Closed Until Further Notice

Not the blog, not me. My dry cleaners.

A few weeks ago I dropped off a dress at the cleaners and went to pick it up last week. Timing something like that is simple, (you'd think,) but really it takes careful planning. You can't unload all of the kids for a quick trip to go anywhere. Since I try to minimize chaos as much as possible, (what's the point?) I waited to try to retrieve the dress until Sean was home.

A little history:

One of the reasons I chose this particular cleaners was it is about a 45 second drive from my house. The other reason is that I tried another one when we first moved and they didn't give me a receipt when I dropped something off. I'm not a detail person so it never occurred to me that I didn't get receipts each time until I tried to pick up my favorite winter coat and they didn't have it. They had no record of it whatsoever. In fact, they didn't have a record of me whatsoever.

So I switched.

Discernment is key to a healthy relationship with any business.

Back to the dress and the new and improved cleaners. When I drove up to the building I noticed a sign on the door. Weird but nothing to worry about. I got out of the car and walked closer. There was a sign that said:

"CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. PLEASE CALL NUMBER BELOW TO SCHEDULE A PICK-UP."

Yeah because it's only fair that you call someone whose cell phone mailbox is full for a few days before you hear back from them to schedule a time to pick up your own clothes. I guess this is their reasoning? After texting back and forth with the owner of the cell phone (really, y'all it was like I was on candid camera a few times,) we planned to retrieve the dress this past Saturday. You know, Popeye's Birthday. Since he needed to feel spoiled and celebrated we decided that he'd go with me to the cleaners. Mom thought since the people were so shady I might need Dad there and while I was initially like, "Oh, I'm sure it's not a big deal..." I was glad to have help just in case.

I'm glad he came with me because before it was all said and done, which of course since I don't have the dress, it's still not said and done, there were four very frustrated customers. 45 minutes after the planned meeting time, a teenage boy walks up and says he is the person we're meeting. Um okay. He is the owner of the cell phone. That explains the texting. He is the person in charge of giving us the clothes trapped inside.

Oops he says. I forgot the key.

Oops he says. I live 20 minutes away so if you just wait here I'll drive home, get the key, and come back. This conversation takes place 45 minutes after the planned meeting time.

45 minutes later translated into "further notice." 45 minutes after we started standing in the 100 degree heat. 45 minutes before our movie was going to start. The movie to celebrate Dad's birthday. Julie and Julia. Good movie! Anyway, 45 minutes.

Which is precisely when one guy called the police.

And they came.

Two different police cars.

When our time there was through, I learned that the police couldn't do more than scare the kid into calling the owner, (turns out it's his father,) and encourage the kid to drive home and get the key and drive back to give us what we needed.

But since we had a babysitter coming and plans to see the movie, we just punted and didn't wait around to see if the kid actually remembered the key that second time. I'm still getting texts from him telling me to let him know when I'd like to pick up my clothes. What do you think? Should I send Sean or should I just send Max? I'm all done doing business with the place and I'd rather enjoy the night without coordinating with Mr. Forgot the Key business manager.