anonym wrote on 08-05-2013

Horrendous - never again1

I took an Ivory coloured evening dress to Kleen Cleaners to be cleaned; I was advised by the member of staff currently on duty that it would cost £100, followed quickly by a new revised price of £55. She then filled out the receipt and wrote £29.95 stating that this was how much it would be, so far so confusing! It was clear that she seemed extremely vague on the pricing system for someone who, I was later advised by the manager, was the Shop Supervisor. The Shop Supervisor then proceeded to take my contact telephone numbers and advise me that the dress would be ready for collection from the shop in 7 days. I was advised that someone would call me to confirm this, however as I had not heard from anyone the following week I rang the shop. I was advised it was ready and waiting for me so I collected it after work that evening. The first thing that I noticed as I left the shop was that the white dress bag was covered in dirty black streaks. When I subsequently asked the Manager about this the response I got was that ‘maybe the bag was dragged along the floor’ (in the shop!). Upon getting the dress home I discovered that worse was yet to come. The polythene over my dress had black grit-like dirt on it, which had also made its way all over my dress. My dress itself had several dirty black marks on it which were not present when I took it to Kleen Cleaners to be cleaned. Prior to trusting the Business with the care of my dress I had checked their website where it clearly states under the Terms &Conditions that, and I quote, ‘We Quality Check All Areas Of The Cleaning Process’ –although had this been the case I would have expected the dirty black marks on my dress to have been dealt with BEFORE the dress was returned to me. In addition to this, and more distressing, was that the delicate stitching around the straps of the dress had been ‘pulled’ into intermittent large loops where it had originally been neat around the straps. When my Husband and I eventually managed to speak directly with the Manager of Kleen Cleaners to express our concerns about said dirty marks and damaged stitching we were informed that damage to beading happens more often than we would think, perhaps this is true but that clearly didn’t help us in our present situation. As anyone who has ever owned a dress of great sentimental value will attest to it is very distressing when any damage takes place. We clarified again that the issue here however, was damage to the stitching. When we asked the Manager several times why a dress that had been dry cleaned had managed to get so dirty she repeatedly said she could not explain this but if the Manager of a business specialising in this area can’t explain it then who can? Most unsatisfactory. Perhaps items should be more closely inspected to ensure they are free from dirty marks BEFORE they are returned to their owners. I would have to question the accuracy of the statement on Kleen Cleaners own website which states that they ‘Maintain the highest possible standard of quality and service’. The Manager then went into a long explanation about the risks I was taking by having such a dress dry cleaned. When I asked why these risks were not mentioned to me by the Shop Supervisor at the time, her response was that the terms and conditions are written on the receipt and there is a disclaimer on the wall in the shop. She did however acknowledge that the Supervisor should have highlighted the risks to me and drawn my attention to the disclaimer. The Terms and Conditions state ‘We Are Not Responsible for the Following: Loose Beads’. This statement is somewhat ambiguous, and in our case the issue was not loose beading, it was the fact that the stitches around the straps had been pulled and the fact that when we received it back after having been ‘cleaned’ it had several dirty black marks on it. From this experience it is evident that the statement on their terms and conditions: ‘We Quality Check All Areas of the Cleaning Process’ is not consistent with the end result. The Manager said she inspected the beading on my dress once it had been cleaned and stated that ‘she noticed’ the pulled loops in the stitching but because they were on both the straps she had assumed this was how the dress was meant to be, in my experience it is never best to ‘assume’ when it comes to good customer service. I could perhaps understand this if every stitch looked the same, however as the loops were intermittent and not in exactly the same places on both straps it would surely be obvious that this was not part of the design. When I asked again about why the issues of the pulled stitching around the straps of the dress had happened if, according to the manager, the dress was cleaned exactly as per the manufacturer’s cleaning instructions on the label I was informed by the Manager that Monsoon dresses are notoriously poor quality and she suggested this was why it had happened. I asked her to confirm in writing to me that the dress was dry cleaned exactly as per the instructions as I wished to discuss my concerns with Monsoon Customer Services. She then advised me that Monsoon will view the situation as ‘trivial’ (I am currently in discussion with Monsoon who are certainly not viewing the situation as ‘trivial’). She agreed to write the letter for me however I am still waiting on this and, if being truthful, I don’t expect to see it anytime soon. The Manager offered to have my dress collected from home and re-cleaned. After several very stressful phone conversations between both my husband and her, and myself and her, and the involvement of Trading Standards, I eventually got my dress back and it at least appears to have been cleaned this time. The Manger offered to ‘fix’ the damaged stitching; however I declined this offer, as I did not feel confident, given all of the previous issues, that my dress would be treated with the care and attention I would expect. I am now going to have to arrange to take my dress to a professional seamstress to discuss whether it is possible to repair the stitching to its original pristine condition. I most definitely will not go back to Kleen Cleaners to have anything else dry cleaned and that is sad given the initial good reputation the business had prior to me trusting my dress with them.