Zoots

Stay away! Tried it out because it is convenient, but was disappointed. They put annoying sticky tags on the clothes for tracking that cannot be removed, and they do not ask for your permission to do so. They are also really expensive. Brought a pair of shoes her to have heel taps replaced. Was quoted $ 20. When I picked up the shoes they had replaced the soles, which did not need to be done as the shoes were practically new, and wanted me to pay $ 80. I refused and left the shoes there. The manager called me back and said they would charge me a discounted rate of $ 40, which was still ridiculous since I never requested the service. Finally, they agreed to charge me $ 20 but it was a huge pain. When I got home, I noticed they taped a repair ticket on both shoes using huge amounts of packing tape, which was totally unnecessary. When I carefully removed the tape, the leather ripped. This place is a disaster. Avoid.

Zoots had promised me a response and resolution that I would be happy with-​within 10 business days. They never called. When I called the store where I took my product, I was told that I needed to call the corporate office. So I do and finally, receive an email the next day with Zoots claiming sun damage and that the damage is not their fault. (They cleaned 4 pieces that were identical, so any sun damage should have been consistent, and it wasn’t.) If the company can’t clean a product when they know what might damage it in the first place, then it should not accept the responsibility of taking that on. After another few weeks of back and forth with me ready to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and dispute the full charge on my credit card, Zoots finally agreed to credit my card the cost of cleaning one set.

It took them four days to dry clean three pair of pants which seemed like way too long. I was promised them on Wednesday and was told I would get an email. At about 7 PM on Wednesday I called them, and they weren’t sure if my clothes were ready or not. They then emailed me at 8 saying they were ready. I like that they have late hours but It wasn’t a convenient time for me. 3 pants cost me 20 bucks.

This place is so bad it’s scary. My husband and I brought some clothes to this cleaner after moving here and were willing to pay the premium they charged over other nearby cleaners because they looked reputable. We were so wrong.
We picked up our clothing after it was cleaned and the person at the desk said nothing to us. Normally cleaners will at least check the clothes as they come back to make sure there isn’t any serious damage, but this did not happen here. Our clothes go back in the closet still wrapped in the plastic, and several weeks later, on the morning of a job interview, I put on my only white blouse to find that not one, but SEVEN of the buttons on it had either broken or were completely missing. It was like they had just disintegrated. Most of the buttons that remained intact had visible damage. At this point, my husband spot-​checked his own shirt (which had gone in at the same time) and found a couple buttons broken on that one as well.
My shirt is a high-​end silk blouse, which Zoots should have known to treat with care. That said, it has been to other drycleaners numerous times in the past and had never come back with any damage whatsoever, so I know that not destroying the shirt during cleaning was far from impossible. When I called the shop to talk to the manager about what could be done about this, he seemed totally apathetic. He repeatedly said, «sometimes buttons break,» and, «these things just happen.» I’m sorry, but completely obliterating the majority of the buttons on a dress shirt is NOT something that should ever «just happen,» and I think it’s clear that something went very wrong while this batch was being cleaned. The manager’s attitude about this was incredibly callous and he apparently saw no need to investigate what might have happened here, despite admitting that he had no idea how something like this could occur.
Zoots apparently will replace the buttons with «whatever they have around in their store.» Great. That will almost certainly be very cheap, generic white buttons as opposed to the fancier ones I had on there before. This is a $ 250 blouse — the nicest one I own — that was specially tailored to me and was also my favorite shirt. The damage is a pretty big deal to me. I am incredibly disappointed with the quality of Zoots’s service, but even worse was their attitude about my complaint and half-​hearted attempt to fix things. I will not ever be returning.

The issue with the ruined coat looks to have been resolved; I have been told I can expect a reimbursement check in about 10 days. Frankly, it’s been a major inconvenience and I’m really sorry to have lost a coat that I’m finding is not easy to replace. I also did not expect to have to repeatedly follow up in the final stages of the resolution of this issue. If an item of clothing is ruined, it should be up to their customer service to bend over backwards to reimburse the customer asap with the minimum of further aggravation and effort on the part of the customer. My cautionary message remains the same.

