How do I stop losing my shirts?

January 31, 2008 2:08 PM

I've come to realize that I am not paying as much attention to detail as I should when I drop off shirts at my dry cleaners. It seems like I end up losing 3 or 4 shirts a year to the ebb and flow of having my shirts laundered. Is this truly because of my lack of attention or do others have the same problem? How common it is for shirts to be lost at the dry cleaners? Beyond a greater attention to the checkin and checkout of shirts, does anybody have any advice on stemming the tide of lost shirts?
posted by blackjack514 to clothing, beauty, & fashion (9 comments total)

I have no firsthand experience with losing shirts at the dry cleaners, but it's a common enough issue that Curb Your Enthusiasm featured it last season in "The Anonymous Donor." In this episode, people regarded the dry cleaners as a game of chance - you would lose clothes from time to time, but you would also gain clothes due to employee goofs.
posted by porn in the woods at 2:15 PM on January 31, 2008

I've never really thought about it - don't think I've ever lost a shirt that wasn't accounted as lost at the time of pickup. Find a dry cleaner that counts everything in front of you, gives you an itemized receipt, then counts everything back to you when you pick your clothes back up.
posted by uaudio at 2:17 PM on January 31, 2008

Get a receipt each time you drop off and compare it to when you pick up. No secret here, just have to make sure to pay attention each time. If there's a disparity between amount dropped off and amount picked up, any dry cleaner that values repeat business will gladly refund you a fair amount for the shirt.
posted by Burhanistan at 2:17 PM on January 31, 2008

I have never lost a shirt, but I have invested in Brooks Brothers no-iron shirts, which have cut my dry cleaning bills pretty much in half. I have a bigger problem with the dry cleaners loosening the buttons on my jackets (somehow?) and then I have to have then re-sewn every four or five months.
posted by parmanparman at 2:19 PM on January 31, 2008

I have lost shirts. The only benefit to confirming you lost a shirt is that you have the knowledge and can make an informed decision about going back. Monetarily, it is not worth it. A perfectly great condition 1 year old shirt is depreciated by the cleaner's insurance so much that it was something like 25% of the cost of replacement. The cleaner did want to keep my business and offered to give me a cleaning credit that matched the insurance check. Once, I was given someone else's shirt in the same size but different style than mine. I actually wore it once because it was the only clean shirt left in my closet, then returned it to the cleaner. I have never heard of anyone getting a lost shirt back.

I do have the buttons broken on me often enough to piss me off, but that is for a different rant.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 2:34 PM on January 31, 2008

This probably doesn't help you, but in the last year I've somehow gained two shirts I never bought. I can only assume they came back from the drycleaners with the rest of my shirts.

I don't really check my shirts when I get them back, similar to you, but I've recently somehow gained two shirts that I definitely did not purchase. One is actually my size, one is not.

So, maybe I have one of your shirts?
posted by smitt at 2:44 PM on January 31, 2008

I've lost shirts and pants in the past. Usually I don't notice until I get home, drive back, then they can never find them because it is too late and they forgot where in the racks my stuff was. I realized that since I don't normally remember everything I took in vs. what I picked up, I just moved from trying one cleaners to the next to the next until I found one that never loses anything and is never late. It took about 7 cleaners before I found a detail-oriented one I could trust to always return my stuff.
posted by mathowie at 2:49 PM on January 31, 2008

Oh I had this happen all the time too. Usually because I was in a rush to pick up or drop off my shirts. The cleaners so reliably lost a shirt (you know who you are, Dry Cleaners on Sullivan St. in Manhattan) that I only kept going back because it was so close to my place and well, I was pressed for time.

What I ended up doing is always taking the same number of shirts with me. So it was always five shirts. How many shirts do you need to drop off sir? Five! Are you sure you're missing a shirt sir? Yes, because I always drop off 5!

This didnt work perfectly. But it helped stem the losses a little bit.
posted by vacapinta at 2:58 PM on January 31, 2008 [2 favorites]

My two cleaners have never lost anything. The one time I was under some stress and accused the cleaner of losing some pants, I later found them on the floor of my closet.
posted by JimN2TAW at 9:57 PM on January 31, 2008