Customers, can't live without, but wish you could.

[vernonmaytag]

We had a fellow in the other day. Bought some coins and proceded to use a couple top loads to do his wash. Seemed a little on the "slow" side, but we got lots like that.

A while later, I noticed him doing more loads, didn't really think much of it.

My wife took over, and he came up and complained, "I put two buck in and everything is still so wet". She asked him which dryers he used, and he pointed to the front load Neptune washers. She told him that those were washers and he said we should put signs on them.... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[vernonmaytag]

A couple days earler, a woman comes in, has a toddler (perhaps 4-5), and a couple bags of clothes. Says there there is more to follow. She hands me bills and aske to buy a bunch of coins, and soap (I have to go back to the cash wrap to do that). Her daughter comes in, with a stroller, and more clothes (she's the mother of the kids, the first one is gramma). Daughter has errends, so leaves the kids with gramma.

Gramma hands me more money for more soap (what am I a runner?).

Now Gramma has the baby tucked under her arm, and the toddler has dumped our basket of toys all over the floor, procedes to play rough with them. With baby under arm, gramma is fussing with stuffing machines, and has trouble getting the machine to accept coins. Kid still tossing our toys around.

Once the wash has stopped, she (again baby under arm) stuffs the dryers and is now having trouble getting the dryer to take coins (she's trying to put them in the coin return). She complains and wants help. As I head over to her, the toddler tries to climb the laundry cart and it falls over, I catch the crossbar full in the face, I fall to the floor stunned. The toddler is crying. My hand shows blood from my split lip, she only is concerned about the toddler, and still expects me to help her with the dryer while my lip drips blood.
She puts the baby down, sitting INSIDE the laundry cart, and toddler again tries to climb it, and she does nothing to stop him, even though he pulled it down on top of him self just moments earlier.

She never acknowledges my bleeding lip, or if I'm OK.

I kept expecting her to come over and complain about the bump on toddler's head.

Some customers are just a pain (literally).

[MGS]

Customers you wish you could live without... Well 2 come to mind.

1) Her nickname (to my wife and I) is "the smelly lady". This woman literally smells so bad that the whole mat stinks whenever she comes in to do her clothes. On a few occasions I have been servicing a machine when she came in and started using a washer right next to me. Her odor was so offensive that I gave up on the machine, and fixed it later when she was gone. Unfortunately/fortunately she is a good customer, with a big family and one of those who spends at least $20 every time in the store. Can you ask a customer not to come back to your store because she smells too much??

2) We had a customer come in a few weeks ago with a baby who was just old enough to sit up on its own. The baby was in a car seat, and was crying as the mother loaded the washers. Rather than try to sooth the baby, the mother constantly screamed at her, telling her to SHUT UP!! Predictably the baby did not quiet down despite screeched instructions to do so. Although I am not one to enjoy listening to a baby scream, it was worse listening to the mother scream than it was listening to the baby. At one point, my wife picked the baby up, cuddled her for a few seconds, and she was instantly quiet and subdued.

The clueless mother and baby left, and returned to load the dryers. Again, the baby was screaming. Again the mother's solution was to scream at the baby.

They left and returned to unload dryers. This time, the mother put the baby on a folding table. My first thought was that the baby was going to fall off the table. Sure enough, the mother turned her back, the baby leaned forward - I started running - but was too far away and arrived after the baby fell to the floor!! So what does "Mom of the Year" do? Scream at the baby!! I was ready to call the police on her. Can you have someone arrested for being an idiot??

[dx398]

This evening I get home from my full-time job and log on to my mats cameras over the web to see whats up... After a couple of minutes I see a door on my stacked dryers opening by itself, then closing!! I think WTF?! then I see an older gentlemen kneeling down peering into the dryer, mumbling something to himself... a few seconds later someones head pops out then back in!! I think to myself WTF is someone doing IN my dryer?? I jump in the car, and 15 minutes later Im at the mat and find this big kid in the bottom dexter just sitting in there, he must have been in there for a good 20 minutes!! I proceed to yank him out by the scruff of his neck then rip his GRAND FATHER a new one for letting him play in there!!

