The Laundry Basket & Dry Cleaners

I had been going to The Laundry Basket for seven years. I always thought that they were always fast, efficient, and friendly, but when there are problems, ‘Aunty’ behind the counter turns into something out of a Brother’s Grimm fairy-​tale…
Problem #1:
I didn’t notice until I was back home that all four shirts had a small cut all in the same place on the shoulder. It appeared that while they were hanging together, post cleaning, someone had accidentally cut them with a pair of scissors (I’m still scratching my head as to how it happened and why, but that’s the best I can come up with. It was all rather odd, really). I didn’t go back immediately, which was my first mistake. When I had worn the shirts and took them back in for cleaning again (I have my shirt rotation down to a fine art, my mom would be proud), I pointed out the small cut on all four shirts in the identical place.
‘Oh no,’ said the benevolent manager lady. ‘We would never do anything like that.’ The look on her face, her entire demeanour, said that it simply wasn’t possible. Was I perhaps mad? A little delirious from the sun? I honestly began to wonder if perhaps I did wake up in the middle of the night, sneak out with a pair of scissor, and snip the wee hole myself while half-​asleep. I mean, happy Aunt Laundry couldn’t be wrong, now could she?
Of course, Aunty agreed to stitch the small holes (only two stitches needed on each, it was after all very small hole), but at a cost.
In the interests of still wanting to use The Laundry Basket, I swallowed my frustration and not a small dose of self-​doubt (do I really sleep-​walk?) and kept bringing my shirts each week.
Problem #2:
A year later, when picking up my shirts I noticed two things: the back of each shirt had dusting of discoloration, almost as if the faintest whiff of some kind of spray had hit all shirts. Further, on the arm of each shirt, all in the same place, a dime-​size patch of slightly more obvious discoloration.
it was obvious to me that something had happened while all the shirts had been hanging together. Thankfully I had noticed the issue this time while in the store. I pointed out the issues, but to my utter gob-​smacking surprise, Aunty, the manager, insisted that both issues could not have happened in their store and that I must have done something to the shirts before I bought them in.
How, I asked, was this was possible when they always looked over each shirt whenever I drop them off?
‘Oh no,’ they said, ‘we don’t check items before we clean them.‘
Really? Shaking out each shirt and looking them over before writing up the receipt doesn’t constitute checking?
Aunty-​manager then asked me to come back into the cleaning area to check for myself that there were no chemicals that could have done this.
Seriously? I’m supposed to be an acknowledged expert on the properties of dim back-​room fluids? No-​one told me! I must remember to add that to my resume right beside ‘possible sleep-​walker’.
Aunty then proceeded to tell her customer of seven years that she was more than happy to try dry-​cleaning them… at $ 15 per shirt. My cost.
‘No,’ says I, ‘my shirts were not in this condition when I dropped them off, so I would hope you would do everything possible yourself to fix dmage you caused.‘
Cue the dragon from fairy-​tales of old.
‘Impossible! We not responsible for anything,’ she said with a rather scary glare (seriously, I stepped-​back involuntarily and fingered my chest for possible claw-​marks), ‘you damaged, you pay! Fifteen dollar each!‘
The long and the short of my long-​term experience with The Laundry Basket is yes, they are very efficient, very friendly, and the odd time myself or my girlfriend have needed their seamstress skills for mending or fitting, they performed excellently.
However, when anything goes wrong, it is truly like night & day. They completely flip from being extra nice to being rather quite nasty, abrupt, and quite frankly, shameless in their bald-​faced assertions that they would never, could never, damage ANY garment. Ever. Period. I’ll say ‘assertions’ rather than ‘lies’ as the manager seemed to genuinely believe that it was physically impossible for her to damage anything. Apparently it’s genetic, her body was incapable of damaging anything, ipso facto any damage was the customer’s fault. It just stood to reason, didn’t it?
My final word is this: use The Laundry Basket if you need a quick turnaround, quality alterations, and a good job of cleaning 99% of the time. But if you’re taking in anything that would or could bring you to tears and/​or justifiable manslaughter if it was damaged, turn around at the door and walk away. Over my seven years’ experience, the chances of something being damaged were very slim in reality. It’s just that when that niggling little 1% chance does actually rear its head, you’ll find yourself battling a 4’11″ demon in The Laundry Basket version of The Twilight Zone.

