One of the few things I miss about the old apartment is having my own washer and dryer. It's pretty much the only thing I miss about the old place...and really not even all that much. They were outside, rusty, beat up, but man they did their job and they did it well. The new apartment does has a washer and dryer. The problem lies in their condition. They look far better than our old guys at the old apartment, but they work horribly!
First, it was just the dryer. You have to run the clothes through twice just to get them dry...sometimes a third time. I couldn't figure out if it was the property owner trying to make extra money off of us or if it was really that bad. Then, the washer started having issues. Over flowing and not draining. The dryer not working was annoying, but the washer was now a problem too. So, I gave the manager a call and there is now a fix it ticket put in to have them repaired...three weeks later I'm still waiting.
After waiting for the last three weeks for the repairs, I'm no longer wondering why no one else called the repairs in to the manager. I also decided it was time to hit the laundromat.
It brought back memories. The last time I had been in a laundromat was while my sister and I were traveling. Washing clothes was very far and few between. We were pretty gross really. We'd wash what we needed to in the sink at night and then well...we'd wash when we could. Don't worry...showers were much much more frequent! We had been traveling for well over a month and were heading to our family's house in Germany and knew we had to wash our clothes. So, Lindsay and I brought everything we could possibly wash to an Italian laundromat. The little man running the shop, showed us what we needed to know. He was very patient with us and our non-italian speaking. The only problem was, how do I wash everything I have...including, what I was wearing. The laundromat guy was nice enough to pretend not to notice when I stripped down to my long johns and even nicer not to notice when I switched from my long johns into a freshly washed pair of jeans...so my long johns could then be washed.
So, with my happy Italian laundromat memories in mind, I headed down to the local corner laundromat. Which turned out to be a lot less magical than my laundromat memories. Lots of people, searching for a washer, carrying in a million bags of clothes, trying to remember laundromat etiquette, cleaning lady staring at me...I didn't love it, but it seemed to be going well. I got four loads of clothes loaded and was loading up my fifth bag, when I noticed I was being circled by the laundromat cleaning lady.
Cleaning Lady "Sweety, you need to get here earlier to wash."
Me "Ah...I'm sorry?"
Cleaning Lady "Look, Sweety, you need to start washing earlier. I guess I can wait a little for your clothes to dry but next time earlier"
Me "I'm sorry, I'm confused"
Cleaning Lady "We close at 9:30. I can wait a little while but next time get here earlier"
Me "Your sign says last wash at 9:30, it's only 8:45"
Cleaning Lady "Yeah 9:30"
Me "Your sign says you close at 10:30. Last wash at 9:30."
Cleaning Lady "I close at 9:30 and I clean up until 10:30"
Me pointing at the sign "uh..."
Cleaning Lady walking away "Next time earlier"
Business Hours 6:30am - 10:30pm
Last Wash 9:30pm
The sign seemed pretty straight forward to me. The last wash could be put in at 9:30, so that your clothes will be in the dryer and most likely dry by the time the laundromat closes at 10:30! I know I'm not an idiot! Then I was a little miffed. She totally called me out in front of all the other people washing their clothes and now no one was looking me in the eye. Apparently they knew the confusing hours and now I was the laundromat outcast. My sister thought I should tell her to suck it. Which is always mature...but I really wanted to be able to finish washing and drying my clothes.
Then I spied the suggestion box on the wall. I stared at the box and tried to decide if I was annoyed enough to write a passive aggressive suggestion to either post the correct business hours or explain to your employee what your sign actually means...cause I don't like being kicked out of laundromats early because your employee doesn't understand it. Then I decided I didn't really care all that much and besides there was one guy still drying his clothes as I left and he was in way more trouble than I was!
I would guess that she just wants to kick out early and figured that telling all the customers different hours will let her do that. I wonder if the manager or owner is aware if the "special hours" she enforces. And you may want to complain somewhere other than that suggestion box. It's probably her job to empty it and put any notes on the boss's desk. I doubt your suggestion about sticking to posted hours would make it that far.
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