>Taken to the Cleaners
>There’s very little more annoying than paying a shitload of cash for a dry cleaning order, only to find this hanging from your Diane Von Furstenburg wrap dress.
Seeing as how you’ve spent $12 on, well, nothing at all, you’d think a handwritten note of apology from your dry cleaner would be in order, or at least an Our Deepest Sympathy-style card, offering sincere condolences on the state of your incredibly-expensive-yet-ruined designer dress.
But no… Instead, you’re treated to a corny printed tag with some cheap-ass cartoon from, like, 1956 on it, telling you, in so many words, Sorry, fool, but we’re 12 bucks richer and it looks like those pit stains are permanent!
It’s maddening, really, because the last thing you want to see at that precise moment of loss and heartbreak is a cheesy drawing of a total moron who apparently poured some sort of poisonous substance (possibly… gas?) on what appears to be a yellow towel and then sent it to the dry cleaners. Some double-chinned buffoon who can’t even afford to buy a sport coat and shoes that fit, yet he sends his poison-stained bath towels to the drycleaners?! Exactly what is your dry cleaner trying to convey here, anyway? That you and a bleached blonde fat boy wearing clown shoes and holding a can of poison really aren’t so different after all?
>Not to minimalize your rant, but I believe the cartoon man is the dry cleaner with his chemicals and scrubby towel.I too suffer the banes of the pit stains.
>And if you’re interpreting it that way, it’s even worse… Your drycleaner is a bleached blonde fat boy who uses poison on your towels? Hmm.
>Heh. The pit stains were hypothetical of course. Heh. No pit stains here! None whatsoever… Heh.
>nice. doesn’t that just make your freekin’ day now?
>That must be the universal sign used by all dry cleaners, because I’ve gotten it also. I’ve also had them charge me for alterations that they never did.
>OK…I’m a lurker and read almost everyday, but never comment…I am commenting today because I had to tell you I laughed out loud when I read your description of that tag. And I feel your pain. I had a cute black cocktail dress and after it was cleaned, they had lost all the little stones in the ring in the front that pretty much made the dress, and I still had to pay for the cleaning, and they said “that happens with dresses that have decoration like that”
>Ugh. I’ve had clothes returned with stains that WEREN’T THERE before the dry cleaning- and they tried to tell me that hair spray “doesn’t show up on the clothing until it’s dry cleaned.” Only I don’t use hair spray! Grr.
>Oh ugh! That’s awful. Cracked me up, though! I had a dress returned to be a few years ago that not only did not have the stain removed but ALSO had ANOTHER issue BECA– USE OF THEM! I freaked out when I saw that they had added to the ruins of my dress, and then when they had the audacity to CHARGE me for it I refused and eventually they didn’t charge me. Quite frankly, they should have paid ME!
>judging by the cartoon note, they poured moonshine on your clothes. I mean, thats what XXX on a bottle stands for where I am from. I dumped my dry cleaner a while back. I’ve discovered that the new Oxyclean stain remove they advertise…gets anything out. anything.
>I am a total supporter of do it yourself dry cleaning. I use Dryel, and it is great, and so much less expensive. I even had a dress with greasy butter sauce or something that I got onit at a dinner, it was a chiffon like fabric, which is pretty delicate, but the Dryel stain remover got it right out, and left no new damage! Especially for clothes that aren’t really dirty, just need a freshening up, Dryel is great! And I would be verry pissed off too with that ridiculous looking tag! With all the money they make, you think they could get some better looking “sorry” tags at least!!
>I’m going to have to try Oxyclean’s stain remover. I have heard that if you make a paste of Oxy Clean powder and Spray n’ Wash, put it on the stain, twist and roll up the garment, leave it for 24 hours, it will remove ANY stain. Even mildew. And I’ve heard great things about Dryel, too.
>I have to second the OxyClean suggestion. I use it all the time and it’s wonderful. 🙂
>I LOVE LOVE LOVE Dryel. I can’t remember the last time I used a “real” dry cleaner. (I mean not that I really have to what with all the jeans that I wear, but you know I do have SOME nice stuff.) FWIW the Dryel cleaned my beautiful Roberto Cavalli silk wrap dress with a butter stain, with not a single issue.
>I’m with Sherry; I’m pretty sure that’s the drycleaner holding his drycleaner solvent looking sad because after all his hard work the stain is still there. Sorry about the dress.