Great for both cleaning shirts and tailoring!
1^st, I am extremely picky. when I hand press my own stuff I’d spend up to 45min on each shirt and I stain treat my shirts before giving to my other cleaners.
2^nd, i know a thing or two a about tailoring skills. i only wear custom made suits because i was fortunate enough to find a world class tailor overseas charging bottom prices who makes suits better fitting and sharper looking than Gucci custom tailors.
when i walk into 5 star hotel wedding banquets, people don’t ask me what brands my suits are, they can immediately tell it’s custom and ask for my tailor, that’s how good my tailor is.
laundry basket is not the cheapest place for regular cleaning and pressing shirts, but for for such quality job they did on cleaning and pressing my shirts, I could not find a cheaper place.
tailoring was extremely fast, with such superb skills. the shirts/​pants/​blazer they tailored for me fit almost as well as my custom made clothes. and tailoring is very well priced!
bring your stuff here, you won’t be disappointed. i’m a huge fan!
(a tip for you seeking great tailors: how to tell an exceptional custom tailor from a mediocre one. if s/​he can make you suit blazer that you can wear without buttoning up and still make you look great. if the jacket worn without buttoning up can still stand up upright, holding its overall shape, hugging your body, showing the waste line slimming and NOT flapping open, then you have found a tailor for life! tell us if you have one of those!!! :)

When I first chose this cleaner, I had come based on the Unilocal reviews.
My first experience here was decent. I had borrowed my sister’s wedding gown for a pre-​wedding photo shoot last fall and brought it in for cleaning afterwards. The man at the counter was very pleasant and understood that I was very concerned about the outcome considering it’s not my gown. He assured me that all wedding gowns are cleaned by hand. When I went back to pick it up, the gown was clean and everything went well.
Now comes the horror.
Last January, I went to an annual sample sale by Blush Bridal (reputable bridal shop). I’m a DIY bride so I wanted my gown to be unique. I didn’t want to make my own gown (just in case I screw it up) but I thought it’ll be nice to start with a simple base and have a professional work on the gown based on my design.
I purchased the Lea Ann Belter Mathia gown. It was a size too big, there was a small tear near a seam (easy fix). Most of the dirtiness was at the back zipper area — no problem because I was going to remove that section to put in a corset anyways.
I didn’t want to go to my seamstress too early since brides’ weight fluctuates so I held onto the gown for 1 year 4 months — 2 months before wedding. The seamstress told me to get the dress cleaned first so she can see what she’s working with.
I didn’t have time so I told my mom to help me to drop it off at The Laundry Basket. She told me it was done and then she she had to go out of town.
When I went to pick up the gown, there were two ladies there. The man I originally dealt with was not there. She unzipped the garment bag and I was absolutely horrified. The dupioni silk, which was ivory turned yellow — like aged paper. There were so many wrinkles in the gown that cannot be ironed out — it literally looks/​feels like crumpled up wax paper that someone tried to smooth out.
I asked them what happened and a crazy amount of excuses came out.
Initial excuses:
«The material was too old to be cleaned properly»
«No one uses this material for wedding gowns anymore»
«The fabric must be over ten years old»
First of all, as a drycleaner, they should not accept dresses they are not confident in cleaning.
Secondly, drycleaners should be able to clean and preserve vintage clothing, which makes their claims very unprofessional.
Thirdly, in their profession, they should know quality and fabrics. The designer would be utterly insulted at this.
And fourthly, they are blaming the gown and the customer for the problem!
Fast forward 20 minutes, they claimed that THEY TOLD ME when I dropped it off the dress that it cannot be cleaned properly. (I didn’t drop it off –_​-​)
They then claimed that they may not remember the customer, but they remember the bill. They swore that my mom pushed them to clean the gown even when they said it cannot be done properly.
I wasn’t able to do anything at that point because my mom was out of town and could not be easily reached. At the back of my mind, I knew they were lying because my mom would not give my wedding gown to people who weren’t confident in cleaning it.
Finally, I told them I didn’t even understand how this could have happened if they were careful and this was all done by hand. She laughed in my face and said they could never clean a dress entirely by hand and said she ran it through this giant machine twice.
They decided that their apology was to discount me 20% for the cleaning of the gown. I was so stressed by this situation that I just wanted to get out of there so I paid anyways.
After leaving, I headed straight out to find a replacement (which I did THANK THE LORD!) but my wedding gown budget more than doubled.
After a few days, I was able to reach my mom. I asked her about the situation and she confirmed the lie. She brought it in, they quoted her the price and took in the dress. She did not barter nor convince them to take the job.
Furthermore, when I finally went to the seamstress to alter my evening gown, she says their claims are absolutely ridiculous. In the industry, their company should NOT accept anything they are not guaranteed to clean. And if such things happen, their insurance should cover and compensated me for the price of the dress.
The only reason why I haventt stomped back into the store demanding compensation was because in my anger, I threw away my cleaning receipt, and I threw away the gown receipt awhile ago since it was a no refunds/​exchanges type thing. So no physical proof means they’ll probably say they never served me.
They may not have had to compensate me, but dishonest service will yield larger costs in the future.
Despite that they seem to do decent work for past customers, their dishonesty and lack of responsibility lost my and all my friends & familys’ business for good.