I used to live in Porter Square and was a frequent patron of Zoots, mainly because they were open long after the awesome shop near me closed. A bit overpriced, but my clothes always came back clean, so I can’t complain. Moved out of the neighborhood and have had trouble finding anything that was quite as good as I remember them being. So when I saw a Groupon for $ 49 for $ 100 worth of drycleaning with them, I figured I’d go for it.
I dropped 7 items off on a Saturday and was told they’d be ready the following Wednesday. Fine. When I went Wednesday evening to pick them up, only 5 were ready, the girl at the counter couldn’t tell me why the others weren’t ready or when they would be. One of the items I could live without for a little while longer, but one was my boyfriend’s dress shirt that he needed for a wedding that weekend. Oh well, guess who has to now buy a new shirt? I decided to suck it up, we’d get the items eventually.
WRONG! I went back two weeks later to rescue my clothes from the black hole. One item was ready, the other, my boyfriend’s shirt, was not only not ready, it had been marked as «VOID» in their system, whatever that means. I was pretty sure I saw it hanging on the conveyer belt right next to the item she had pulled off, but she assured me that was someone else’s item. The poor girl behind the counter was alone in the store and had a nametag on indicating she was a high school student, so I’m obviously not going to berate her for the problem. She was very kind and assured me that the store manager would call me the next morning to sort this out.
No call the next morning, or at all the next day. I called myself to try to speak to a manager, and was told one wasn’t around. I left my name and phone number asking for them to please call me asap to figure this out. This was 2 weeks ago, still nothing.
Zoots, please, pretty please, I just want the shirt back. It’s not even my shirt. You’re a drycleaner: all I expect from you is 1) to clean my clothes and then 2) give them back to me. It should not be this hard to do the second step of a very simple 2 step process. For God’s sake, my name is on a receipt stapled to the item.
If anyone wants ~$ 50 in credit there, let me know and it’s all yours. I don’t want to have to end up replacing my whole wardrobe because they just «void» all my clothes. And if anyone working there happens to come across an extra large, light purple checkered men’s dress shirt with my name on a receipt stapled to it, I will be forever in your debt if you could liberate it from its chemically prison and return it to its rightful owner.

My wedding dress arrived in the mail with a yellow stain on it– the only option was to try dry cleaning! I brought it to Zoots in Porter Square because it was convenient to my work location. Every person I talked with at the store was super professional and incredibly helpful and kind, and the stain was removed without any issues. I am so grateful that my wedding dress was saved by Zoots!

I’ve brought work clothes in to be cleaned and haven’t had a major issues. I’ve had specific areas of concern that I’ve pointed out when dropping off my items — like deodorant marks, etc and they’ve consistently come back completely removed. When I don’t specifically point out trouble spots at Zoots, they don’t always get a quality check before given back to me. I had a button put on a coat and they did a great job matching it to the existing buttons. Their hours are very convenient for someone working a typical 9 – 5 job.

This place is terrible! Unless you live in the Porter Square mall and consider convenience to be your only criteria, take your clothes elsewhere. I used to take a lot of dry cleaning here and experiences similar to the complaints previously noted. The employees are always unapologetic and full of excuses. Seems like a bunch of poorly trained and managed youngsters, so I won’t blame them. The absentee management must be atrocious, though.
I had a few pants hemmed before and the tailor seemed alright. So when I recently needed additional pants hemmed, I went back there again as it is convenient for me. I won’t ever go back again! Not only did it prove inconvenient because the tailor keeps odd hours and went on an extended vacation when I first tried to reach her, the front office staff proved themselves to be as rude and incompetent as ever. Then I got my pants back. Despite repeatedly saying to the tailor that I didn’t want a break in the hem, don’t like having a break, etc. … low and behold the pants have a what I would consider a full break.
Dry cleaning is such a commodity business that a place like this shouldn’t be able to stay in business. I’ll take my business back to the Anton’s down the street for now. Anyone know a good tailor?

My dry cleaning was not ready when promised and they have now overcharged me multiple times (billing a skirt as a dress). They are also always unapologetic and full of excuses.

Sharon was super nice! My coat was done sooner than they said it would be…

Zoots fixed the hem on my pants for free and gave me a $ 20 credit. And, most importantly, Angus (the store manager) was genuinely kind and concerned about fixing the situation. I really appreciated it.

I wish I could give zero stars.
After leaving a note stating that an expensive dress shirt had suede arm patches and to take care for the shirt correctly, it was completely ruined. The shirt’s dry cleaning tag ALSO says «Professional Dry Clean By Leather And Suede Expert». If you don’t have the capable employees to correctly dry clean my clothes … DON’T CLEAN THEM. I’d rather a company write me a note saying «We cannot dry clean this type of material» rather than RUIN it.
I am furious at the lack of attention my clothes received, but even more furious that my clothes were returned to me and NOTHING WAS SAID.
Zero stars.

