Tuesday, May 01, 2007

More on Laundry Pricing

I wish I was going to be reporting back to you all that I researched New York City law, wrote a letter to the owner of the drycleaning shop, and won a great victory in getting clean, pressed shirts for the same price as a man.

Sadly, this is instead a follow-up post that will detail my great stupidity and laziness.

I brought my shirts to work with me, and then took them with me again on my way home. When I got off the subway, I took a detour and went to a different drycleaning shop in my neighborhood to see if they did shirts. They didn't have any big signs about it in the window, but I could see the woman at the counter checking in a whole pile of shirts, so I walked in. I handed her my shirts, said they were to be laundered, no starch. She took them with a silent nod of acknowledgement and I thought, great! She's not going to hassle me! I gave her my info, took the printed-out ticket and left. Halfway home, I thought, gee, I didn't even check how much they charge to launder shirts, so I looked at the ticket. It turned out she had charged me $3 each, which must just be what they charge for drycleaning! And it was 50 cents more than what I was so incensed about paying at the other place! I felt like a complete dope, but I at that point, I wasn't about to go and ask for my shirts back.

There is a moral to this story, and it is that you must always ASK QUESTIONS! I'll bet I have lost a lot of money in my life just because I was too passive and accepting, and didn't take that extra step to ask why something wasn't cheaper, or how I could get it for less... or even just how much it was in the first place!

I do still plan to do some more shopping around for the best place to do my drycleaning and shirts... though perhaps as punishment for my stupidity I should force myself to iron for a while. Or change the title of this blog to "New York Dumbass's Open Wallet."

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

You really shouldn't be so hard on yourself. These things happen. You learnt some lesson, is enough. Not worth 50 cents to beat yourself up about it... Self worth also has a value.

Mrs. Sprinkles said...

I feel your pain--I've felt stupid about pricing so many times. It's not the $.50, it's the hassle and principle involved.

Anonymous said...

I have a left a comment on your first post about all the dry cleaning business. As I mentioned I have been very frustrated by such disparity ...I think it is indeed because the machines cannot handle womens shirts (that begs the question why don't they design a machine for womens shirts?)

Anonymous said...

Jesus Christ,

The cumulative income of all the laundry-folks at the first place is a fraction of yours. Don't begrudge them a few dollars.

They probably didn't have the opportunities in life you did. Surely you can forgive their inability to charge a higher amount in a politically correct manner.

Anonymous said...

FYI, if your shirts are anything other than 100% cotton (and most women's dress shirts have some amount of lycra, etc), then I've found they always charge you for dry cleaning. Even if you don't want them dry cleaned. At least that has been my experience with cleaners. If I really don't want to deal with ironing I just realize that's part of the game. Occasionally I'll just iron them at home. But not usually...

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