The Clean Machine

The Irrationality of Powerlessness in a Dictatorship
As I said earlier, this place is decent because of the people who come here and the care of the attendants. The owner, however, is incredibly small-​minded toward his customers and hateful toward his staff. For this reason, I will no longer go there.
In my recent experience, a dryer, set on hot, after running for 20 minutes, was still cool and the clothes still wet. I informed the attendant, as I moved my clothes into another dryer. Per the owner’s instructions, she asked me to leave my wet clothes in the cool dryer for the final 10 minutes. I objected and put coins in the new dryer, explaining that I did not want to stay an additional 10 minutes in a laundromat. After speaking to the owner on the telephone, the attendant came back and put two quarters into the new dryer that I was using. When I objected, stating that I did not need additional quarters in that dryer, she replied, «I cannot give you the quarters. I have to put them in the dryer.» She coward when I said, «So, even though it is completely irrational, you have to follow the rules and do what your boss said. So, your boss doesn’t care about his customers, at all.» She shrugged and I stopped because, clearly, she had no leverage.
Apparently, although the owner hires extremely self-​effacing, industrious attendants, he does not trust them enough to give good customer service when his machines are not operating properly. (In fact, 4 of the double load washers were not working that day.) He instructs them to replace lost money by inserting coins into a machine, even when not needed, instead of refunding the customer’s money. Folks, we’re talking about 0.75 cents.
The fact that the woman coward when I objected, at all, suggests that the owner operates a harsh dictatorship, causing his employees to be completely powerless in the execution of routine business.
PS Dryers run for 10 minutes for $ 0.25, not 7 minutes, as I stated in my earlier review.

I had the flu this weekend and I was pretty out of it while doing laundry, so my review is not going to be as completely detailed as usual. We visited The Clean Machine because we have moved to a new neighborhood and haven’t yet purchased a washer and dryer. The neighborhood in which this laundry facility is located looked sketchy as hell. I was zoning while my husband did most of the work, but he said, «The washers look big, but they’re tiny and expensive; we’re not coming back.»
I also notice today that our clothes are not entirely dry, but that may not be the fault of the dryers – when I am not overseeing the laundry process, our clothes often end up coming home damp.
The atmosphere inside is okay, it’s nothing to write home about (or, for that matter, write here about). Frankly, I’d rather make the drive up to campus and use our old laundry place until we get hooked up here.