The standard of this place has gone down considerably over the past couple of months. On Friday, I…read morewent there to find more than half of the machines broken (including all the top dryers) and the already short hours shortened by a further half hour. We used to go there regularly and then started going to the Splish Splash service laundry nearer our house, but then Splish Splash went out of business, so we had to go there again.
Previously, they were open till 4:30 and 5:00 on some days, but now they close at 4. They did not inform me as I came in, and I didn't notice the board with the changed hours when coming in, as it is small and not bold and the marker is faded...and I was concentrating on getting our cart in and was wearing sunglasses. It is run by a family out of their house, and most of the time there is no one there at the window. You have to wait a long time if you want to get change, get help with the machine, or buy a drink. I had to wait ten minutes to get change, as the machine would not accept my ten-dollar bill.
Then, when I started washing, I found that the door of one of the washers would not close properly. I had to wait again another ten minutes or so to get another family member (this time an older lady) to help me. She could not speak or understand much English, and said, angrily, "You didn't put nothin' in" the machine, when I had simply been following the directions and put the soap in and tried to close the door before putting quarters! When I was washing, several other customers came in, and all of them had to wait long periods of time to get someone at the window for change or help.
Later, in the dryer, I lost seventy-five cents, because it was not clear with which machine each coin slot went. With all the top dryers broken, I had to use a bottom one - not convenient, as there is no carpet on the floor, so it is easy for clean clothes to fall on the floor there and get dirty! Finally, when I started folding my clothes - not knowing they closed at 4:00 and not 4:30 as previously - the older lady started yelling at me and said I couldn't finish folding my clothes, as they wanted to close up.
After living many years in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and working part-time at a self-service laundry there during the pandemic - of the Asian chain called CleanPro - I am totally shocked at the poor standard of this laundry. Especially as it is run by people from Vietnam who are culturally similar to Thai people. Most Thais and Vietnamese are very polite, but the family who run this laundry don't seem to care shit about customers or their clothes at all, only collect money!
Not only do they have extremely short hours (open only till 4 pm and only weekdays), but they don't even have someone regularly at the window to help customers during the limited hours they are open. and they don't even care to repair their broken machines or learn enough English to talk to customers, though I'm sure they've been in the U.S. many years. Why do they even bother to keep their business open?