[vernonmaytag]

[ QUOTE ]
This evening I get home from my full-time job and log on to my mats cameras over the web to see whats up... After a couple of minutes I see a door on my stacked dryers opening by itself, then closing!! I think WTF?! then I see an older gentlemen kneeling down peering into the dryer, mumbling something to himself... a few seconds later someones head pops out then back in!! I think to myself WTF is someone doing IN my dryer?? I jump in the car, and 15 minutes later Im at the mat and find this big kid in the bottom dexter just sitting in there, he must have been in there for a good 20 minutes!! I proceed to yank him out by the scruff of his neck then rip his GRAND FATHER a new one for letting him play in there!!

[/ QUOTE ]

Investing in ONE quarter would have cured the problem forever.... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Adamski]

Back in the old days ... pre cell phone ...

It was a hot July afternoon ... a young gal in a sexy halter top was talking on the laundromat's pay phone (one of those old fashioned wall phones with a round thingy that you stuck your finger in the hole and gave it a spin to "dial" the number). Well, it just so happened that a band (musical - not band of Indians) was in town and a few of the members were washing at my laundromat. One guy was so enamoured with Miss Halter Top that he couldn't seem to take his eyes off her ... as he walked right through my (closed) plate glass entrance door. Luckily for me, that was back in the days when people didn't file lawsuits over every little eye strain incident.

I got a million of 'em.

Larry /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[2bits]

We too have a Smelly Lady who does her laundry at our mat about once a week. The odor of pee (human? cat?) from her permeates the place. Then there are the "Dog Poop People" who wash their dog bedding without shaking out the uh, "chunks or solids." Hubby opens the mat one morning and the washer smells and he retrieves what he first thought to be one rock, then another and another in the washer. I wonder if I could get that customer to reimburse us for the bleach we had to use to sanitize the washers and get the stench out. We're trying to catch these guys so we can educate 'em on civilized human behavior.

[aussie_mick]

Loving reading these. Reminds me im not alone.

I had a young guy come in and ask could i do a wash dry fold on a doona .. he then mentioned his mate had chucked on it during the night. I asked had he at least hosed it or washed off the "excess" and he said they had.

When I pulled it out of the bag, surprise surprise, they had just wrapped it up with the "present" still inside. Luckily there werent many customers around and I can hold my breath for long periods.

Needless to say when they came back to pick it up, I had doubled the price i'd quoted (which was already marked up)and they had no arguments about paying whatever I wanted.

[john09191974]

I had somebody washing greasy clothes in a couple of my top loaders. I put up a sign NO GREASY $25.00 clean up fee per machine. Add some cameras.

[Adamski]

MGS,

I used to own a laundromat that had the oposite situation from your "smelly lady".

We had a customer who came in weekly and used only top loaders. She would fill up about 12 of them each week. After the cycle was done, she would restart them all and run them again (with the same clothes in the tubs). Can you imagine? After the second cycle, she would dry the loads.

Needless to say, we called her "Mrs. Clean". I wish all my customers were like Mrs. Clean.

Larry /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[vernonmaytag]

We had a live one today. A lady comes in a couple days ago, with two comforters, says a: she doesn't want them to touch the floor, b: wants them in the basket till we can launder them c: dried only partially, so she can hang them.

We do the wash, each seperately, since they were too big fit in the large washer. We dried for the couple bucks each, and hung them over the cart. It was pretty hard to do so without it touching the floor as they were kings, but we managed it.

She didnt' show that day (hot outside) to pickup, she didnt' show up the next day (hot outside) to pickup. We flipped them a couple time to more evenly dry.

She comes in today, and in the jostling, one corner is just touching the ground, and the other corner is almost. She said she had wanted them in plastic, but we told her that we would not store them in a bag wet, but she didnt' want them put in a bag as she picked up. She paid, but you could tell she thought about it. And on the way out, said she'd have to rewash them as they touched the ground. (oh brother).

She had been in before, and didn't want us to use tennis balls as they had "touched others laundry".

Boy, she really has issues. Hell, other peoples laundry touches the washers, driers, and the carts...... I wonder if she considers what goes on in restaurant kitchens, she'd never eat in one. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

[Adamski]

To All:

Did I tell you guys about the time the circus came to town?

I had a laundromat/dry cleaning plant/car wash combination up in Manistee at the time. The car wash was a 3 bay wand type (hand held spray).

One day, a guy pulls up with a truck with a lion (the live circus type) in a cage in the back. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif He backed into the bay and sprayed down the animal. Then he pulled over to the vacuum and vacuumed him off. Apparently, the lion was used to this type of bath.

I swear ... I'm not "lion" about this /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif.

Larry /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif