Gate Cleaners

These reviews speak for themselves. I should have checked Unilocal first.
I came in to get a wine stain out of a new blazer:
I asked the lady at the front, «Do you think this is possible?»
She said, «No problem, we will do.»
I asked her specially, «Can you take a note please, because I can go another place if this cannot be done.»
She said, «Ok.»
I returned back for pick up, looked at the sleeve. NOPE they did not even try and she did not even take a note on the ticket. boo.
I asked her, «This was not taken care of as promised.»
She said, «No I have no idea.»
I then said, «Ok so you want me to pay $ 12.50 for this in which you did not do anything?»
She answered, «Yes it is $ 12.50 I do not know.» She changes her mind, and then says, «Ok I will try again.»
I return for pick up and I check it again, they have done nothing at all. The lady at the front says the same thing, «I have no idea.» and goes to the register, «That will be $ 12.50.» Wow, I said while paying, «Any suggestions?»
She says, «No i do not know, thank you.»
Dang seriously? BUYER BEWARE: DO NOT DROP OFF ANYTHING HERE it is ridiculously overpriced and poor customer service! Each time I came, they we not interested in my garment but ringing me up.
Save yourself the grief, there is a sweet Asian owned Drycleaner across the street.

I found the service to be over priced which would have been fine if they could deliver on the convenience of true 24 hour pick up or drop off, however they can’t. Multiple times I’ve stopped by to use my account, never has it worked. I finally went in to get this fixed, twice. Both times assured it would work, however it never did. Not worth it.

Dropped my clothes off in the morning to be cleaned and pressed same day.
I ended up working late and I was hoping that the clothes would make their way into the 24hr pickup rack, but alas this is a service you have to sign up for. I ended up getting the owners phone number and he was courteous enough to come out at 9:00PM and open the store to complete my transaction and return my clothes.
I would not have expected this level of service anywhere, but I would now certainly recommend Gage cleaners to anyone. The 24hr service alone is reason to go back (available after registration).
P. S. I haven’t had any run-​ins with this «lady behind the counter». All of those negative reviews are several years old so take them with a grain of salt. The staff I interacted with were very pleasant and helpful.
Thanks!

My fiancé and I tried a new dry cleaners, and wish we never made the mistake of trying Gate. When we walked in we were very impressed with the 24 hour delivery system. We dropped off the clothes with a quote of about $ 117, and when we came back to pick up the clothes a couple of days later the final price was $ 127. Normally I wouldn’t have such a big issue with this, but when we asked the woman, Susana, to adjust the price to what was quoted she said she could not do that. We showed her the receipt that didn’t match up with hers and she said that she couldn’t do anything. She had a customer behind us that we could tell she wanted to get to. We didn’t matter, and she wanted to keep things rolling. Dishonesty and not caring about your customers will keep people like me away. In order to leave the place with our clothes, we had to pay the higher charge that we had not agreed upon when we originally left the clothes. From the looks of the reviews we should have checked Unilocal before going. Whoops. Won’t make that mistake next time!

$ 2.15 to wash and iron dress shirts seems like a good deal to me. No complaints.

While the convenience of the self-​service dropoff and pickup is still great, the quality of operations seems to be slipping. I’ve noticed a number of broken buttons, and once they almost lost my clothes (I was told they didn’t have them, but I happened to see them hanging nearby).

Very courteous service. Have never had a problem with Gate Cleaners. My clothes have always been cleaned correctly. The location is really convenient (on Hamilton Ave in downtown) and having access to pick up and drop off 24 hours a day is worth the premium prices.

This is the worst dry cleaner, by far, I have seen in 20 years of dry cleaning shirts. I dropped off 11 shirts, they broke numerous buttons on 11 of 11 shirts. When I asked them to replace the buttons they broke, they wanted to charge me $ 50. After lots of arguing, I finally decided to pay them and be done with it. The next day, they only replaced some of the broken buttons and said they would need more money to finish the job. I said’ so yesterday you lied to me”. The owner said «yes, yesterday I lied to you. What I am saying today I need more money to finish the job». When I tried to take my shirts and go find someone else to get the job done, they threatened to call the cops. Unbelievable.
The owner made a comment to my review as if I am the one telling a lie here. Unbelievable. None of my shirts has tear and wear at all. He did admit that he lied to me about replacing the buttons on all shirts and said to my face «Yes, I lied to you.» I am not going to waste any more time on this. This is ridiculous.