>This is why I have rules for my dress clothes:No dress shirt over $20.No slacks over $40.And remember: a really nice tie will hide most things.I figure if I don’t spend a lot, then I won’t be emotionally attached when something bad happens (and it always seems to, for me).But I do offer my deepest sympathies.
>Well, when I went to pick up my wedding gown after my honeymoon, there were huge brown stains down the front. They tried to say that I must have spilled something on my dress and didn’t notice. At my wedding. In front of everyone. Huge. Brown.Umm. No. And then they said that it would cost $150 for me to walk out with my [stained] wedding dress. It was tough, but I walked away. I was NOT paying $150 to get back a dress that I did not stain. I still simmer when I drive by that dry cleaners!
>WOW, Daisy. You poor thing. My wedding dress is a total mess. I got married outdoors in Scotland and didn’t even try to clean it when I got home. But I didn’t pay a whole lot of money for it, since I was traveling with it. (Hint: Lillie Rubin makes many of their dresses in white, so they have the look of a multi-thousand dollar wedding dress, but the price tag of a fairly affordable evening gown.) I keep my wedding dress now only to make sure I can still fit in it! :DAnd that’s another post for another time. Why do companies think they can add a few zeroes onto a dress simply by making it in white and calling it a wedding gown? Ridiculous!
>Same issues here in Canada with drycleaners. That’s why I’m thinking of sending the bill for having my cocktail dress cleaned to the bride who insisted that her wedding last weekend be a black tie affair. Hell, since two thirds of the guests didn’t show up in formal attire, I should send her the bill for the cost of the whole dress (which will now find a permanent home in my closet because as a SAHM I don’t think I could wear it to too many play dates).
>My mom’s dry cleaner used to only charge her if everything came clean. She also would recommend someone who was really good at whatever stain mom couldn’t get out. Also, she was cheap and her recommended people were usually very pricey, so she knew people would come back to her for the basics. Anyway, my mom cried when the lady retired. To tell the truth, every time I go to the cleaners I get misty eyed remember Ms. Jean.
>Worse yet, apparently they think you have a chin shaped like a butt….
>Or perhaps the dry cleaner has a chin shaped like a butt……either way it’s tragic.
>But just look at him, Lindsay. He’s quivering in his little shoes, and he’s about to kill himself in shame by drinking down a can of poison and then stuffing a rag down his throat.He’s clearly very sorry.
>I had a rug dry cleaned. It was off-white, with blue flowers. I asked them if they could clean it, as it was wool, and they said they could.When I went to pick it up, the owner (a neighbor and friendly-acquaintance) couldnt find it at first, so went to the back. I watched him get the rug, and then grab a green, hefty-like trash bag (not the clear bags they usually use.)As he walked back to me, he sort of folded the rug, and crammed it into the bag.I was suspicious, and the rug (probably 4 ft x 2 ft, oval) was bended awkwardly, so I pulled it out of the bag, and WALA, there were hot pink stains all over it!Then, the “friend” tried to tell me that I had given it to them that way!! I laughed at him, just really dumbfounded by his behavior.I explained that we were holding an open house (we were selling at that time) and I needed the rug!He called his wife, and then told me that she would just buy me something similar. UM, NO! I dont want your wife picking out my entry way rug!It was ridiculous, he never owned up to ruining the rug, and we have never been back to his cleaners.
>This is why I owe no clothes anymore that require dry cleaning. Plus, where would I wear them? And is formula one of those stains they can’t get out? Yeah, I thought so.
>That’s so annoying – I mean, isn’t that what they were paid to do? Therefore if they didn’t do what they said they would, they should refund your money.Then again, I don’t live in America and I’ve never used a dry-cleaner, so I wouldn’t know how it all works!
>Backpacking dad- Your comment made me laugh to tears.
>Lindsay, It sounds like you need a new drycleaner. I have received that tag as well. If it is the store I have in mind, I thought they were over priced for the product. At least my new cleaner gives me the 10% Vandy discount.
>What does it say about how often the dry cleaner fails to clean stuff if they have a pre-printed tag for the situation, with a specially-drawn cartoon illustration? But they’ve thought of that; they figure if they make it look like it was created before the first moon landing, people will assume they haven’t had to use it very often. Clever ducks…but we see through ’em!