the customer came in she brought 5-7 items to have cleaned. She wanted them done for free. The [redacted] was called to the front of the store. He apologi zed and told the customer that, again, although it is not customary for us to credit people if they need to wait a little while for their clothes, he would offer to give her a shirt cleaned for free. She was unhappy with that so he then offered in addition to the shirt to have pants cleaned and pressed for free. She was still unhappy and very angry. He told her that was all he could do for her. She finally said she would give us the things to do for free, take back the others and never come in again. He told her that she could leave now. She became irate and used foul language. She asked him for his name. He told her and spelled it for her. She left while stopping other customers and complaining to them. We offered [redacted] two garments cleaned for free after having to wait 10 minutes for her cleaning. Waiting on line is never enjoyable; however, it is a fact of life. We were busy trying to help her the entire time she was there. Does she expect free food from the supermar ket when a customer in front of her needs a price check or money from the bank when it takes extra time for service? We apologized. We offered compensation even though it seemed above and beyond. There is no more we can do for this customer.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:

The response received from the dry cleaner is completely innacurrate. I did in fact wait more than 40 minutes while 3 employees at the dry cleaner ran around frantically trying to locate my clothes. At different points they brought garments up to me to ask if they were mine. The cleaners was not at all busy at the time, 2 other customers came and went while I waited for my clothes. I advised the [redacted] at the end that I was there for longer than my 30 minute lunch break. He replied. "Sorry, what do you want me to do?" I asked him what he thought would be appropriate. He said next time I came in he would clean 4 items for free. The next time I came in, when the [redacted] became involved he advised me that the [redacted] has no authority to do that, that he would give me credit for one shirt ($1.49...this is the price for a men's dress shirt), and I advised him that I did not have any of that item in for cleaning -that all of my items were more than $5 each. He yelled at me that he did not want my business and to leave he was not going to do anything for me. I asked his name and he walked away. I asked the young girl at the counter and he came back and yelled at her and told her not to talk to me. She was the one that gave me his name when he walked away. He was hot-headed, rude and unprofessional. And if foul language was used, it was by him. This business is claiming to be so busy, perhaps if they paid more attention to detail and did not misplace clothes (and fail to clean them), then 3 employees would not have had to be dedicated to helping one customer. There's much to be said for doing it right the first time...then no one's time gets wasted.

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In order for the Revdex.com to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.

Sincerely,

Business

Response:

We are sorry that we have not been able to resolve this matter to this customer’s satisfaction. Unfortunately, on rare occasion, there comes a time when it not possible to be satisfy a particular customer in a manner that would be appropriate in the given situation. We feel that this is such a situation. While we disagree on the amount of wait time this customer states she waited, we did acknowledge that her wait time was longer than either of us would have liked. As a courtesy, because we do care about our customers’ experiences with us, we did offer to provide her with a credit in an attempt to resolve this matter. Unfortunately, we could not compensate this customer to the degree that she was anticipating. While we do make every effort to address any and all customer concerns in a manner that is both fair and appropriate, we cannot set a precedent that customers with some wait time should receive compensation she is seeki ng. We acknowledge that this customer is upset, however when a customer becomes irate and causes a disruption that upsets our other customers (including addressing those customers directly) it does, on a rare occasion, become our duty to ask that customer to leave in order to ensure our other client’s safety and comfort.