I have only been here twice. Each for a groupon. And each time it wasn’t worth it.
I literally pass this place every day so it would be great if they did a decent job and were affordable. Each time I went in, they wouldn’t give me a price list (I’m on a pretty tight budget). When I finally squeezed one out of the manager, it seemed pretty reasonable. So I brought in the amount of the groupon, plus about $ 5.
When I got my dry cleaning back it was well over $ 40 more than I calculated. They charged me extra for «fancy dresses.» One was a WASHABLE cotton seersucker! are you kidding me?! Also I wear a suit to work just about everyday, and I’m kind of a sweaty girl. As I’m on a tight budget, when I finally bring my suits in, they stink. Each of my suit jackets, still smelled a little. And each cost me a lot more than quoted depending on the fabric. The same goes with silk shirts.
Skip it. You’ll pay WAY too much for sub-​par dry cleaning.

I need to give this place some serious love.
First of all, re: other people’s complaints about not having upfront prices — the majority of dry cleaners I’ve been to in my life do not quote exact prices, because they don’t know what they will encounter along the way. I guess it’s a little off, but I’m not surprised or outraged. I know now though, that Zoots has a price list up, so it shows they are responsive to complaints.
The service I’ve had had always been wonderful. They are courteous, fast, open late, process coupons deals speedily, and there are email alerts for when your items are done! I’ve never had a bad experience with them.
Plus, they constantly send out coupons via email, and they do Groupon deals semi-​regularly (which they seem to honor even if you aren’t a new customer, like the Groupon terms specify), which is GREAT.

Just to follow up on my old review… I did in fact call the guy that commented on my review. I spoke with a Zoots customer service who said that they would put a credit on my account for my trouble, which I thought was a very nice gesture. So I brought my suit in (yes, I only own one suit). I sort of dilly dallied about picking it up, and waited until the night before I had to go to court for a law school clinical. The person at the counter said they had no record of any credit on my account, and she gave me a bit of an attitude. I tried once to ask her to check again, but she acted like I was trying to scam her. She told me to call customer service, but I just got frustrated and since I needed my suit for court the next day, I just decided to pay for it. To add insult to injury when I got home the jacket was missing a button.
Thankfully now I live in Los Angeles where I have a magical drycleaner that can get red wine out of white dresses and make moth holes disappear from cashmere sweaters. And they charge ¼ of what Zoots charges. Moral of the story: move to Los Angeles.

I went to Zoots hesitant but had a great Groupon deal. I think I paid $ 45 for $ 100 worth of dry cleaning. I read the bad reviews. and I have to say. they were awesome.
When I went in. the guy was helpful. He was interested in all the stains, etc. He tagged them and I went on my way. I received two emails from the store manager welcoming me to Zoots. Then I received another email saying that it was done after three days.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t come until the end of the week. I went and wow. my clothes were spotless, clean, hung up nicely… better than the other Groupon deal I used for a place in Stoneham.
I would totally go again. great experience. Best part is there is a lot there so it makes it SOOOO convenient to pick it up and drop it off.

Zoots. Tried them before; was disappointed. Got a Groupon to try them again: more disappointment.
Let’s start with the overpricing. Even with the discount, it was still more than Porter Square Dry Cleaners, the excellent shop around the corner. Of course, it’s hard to know WHAT things cost around here, because they don’t want to tell you until you pick up. If you ask, they will grudgingly hand you a price sheet. But don’t bother asking them to add it up; they prefer to do that once you’re out the door.
What’s the story with pricing? They take each article of clothing, and look at its fabric content. A pure cotton shirt is laundered and pressed for $ 2. But any cotton blend (polyester, etc.), and it’s dry cleaned for $ 6.75. That means relatively cheap H&M level shirts get princely treatment, even though they absolutely don’t need it. When I picked up my clothes, I had sticker shock. It was easily $ 40 more than I had expected.
Couple that with dismal service: they honestly seem annoyed if you can’t get with the program and accept their way of doing things. And for efficiency’s sake, every item you get back from them gets a hard-​to-​remove bar code sticker, which is probably good if you become a regular customer but a little pushy if you’re just trying them out. I’ve been burned twice by this corporate giant of dry cleaning; I’m going back to my friendly local cleaners (see above), who has served me well for 5 years.

