We had an OK experience with Metro Cleaners. I'd return…read more
Long version:
After moving back to Atlanta, we looked for a new dry cleaner near our home. I searched Yelp and Metro Cleaners had the best average rating and most reviews. There are a couple other dry cleaning businesses closer to us, but I thought taking the extra time to get to and from Metro Cleaners would be worth it (just a few more minutes each way).
Metro Cleaners is located inside the Metropolis high-rise condominium building in Midtown. Same building/complex as Sweet Hut, the UPS Store, Fado Irish Pub, Taco Mac, etc. Like those neighboring businesses, Metro Cleaners offers validated parking (one hour) inside Metropolis' garage. Go behind the building and enter the garage via Metropolis Alley. After parking, follow the signs to get to Metro Cleaners. Metro Cleaners is on the ground floor, but doesn't have a street-facing storefront.
We brought in six pieces of clothing and were charged $99.60. Those pieces included my tux shirt (one piece) and my wife's Indian clothes, consisting of one lehenga (three pieces) and one sari (two pieces). I never saw nor received an itemized breakdown of the pricing nor did I ask. I don't know if the prices were reasonable. My wife had some pretty big pieces, so I didn't think the prices were unreasonable.
Unfortunately, my wife's lehenga came back permanently damaged. Dozens of rhinestones, probably over 100, came off during the cleaning process. This was the first time we've experienced anything like this with a dry cleaner. I'm not sure if it's customary for the business to still charge a customer for the damaged pieces. At pickup, the staff acknowledged the damage up front. I was still charged and paid the full amount of $99.60. I feel like I shouldn't have been charged for the damaged piece(s). We ended up having to discard the lehenga.
To Metro Cleaners' credit, the employee who handled our drop-off and pickup, Richard, was friendly and polite. I don't blame him for the mishap. From my perspective, he was more of the "messenger." He was careful with and considerate of our garments at drop-off. He did tell us that damage was a possibility, but I don't think we foresaw it being this bad. This was due to our inexperience with Indian clothes.
At the same time, I don't think a really good dry cleaning business would have allowed this to happen. For example, my wife and I are confident that the place we previously took our dry cleaning to (in North Carolina) would not have allowed this to happen. Maybe the folks who do the actual dry cleaning for Metro Cleaners could have turned the problematic pieces away and not charge us for them, before taking on the risk to damage them. We trusted the experts' judgment here and lost some sentimental pieces as a result.
The other pieces turned out fine, so that's why I'm willing to give these guys another shot. However, this experience left a bad taste in our mouths.
Turnaround time was two to three days. We dropped off on a Saturday. Three pieces were available the following Monday after 4pm and the remaining three pieces were available the following Tuesday after 4pm.