Timpson Dry Cleaning: No Care, No Responsibility
I don't think I'm particularly demanding when it comes to customer service. I'm pleased when I get good service and reward it duly, and content if the service is just average. I find bad customer service inexcusable though given how simple it is to be "just ok". Timspon dry cleaning is proving to be a case-study in bad service, the first warning should have been when they couldn't dry clean my jacket successfully.
The Jacket In Question
It probably pays to offer a little back story about the garment this fuss is about. I bought a jacket when we visited Dublin a couple of years ago, a jacket I'm quite fond of. It's by no means the most expensive item in my wardrobe, but it did cost me somewhere in the region of €250–€300 at the time. But it was from Reiss, a store that is often full of clothes I love, and so I know from experience that the garments are of good quality and worth the price. I've got an overcoat I bought when I first arrived in the UK almost 5 years ago that I wear almost daily throughout winter (okay, most the year over here) which is still going strong and showing no signs needing repair.
So that was the justification for the purchase at the time, in reality it was an indulgence because it's a jacket I seldom get to wear. Working from home as often as I do there just isn't occassion for it. In the two years or so I've owned it I've worn it to dinner for our anniversary/my birthday/Christmas at The Fat Duck, Andy's Wedding, Al's 30th, the most recent Christmas and New Years in New York and maybe once or twice more. If my memory was better, I could definitely count the occassions on my fingers.
Without wanting to seem like a brand ambassador for Reiss, check out the detail on the jacket:
All stitching throughout the jacket is perfect.
As you can see, the sleeve buttons, button threads, and cuff edge are perfect.
The buttonholes have never been used.
Oh, Tuesday was meant to be such a happy day. But you can see even the collar shows no signs of the jacket having been worn.
This from a jacket that is 2 years old! As I said, it's seen so little time outside of a suit bag that it may as well be new. There isn't a stitch out of place, zero wear on any of the buttons, buttonholes, or seams, and no discolouration of the fabric anywhere. I've seen clothing in lesser condition sitting on racks selling as "new".
Enter Timpson Dry Cleaning
And here is where the problems start. It's fair to say we've had a degree of trouble finding both reputable and convenient dry cleaners in London. We had one, but they closed down because their building got demolished. The only others we've used that have not caused us issue have been costly and based in the banking centres of London. Given the grief dealing with bad cleaners though, I'd prefer to pay the premium and get a good service. Timpson Shoe Repairs and Dry Cleaning on Cannon St in London seemed to fit that description. Between Cannon St and Bank tube stations, nestled among a number of investment banks, and for the coming week convenient as my fiancé was back working at her old investment bank nearby.
A somewhat regular dry cleaning process to start: drop garments off, get a ticket, come back with the expectation of picking up clean garments. They do make you pay up front which I'm always wary of, but it never seems worth arguing about at the time.
The Customer Is Always Wrong
I'm so incredibly thankful that it was Emma that went to pick the clothes up, even despite our bad experiences I have a tendency to just quickly check that the garments are all mine and then rush out. Not that it would have taken much to notice a problem with our dry cleaning.
When Emma pointed out the problem to the lady behind the desk we were accussed of bringing the garment in like that. After arguing the point with the lady, reminding her that they went through the pockets together, and then the staff member confirming what they found in my pocket (nothing sinister, the tickets to our New Year ball) she finally conceeded that it arrived in good condition. Now I don't run a dry cleaning operation but I can appreciate that they have to deal with a fair amount of "you ruined my garment" stuff which simply isn't their fault and is somebody trying to take advantage of the situation. Given that, I would think one of the first lessons you learn at Dry Cleaning 101 is to make sure you inspect the garment before accepting to clean it so you're sure there is nothing wrong with it that the customer can argue about later. A good topic for Dry Cleaning 201 would be to make the customer do the same before they take it home after cleaning to prevent disputes days later.
But you be the judge, here's a photo of the jacket outside Timspon Dry Cleaning in Cannon St:
Taking my jacket home, staff member in the back in a panic calling reg. manager.
Does this jacket look like it's in a state where someone would accept it for cleaning and not notice there was a problem? No, it doesn't. To turn around and accuse a customer (one who has already paid for this shoddy service) of trying to defraud you is insulting at best. Bad Timpson, bad. Strike one.
