Harcourt Laundrette

The Harcourt Laundrette

A Tale of an Irish Laundry

We had reached critical mass - more dirty clothes than clean so it was out to find a laundromat armed with directions from the reliably unreliable desk clerk at the hotel. We trudged down the street towing our turquoise laundry bag emblazoned with the Corner Wash Adams Ave logo. Just as we both were ready to let go with a few more expletives regarding the desk clerk and his *#^+ing directions we found the Harcourt Laundrette.

We walked in and there were piles of laundry everywhere. The incredibly cheerful owner (Marius) popped out between the stacks of laundry and offered his services. He offered to take the laundry and deliver it to our hotel later. 

We took a look at the mess and knowing that most of our clothes were in the Corner Wash bag we counter offered to stay and do the wash ourselves. He was most agreeable showing us the machines that were actually working (many were broken). We loaded the machines and settled in.

Twenty mminutes or so later a young woman came in with two dresses to be dry cleaned. The ever cheerful Marius asked for her phone number, looked in his computer and then announced that it must be her first time to drop off clothes. She assured him she had been in before and directed his attention to one of the dresses. 

"Remember, you cleaned this one for me before and burned the sleeve. You had to take the sleeves off and retailor the dress." Marius responded that upon looking at the dress he did remember that. The woman then repeatedly assured him that she had had no cleaning done since that episode and she had not gone to another cleaners. 

Marius, beaming as always, thanked her for her business. He told her he'd have the dresses ready by Monday. She told him any day next week would be fine. Marius said Tuesday would work better for him. She agreed and cordial goodbyes were exchanged.

I was amazed  that 1) someone who had a dress burnt came back to the same place 2) made sure that the owner knew there had been no sneaking around to another cleaners 3) the customer offered more time to do the job than was asked for 4) the whole encounter had been unfailingly polite and cheerful and 5) they parted on the best of terms- both happy.

I guess I have a lot to learn.

Kate