Jane D.

C&C Dry Cleaners

I thought I had discovered a decent professional cleaner the first few times I used C&C. They were not unfriendly and seemed to do a decent job with basic button-down shirts. I even trusted them to hem my Joe's and People's Liberation jeans, which they did a passable job of (though they made no attempt to match the original thread color). All in all I was happy with C&C until I went to retrieve a $350 Nanette Lepore jacket I had trusted to their care to remove a watermark on the sleeve. I paid for my cleaning and stepped out into the sunlight to discover that the creamy color of the jacket was now a mottled mess of violently white splotches and patches of the original cream color, with even some new dark stains that were obviously caused by their laundering. When I went back in to ask the cleaners about this problem with the coloration of my garment I was told by the proprietress that she could not see the problem in their (bad fluorescent) lighting. When I explained that the color had been bleached out in places, she argued that they don't use bleach. And when I rephrased that something had removed the color from my jacket she practically screamed at me that they did not use bleach and there is no way that they could have caused this. I left not a little unhappy, with a promise that I would be called the next day to find out whether they could fix this, that they would have the garment ready a number of days later, and that I would receive a full refund for their services. A little internet research revealed to me that it is, of course, possible for the cleaning products used by C&C to cause dye removal. I never received the promised phone call, so I went back in to C&C this weekend to check on the status of my garment. Again, the proprietress yelled at me, telling me that they can't always remove watermarks (note: this was not my complaint) and telling me that I must have brought the garment in in this condition. When I told her that I was very unhappy to have such an expensive garment returned to me in far worse condition than when it was brought in, she argued that it was a cheap jacket. She asked where I purchased it, and then accused me of lying to her, insisting that I must have purchased it at the salvage department of Jeremy's. She insisted that since I no longer have the original receipt for the purchase of the jacket they cannot be responsible for its value. Not only have I lost a very expensive piece of my wardrobe, but I have not been refunded even the cost I paid them to clean (or rather destroy) it, and the verbal abuse and accusations of dishonesty are icing on the cake. If you value your clothing (or being treated with basic human decency), do not take your cleaning to C&C. I will be looking for a more respectable cleaners in Berkeley.