Todd Layne Cleaners, which is suing me
for expressing my displeasure with their service
The is a story about how customers of Todd Layne Cleaners became former customers and were then sued by the owners of the cleaners to prevent them from telling other people about their rude, incompetent service.
In 2006, a new dry cleaner called Todd Layne Cleaners opened up in our building. Since opening, we have had nothing but bad experiences with them, and in attempting to warn our neighbors about using their services, we are now being sued for $300,000.
Our saga began sometime in the winter of 2006, when I dropped off a batch of laundry at Todd Layne Cleaners. The cleaners promises same-day service, so when I gave them my laundry in the morning, I asked how late they'd be open that evening. The woman at the counter replied, "Eight o'clock."
I wanted to be sure I got home from work in time to pick up the laundry, because all my gym clothes were in the bag, and I wanted to be able to go to the gym the next morning before the cleaners opened.
When I came home from work at 5:30PM that evening, Todd Layne Cleaners was closed--two-and-a-half hours before I was told they would be closed.
So I had to skip the gym the following morning, and when I picked up my laundry, the same woman was there. I asked why they had closed early and she simply said, "Oh, I had to leave, and there was nobody else around to keep the store open."
No apology, no "sorry for the inconvenience," no acknowledgement at all on their part that they had screwed up. When I expressed my displeasure, the woman shrugged her shoulders, making it quite clear to me that she was not interested in keeping her customers happy.
Despite the first negative experience, my fiancee dropped off some laundry at Todd Layne Cleaners. When she picked up the clothes, she noticed that Todd Layne Cleaners charged nearly twice as much as the other laundry services on the block.
Apparently, one of the reasons they charge so much is that they use a special soap that they claim is environmentally friendly. Perhaps it is friendly to the environment, but it was clearly not friendly to my fiancee, because when she used the fresh-out-of-the-wash towels, she broke out in hives from head to toe.
This was the last time she used the laundry service at Todd Layne Cleaners.
Despite the previous experiences, I used Todd Layne Cleaners on a third occasion after I missed the laundry drop-off deadline for another service on the block.
When I picked up my clothes and unpacked the bag, I noticed that the clothes were wet. Not just damp, not "barely dry," but wet, to the point that if I had wrung them out, there would have been a puddle on the floor.
Now, Todd Layne Cleaners is pretty expensive, and their signs imply that they provide a higher level of service than the competing services on the block.
One of the services they provide is folding the laundry. This is done by hand, so it would have been pretty clear to whoever did the folding that the clothes were not dry.
When I brought my laundry back to have it properly dried, the woman huffed that the laundry was all dried for a standard amount of time. I replied that it was quite clear that this amount of time did not suffice, and that I had paid for my laundry to be cleaned and dried fully, not to be run through the machine for some clearly insufficient "standard amount of time."
The tone of the woman behind the counter at Todd Layne Cleaners made it quite clear to me that I was inconveniencing her by asking for the service that I had paid for. She said she'd "do me a favor" by running the clothes through the dryer again.
When I was there, I asked why Todd Layne Cleaners charged so much for service that was worse than what I had gotten for years from other cleaners on the block. She said that they did several things beyond what other cleaners did. They used special soap. They checked pockets so you wouldn't accidentally send stuff through the wash. But apparently, the "extra service" did not quite extend to actually getting your clothes back dry.
Perhaps I'm too picky.
My fourth and last experience as a customer with Todd Layne Cleaners was partially my fault. I carelessly left my cellphone in a pair of shorts.
By the time I realized where my cellphone was, I went back to Todd Layne Cleaners to pick it up. After all, if they really did check pockets like they said they did, my phone would be safe.
But apparently, the woman at Todd Layne Cleaners lied to me when she said they checked pockets. Because when she opened the washing machine and I fished out my shorts, my now-dead cellphone was still in the pocket.
So much for those pricey "extra services."
When Todd Layne Cleaners first opened, they hung advertisements in the building saying that they would accept packages for the people living in the building.
Even though we were not regular customers anymore, my fiancee and I thought this was quite neighborly, so at one point after they had accepted a couple of packages for us, we gave them a "thank you" card with a $20 bill inside. Not a bad payoff; that's $10 per package.
But the very next package that got sent to us after we gave them the thank-you note and the $20, Todd Layne Cleaners refused delivery. So much for being neighborly.
When I went in to remind them that (1) they hung signs saying that they would accept packages for tenants in the building, and (2) we gave them what we felt was a more-than-suitable thank you for doing something that they offered to do for free, we were told that they rejected shipment because we were not customers.
Now, legally Todd Layne Cleaners is not obligated to sign for the packages, but they offered to do it, and they had done it before even though we were no longer customers. And it was precisely because we weren't customers that we felt it would be nice to give them a gift in return. So it was particularly obnoxious to reject the package because of the excuse that we were no longer customers; after all, the reason we were no longer customers because of their repeated screw-ups that were never followed by so much as a simple apology.
After all those experiences, I left the store a bit miffed, and I went home and printed several fliers that said, "Todd Layne Cleaners Sucks and is Overpriced." I hung somewhere between 5 and 10 within my building on one afternoon. That's it.
A few days later, I was served with papers notifying me that I was being sued for $20,000.
After filing their lawsuit, I put up this website to share this story with the world. Todd Layne Cleaners then amended their lawsuit, asking for $300,000.
Repeatedly, Todd Layne Cleaners has indicated that they would drop the lawsuit if I sign a "non-disparagement agreement." In other words, they'd drop the suit if only I agreed to give up my constitutional right to tell people about my negative experiences with them.
Their intimidation will not work, and in fact will only make me work harder to share these stories with other New Yorkers and to warn them about the rude customer service, the broken promises, and the substandard, overpriced services they provide.