Laundrette In Ashleaf Shopping Centre (Won't give back Duvet!!!)

Paulw

Ah god love ya! wrote: »

But there's somebody you can report to that has power to stop the trader trading if there's continued dodgy trading.

There's a big vacuum between dealing with a trader and going to court in my opinion.

I know going to Gardai is clinging to threads but on the face of it, it is criminal. They claim to have our property and aren't giving it back...

Sorry, it is not criminal. Not in any definition of law in Ireland.

It is purely a civil matter. That's what the courts are there for, and specifically what the small claims court is designed to do.

If you do go to the Gardai, they will very quickly tell you there is nothing they can do, and at best, they will advise you to contact the small claims court, but more than likely they will simply state that there is nothing they can do and that is that.

dudara

Write the registered letter, as advised by many posters. It's time to play hard ball with them.

seamus

Ah god love ya! wrote: »

I know going to Gardai is clinging to threads but on the face of it, it is criminal. They claim to have our property and aren't giving it back...

It's not criminal unless you can prove that the company are in possession of your duvet and have no intention of giving it back to you.

You know that they have (or had) the duvet and intended on returning it to you, but now can't for whatever reason. That's not a criminal issue. Theft only occurs where something is taken with the intention of withholding it from the rightful owner.

Going to the Gardai will be an absolute waste of everyone's time. Registered letter is the way to go.

emeldc

I'm in the dry cleaning business. For all you know your duvet is still probably in the shop. They have just got their numbers mixed up and can't rectify it at the moment. After all most duvets look the same, it's an easy mistake. Even if your duvet was collected by someone else they might not realise it until they go to use it at which point they will probably bring it back. Let's face it, would you want to use somebody else's duvet, I don't think I would. Having said all that the shop should have admitted that there was a problem of some sort. They are only digging a bigger hole for themselves by avoiding it.
Go to the shop, stay calm and ask to speak to someone in charge.
Tell them you want your duvet back.
Give them another two weeks to try and locate it. This way at least you are showing that you are prepared to be fair about it.
Tell them that you expect to be reimbursed for the duvet if it hasn't turned up after the two weeks.
Lastly, and not wanting to trivialise you problem, it's only an €85 duvet, a used duvet, one that needed cleaning. It's highly unlikely that the shop wont pay up. It's not going to put them out of business. All this talk of the Gardaí and the small claims court, registered letters, Jebus ..............

MMAGirl

OP, i had a similar issue last year.
Left a dress in to a shop to be altered.
When I went to collect it they kept giving me the run around for weeks just like you have been given.
Eventually I called into the garda station and a gard phoned them and they admitted to him that they had lost it and were going to send me a cheque for the value.
A month later and still no sign of the cheque. I went into the same gard again and he phoned them again.
I had a cheque within the week.

BostonB

The fact that the Garda did that doesn't mean it was the correct procedure.

Maybe ask MING about it.

MMAGirl

BostonB wrote: »

The fact that the Garda did that doesn't mean it was the correct procedure.

Maybe ask MING about it.

There was no procedure that I know off.
I simply went into the station and needed help, and a nice gard helped me out.
I couldnt fault them.

monkeypants

Ah god love ya! wrote: »

Owners gone on holiday to Spain for two weeks now.

Maybe they've just taken a duvet day.

Ah god love ya!

Thought I would update you all.

Visited the laundrette again today. Their employee told us to take it to small claims. She was useless and had no problem shrugging it off as a nothing. It's a family run business. The son of the owners turned up today. Completely blanked us. While there a lady was to leave a coat in. We told her our issue and she took her business elsewhere.

We went up to personally talk with Ashleaf Shopping Centre management and informed them of the issue.

Whatever happened (suspect it was talking to shopping centre management) we ended up being called by the owner (father) who finally admitted something was amiss. He said he would sort it when he's back from his holidays.

Just shows you how bad customer service can have things escalate out of proportion. Although, it was just €85 the idea of paying somebody to do a service that ends with not receiving your item back and being treated like scum could irritate the most patient of saints.

I'll let you know if the owner keeps his promise...

Ah god love ya!

MMAGirl wrote: »

OP, i had a similar issue last year.
Left a dress in to a shop to be altered.
When I went to collect it they kept giving me the run around for weeks just like you have been given.
Eventually I called into the garda station and a gard phoned them and they admitted to him that they had lost it and were going to send me a cheque for the value.
A month later and still no sign of the cheque. I went into the same gard again and he phoned them again.
I had a cheque within the week.

I don't know why there isn't a person in local government who could keep reports of dodgy business practices and scams that would have the power to shut a business down or hold it accountable at least (without having to go to court and wait months). The process here is very bureaucratic and favours scumbags in business I'm afraid.

I'm glad the Gardaí helped you out. I would expect nothing less. People here would make you believe asking them for directions is a waste of their time and they shouldn't do that either...

ABajaninCork

That's great to hear, but I would keep my foot on the owner's throat so's to speak. If it took them this long to finally admit their mistake and given the attitude shown by their employee, I certainly wouldn't trust them now.

If the owner was that interested, then why didn't he authorise someone in the shop to sort out the problem? Why are you waiting until he gets back. He might be hoping you'll lose interest by then.

