Couple’s dirty laundry does a disappearing act

 "We are extremely disappointed in the dry cleaning service we received," a reader recently wrote. "My husband and I have always taken our dry cleaning to the same company and most times we leave the stuff there for months, as we don't use our dressy clothes very often. We have never had a problem and they have never called to tell us to pick it up."

Not a good habit.

And one that sooner or later you'll likely be … taken to the cleaner.

"My husband took his suit there in June 2012 and I took my pant suit there in October 2012. Last week, I picked up my suit as I was going to wear it. I then thought I'd better pick up my husband's suit and went back the next day and was told it was not there. The woman behind the counter told me that it would have been discarded and that they would have called us after three months, and called and left messages for the next three months."

That never happened, our reader claims.

She did admit that leaving one's clothes at a dry cleaner for a year is not wise.

"I understand it is our fault that we left the items there so long. But we always have."

And, if the cleaner's policy was to discard items after six months, why was her pant suit still there after eight months?

I've heard the other side of this story before. A lady who ran a small art store told me she always forces her customers to pay in full when they drop off their art and ask it be re-matted, or reframed.

Her rationale for doing so?

"Some folks never come back to collect their property. They leave it sitting here for months. I've done what they've asked, and they have not come back to pay me."

While it seems insane that consumers wanting to have their clothes cleaned or their art work refinished decide not to collect their possessions, it obviously does happen.

The reader and her husband did not prepay for their laundry dryer and couldn't find the stub they say they were given when they dropped off the missing suit.

The owner of the dry cleaning franchise said she has a 90-day pickup policy.

"But we do keep a customer's item for up to one year," she said. "We call once a month for a few months, then on the last month we call weekly, giving them a deadline to collect their order before it's discarded. We are in business to make money, not to give customers' clothes away."

If every customer decided to drop off clothing and only pick it up when needed, the dry cleaner would require a pretty large warehouse.

You don't leave expensive jewellery at the jeweller's until your next evening out, do you?

And you don't take your car in for repairs and leave it at the garage for a year.

Whether the cleaner called or didn't isn't really relevant. They're your possessions. Pick them up.

It's common sense.