Clothes shrinking at the dry cleaners

[Ruttiger]

Simple question - anybody ever picked up clothes from the cleaners, only to get them home and find they don't fit like they did when you brought them in? Is this even possible with dry cleaning? I'm clueless in that sense. Any stories of whether the cleaners reimbursed them?

[pope04]

Originally Posted by Ruttiger

Simple question - anybody ever picked up clothes from the cleaners, only to get them home and find they don't fit like they did when you brought them in? Is this even possible with dry cleaning? I'm clueless in that sense. Any stories of whether the cleaners reimbursed them?

I thought that happened to me once after I picked up a pair of strides from the cleaners that I hadn't worn for a year.

It turns out the problem was I gained fifteen pounds.

[redforever]

Originally Posted by Ruttiger

Simple question - anybody ever picked up clothes from the cleaners, only to get them home and find they don't fit like they did when you brought them in? Is this even possible with dry cleaning? I'm clueless in that sense. Any stories of whether the cleaners reimbursed them?

It certainly is possible and it will mainly depend on what the fabric is of the clothes you took in and what process they used to clean them. If you have a delicate fabric like rayon and it is washed, rather than dry cleaned, you are asking for trouble.

You should always check on the tag of the clothing you take in as to what the fabric is and if you think or know it is a delicate fabric, ask for the clothing to be dry cleaned rather than washed.

I have never had a problem with shrinkage, the place I go to is extremely careful about the fabrics and how to launder them. But, one time, there was a problem with some staining, well actually, removal of color. The neck collars of the shirts I had brought in had to be treated before laundering and whatever product they used, had some bleach in it, and the collars ended up with spots.

They simply asked me what the shirts were worth and paid me, no questions asked.

[Burninator]

Suing the dry cleaner for 64 million seems to be the norm now.

[Ruttiger]

Originally Posted by Burninator

Suing the dry cleaner for 64 million seems to be the norm now.

Only if you're a judge!

[4X4]

There was an episode of Seinfeld with a hilarious sub-plot about drycleaner shrinkage... Look to Jerry for guidance on this matter.

[taco.vidal]

Did you get a wool suit or slacks dry cleaned?

Or did you get some "dress" shirts drycleaned?

Not everything at the drycleaners is dry cleaned. Shirts are laundered. Thats means theyre put in big industrials washers in hot water and then into industrial dryers and then pressed.

True drycleaning wont shrink your clothes. In fact, its destructive to fabrics (even the expensive gentle hyped kinds) and would make your clothes looser fitting.)

My guess... either you had a cotton shirt shrink in the laundry, which the cleaner wont be responsible for, or they shrunk something that should have been dry cleaned and they threw it in the wash and it shrunk.

[Ruttiger]

Originally Posted by taco.vidal

Did you get a wool suit or slacks dry cleaned?

Or did you get some "dress" shirts drycleaned?

Not everything at the drycleaners is dry cleaned. Shirts are laundered. Thats means theyre put in big industrials washers in hot water and then into industrial dryers and then pressed.

True drycleaning wont shrink your clothes. In fact, its destructive to fabrics (even the expensive gentle hyped kinds) and would make your clothes looser fitting.)

My guess... either you had a cotton shirt shrink in the laundry, which the cleaner wont be responsible for, or they shrunk something that should have been dry cleaned and they threw it in the wash and it shrunk.

They were dress shirts - 60% cotton/40% poly. Had another shirt of the same mix that didn't shrink. Very odd I thought.

[redforever]

Originally Posted by taco.vidal

Did you get a wool suit or slacks dry cleaned?

Or did you get some "dress" shirts drycleaned?

Not everything at the drycleaners is dry cleaned. Shirts are laundered. Thats means theyre put in big industrials washers in hot water and then into industrial dryers and then pressed.

True drycleaning wont shrink your clothes. In fact, its destructive to fabrics (even the expensive gentle hyped kinds) and would make your clothes looser fitting.)

My guess... either you had a cotton shirt shrink in the laundry, which the cleaner wont be responsible for, or they shrunk something that should have been dry cleaned and they threw it in the wash and it shrunk.

Cotton shirts should never shrink even if laundered, unless they are washed in extremely hot water. I have 100% cotton shirts laundered at the cleaners all the time, never a problem.

If however, the fabric was something that was delicate and should not be laundered, such as rayon, silk, wool, then it will shrink. Those type of fabrics have to be drycleaned.

If they have been laundered by mistake, any honorable dry cleaner would reimburse you for that.

Since I have used the same drycleaner for years, they put the last letter of my name on the fabric tag, in felt pen, and then they know those items can be laundered. No felt pen initial, they are drycleaned.