Money Laundering

I had a bit of an interesting experience at a local business today. While washing my clothes at Hillside Laundry in Oswego, NY I had the misfortune of suffering a power outage. As it turned out there were thousands of other people in the surrounding area who also lost power due to a motor vehicle accident. At the present time I don't have any further details on the condition of those involved in the accident. However, I'm certain that anyone that is curious about the collision you could always check Facebook for more information. After all, that's where I look for all of my newsworthy info because that site is always 100% accurate.


I have personally been involved with customer service for nearly half of my life. I am the first to admit that at times when I've been challenged by an unhappy customer, I might not always respond with the kindest of tongues. In my own defense though, when I deal with a dissatisfied patron, the majority of the time there is alcohol involved on their part, as I am a bartender at Greene's Ale House. Since I am the one who is ALWAYS completely sober behind the bar when I'm working, I do not subscribe to the business "rule of thumb" that states the customer is always right.


But I digress. I am very aware that human error or natural disasters are often responsible for power outages. By no means am I holding the owner of Hillside responsible for her place of business going dark. I did however wait several minutes for the power to return before reaching out to the phone number displayed in the front window. When I phoned, I briefly stated what the situation was and asked for a response in a timely manner. After waiting for a period of time with no answer I decided trying another avenue. There was also a business email address posted so I left a short note which I simply titled HELP in the subject box. I wasn't exactly expecting a response to the email but I figured that it might send a notification to the owner's cell phone which may prompt a reply.


After being without power and having no reply from the business, I reluctantly made an attempt to open the washer door. I was concerned that water would flood the floor, if I could even get the door to unlock. Very much to my surprise the lock did indeed disable itself when the power went out. Fortunately the water had already drained so I didn't make a bad situation worse by creating a huge mess. I did however end up with an extremely heavy clothes basket of incredibly saturated garb. Luckily for me I remain in my prime to this day so I was able to carry the extra weight. And between you and I, I don't even work out. I don't have to. What can I say? Some of us are just gifted with an incredible physique.


As I exited the parking lot I rapidly became engulfed in a sea of traffic. I quickly came upon several service vehicles and diligent City of Oswego employees who were trying their best to restore order. Although I was a bit peeved that approximately a half hour had passed without a response from Hillside, I had to make that choice to travel across town to an alternate washboard. At that time, I was still considerate of the fact that Hillside hadn't caused the outage. My only choice was to wait to speak with management in order to request a refund to recover my money. As I resumed washing my belongings at Colonial Laundromat I finally received a phone call back from Hillside. And as you can imagine the conversation did not go well.


For the sake of this post we will call the responder "Stephanie".


"This is Stephanie from Hillside. I got your message. Has the power come back on yet?"


I told her I didn't think it had yet. I explained that since nobody had responded to me in a timely fashion that I was left with no other choice but to leave her place of business. I kindly asked how I could be given a refund. She told me I could not be refunded because I already opened the machine. She told me I should have waited for power to be restored and that the washer would have completed its cycle. Since I had opened the door I had gave up my right to a refund. I told her I understood that her business was in no way responsible for the interruption of service but I believed I was entitled to a much more prompt response to my call of concern. Believe it or not, at this point I still remained rather calm, but my blood was definitely starting to near a boiling point.


Stephanie next told me that she lives an hour away and couldn't have been of anymore help at the point when I decided to leave.


"I have no on site employees there" was what I was told.


She continued to tell me that I should have left my clothing unattended if I didn't have time to wait for the machine to resume operation. I was also told that she runs a clean and safe establishment. I expressed that this was not acceptable and that I was not comfortable leaving my clothes there.
She said that it was my choice to leave and that it was policy that I could not receive a refund. At this point I may have begun to have a slight bit of an attitude with Miss Stephanie.


"If you run such a safe business environment, why are the walls plastered with disclaimers stating that Hillside Laundry is not responsible for any lost or stolen items?"


As I expected, all I could hear on the other end of the phone was the sound of crickets. She knew she was wrong but again reiterated that my clothing SHOULD have been safe. When I again pointed out that her disclaimers must have been placed prominently in view for a reason she actually agreed with me. I again asked for a refund and was told I had no recourse.


I understand that running a small business is an extremely difficult task to take on oneself. I admit that I may have over looked their policy on power outage protocol. I did search their web site from top to bottom looking for their power outage policy. I'm sure none of you will be surprised to learn that I found no such policy. My beef is that when the power is on the door to the machine would never have opened. If I chose to leave under different circumstances I would never have requested a refund. I just think "Lil Stephie Poo" has a great deal to learn about customer service. And if any of you who read this are in agreement with her I encourage you to call me out and explain to me how I am in the wrong with regard to this specific situation as it arose. Believe you me, this has nothing to do with the money that I am out. It is purely based on principle.


I think it is very safe to say that I will no longer be patronizing the Hillside Laundry establishment. That is entirely my right to make that choice. Next time you need to reach me on laundry day I can probably be found on the banks of the Oswego River beating my laundry on a rock.