Bad experience? You decide.... I'd seen great reviews for Kite's Custom Cleaners on yelp and decided to give it a try. I went to the Hartwood location.
I brought in my own personal items (@ 9 items) and two job fair large-sized tablecloths from my company to be dry cleaned. I asked for a new customer discount and they handed me an envelope and said 'check in this for discounts'. I opened it up - nothing about discounts and they seemed annoyed that I was asking. I explained that I had a number of items and that I was trying out this new place after hearing great things and was hoping for a new customer discount with so many items. Reluctantly they went to the back (I think to ask the others) and came back to the register and said, 'ok' I got you a discount of 15%. - not exactly the customer service that I was expecting from the other reviewers...but it doesn't end here.
A couple days later I received a call from them which went something like this:
Girl#1: Hi. I wanted to call and let you know that after measuring the tablecloths that it will cost you $96.00 each tablecloth to have them cleaned.
Me: What!? Why is it so much? They're just tablecloths (nothing special, except they're used at job fairs so need them to look very professional)
Girl#1: Well, I measured them and with (xlength by xwidth times .005) the cost is this much.
Me: Is there something I can do to make it less expensive?
Girl#1: Yes, you can take them home and wash them and bring them back for us to press.
Me: Well, that's not exactly what I meant.... Can I speak with someone else - a manager?
Girl#1 gives the phone to Assistant Manager.
AM: (not very pleasant) How can I help you?
Me: Well, here's the issue (as described above)...is there anything you can do?
AM: We can add in the 15% discount...this comes to @ $82.00 each.
Me: Gosh, that just seems like a lot to pay for dry cleaning a tablecloth. Is that the best you can do?
AM: Yes, that's our bottom line. You can come get them if that doesn't work for you.
Me: I see...is there a store manager available?
AM: (annoyed), yes just a minute.
Manager: (new voice comes on the phone and she launches in - clearly annoyed and without introducing herself) ..as we said before, that's our bottom line. If that doesn't work for you then you can come get them.
Me: I'm sorry, who is this?
Manager: I'm the manager. There's nothing else that we can do. You can come and get them and take them somewhere else if you'd like.
Me: Ok then, I'll come get them in a few minutes.
Manager: Fine.
(Seriously???!!!) ...I went directly to that location within 10 minutes and asked for my tablecloths. The AM got them and, as I left I said "I'll be sure to let people know through Yelp about my experience". She said something kind of unpleasant under her breath as I left.
I then drove about a block away to another dry cleaners. When I handed them the tablecloths I asked about pricing. They charged me $15.00 per tablecloth, were very pleasant, and I now have a great dry cleaners that I'll be frequenting more often.
I'm a reasonable person and not ruffled easily - except when there's a significant amount of ruffling. Overpricing ($96.00 per tablecloth versus $15.00!), Customer Service (AM and Manager) was serious ruffling and just doesn't measure up to get my business.
Note: Just to be fair, this happened during the holidays (between Christmas and New Year's) and they may have been having a bad day. Still, the experience was bad enough for me want to let others know about the overpricing - and the experience I had when I questioned it. read more
