Help! Dry Cleaning Disaster!

erinselbow

Now I don't often get clothes dry cleaned, but I have this one cream sequined top that I love. I've only ever worn it about 2 or 3 times and it says it needs "dry cleaned only". So I left it in to be cleaned in a dry cleaners in the IFSC yesterday.
I collected it today and noticed (through the plastic wrap) that the stains seems worse than when I left it in...they had gone a deep orange colour. When I questioned this the girl told me that they had put a note in with it to explain why etc. and that I would need to speak to a member of the full time staff as she was only filling in.

When I got it home I noticed that not only were the stains alot worse but there is a hole about 2cm long under one of the arms! I rang the shop straight away and she said to come in tomorrow and speak to someone (Same girl). The note just said " Were sorry we tried to remove the stains but were unable to without damaging the fabric"!!

I am just looking for some advice about what to do in this situation? Thanks!

Lil' Smiler

I know it's only a top but a friend of a friend dropped her wedding dress into be cleaned in a dry cleaners near me. the dress was ruined in the end. they ended up writing a letter from the solicitor and taking them to court etc they got some money settlement but obviously that would not do much comfort as it was her one and only wedding dress that she'd had made!!

erinselbow

The poor girl...I'd be very upset! And they charge a fortune for wedding dresses etc. They even charged me extra for this top as the said it was "delicate" €8.40 for a small strappy top!

Pigletlover

I think dry cleaning is a rip off. I have lots of clothes that say dry clean only which I wash in the machine at 30 degrees, or if it's a particularly delicate garment I'll gently handwash it.

erinselbow

I'd agree, normally I would just hand wash delicates, but I thought with the sequins on this I better not...but looking back it would have been a better plan!

dirtydress

Agreed...I only ever really dry clean my winter coat (because it's white)...a gentle wash is usually fine. But sorry to hear about your top..you really should be firm with them at least they should cover the cost of the top so you can get a new one.

Fast_Mover

Got a cream scarf dry cleaned once..said to on the instructions..it shunk in length! Wonder is that the norm for scarves?
Sry to hear about your top OP-very frustrating I can imagine!!

emee

dry cleaning is such a waste of time a gentle hand wash on really delicate items always works fine and even a silk setting machine wash will do most things. i left a cream dress in to be dry cleaned a few months back and not one of the stains had been removed from it if anything they looked worse, there was a grey plastic tag hanging on the dress that they didnt bother to cut off and it melted onto the lining of the dress when they were cleaning it and it staaaank of some horrible smelling perfumey smell i actually felt sick wearing it the smell was so strong.

years ago i got my debs dress dry cleaned and picked it up the day of another debs i was going to and they had completely ruined it by putting it through some type of roller to iron it so all the seams pleats etc were wrecked.

i hate dry cleaners.

rant over.

erinselbow

Thanks guys...I think I've learned my lesson on this one!

giggles

Did they warn you this may happen when you left the top in to be cleaned?

I've left stuff in to different Dry Cleaners before with sequins and delicate fabrics and have always been warned that because of the fabrics or sequins they couldn't guarantee proper cleaning and because of whatever they use in their treatments - some damage may occur. This leaves the risk with me deciding to leave it for cleaning or not. They should definitely have warned you about any potential problems in advance, I was be very annoyed with them if they didn't! :mad:

erinselbow

Nope, no warning at all. They just told me that they charge more for delicates (€8.40 instead of €5.60) so I assumed that they were used to handling items like my top and that the extra was to cover insurance etc.?

dubdcugirly

I work in a clothes shop and we are always getting calls from dry cleaners saying do u have such a top to replace it because they have ruined it.
Ur best bet is to ring the store in which you bought it enquire if they had any other of the same top brought back as it could of been a faulty batch, if this is the case you will get a refund. If not it is clearly the dry cleaners fault in which case you should get a replacement or refund of the price of the cleaning and usually a bit more for the damage to the top!

erinselbow

Just got some good news from the owner of the dry cleaners, they are going to cover the full cost of my top. Actually the lady was very good about it in the end. Thanks for all the advice!

giggles

Good news - I'm glad to hear that!

Would have been better if they offered the cost of your top from the beginning instead of you having to follow up on it.