Publish My Number – Please
August 1, 2008 by The Constant Complainer
I’ve made the comment before that either I am extremely detail oriented or strange things just seem to happen to me. In this case, the incident that occurred wasn’t just happening to me, but I was accused of being the only one to actually complain about it.
When it comes to ironing verses dry cleaning, I’m happy to pay to get my shirts and slacks professionally dry cleaned. I’ve felt that way for years.
In this case, I needed some new dress shirts, so I picked them up at the local department store, came home, threw them in the dry cleaning pile and dropped them off the next day. A few days later when I picked them up from the dry cleaner and brought them home, I happened to notice a problem. In addition to the tag (with the dry cleaning identification number on it) that was plastic stapled to my shirts, my telephone number (complete with area code) was written in permanent black marker on the inside tail of both new dress shirts. My initial reaction was to check the rest of my dress shirts, since I consistently use the same dry cleaner. Sure enough, every single one of them had my telephone number written on the inside tail with permanent black marker.
I wouldn’t be The Constant Complainer if I didn’t stir the pot every now and then. So I called the dry cleaner and asked why they felt the need to deface my personal property. They told me that it is a secondary measure used to identify articles of clothing if the plastic (stapled) tag falls off. They further told me that in all their years of being in business, nobody had ever complained about it. I find that hard to believe. But anyway, I told them that these were brand new shirts and now I considered them ruined (maybe that was harsh, but I was upset). I then said that I expected to be reimbursed for the ruined shirts. I was told that I would have to talk to the Owner, which I did. He explained the same thing that the clerk did and then told me that every dry cleaner in the business uses this strategy. My argument, admittedly weak, was that these were new shirts. I further questioned what would have happened if I had a relative staying with me and I was getting their clothes dry cleaned. Hey, like I said, I know it was a weak argument, but as they say, I had already dug in my heels.
The Owner refused to pay for my shirts, which I didn’t expect him to do anyway. However, he did agree to mark my file to not have any shirts, pants or suit coats written on with marker anymore. Out of pure morbid curiosity, I ended up calling four other dry cleaners to see if they used this practice or not. One admitted that they wrote on the clothes as a secondary measure and the other three said they used other methods.
I refuse to believe that I am the only person to ever complain about this practice. Maybe I was overly excited about my new shirts. Maybe I was thinking long-term, like if I later donated the shirts and didn’t want my telephone number on them. Or maybe I was thinking more about my telephone number, which I might add – is unlisted. In the end, this dry cleaner has good prices and has only lost one of my shirts in six years, so I decided to keep giving them my business…
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So in 6 years they’ve never written on ANY of the tails of your shirts? In 6 years they’ve never had a sign posted or any other type of print where they said that they will do this? If they did, you should have expected this to happen. If not, they most certainly did ruin your personal property and owe some type of return. Perhaps you should check out some of the consumer advocacy groups out there and get them to write a letter on your behalf.
Dry cleaning is usually covered on your Home-Owners or renter’s insurance policy under the personal property section…good luck.
I think this is a bizarre practice. Over the years I have had hundreds of items dry cleaned. Is this something that the dry cleaner does on just repeat customers garments? I have used several different cleaners in my city and have never come across this type of disrepect and disregard for customers or the business they are trying to sustain. I have been using the same dry cleaner consistently for the past three years and they have never written on my clothing with so much as a check mark in chalk! Don’t tolerate that type of treatment. Check out DearConsumer.Com, I bet they can help! (lol)
Don’t blame the dry cleaner…
…blame the legal system that allows some miserable POS judge, that crawled out from underneath a rock to sue a mom and pop dry cleaner for millions of dollars over a lost pair of pants.