Not sure why this place has such a bad rep on Yelp. For me, it's a great no-frills place to do my…read morelaundry.
The quarter machines have always worked when I've been here 3-4 times in the past couple months. There was one time that the guy at the back room counter, which is right next to the machines, saw me approach with a $20 bill and exchanged it for quarters himself. I assume this is a night when the quarter machines might not have been working, but he may also have done it for my convenience? Unsure, but either way it's not been a problem since I've always been able to get my quarters. The ATM also works well.
Can't comment on soap dispenser, since I bring my own soap and fabric softener. But the clothes have come out nice and clean every time I've been here, so it's fair to say that the machines are not grimy or dirt-caked on a regular basis. They will not spit your clothes out looking worse than they came in. And the dryers actually do really, really quick work -- a quarter for 7 minutes, and I usually just feed the machine 75 cents or a dollar and come back to perfectly warm clothes.
I've also seen that when there's issues with the machines, there's always a piece of tape on the buttons that do not work. For example, black duct tape put over the coin slot... over a certain temperature cycle if the hot or cold water is not working in a particular machine. I do agree that it's frustrating to toss clothes in and put a cycle's worth of detergent and softener into the machine and THEN realise that the slots are covered up... but after one incident, it's prudent to check. They do seem to be taking care of the matter well with the tape. Not the easiest to see when laundry is all that's on the forefront of your mind. But honestly, the one-time inconvenience of moving your clothes is the only loss (other than soap) you'll have before you'll be double checking the machines in the future!
For a more obvious solution: Maybe they could print a few tent cards that say "[this feature of the machine] is not working" and stand it up where you put the detergent/softener in? I'm thinking laminated, so that you can use dry-erase markers to write whichever feature isn't working, and then wipe it off for use again... I've only ever seen 3-4 machines with some issues, so a half a dozen cards would cover any malfunctions. That seems to be the main thing people are worried about with the wash -- dryers are pretty simple to switch, and no one loses soap in the process.
On with the review... I feel comfortable leaving my clothes at the laundromat whilst I run around the neighbourhood doing errands. I've been away for an hour or more at a time and never had an issue. I do make more of an effort to be in the immediate area when my clothes are drying, though, just to be sure. I live in the area and my packages get snatched off my front door, so better safe than sorry! And snatching wonderfully dried clothing is much less of a hassle than running off with a trolley of sopping wet clothes. But personal worries aside, I'm decently confident about being able to leave my clothes here.
I've never met the lady who work(ed? unsure if still employed) here. But the two lads, a Hispanic and a Black fellow, who run the place/clean up in the evenings are pleasant and have always been understanding when I'm finishing my drying very shortly before 9pm and trying to get all my laundry out. They start cleaning about an hour before the close, and even though they're vacuuming and sweeping at the end of the day, they're always polite and work around me. They are really considerate.
One of my friends who also uses Telegraph Laundry said that he'd actually met the woman who is mentioned in some of these reviews, and she was not bad at all, and that she actually encouraged him to use cheaper machines when she saw that he was at the larger machines, but that his load of laundry didn't need all that room. Sounds like she was looking out for patrons!
Unsure if it's a family business, but it does feel like one. A simple and no nonsense one, at that. I'm happy to support Telegraph Laundry. I'll be moving out of the immediate area soon, so I'm unsure if I'll be back... but if I can, I'll do my very best