I have never written an online review of anything, here or elsewhere, in my 33 yrs of life but I am COMPELLED to write about the Zoots in Porter Square. They are THAT BAD!
Went in to pick up clothes after I received emails from them saying my order was ready.
Coat dry clean: The male clerk could not find the coat, it took him 10 minutes to go through the racks and finally *I* recognized my coat (its bright orange) and told him so. The stains on my coat were still very much there. In fact it looked like they had done nothing! Its a coffee stain on a wool coat — really how hard can that be to get rid of?
Dress repair: When I picked up my «repaired» dresses, I found out that they were not repaired at all! (Thank God I checked). In fact, they still had their paper stickers on the holes in the dress that I told the tailor to fix. So I gave them back the 2 dresses, even though i paid the order in full. Next day I get a call asking me «are you sure the dresses aren’t done?». I said Yes and that there are still stickers on the holes. He says «yeah the stickers obscure the holes thats why we couldn’t see the holes in your dress». I told him that you guys put the stickers there PRECISELY so that the tailor would know exactly where the holes are and fix them!
So 2^nd time I go to pick up the dresses. Now, they can’t find the dresses! They searched the racks, ALL the racks, they search the downstairs in the tailors rooms, nothing! So I told them can’t you just call the tailor now and ask her? In the half hour of frantically looking for my dresses they could not come up with this simple idea! So they called the tailor at my suggestion and she told them the dresses were downstairs and so they finally found my dresses (and this time they were repaired)
Jeans repair: They lost my $ 200 jeans! After more than an hour of waiting for them to find my dresses and my jeans, they realized that maybe the jeans went to the dry cleaners (even though in the receipt and order it says in capital letter «DO NOT DRY CLEAN»). The woman then proceeds to tell me that *I* should call them tomorrow to find out the status of my jeans. Then I just lost it! I screamed at her that SHE should be the one calling me, they should be begging for an apology from me (she never ONCE said «iIm sorry we can’t find your clothes»!).
HORRIBLE customer service: That woman at the counter deserves to get fired NOW. She was rude through out the entire hour I was there, never ONCE apologized for THEIR mistakes, kept questioning me as if *I* made a mistake with my orders and even as I was totally calm talking to her, she «hushed» me cause she had a headache!
HORRIBLE service — Clothes are not clean and they are not repaired, and the lowest of the low, they LOSE your clothes! My $ 200 jeans is gone and I will try my to get them to pay for it!
HOW COME THIS BUSINESS HAS NOT SHUT DOWN ALREADY?!
UPDATE: They called the next day to say that they have finally located my jeans BUT it is not at the store, and they would call me back once they have it. NO word since then. So I still don’t have my jeans.

Oh, Zoots. I wanted to like you so hard.
Most dry cleaners open and close while I’m already at the office. I work in a part of town that hasn’t sprouted a lot of dry cleaners yet; besides, I hate bringing laundry on the T.
But Zoots is open late! And they’re open on Sundays! And they track things by your name and e-​mail! It’s like they’re built to cater to working professionals — the sort of people who have things that need to be dry cleaned!
Not only that, but every time I came in here the folks working behind the counter have been very friendly. I was treated like a regular, even though I’d only come in two or three times. «Man,» I said to myself (because I compose Unilocal reviews in my head as I leave a shop; shut up; you do it too), «this is gonna be great.»
And then they lost my sweater.
I dropped three pieces off on December 23^rd — two slacks and one sweater. I came to pick them up on the 27^th. «We’ve got the pants,» they said, «but the sweater’s still at the plant.» Given the blizzard that had shut down Boston in the intervening week, I wasn’t surprised. The ladies behind the counter were very apologetic. And hey, no big deal — I didn’t need the sweater yet.
Two weeks later, my stylish wardrobe had grown a little stale. Then I remembered Zoots had one of my sweaters still. I stopped by on the 10^th to pick it up. Still not there.
I called the manager the next day. He said he’d put in a claim form to the plant on the 7^th and that I should hear from them within 5 business days. I ticked off dates on my calendar and waited until the 13^th. No word from Zoots Inc.
I called the manager again on the 14^th. After refreshing his memory on my issue, he told me that it would take 5 to 7 business days to hear back from Zoots Inc. I ticked off a few more days on the calendar: January 18^th. Tuesday next week.
I should stress that the manager at the Zoots in Porter Square, Bill Larsen, has been nothing but professional. This isn’t (necessarily) his fault. He’s managing a franchise location in a larger corporate structure. He sends things away to a giant dry-​cleaning facility somewhere in Marlborough or Chelmsford or Lowell. There’s only so much he can do and, as far as I can tell, he’s done all of it.
But.
I have patronized a lot of awful dry cleaners in my eleven years in Boston. Dry cleaners that fell out of a wormhole from 1955. Dry cleaners where no one spoke English. Dry cleaners without posted hours or prices. Dry cleaners which took my clothes, took my money, and then returned my clothes with the same stains I had before.
But not one of them has lost my clothes.
That, I think, is the bare minimum that a dry cleaner needs to hit. That’s a pretty low bar, I feel. I may not be better off for giving you my clothes (they might have all the same stains) but at least I shouldn’t be worse off. At least using your services shouldn’t result in a documentable loss (DEBIT: one sweater). I give you my clothes; I get my clothes back.
Updates forthcoming, depending on how the results of my next phone call to Zoots unfold.