I went to Number One Cleaners for both tailoring services and dry cleaning for more than a decade for two reasons: convenience and the fact that they use organic products.
Over the years, I've had to, on occasion, bring clothes back in that had been tailored but the alterations weren't quite right. When this happens, I've always gotten the sense that there is resentment on the part of the owner who handles the alterations; almost a disbelief that she didn't nail it on the first try; she agrees to redo it begrudgingly.
A couple of weeks before Thanksgiving, I dropped off a pair of black Italian corduroy suit pants that needed to be taken in. I've had these pants for years, and actually had them take them out for me a few years back.
A week later, I picked them up, just before Thanksgiving, when I was scheduled to wear them to officiate my sister's wedding. I tried them on the day before leaving for my trip, and they were still a full size too large in the waist, but there was no time to get them readjusted. That's fine; it's not the worst tragedy.
But after Thanksgiving, I brought them back in, and pointed out that they were still much too large - a good inch around the waist. Mind you, I paid $45 cash in advance to have the pants altered. This isn't a cheap tailor. Rather than apologizing and agreeing to get it right, the owner who manages the customer service immediately challenged me -- intimating it must be some type of mistake on my part, explaining the complexities of the alterations in a way that made no sense, and even suggesting I might have lost weight over Thanksgiving (which is such a common occurrence, as we all know). Then she took another look at the pants and told me these were not the same black Italian corduroy suit pants I had brought in to be altered just two weeks earlier!
To say that I was floored is an understatement. Again, I've provided them steady business over 15 years, and I'm a pretty friendly and pleasant person, just FYI. After I became agitated at being called a liar, not to mention the absurdity of finding some type of replica black Italian corduroy suit pants that had already been altered, she relented and agreed to fix the pants. I picked them up a week later, and they fit well.
But to be treated with such blatant disrespect after providing business to this establishment for 10+ years is beyond insulting. I left there and made a vow I will never go back. read more