Really friendly staff. the owner is fantastic. it is a bit pricy. but they always do a good job

Gate Cleaners is a great place to go to, and they do so much more than just the standard stuff. They also do wedding dresses, leather and rugs! I have also had positive experiences with them, and very friendly customer service. I highly recommend them, and theres a night pick-​up and drop off box. Very cool!

²⁴⁄₇ pickup/​delivery machine is now fixed.

Like others, I’ve had many shirts come with with cracked buttons. They replaced the buttons for free, but always with cheaper buttons. The 24-​hour ATM-​like pickup is what kept me going there, but I also had a few run-​ins with the woman behind the counter. I can’t say anything as harsh as what others said, but agree she doesn’t appear very service-​oriented.
Combined with the poor-​quality cleaning and the off-​putting service, I took my business to Elite Cleaners and never looked back.

Gate Cleaners isn’t the best cleaner, but they are 1) convenient, 2) offer flexible times and 3) reasonable hours. The cleaner is located conveniently off University in Palo Alto, with parking nearby almost always available (90% of the time across Hamilton from the cleaner.).
Whenever I ask for «special service» they are willing to do it; even boxing up my dry cleaned shirts! haha!
They are generally nice and friendly, the girl that used ot smoke out back all the time on Saturday seems to have moved on so pickup service on Saturday is much better now!
The prices are high, but not for Palo Alto, their prices are similar to other cleaners in downtown palo alto. I could probably drive to Sunnyvale to save a few buck, but convenience is worth the few bucks I could save.

Very convenient. Love the ²⁴⁄₇ access. Didn’t give them 5 stars because they are pricey…

Beware of Gate Cleaners unprofessional business practices.
I dropped off two very expensive shirts to be cleaned by them. Was assured that they were very professional and was asked how I wanted them done. I thought everything was well until I went on vacation and took the shirts with me.
Turns out THEY CRACKED MULTIPLE BUTTONS and worse THEY TRIE TO HIDE IT by changing some of the buttons but leaving some cracked ones with cheap ones.
I called to complain and Flora (the owner) had the nerve to tell me that they would charge me $ 1.50 a button to resew them if I did not have matching buttons. Um… HELLO YOU BROKE MY BUTTONS AND THEN WANT TO CHARGE ME FOR YOUR MISTAKE!!!
Flora is out of her mind — first trying to hide their mistake and unprofessional dry cleaning — then trying to charge me for their error. (She claimed that some shirts cannot be cleaned — that is a first for me, esp since they assured me they could do it).
I am going to go see what they can do to fix this problem, but a small claims lawsuit is likely since they look to be unable to match the buttons back.
These two shirts cost over $ 300 and if you value your clothes AVOID Gates.

Unless this place is like literally across the street from you, and it’s almost as convenient as going to your own bathroom… find somewhere else to take your clothes.
It is fine, clean and all but RIDICULOUSLY expensive (i even had a 20% off coupon). it is like 7 bucks for a pair of pants, and the woman tried to pretend she didn’t know what the exact pricing was.
While we’re on the «woman» that everyone else seems to dislike, she wasn’t incredibly rude, but it definitely was not service oriented either. I can find more pleasant places to drop my things off to get cleaned.

Very convenient ²⁴⁄₇ drop off and pick up. A bit pricey but not too bad. Very friendly owners.

i had the same issue that sam l. did… i dropped a blouse that is a little on the longer side, but still definitely a shirt and when i picked it up the woman tried to charge me for a dress! i explained to her that there was no way anyone — other then jessica simpson, of course! — would wear this as a dress, since the entire world would then know what my favorite panties look like… she eventually backed down, but told me if i bring it again i will be charged for a dress… i told her not to worry, i wouldn’t be bringing this SHIRT or my business here again. period.
2 stars because they didn’t actually ruin my clothing… wow! my standards are becoming so low!

Incredibly rude woman behind the counter. First she acted like she didn’t want to take my clothing (1 item to be altered). Then when I went to pick it up, she charged me much more than she originally indicated she would. Avoid.

Can’t really complain. It’s convenient to my house and they have a quick turnaround time. But they did fail to remove some very obvious spills on a pair slacks I had cleaned. Of course, when I brought them back they did fix the problem for free. Also, they have a drop box/​slot but I have not tried that service yet.