On Friday, January 6, I took nine items of clothing into the Perimeter Place location of Carriage Cleaners (400 Perimeter Center Ter., Atlanta, GA) to be dry-cleaned. One item, a light celery jacket with black cuffs on the sleeves which belonged to a three-piece Kasper ensemble, had only been worn once for an interview before being given into this establishment's care.By the time the jacket had been cleaned and given back to me, the black dye of the cuffs had bled all over the material — dark rings on the sleeves as well as patches of black dye on the shoulders and back.
Joyce, the attendant, stated that her company was not responsible for the stains, as there were no special cleaning instructions for the sleeves in the garment. I stood my ground until she agreed to have the black stains removed from the jacket and was advised to come back on Saturday, January 14, to see the results. When I picked the item up on Wednesday, January 18 (the jacket was not ready on Saturday, as promised), I was upset to see that although the black stain had been removed resulting in a slight fading of the color — there was now a new red stain on the back of the jacket.
Joyce quickly claimed she did not know where the new stain had come from and insisted that it had to have been there from the beginning. I pointed out to her that it would have been caught during the first cleaning and that she and I had both gone over the jacket together.
We began to argue over her refusal to restore my jacket back to its original stain-free condition. Joyce informed me her company would not be put to the trouble of again taking precautions against the black cuffs bleeding in order to clean the new stain, and if I wanted the jacket back without the red stain, then I would have to accept that the black stains would re-occur.
We continued to argue, and at one point I actually had to ask that she remove her finger from my face. I finally asked for the name of the owner or manager, which she refused to provide. When I then demanded that she at least give me a claim form I could file for reimbursement of the suit, she refused my request and instead called the police so that I would leave!
I countered her offensive move by calling the authorities, as well. When Officer M.R. Wilson arrived and became acquainted with the situation, he tried to determine why the jacket could not be spot-treated or cleaned without affecting the black cuffs.
As Joyce continued to be obstinate in her refusal to put any further work into the jacket, Mr. Wilson saw that no resolution would be reached in dealing with her and asked for the owner or manager's name on my behalf. She then refused to give the owner's name to the officer! In turn, he advised me as to how I could obtain the owner's name by contacting the Perimeter Place Plaza property manager.
When I was later contacted by an owner of Carriage Cleaners, Mr. Sang Yung, he chose not to address his employee's treatment of me but did inform me at length that the black staining was a result of the suit being defective and was not the fault of poor cleaning from his company.
Mr. Yung asserted that the bleeding of the black cuffs would have occurred at any other dry cleaning establishment and that the manufacturer of the garment, Kasper, was actually responsible for the damage. He then offered to personally handle the cleaning of the garment and offered a $100 store credit if the defective nature of the jacket prohibited him from getting the red stain out without creating further black staining. When I asked for more time to become educated regarding the dry cleaning process by talking to other cleaners before accepting his offer, he became antagonistic.
Mr. Yung immediately tried to financially intimidate me. He spelled out to me that his company's insurance would cover any court costs or judgments if I were to legally pursue this issue, whereas I would be solely responsible for all court expenses on my end. He then questioned the true value of the suit, emphasizing that it could have been purchased on sale and therefore was not truly worth $300.
He even asked for a credit card statement to prove my purchase of the suit. Noting the offensive approach that Mr. Yung took upon hearing of my intent to speak to other dry-cleaners, I declined his offer of a $100 store credit, which not only was less than half of the value of the suit but — coming from a store that managed to stain the same jacket twice through dubious cleaning methods — really did not hold much value at all.
I have not heard anything further from Mr. Yung or Carriage Cleaners since this incident, but I have had the opportunity to speak with several other dry cleaning companies. I can now understand Mr. Yung's consternation at my intent to speak to other cleaners, as all of the companies that I have spoken to have refuted his claim that the cuffs bled as a result of a defect in the material.individuals who have been in the dry-cleaning industry for over 20 years have maintained that the jacket was not cleaned properly, and the newly faded color of the jacket has been recognized on sight.
It is now my intent to spread the word regarding the improper treatment of my clothing and my person by Carriage Cleaners. I am not sure that I will ever get over the abuse of my designer suit which had only been worn once and will probably never be worn again, the dismissal of my concerns and my business by the company's personnel and owner, or the bullying tactics used by calling the police on me rather than employing professionalism and industry knowledge to reach the best possible resolution for the situation. Perhaps I cannot get my suit back to its original condition or force the company to make restitution for its decrease in quality, but I can do whatever possible to ensure that they handle the next customer who comes through their doors with the care and respect that I was not given.
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