I am sure that everyone who is reading this blog can think of a time where you either wanted a second chance or gave someone a second chance. I am sure there were times in high school where you asked your parents for a second chance. I am sure there were times were your company made an error and asked a client for a second chance.
Let me know if this has happened to you:
- You are on a business trip and a button on your shirt cracks and falls off.
- You go to pick up your dry cleaning and it isn’t ready when they said it would be.
- You noticed the collar on your shirt hasn’t been cleaned the way you like it!
- Your dry cleaner lost your clothes!
I am sure if I could see your faces as you are reading this, a number of heads are going up and down saying “yes that has happened to me” and relate to what I am describing.
Since 2004 I have been using the same dry cleaner. It is very close to work, close to restaurants I go to at lunch and VERY CONVENIENT to me. Over the past few years they have done an okay job. At the beginning they did a nice job but in the past 5 months they have changed management and things have slipped a little bit.
I was having lunch with a co-worker, TA, and of course dropped off and my dry cleaning. A few days past and I went to pick up my clothes. I use the drop off service so I didn’t have a receipt. When I asked for my clothes she responded with “we don’t have clothes here for you.” When I questioned her again I got a look of disbelief like I had three heads and she was wondering if I heard her. Quickly she got a few more co-workers and they were chatting and two of them came over to me and responded with the same message “we don’t have clothes here for you.” Although I give them an “A” for having a consistent message, I knew they were wrong. I even described two of the shirts which were brand new and I have never worn. I gave them my cell phone and asked them to look around and give me a call.
An hour goes by, and they leave a message saying they found my clothes. Hip hop hooray–or so I thought. I went back after the weekend and picked up my clothes. They did hand me some clothes but they weren’t the ones I were missing. Actually let me restate that. Those clothes WERE missing but I didn’t know it. The clothes they handed me were from three months earlier. Apparently I have too many clothes and didn’t notice they were missing–possibly another blog down the road. I said that these are my clothes but not the ones that I am missing. Again they politely responded with “we don’t have clothes here for you.” After sort of chuckling I described the two shirts I am missing and the color of the bag I brought them in. After five more minutes of an animated discussion I said my shirts are like those – and noticed that “those” were actually my shirts, but under someone else’s name.
I thought the drama was over but it really wasn’t because I noticed when I got to my car they charged me the wrong amount–actually saving me $12.00. I thought about going back and telling them but decided against that and headed to a bar to get a drink instead! What a fiasco.
So after losing clothes that I knew they lost, losing clothes that I didn’t know were missing, and charging me the wrong amount–what do I do? I thought long and hard about never using them again but they are very convenient. The one change I have made is now I ask for a receipt.
- The question for me is how many chances do you give someone?
- Has this dilemma happened to you?
- Are all dry cleaners this bad?
I look forward to your comments and thoughts.
Paul Kirch says:
I had a button coming loose on a suit jacket. I went to my dry cleaner and asked them to repair it. I was getting ready to leave on a business trip and stopped by the dry cleaners to pick up my suit. Instead of trying it on, I packed the jacket in my suitcase. Once I got to my destination, I put on the pants and jacket along with a dress shirt an tie. I arrived at the meeting and went to button the top two buttons. I noticed that the button they repaired had been moved about 2 inches up toward the top button. Therefore, it no longer could be buttoned properly. I wore it open and figured no one would notice. I did get paranoid when I felt someone was staring at it, though they mentioned nothing. I took the jacket back when I returned home. I used the drive through service and explained what had happened. The person assured me it would be fixed. When I picked it up, I had a ton of clothes and didn’t really even remember the issue. As I prepared to go on another trip, I was grabbing a couple of suits and happened to pick this one up and put it in my suitcase, forgetting about the button issue. Sure enough, I got to my destination and discovered that they had not fixed the issue. Once again, I wore it open. On the third time back, they finally made the appropriate repair and did not charge me. I learned a valuable lesson to double check, any special requests (stain removal, button, mending, etc…)
Karen Dawson says:
For 15 years I went to the same dry cleaners EVERY Saturday, and they
asked the same questions every week, my name and phone number;
they had no clue who I was.
Along comes a new owner, and on his first week on the job, they lose my
husband’s brand new golf shirt that I paid too much money to begin with.
I was not happy. They promised to look for it, and check back the following week; of course they never found it. The new owner stepped up to the plate, pulled out a wad of cash from his pocket and asked me what I wanted? I asked the full price of the shirt $ 75.00. From that week on, Mr. New Owner, called ME BY NAME as if I was someone important. So here’s a company who took a bad situation and turned me into a raving fan. He would had my business for life if we stayed in Boston. Merrill, I’d say it’s time you found a new dry cleaner; you don’t need the aggravation.
Vic Walsh says:
Probably everyone has similar war stories to tell, but in spite of all of the hassle you received, it would still be a good idea to go back and pay the $12 you had not been charged. No one is perfect, especially in a service industry, but that simple act would keep you with the upper hand. Then go change dry cleaners!
Bill Neal says:
Ah, life is a trade-off. I like to live by the baseball rule – three strikes and you are out. That was three strikes.
jamie ohler says:
Wellllll – I am a double Scorpio – those in the “know” will know that one should BEWARE when wronging me! I used to give NO second chances – but I am older now – and I find that a second chance helps a lot. Most important is to go up to the person to whom the chance matters and calmly explain what happened and tell them that the relationship – whatever it is – important to you – and you could just walk away and they would never know why they lost your business, but that you want to continue using them – (or going to their restaurant – as the case with me was) but they need to fix a few things… and then – if they don’t change – they’ve been forewarned! (That restaurant BTW – when I would walk in (it was Japanese) – the waitresses would mumble – “Ah – Ohler-san” – and then the owner would approach me and take my hand and bow and say “Hello Ohler-san”…. I am convinced I had since put their kids through daycare with what we have spent there ..
Lucy Haydu says:
I am with Bill on this one, 3 strikes and you’re out, unless bugs are involved, went to a restaurant many years ago and saw a large cockroach crawling on the wall, haven’t gone back. Regarding the cleaners, I too, use the drop off VIP service placing the clothes in the special green bag. However, during the Holidays, I take a bottle of Champagne to Maria (she’s the manager, from Vienna and loves Champagne) and I bring a large tin of Costco Cookies for the launders/pressers in the back room to share. I believe this small, simple and economical gesture of recognition is why they go above and beyond providing me with excellent customer service throughout the year. Show respect/appreciation, treat others the way you want to be treated, it’ll come back tenfold. It’s human nature in most cases.