Further Delegation of Blame
What at first glance appeared to be a full length tear from a knife down my jacket
Sadly this isn't a practice that is limited to Timpson, but it still drives me mad. Apparently they use a 3rd party to transport and clean the garments, and so they'd have to speak to them about admitting fault and making a claim. Here's what should actually happen, you have now acknowledged that property of mine that was placed into your care has been damaged. I don't particularly care how or what you need to do to make sure you're not out of pocket for it, but I was your customer so you are responsible for righting this wrong. Don't try and pass the blame on and then make that my problem, it's none of my concern. If you don't want this thing to happen, use better suppliers, have better processes in place to ensure it doesn't happen, get insurance if you have to that cover the occassions when it does happen. But don't try and pass the failings of your supplier arrangement onto the customer. Poor form Timpson. Strike two.
I Just Want My Jacket Back
Yes, it's really the full length!
The problem has now been escalated to the Regional Assistant Manager, Mark. Mark informed Emma that given the age of the garment he'd give us £100 to end the matter. I get the impression from her he was quite pushy about it, and rather than accepting a pay-off on my behalf that she knew I wouldn't be happy with she let Mark know I'd be touch to discuss it. I do wonder if I'd just lied at this point and said it was worth £400 whether I'd have been offered the £200 I'm after. Sadly it's not in my nature.
And so we did speak, I told Mark that I wouldn't be happy with anything less than a full refund (actually, the £200 I'm asking for is less than what I paid but it's closer to full RRP than his offer). What followed was a lecture on the condition and age of the garment, a tenuous analagy to how if you buy a car and try to sell it two years later you don't get full price, and the implication that I'd have to escalate the matter past him, the Regional Assistant Manager, and onto what I can only imagine is the National office. All the way to the high court of dry cleaning for a jacket that everyone agrees has been rendered completely unwearable after it was put into their care! Mark informed me he'd send the relevant claims forms to the store, and I said one of us would probably be in town Monday to pick them up.
But there is also a tear on the right side too...
Of course, I'd need to provide full original purchase receipts for the claim. Do you keep receipts that long? I've got the product home, I can see first hand that it's of excellent quality, fits, and has no issues. At most the receipts last 28 days, the standard return policy. They're never going to survive past that. If you doubt the value of the garment check Reiss' website, you can see that their mens blazer range starts at the £200 mark. But their absence and Mark's stance on the issue makes this whole claims form process seem like theatre for the sake of it, they're not going to pay what I think is fair, and "you can think whatever you like, I have to deal with these complaints every day and this is all I will offer".
... and the right shoulder. Looks as though it's been caught on something, and pulled until it's split.
I've checked my rights, the age of the garmet has nothing to do with it. You owe me up to the full price (plus the cost of cleaning), you may make a reduction for the use I've had for the item. Expecting me to pay the equivalent of £10–£20 for each occassion I've put my jacket on is quite frankly taking the piss. It shouldn't be my job as a consumer to know the trading standards legislation for your industry just so I can call you on your misinformation.
I happened to be in town today, and thought that to avoid a "my word" vs "their word" situation I'd swing past and grab my jacket. I've left it with Timpson once and wasn't happy with the care they took with it, given it's the only proof I have of that such a jacket ever existed I didn't entrust them to keep it any longer. After seeing the jacket, I informed the lady Emma had been dealing with that I'd be taking it with me and was told I couldn't. Actually, I can. It's my jacket and I'll do what I want with it. She threatened that if I did that I couldn't make a claim, as though somehow me being in possession of my jacket absolves them of any wrong doing with regard to property damage. When I laughed and said if she thinks that's the case then she's mistaken she ran off to call Mark, I went outside to take photos of my jacket in front of the store.
This lady is on a roll, first blaming the damage on us and then trying to tell me that I lose my rights as a consumer by claiming ownership of my own property.
Trying to hassle me into a discount pay-off. Expecting me to provide receipts of that age for a garment that was in fine condition. Forcing me into your national bureaucracy to get me reasonable compensation when nobody is disputing you've ruined my clothes beyond wear. Trying to hold my clothes hostage. Strikes three, four, five… oh why even bother counting any more?