So I had this embarrassing seam rip all the way up on a brand new little black dress that occurred at my work Christmas party and I had no clue where to take it to get fixed. I didn’t want to go too far. And lo and behold! Unilocal came to my rescue and I discovered the The Laundry Basket!
They did an amazing job fixing the seam on my dress, and email fixed the sleeve stitching on my coat’s inner lining. I was also satisfied with their dry cleaning. I will be going back here. And it’s so close to my home.

Service here is par excellence. I drive all the way from Coquitlam to Burnaby to have my dry cleaning and alterations done, simply because I don’t think anyone can come close to the kind of attention and service I get at this place. They’re very straightforward, get in and get your business done but you always leave knowing your fabrics are in good hands.
They’re very capable with alterations as well. I had a pair of $ 10 jeans that now fit like it cost $ 250. The first time I went in, I was armed with a Groupon, expecting to be treated like crap for being a cheap deal lover and got a very warm reception instead. I was even treated to a mini story about how they did tailoring for an Olympics team (or something) in the owner’s halting English. This was despite having a middle-​aged man there, clearly his first time, who was trying his hardest to bargain down his pants alteration («Come on… do 2 for $ 10 and I’ll be a loyal customer for life!). He was speaking English so rapidly that he was basically trampling her over verbally, in a bid to pay a third world price for a service in Vancouver. Give me a break. Their prices are very reasonable to begin with. Shame on you, sir. Shame on you. I briefly contemplated ripping him a new one but decided against it, as it was my first time there and the owner seemed to take it in good stride.
The second time I went in was to use the second Groupon that was expiring and the lady owner told me to forget the expiry, she’ll take it anyway for as long as I need alterations or dry cleaning done. Awesome. She just bought my repeat business.

This place is excellent! I went to them because of the previous review and she did really great work with the best prices around!
I had to get my bridesmaid dress taken in a little bit in some places, and as soon as I put the dress on to show her she just spun me around and put a few clips here and there and said ok, it will be ready Friday (it was Tuesday), you will look more beautiful than the bride.
I also gave her 3 pairs of pants to have some minor patch work and hemming done, no problem… She did original hem’s at the normal price and her work was outstanding!
When I got my dress back it fit like a glove, it was perfect.
I also returned to them because my boyfriend had a miss hap with the shirt he was going to wear to the wedding. So I brought her 2 of his dress shirts the afternoon before the wedding day to see if she could help us and she was SO accommodating, «No problem, we have you taken care of, it will be ready tomorrow morning 9am». so she had both shirts dry cleaned and ready to go for us in the morning! AMAZING!
I totally recommend them to anyone needing dry-​cleaning or alterations of any sort. A diamond in the rough they are! Excellent price, great work, nice people and sooo happy and friendly!

Friendly service, prompt, excellent prices all with a smile. This family run business, mother & son have never failed me yet.
Just going to say hi to the owner is a delight in itself because she remembers you each and every time and is a real hoot to talk to!
On top of being a dry cleaner this gem also does a kick-​ass job on alterations. Again prices with tailoring aim to please. Best part is there is no stain this wonder woman cannot take out, she is genius!
Traditional asian customs greeting every customer that walks in and ensuring they are happy when they walk out. As long I get my clothes dirty you have my business.