Man claims laundry service destroyed his designer clothes, company says he verbally abused staff

It was a beloved piece.

A customer wants The Laundry Club to come clean about destroying his designer clothes by using tumble-wash instead of dry-cleaning them as he requested.

But the company said that clothes still undergo a tumbling process in the dry-cleaning machine.

However, Stomper Chua said that he had dry-cleaned his clothes for years, implying that he should be familiar with the process.

According to The Laundry Club website: "Dry cleaning is not as dry as you think. It's a cleaning process that uses a solvent other than water and is actually wet."

So what happened to the Stomper's clothes?

He recounted: "Recently, I moved to Clementi and entrusted this laundromat with dry-cleaning several pieces of high-quality designer clothes that I own and washed at laundromats for years.

"It is very evident that The Laundry Club tumble-washed them instead of dry-cleaned them as one of my beloved pieces of linen came back in this.

"The Clementi Mall laundry shop didn't even bother to own up about destroying my linen clothing. They just hoped I didn't check, which I sadly didn't until two weeks later when I wanted to wear it."

"The owner was uncooperative and insisted that after 24 hours, they are not liable – something I was not made aware of prior to requesting that my clothes be dry-cleaned.

"The laundry service, communications and handling of the situation were very poor."

In response to a Stomp query, The Laundry Club said that it was an unfounded allegation that the Stomper's clothes were tumble-washed.

"We do not know how Mr Chua can claim that his item was tumble-washed instead of dry-cleaned," said the company.

"Well, the item will still undergo a tumbling process in the dry-cleaning machine, but we definitely did not launder it. As a veteran player in the industry for 25 years, we know better than to not handle the item in the appropriate manner."

As the Stomper said, he went back to The Laundry Club only two weeks from the date of collection.

The company said: "Based on our conditions of service, vetted previously by Casetrust, 'All claims must be made within 24 hours after collection/delivery and must be accompanied by the original receipt.'

"There’s a good reason for this as a lot of things can happen in 24 hours. This clause is clearly stated on the receipt too, impossible to miss.

"Our customer service team did our best to assure Mr Chua that his item was dry-cleaned and not washed as he alleged. We also explained that as he only contacted us after about two weeks, we were really unable to accept liability.

"Furthermore, these types of drawstrings break very often either due to wear and tear or rough usage by the wearer. Despite this, knowing that inserting the drawstring is a tedious process, we, regardless, offered to insert it for Mr Chua on a complimentary basis, only requiring that Mr Chua provide us with one of his choice. He rejected our offer."

Regarding the Stomper's statement about The Laundry Club's poor communications and handling of the situation, the company said: "We are very saddened to hear this despite our staff responding to his messages within two minutes.

"We offered an amicable resolution to sew back any drawstring free of charge the next day. However, the customer was insistent and he wanted to put the blame on us for his item’s damage.

"In our more than 24 years in the business, if we damage something, we will always admit our liability and will do our best to rectify and/or compensate.

"However, if the cause of the damage becomes uncertain, especially since it has been two weeks since collection, then we will need to stand our ground. Seriously, who knows what truly happened during those two weeks after Mr Chua collected his item.

"Just so that you are aware, Mr Chua was abusive in his language throughout this episode. Our service staff, both at the outlet and HQ, were verbally abused by him, even our manager, George."