Dudley Dry Cleaners

I dropped off a pair of pants last week for a simple cuff mending. The woman asked me, «Do you want it cleaned?» I said no, because they’re machine washable. Today I went to pick them up. Can you guess what happened? They DID wash the pants, but did NOT mend the cuff! The guy said to come back in two days. I told him I’d already be out of town by then. Of course he didn’t offer to get it done faster — instead, he told me to take the pants with me and bring them back another time. I did take them back, but there’s no chance I’m coming back here again! Even good businesses make mistakes, but good businesses also know how to fix them. This is not a good business.

I live in the neighborhood and have been taking my dry cleaning here weekly for two years, without any problems. Dudley cleaners runs a fine local business and is fairly priced. If you don’t have in-​unit laundry, I also recommend Dudley for regular laundry when time is running short or when its too damn cold outside to mess with the laundromats! All the negative reviews here read like the unfortunate product of uppity Cambridge people :(

I have been a decent customer for years here, despite some ups and downs. However, last November when I brought my cashmere sweaters out from storage there, they were filled with moth holes! I took them back to show the owner, who insisted that this happened in my own home, and not under his roof, where they had been stored for seven months. Right. Worse, he didn’t even offer ANY compensation, and this is from a guy who I have been on a first name basis with! Never again. Never. Again.

If you say you’re open until 7:00 stay open until 7:00. For the second time in a month I’m here at 6:30 — 6:45 and you’re closed. Not cool! Especially when I have a $ 100 pile of dry cleaning in the car. I’ve been coming here for 15 years you guys really need to get your act back together.

I have been using Dudley Cleaners for the last four years and think they do a great job for the price. I use them weekly for dress shirts and wash & fold. The owner has even stayed late when I told him I missed the T and needed to pick up my suit.

Apologies to the people that have had bad experience here. But I must this place here did a pretty stellar cleaning my two white blazers that I messed up. Although one of them had a stain that was irremovable the people at Dudley Cleaners did a pretty good job at making the stains less noticeable. I was only charged $ 14 for two blazers which I think it a pretty good deal.
I will definitely be bringing my other items here to be serviced!

About 10 cents cheaper for shirt service than other places around, but 10 times worse. Things get damaged occasionally at every cleaner, so its really up to how the shop deals with it. I brought it my suit for a small food stain on the cuff. Got back a suit with bleached areas on the sleeve and the left panel and pocket.
The guy running the front insisted no responsibility, claiming it was the food that bleached the suit (really), and refusing any kind of compensation, even a partial discount on the cost of the cleaning. Then he held my dress shirts hostage until I paid for the cleaning of the ruined suit and the shirts. Sorry, but the food was on the sleeve, not the panel or pocket, and the bleached area was a liquid splatter, not a solid food spot or smear. Maybe it was a Festivus miracle.
I will never go back. I don’t need the abuse, you are disposable commodity to them, and clothes are too expensive to replace.

Fast, friendly service. I’ve never brought them a difficult job — but for routine dry cleaning and wash & fold they are inexpensive and excellent. I sometimes have to leave clothes there while I am travelling, and they use bags that have minimal odor, a big plus in my book.

Scene 1: (Dry Cleaners, early Saturday afternoon. Enter me).
Me: «Hi, I’m here to pick up a shirt.»
Dry Cleaner Guy: «Do you have the ticket?»
Me: «Yup…it’s in my purse… (Digs through purse and retrieves pink receipt).
Dry Cleaner Guy: «Thank you. Just a minute.» (Spins the rack. Spins the rack. Stops. Spins the rack. Spins the rack. Stops.)
Dry Cleaner Guy: «It was one shirt?»
Me: «Yeah, just one shirt.»
Dry Cleaner Guy: «What does it look like?» (Spins the rack. Stops. Spins the rack. Stops.)
Me: «It’s a navy and white striped shirt that buttons in the front.»
Dry Cleaner Guy: (Spinning. Spinning. Spinning. Stop.) «I don’t have it. Can you come back on Monday?»
Me: (staring blankly trying to figure out why coming back on Monday would help when it appears he cannot locate my shirt with their efficient ticket numbering system). «Uhhh…noooo. I’m moving on Sunday. To California. For forever.»
Dry Cleaner Guy: «Okay, come back at 5o’clock.»
Scene II: Enter my boyfriend.

