Launderette has either "lost" our clothes, or given them to someone else

melb

Hi there I am posting this hoping to help a friend of my daughter's. The launderette initially said they had given her clothes to the wrong person.  These are relatively high value clothes for a family of 5 - ie branded tracksuits, clothes from Spain, outfits from Zara etc.  Now apparently a week later the Launderette owner is disputing the number of clothes lost and saying there were hardly any.  Some members of the family have lost a fairish proportion of all their clothes - particularly the baby.  I think their washing machine was out of order for a while and they were awaiting an engineer visit so there was a lot of clothes.

I have looked online but can only really find reference to Dry Cleaners - would it be a similar situation for a Launderette?  Or has anyone been in this situation and can offer any advice for her please?

Would be grateful for any advice. thanks

davidmcn

melb said:
I have looked online but can only really find reference to Dry Cleaners - would it be a similar situation for a Launderette?

Yes, there is no legal distinction on the type of clothes cleaning! Sounds like the problem though is proving what the wash consisted of, which is going to be tricky if nobody has any convincing evidence either way.

theoretica

For quantity of clothes do they and the laundrette agree how much washing was paid for/how big the loads were?  Or able to prove it perhaps paying by card.

photome

What is the launderette  proposing to settle.

is there a possible claim on house insurance...

[Deleted User]

I think the house insurance bit is, probably, the way to go.

melb

thanks for all your comments.  It is my daughter's friend, and she cannot afford to replace the clothes.  Apparently the launderette owner/manageress at first said she had given them to the wrong person.  Despite a couple of weeks chasing them up they apparently couldn't get in touch with the third party.  Now the owner is saying "well it wasn't that many clothes' despite there being I think 5 bin bags worth and seems to be washing her hands of the whole business!

melb

my daughter's friend believes the Launderette owner may have helped herself to some of the items although I don't know on what basis she believes this - lack of other explanation perhaps (and i know she always dresses her 3 children nicely)

Sandtree

A launderette owner who helps themselves to customer's clothing doesnt get to dress their 3 kids very nicely for very long!

Whilst anything could have happened, it is normally much more profitable to have lots of repeat customers than to steal some dirty secondhand clothes. A member of staff taking things is possibly more realistic but the few launderette/dry cleaners I've used all had the same staff for years and so sticky fingers would be easy to spot.

Does her ticket not state what they dropped off? Our useage is normally limited to the shirts wash & press type service but even when its more than that the ticket says what... back in my student days it used to give the weight of clothes when it was simply black sacks. That at least substantiates the volume that has gone missing.

photome

I asked up above, what is the launderette proposing to do to settle

lincroft1710

melb said:

my daughter's friend believes the Launderette owner may have helped herself to some of the items although I don't know on what basis she believes this - lack of other explanation perhaps (and i know she always dresses her 3 children nicely)

If a launderette owner made a habit of stealing customers' clothes, she would soon be out of business and with a possible criminal record 

melb

As I said above, Photome, she appears to be washing her hands of it.  I have asked for an update but yet to receive it. Just to clarify, I was meaning the launderette user dresses her children nicely, not the owner whom I do not know.