Dry cleaning damage

portal

All,
What's the best method to get satisfaction and compensation from a Dry Cleaning Outfit when they've damaged my suit?

Thus far 3 letters have fallen on deaf ears, and my threat of taking them to small claims court has literally been laughed at. The local branch is not interested, and the management is unreachable. I keep asking for copies of their T&Cs, but they don't seem professional enough to have any.

Each time I call I can hear the managing director saying "no, I'm not here" to his receptionist!

This has been ongoing since July! These people cannot seem to understand the personal stress this has caused me. The damage was only spotted by my brother when I donned the suit jacket outside my uncle's funeral.... (no joke) I'd had the suit cleaned specially, so I know the garment was OK before I dropped it off.

The suit has a 2cm gash in it at the top of the sleeve, right where a careless member of staff could have scraped it when hanging a neighbouring garment (the tips of the curved bits at the top of the hangers are always very sharp). The wazzock of a manager says he thinks it might be moths! HA HA. Unless the moth was carrying a knife I don't think so!

What now? These twonks seem to think they are untouchable!!! ARGH.:mad:

I'll name and shame this lot at some point....

IvanOpinion

Reading between the lines was it a case of the suit being dry cleaned and then hung up for a while before being used again. If so then it may be hard to provde the dry cleaner was esponsible.

Quite a few years back I had a suit dry cleaned, got it back, hung it up and 3-4 months later went to put it on to find it did not fit. At first I thought I had put on a lot of wieght (:() but I then noticed that despite having bought the suit in Burtons and the trousers carrying a Burtons label the jacket did not (although the jacket and trousers seemed to match in colour .. but there were other subtle differences). I went back to the dry cleaners and after a bit of negotiation we came to an amicable agreement that they would refund me 50% of the value of a new suit (that suit was about 2 years old).

Don't get hung up on 'stress' .. it is only a suit ... you an pick up a temporary one for about £30-40 if needs be. They do not however seem to be hanling this very well and I would suggest that you take some sort of legal advice (CAB) and follow through with your threat in small claims.

Ivan

portal

IvanOpinion wrote: »

Reading between the lines was it a case of the suit being dry cleaned and then hung up for a while before being used again. If so then it may be hard to provde the dry cleaner was esponsible.
Ivan

Nope, the suit was picked up from the cleaners the day before the funeral.

pinkshoes

Dry Cleaners have insurance for this sort of thing, so go ahead and proceed with small claims court, and in the mean time, NAME AND SHAME them!

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/your_rights/legal_system/small_claims.htm

In the above link, it even uses dry cleaners as an example of things you use the small claims court for!!

Go see your nearest CAB office for info to get the ball rolling!

Iamthesmartestmanalive

portal wrote: »

All,
What's the best method to get satisfaction and compensation from a Dry Cleaning Outfit when they've damaged my suit?

Thus far 3 letters have fallen on deaf ears, and my threat of taking them to small claims court has literally been laughed at. The local branch is not interested, and the management is unreachable. I keep asking for copies of their T&Cs, but they don't seem professional enough to have any.

Each time I call I can hear the managing director saying "no, I'm not here" to his receptionist!

This has been ongoing since July! These people cannot seem to understand the personal stress this has caused me. The damage was only spotted by my brother when I donned the suit jacket outside my uncle's funeral.... (no joke) I'd had the suit cleaned specially, so I know the garment was OK before I dropped it off.

The suit has a 2cm gash in it at the top of the sleeve, right where a careless member of staff could have scraped it when hanging a neighbouring garment (the tips of the curved bits at the top of the hangers are always very sharp). The wazzock of a manager says he thinks it might be moths! HA HA. Unless the moth was carrying a knife I don't think so!

What now? These twonks seem to think they are untouchable!!! ARGH.:mad:

I'll name and shame this shower-of-sh*te at some point....

Maybe if you stopped with the over dramatics and exaggeration you might get somewere

If I got a complaint from someone with the same over dramatics I wouldnt deal with it as its very hard to deal with unreasonable people who overexaggerate everything

You want a refund for a suit they damaged, so why do we need the rest? we dont and it just looks like pointless information to back your claim and the question would be why? sympathy?

Write a letter, by registered mail stating a date for response or a court action will be raised asking for official response

If they dont respond raise a claim

Remember you need to prove they damaged it though

dmg24

Iamthesmartestmanalive wrote: »

Maybe if you stopped with the over dramatics and exaggeration you might get somewere

If I got a complaint from someone with the same over dramatics I wouldnt deal with it as its very hard to deal with unreasonable people who overexaggerate everything

You want a refund for a suit they damaged, so why do we need the rest? we dont and it just looks like pointless information to back your claim and the question would be why? sympathy?

Write a letter, by registered mail stating a date for response or a court action will be raised asking for official response

If they dont respond raise a claim

Remember you need to prove they damaged it though

Maybe your response should preclude the dramatics also?

I have highlighted the only relevant text in your post.

portal

Iamthesmartestmanalive wrote: »

Maybe if you stopped with the over dramatics and exaggeration you might get somewere

If I got a complaint from someone with the same over dramatics I wouldnt deal with it as its very hard to deal with unreasonable people who overexaggerate everything

You want a refund for a suit they damaged, so why do we need the rest? we dont and it just looks like pointless information to back your claim and the question would be why? sympathy?

Write a letter, by registered mail stating a date for response or a court action will be raised asking for official response

If they dont respond raise a claim

Remember you need to prove they damaged it though

What a useful post thanks.... I've done all that(did you read what I wrote?) and they couldn't give a toss - they laugh at me on the phone, and pretend not to be there.

I believe the story is relevant, as it demonstrates that I had the garment cleaned especially for a one-off event, and therefore I have timed reference points at which the garment was OK, and then damaged - ie it wasn't my everyday suit that got damaged on the train or something.

When someone laughs at you when you threaten small claims action, it kind of takes the wind out of your sails. If I was confident of my position I wouldn't be writing here for your help would I? So thanks for a further kick in the nuts.

I don't think your attitude towards me or my post is also in the right spirit of "money saving" or "consumer power"... I'm not using a fake funeral for sympathy - this happened.

nobblyned

So you threatened to take them to court, they laughed, and you haven't taken them to court?

No wonder they now ignore you! You've already shown you don't carry through on your threats!

If you think you have a strong enough case, take them to court, what's stopping you?

BTW I agree their lack of customer service is appalling, but you need to carry through with your actions if you are serious. If you believe it isn't worth it then you need to let it rest.

portal

nobblyned wrote: »

So you threatened to take them to court, they laughed, and you haven't taken them to court?

No wonder they now ignore you! You've already shown you don't carry through on your threats!

If you think you have a strong enough case, take them to court, what's stopping you?

BTW I agree their lack of customer service is appalling, but you need to carry through with your actions if you are serious. If you believe it isn't worth it then you need to let it rest.

You make a good point. Of course I know this - I look weak by not carrying out my threat...

Anyway, at least I can name/shame these people... PRIM DRY CLEANERS.