THE LAUNDRY BASKET =BAD ATTENDANT

The Laundry Basket, 378 Centre St., has always been the place to go; its large and clean and every attendant is friendly and helpful until now. On Sunday 8/24/08, my wife put clothes in 2 washers; one large-one small. The large washer washed the clothes, drained & was unable to spin. The machine stopped and our clothes were soaking wet.

My wife asked the attendant for help. At first, the attendant was defensive stating there was nothing wrong with the machine despite the obvious.

My wife asked if the attendant would do the right thing and allow a re-wash in another machine at their expense. All she offered was "leave your name and number and she would take care of it"

My wife asked her to call the owner. Perhaps he could give direction or empowerment to rectify the situation

My wife offered to use a smaller machine for re-wash to make it easier on the attendant.

The attendant raised her voice at my wife, in front of customers and yelled, You think my boss is going to come down for this???? What do you want me to do, if I give you money my boss will take it from me... ( something to this effect.) My wife was taken aback and was quite upset. She was only asking for help.

Meanwhile, clothes were dripping all over the floor. The attendant ordered my wife to put the clothes in the sink. The attendant finally put the "out of order sign on the machine. Our son stopped 2 other customers from using this machine and both people were very grateful.

the sink is used for the dirty mop!!!! Clothes do not belong there. My wife did it anyway. She could not get the water out as the sink was too small. The attendant did not offer to help, she went back to conversing with friends in another language ignoring my wife and the issue. I ended up going to the laundromat and finishing up for her, she left in tears.

What ever happened to customer service? What ever happened to empathy, to helping customers? We are spending over $1000.00 a year to do laundry, and have been loyal to the establishment since inception and this is how we are treated? It took me a while but I got the attendant to say the owners name was "Andre" but she did not know when he comes in.

How sad is it when an establishment loses a customer over less than a five dollars, when they were wrong in the first place? The machine breaks, its the businesses responsibility to do the right thing.

I guess the right thing is to yell at, embarrass and humiliate a long time loyal customer in front of others and to let them know how much the Laundry Basket thinks of them. Quick to take your money, quick to treat you like dirt when their equipment breaks down.

I just wanted to pass this along in hopes one of your staff would let "Andre" know of the situation, letter of complaint and loss of a customer

Sincerely

John Costanzo

Nutley NJ