I'd press on with the registered letter, referring to the conversation you had and dropping his employee right in it!

wmpdd3

It would be no harm to put what you have been told into writing.

Cabaal

Ah god love ya! wrote: »

The process here is very bureaucratic and favours scumbags in business I'm afraid.

To be honest, I'm not aware of any country where the Police deal with consumer issues. Of course you are free to point one out,

Any country's I'm aware of have separate organizations to deal with consumer issues, this allows the Police to deal with real issues like murders or rape.

Anyway, glad to hear you had some progress. But given they can just as easily tell you go to small claims court right now I'd push for a resolution now without this waiting lark like they are suggesting.

If the son or other staff member's can't find the item now I'd fail to see what the father can do upon his return. Other then issue some sort of goodwill gesture, this could be done without waiting for his return.

Ah god love ya!

Cabaal wrote: »

To be honest, I'm not aware of any country where the Police deal with consumer issues. Of course you are free to point one out,

Any country's I'm aware of have separate organizations to deal with consumer issues, this allows the Police to deal with real issues like murders or rape.

Anyway, glad to hear you had some progress. But given they can just as easily tell you go to small claims court right now I'd push for a resolution now without this waiting lark like they are suggesting.

If the son or other staff member's can't find the item now I'd fail to see what the father can do upon his return. Other then issue some sort of goodwill gesture, this could be done without waiting for his return.

I suppose that's the point of the thread really. I wanted to know if there was anybody else I could turn to without having to go to Gardaí or court service. There's a big vacuum in consumer protection here. Unless it's obviously criminal or there's a case for reckless trading or breach of company law the Gardaí don't have remit.

I can see what you're saying but if you were in our shoes earlier you would just be relieved that anybody connected to this outfit have finally had some decency to try help sort it.

No matter if we have to wait or not, we will get what we are due from them! I can guarantee you that.

Ceraque

I'd be interested to hear if this was resolved OP. Very short version of events - my mother bought an outfit for my brothers wedding on 22nd March this year and wore it to the wedding on 19th April. She put it in for dry cleaning last Monday 22nd and got the dress back on Friday. Her black and Ivory Luis Civit dress is now black and cream with some salmon coloured watermarks and looking like a filthy rag.

The girl at the desk woudn't give owners contact details but said they use an agent somewhere in Aylesbury but she didn't know the name of the business. Only gave my mother a mobile number for him. My mother rang him and he was borderline abusive to her. He claimed to be just the driver, wouldn't say where his shop was or the name of it, gave her a 'well you would say that' response when she told him how much the dress cost. She went up to him with the dress (only because I found this thread and where he worked from in it) but in the meantime I went back down to the Ashleaf and extracted the owners number from the girl on the desk.

The girl actually handed me a flyer with owners number printed on it so quite why my mother couldn't have got same is beyond me. I rang the number and spoke to the owners daughter who is on hols for two weeks and she told me to get the dress and bring it back down to the Ashleaf. When I went up to Aylesbury SC to the launderette the guy my mother spoke to was there chewing on a baguette and between bites asked me to jog his memory re the dress!!! Just to let me know how insignificant this all was to him. I took the dress home, photographed all the damage and have now left it back down to the Ashleaf for the owners attention when she returns.

Given the shifty behaviour of all concerned I'm extremely worried and my mother is absolutely distraught. She had the dress exacdtly one month and its ruined. Any advice would be appreciated.

wmpdd3

Write to the cleaners, stating that your contract is with them, as you paid them. Where the work was done is not your problem. Give them 14 days to 'make things right'.

emo72

the dry cleaning business must be awesome. the owners sure seem to be going on a lot of holidays.

Ceraque

Well if they can afford so many holidays it will be nothing to them to give my mother the price of her outfit. I wont go away until they do!

emeldc

Two-colour garments like black and white can be tricky enough in the wrong hands. The colours have a tendency to 'run' although once the cleaner is aware of this, the cleaning time and cycle can be adjusted to cope with any potential problems. The garment may also have to be cleaned on it's own so as not to contaminate other garments and so gives rise to the term 'special care'. If the colours ran in the cleaning it is quite possible that the damage can be rectified. However if the cleaner tried to rectify it by washing or by some other means then it might not be possible. My advice would be to get your dress back and wait for the owner to return from holidays. I feel here is little point in leaving it at the shop for maybe someone else to 'have a go' at putting it right. If they knew what to do they would have done it in the first instance. Feel free to contact me by PM if you need any more information. By the way I'm in the business.

Ceraque

I'm afraid to take it home in case they said we did something to it in the meantime. From our experience so far we don't know what sort of a shower we're dealing with. I really would like some more info and could I send you a couple of pics of it to look at or post them here? I can't pm as have only 3 posts so maybe I could reply to you if you sent me one.

I wrote an email to the shop we bought it in last night, outlining what had happened and asking if they had had any other problems with same garment or with manufacturer. Also asking could the dress be replaced as a seperate instead of the whole outfit being ruined.

emeldc

PM sent

EllieMay1969

I was just looking for a dry cleaners in Dublin online and came across these posts. I am curious as to what was the outcome of both situations.

dudara

Please do not bring up old threads

dudara