Timpson, If You're Listening
I'm not a greedy man, £200 is neither going to make or break me and I hazard to guess that I'm actually going to spend a great deal more than that in lost income dealing with this issue and holding you to account. I don't want the money, I want my jacket back in a wearable condition. This isn't some dispute over a water stain or pulled thread where we disagree over to what extent this garment is fit for purpose. You've destroyed it far beyond any repairable or wearable state, in a fashion that can only be considered negligent at best.
You try and argue that if I buy a car and sell it two years later I won't get full price for it. As poor as that analogy is (and ignoring you've usually lost at least 10% in value before you take it out the show room, and that numerous friends have made a profit buying and selling Subaru WRXs from new) the difference is that if I someone writes off my car the insurance company will give me fair market value for it. I can take that money, and buy the exact same style of car, from the same year, for about the same money they gave me.
With that in mind, here are the 4 ways this situation could have/will come to a conclusion:
- I pay you for dry cleaning, you clean my jacket, and return in in good condition.
- Given the previous can no longer happen, you replace my jacket with the exact same jacket style, same colour same brand. I don't care how old or new it is, so long as it is in just as pristine condition as mine was.
- If you're unable to do the above, re-imburse me the full amount in the hope I can still find the jacket in stock somewhere myself.
- Do none of the above, and leave me out of pocket and without a jacket.
The current trajectory seems to be taking us towards option 4. It's a really poor outcome for a number of reasons, not least because I become the only aggrieved party in this transaction. I've paid for a service I've not received, I'm down the original purchase price, and I'm without my jacket. I'll resolve to ensure that I am not the only party aggrieved here though.
My losses at this point are relatively capped, money and jacket. Everything else from here is just time and energy. You've already lost the business of 6 floors of investment bankers, as crazy as they were with our money pre-crisis they wont take that kind of risk with their Saville Row suits. I'll continue telling everyone I know to avoid using your service, I'll direct them to the photos of what you did to my jacket and how you treat customers who are already upset about losing a garment.
I'm sick of poor service, and I'm sick of customers feeling bullied into just accepting it. It really wouldn't have been hard for this post to have been "Someone Timpson uses fucked up my dry cleaning, but kudos to Timpson for sorting the matter quickly and professionally". I hold out a tiny sliver of hope that I can come back and update this post to say that it's just been a couple of isolated experiences, this isn't representative of the way you do business, and the problems have been sorted. All it would've taken was for the initial conversation to have gone along the lines of "What the hell have you done to the jacket?!", "Oh my! That's not right, we're terribly sorry. Here, let me take this while I go and get you a claim form so we can arrange you some compensation". I would have been confident that you were looking out for my interests instead of making me feel like I have to fight to get fair representation.
I'll keep you all posted, in the meantime do get in touch if you've gone through the same or similar issues yourself.
Update: Wednesday 2nd March 2011, 13:38
So I spoke to Mark last Thursday 24th of Feb saying that I wanted to make a claim, he said he'd send a claims form to the store and we agreed Monday would be the best day to go in to ensure it had arrived. It's now Wednesday, I've gone into the store and there is no claims form. I can only assume that good to their word, Timpson have decided that I'm not allowed to proceed with a claim given I've taken possession of my property. I trusted you with taking care of my jacket once and you failed dismally. In the immortal words of George W. Bush, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice… well you just can't get fooled again". I now await a call from someone to explain just what exactly they think they are doing. Why they don't have claims forms in store is beyond me.
Update: Friday 3rd March 2011, 09:47
I've just had a chat with Mike Donoghue, who heads up customer service for Timpson. I'm happy to say that it was a pleasant and rational conversation, Mike seemed genuinely apologetic about not only what had happened to my garment but the way the subsequent dealings have been handled. He re-iterated that Timpson isn't a franchise business and that it's family owned, but that they want each store manager to treat it like it is their family business and that they are empowered to solve problems themselves. It shouldn't have been escalated, it should have been handled in store. He also seemed genuinely thankful for the feedback, because it's only being alerted to when things go wrong that they can improve. If Mike's professionalism and courteous nature are representative of the larger Timpson brand then I think there is hope.
Time will tell if I'm ever a paying customer again, I certainly won't be going back to Cannon St and if I use another store I might start with shoe repair or key cutting rather than risk my clothes. It's how things are handled when they go wrong that separates amazing customer service from the rest, if I could be sure to get someone like Mike I'd be a customer for life.
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