All I want...Laundromat

Three things that I miss from New Jersey (and I don't miss much about New Jersey). 1) Comcast Cable. Time Warner seriously sucks. 2) A Neighborhood Hardware Store that has people in it who actually know something about hardware and can respond to me in English. 3) A laundromat where they care about their customers. So far, laundry.bz wins hands down for service. I would have used them this week if it were not for a little financial setback that I will explain below.

I've been exploring some of the laundromats in the South Slope (haven't found any in Greenwood Hgts yet) and will be heading further downtown in my search for a pleasant place for me to drop-off or do my laundry in the future when I forget to schedule my laundry.bz pickup.

1) Laundromat on 7th Ave between 16th and Prospect Ave is run by Russian people. They are very professional if not overly friendly, which is fine with me. They do a decent service wash. The machines themselves are in horrible shape. The very few driers have gummy stuff in them to clog up the holes and the drier performance is uneven. There are no folding tables. Many of the baskets have broken wheels. Don't do your laundry here by yourself if you are in the slightest bit crabby. It isn't worth the aggravation.

2) Laundromat on 6th Ave between 16th and 15th (or 15th and 14th). Tiny little dump, crappy machines and not all of the people working their speak English. They do a GREAT service wash.

Unfortunately, my son dropped off my laundry a week ago without going through the pockets. By the time I realized what had happened and ran over there, my laundry was already done and my hard earned $80.00 was gone. You may be thinking that I'm stupid. If so, you are right. At least I'm not a thief. The result of this is that I have to do my own laundry for a few weeks (in spite of the fact that I work 6 days out of 7). I will not be going back there.

3) Laundromat on 5th Avenue between 16th and 15th. Unlike the first two places, they have brand new machines, affordable. Boy was this exciting. I lugged myself over there tonight after work. Yes, I am a loser. Yes, it is Saturday night when cool people have something better to do....On the other hand, I value my one day off too much to spend it doing laundry.

I had just enough time before they closed to do all of my laundry. I knew that some of it would be damp, but was surprised to find one of my loads barely warm. I asked the woman if I could put another quarter in and she said no since it was closing time. I said "ok, but I just want you to know that the machine didn't get hot". I wasn't asking for money back, I was taking home my soaking wet clothing. I was asking for nothing, just letting her know. Absolutely not, she insists. It got hot.

Apparantly, the dryer failure was my fault for opening the door two minutes into a 28 minute cycle and putting a fabric softener sheet in there even though I definately closed it, shut it tight and started it up again. I suck and she made sure to let me know about it.

My conclusion is that she doesn't like customers, so I suggest that you just stay away from that place unless you don't care about being treated well and know how to close a drier door. People like me need assistance in this area, so I will have to be going elsewhere.

Even though we have already established that I am stupid, I should have known better than to go there anyway. I dropped off my dry cleaning there once. When I went back to pick it up, it wasn't there. This same woman suggested that perhaps I had already picked it up. Fortunately it showed up a few days later. Whew.

4) As soon as I can afford it, I'll be going back to laundry.bz. They pick up and deliver. They appear to care a little bit, They actually CALL when they are going to be late. They speak English. They do NOT charge extra money for pick-up and delivery. I've never been inside their laundromat. It is probably not local to me. Does anyone know where this laundromat is located?