It has been a sad time for me, and to hear that my ex-mum-in-law had also passed away, has done nothing to lighten the load. The practicalities of all this have been enormous, and made worse by the dry cleaners....
Let me explain...
Living on an island has some problems, as yet, I haven't found a dry cleaner that doesn't say.. "yes, we can clean that, but we send all our clothes off here. You have just missed this weeks load, so it won't go till next Thursday and be back for the following Thursday. "
You just aren't given that much notice for a funeral.
So I was pleased to eventually find a branch of Johnson's Dry Cleaners, about a 3/4hr drive away, with a 60p parking charge in Bangor, but they able to do my cleaning, and Mike's too, ready for the next day. After 3 funerals and a wedding this year, I was desperate!
I don't own many clothes that need dry cleaning, just this one, smart black suit.
So, I took my suit, and Mike's in on Friday. I was told it would be ready either late Saturday, or Monday. I returned on Monday, allowing a generous amount of amser Cymraeg.
"I'm sorry, our machine went wrong on Friday" I was informed.
"You what!" I gasped, "When will they be cleaned?"
"We have a service engineer coming on Wednesday," the girl said.
"I need both suits for a funeral, on Wednesday, in Norfolk, the other side across the UK, I am driving there tomorrow"
I was starting to see red by then.
"You could take the clothes to our other shop at Carnarvon"
I acquiesced, not much else I could do... looked at the time... then thought, sod it!... I will go dirty.
"ok, let me have the suits back," I demanded.
The girl went off to find them, but came back empty handed.
"I am sorry" she almost whispered, " those clothes are among the ones trapped in the broken machine, we can't get them out until Wednesday"
The world sort of went blurred at this point. I thought of facing my ex and his family with no clothes on, then I pulled myself together and spat feathers, saw red and all the cliches that go with being extremely angry and upset.
" what can I do?" I choked out.
"maybe you should discuss this with my manager" the girl said.
"ok, can I?"
"She will be back at about 1" she said
I needed fresh air, and went outside to wait the few minutes.
I planned my campaign.
I phoned Mike.
I returned to the shop, and spoke to the manager, who offered free service at their other shop for the clothes that were still in her machine. I explained. She suggested that I should phone their customer services department.
So, I drove home, 3/4hr to cool off and start to breath more steadily, to think if there are any other washable black things in my wardrobe, which in all honesty, there are. But Mike isn't the sort of guy to ever need 2 smart suits...
I phoned the 0845 number on my land line and got through to 'Steff" who was obviously far better at dealing with panicking customers than the branch were. She took my details, including my phone number, which was when I realised that the branch had had my number all along, but hadn't bothered to phone me and tell me the information, or even save me the time, fuel, and parking fee. Steff phoned me back and asked if I had anything else I could use, made similar offers, and I admitted I could probably find something, but not Mike, and there was very little time now as we were heading off the next morning.
"Would you be able to get a suit for £150?" she asked.
I said I would think so... so she said that if I got one, sent the receipt to her, she would reinburse me for up to £150.
I felt myself deflate, a strong feeling of relief, but also with amazement. As you can imagine, I agreed.
We went to the funeral, bought a nice suit for Mike en route too, and I borrowed a jacket from my mum, which was dry clean only, and shoved it in the washing machine, which did it no harm whatsoever.
I vowed to wash all things that say "Dry Clean Only" in future.
All went well... until I returned to the shop to pick up the original clothes, on Friday, a week after I had gone in there for the first time.
I had been thinking that almost a week inside cleaning solvent might have had a disasterous effect on the garments, but they all seem perfect now I have examined them, with my bad eyes..
Why is it I feel so annoyed that I had to pay another £21.80 for the actual dry cleaning? I got nothing, no compensation, just hassle and extra trips to Bangor and parking and not even free dry cleaning. Yet Mike sits back and gets a new suit out of this...Am I just being greedy?
I had to even ask for a carrier bag when I picked up our old but plastic wrapped suits.
I will keep you informed as to how this goes, I still have to claim back my money for Mike's new suit.
NB. please accept that my "quotes" are NOT direct, word for word quotes. My memory isn't that good! But I have tried to show what I felt and understood at the time.
Labels: Dry clean only, dry cleaners in bangor