Me: «So, they can’t find my shirt, and the guy told me to come back at 5.»
BF: «What? Why don’t you just ask him to find your shirt now?»
Me: «Because I’m starving and he said to come back at 5.»
BF: «That doesn’t make sense.»
Me: «Well, it’s almost noon, and I didn’t eat breakfast… so…»
BF: «I bet he told you to come back at 5 so he can call his wife who is wearing your shirt and tell her to get it back to the dry cleaners because the owner wants it.»
Me: «WHAT? No. People do that??»
BF: «Haven’t you seen the Seinfeld episode where Jerry goes to pick up his clothes and the guy tells him to come back later and then he sees the guys brother wearing it while walking down the street?»
Turns out my boyfriend was probably right. He went back to try and ask the guy to look for the shirt again because we were packing and moving and didn’t have time to come back later. The guy said he didn’t have time to look for it, but to come back at 4:30 (even though minutes earlier he told me 5). When my boyfriend offered to help him look for it and asked him why we had to come back later if he wasn’t going to have time to look for it, the guy said because the woman will be here. Who «the woman» is, I don’t know. But I can only assume it was the person wearing my shirt. Which would explain why when she arrived, my shirt would too. So my boyfriend said we would be back at 4:30. And if the shirt wasn’t there, then we wanted money for the shirt they lost/​took.
Scene III: Back at the Dry Cleaners. Enter me and my boyfriend.
Dry Cleaner Guy: «Your shirt isn’t clean.» (Shoving my shirt into my hands).
Me: «Um. Okay.»
BF: «What do you mean? You had FOUR days to clean it and when we dropped it off Wednesday morning you said TWO days!»
Dry Cleaner Guy: «I TOLD YOU 4:30!»
(It was 4: 05… apparently it would have been clean had we come 25 min later. Oh, plus the extra day since I didn’t pick it up on Friday wanting to make sure it was clean…)
Me: «Wait, so I stopped by earlier and you said you couldn’t find it, so then we stop by a couple hours later and it is here but not clean? That is weird. I’m sorry. But that’s weird.»
BF: «Yeah. I think we will report you to the Better Business Bureau.»
MORAL OF THE STORY: If you use this dry cleaner service, and when you come to pick up your clothes and they «can’t find them,» that means his wife is probably looking very nice that day.
Or whoever «the woman» is.

Guy fucking lied to me when I called to ask if the shirts were ready. «You bring Friday, go, they done.»
When I arrived the one single employee they have running the whole shop said, «We busy. Not done. Hahahahahahaha! Maybe come back?»
Not a professional operation. A grim and twisted sweatshop operation that preys upon those who are without a car and live and work in the area.
Avoid if you can possibly can.

I am still livid from my experience here… I had 3 pairs of pants hemmed to be shorter and two of the pairs of pants were UNEVEN. One leg is longer than the other! I measured and one leg is about ¾ of an inch longer than the other! I brought them back in thinking maybe a serious apology would make everything OK. I was asked if maybe my legs were two different lengths (they’re not) and then told it would be very difficult to fix — rather than let them mess up any more I asked for my money back and was only refunded for one pair. Completely incompetent — go anywhere else for alterations!

Em, sorry to hear about your bad experience here. I’m local to the area and have used this place for my dry cleaning for years. I don’t use it often, but the people have been very nice and done a decent job with me. They haven’t lost or damaged any of my clothing, and their rates and turnaround times have always been quite reasonable.
I actually didn’t know the name of this place, as there isn’t a real clear sign anywhere, and the way they do business is a tad old-​fashioned and maybe a bit disorganized. Lots of Asian-​owned places are like this. Anyway, I don’t have any real complaints, and just wanted to note that.

I would give no stars if possible. They cleaned a silk dress of mine and one of the straps broke. They tried to hide it from me by tying a knot in the strap. I discovered it at the last minute and could not wear my dress to the event I wanted. When I confronted them with this, they not only refused to refund the cleaning fee, but were completely uncaring. Do not patronize this place. Even if they claim no responsibility for clothes they clean, they have a responsibility to tell you when something was broken. Just bad business!