Classicleaners

As a recovering hippie, I value the eco-​friendliness concept in just about everything. When I accidentally ran into Classicleaners I had to give them a try. Since then, I’ve brought them plenty of clothes and several alterations. They’re fairly priced, email you your receipts, and my favorite part of all… they speak English. None of that seedy «cash only» money laundering going on here. I was also impressed with their commitment to get out a stain from a pair of pants I last wore in the 90s that I’m putting in my time capsule. They attempted to remove it four times and almost succeeded. I didn’t have the heart to tell them I bought the discounted pants with that stain over 20 years ago. A for effort.

Prices are great, but they will lose your clothes. They lost an entire suit of mine and a distinctive scarf. You might as well skip the dry cleaners and just buy new clothes. Use another service.

I second EVERYTHING in Kalie B’s review.
This business is unreliable. I used Classicleaners from Jun-​Nov 2011 and never had confidence that I would get my cleaning back as planned. They run out of my building in DC as a concierge service. When you drop off at my concierge, you do not get a receipt for what you turn in. Then, when the cleaning is dropped off, unless you know exactly what you turned in, you don’t know if you are getting everything back. Four separate incidents occurred where I did not get back most of my dry cleaning and I had to call the owner to track down where my items were. There are two other dry cleaners on my block that are cheaper, but I gave Classicleaners the benefit of the doubt and paid the extra for the convenience that at the end of the day became very cumbersome to manage on my own. The ownership and management does not seem to understand how to run a business and treat their customers. The straw that broke the camels back was not getting half my shirts back on a planned delivery day prior to going out of town. I had to drive 18 miles from DC to Alexandria to pick up the shirts myself. Horrible horrible business. I’m trying to get them removed from the contract with my building.

I have to admit I used to like Classicleaners. Its convenient, delivery is really nice and it has good pricing.
BUT!!!
1. They lose clothes. Multiple times my husband’s shirts have gone missing. We also regularly receive other people’s shirts. (Oddly enough in my husband’s size) They also lost a dress of mine.
2. Customer service sucks! When I called the owner Patrick, he said he wouldn’t even look for my dress unless I also emailed him a description in writing even though I had just given it to him in excruciating detail and he had a rack of articles of clothes without an owner. (Oh no worries, my time isn’t valuable) Then we doesn’t call back, doesn’t check, his staff refuses to check, just awful.
Go to your neighborhood place, that way you get a receipt for what you turned in so you can prove they lost and it and track it down. With Classicleaners you just turn in your clothes to your apt. building and there is no receipt.
Oddly enough, like in all other things, no regulation of your clothes = you can’t do squat when they are lost = no incentive to not lose things like other places.

(for delivery service) I admit it: I stink at ironing, especially men’s dress shirts. Once I finish doing one arm, the other arm is wrinkly and it takes me forever to finish one shirt. Because of this huge black-​hole-​time-​waster, the Jee D. household splurges on weekly dry cleaning. We use our local cleaners in the city but also use the free delivery and drop off service from ClassiCleaners Express set up through our apartment building. The rates are a little more expensive than your regular cleaners, but they use «eco dry cleaning» that is supposedly better for the earth. And of course, it’s so convenient to not have to schlep a ton of clothes back and forth in the dead of winter while freezing your arse off, or in the heat of summer when I lose 5 pounds just walking them home.