Do you have that ONE customer?

[surfflite]

So we have this one young lady that cannot visit the mat without trying to get something for nothing. She comes every Wed. and you can bet that she will try to get a freebie. Last night she came in and sure enough claimed that someone pushed the "delicate" button on her front loader and that she didn't get to add her fabric softener because the delicate cycle doesn't allow her to add fabric softener. Now obviously she must think I don't know how these machines work. I told her it is her responsibility to keep an eye on her loads and that all cycles allow fabric softener and that when the little white light comes on that says "add softener", that's when she needs to add it. Of course she knows this as she has been coming here for as long as I've owned the place. Last week she claimed that all 3 washers she was using took 1 hour and 10 minutes to complete a cycle. All 3, imagine that. Then yesterday when she 1st arrived she went to the same 3 machines and asked "are these machines fixed yet because I don't want to wait 1 hour and 10 minutes like last week." I told her "yep we fixed them (not)". Low and behold they only took ~30 minutes.....all 3 of them, wow! Sure glad that Keebler elf came in a fixed them.

[timberland]

We give away liquid soap and softner one day a week...one time I see this lady placing 3 or 4 of these 3 oz cups into her purse...I ask "what are you doing?" and she reply's ...if I mis next week's free soap day I'm taking mine now. I then explain we do this, 1) because we are generous people. 2) we appreciate your business. 3) I dont like thiefs.... she huffed her purse off the washer and promptly the lids popped off the cups and spilled soap into her purse. :) I smile and walk away. She has not returned and I'm good with that.

Had another for 2-3 saturdays in a row show up and wash oiled shop rags in our top loaders.... attendant would call and I would stop in and clean the machine for a few hours. About the 4th week attandant calls and says happened again, washer has grease in it. My reply, I wish I could catch the person...she says come quick their drying this week ...as we speak. In 5 minutes I'm at the store, attendant points out the suspect...there huddled around the dryer, two - mid to late 50 year old ladies. As I approach I smell gasoline...I tell them to open the dryer and remove those rags and hit the bricks and NEVER come back. They reply " we have 10 minutes left on the dryer"....I pull the door open and say "had ten minutes" and then got a real blast of gasoline smell... I am FURIOUS at this point and pull the shop rags and toss them on the floor and proceed to tell them how the whole place could blow up... didnt phase them a bit. They picked up their rags and marched off, and thankfully never returned.

On the plus side we have some of the best customers...but every once in a while they will test your patience.

[Adamski]

Kerry,

I think I have a couple of customers who will test a new employee by trying to claim refunds on working equipment. I, therefore, require new employees to clear all Request for Refunds through me prior to paying anything out. This policy seems to pretty much take care of this situation.

Probably the most common refund in my laundromat is for a stuck snack item. The next most common is a customer who bought the wrong item from a vender because he pressed the wrong alpha/numeric button combination.

Generally, though, my customers are really good people. They cause very few problems. They don't get roudy or noisy because they appreciate the pleasant atmosphere that I provide. Fights are extremely rare and usually revolve around issues not associated with the laundromat. I really like my customers as you can see.

[epic02]

I use to have a lady that would come in and everytime she would complain about the dryers. I haven't seen her for a while and just the other day she was back. She put a full load of clothes in the dryer two heavy sweaters socks and shirts, and put in (one) quarter. Guess what she complains that the dryer was not working cause her clothes were still damp. I told her she needs to put more money in and I will no longer give her refunds. She took her damp A$$ Clothes and left.