VIP French Cleaners

I took a beautiful, almost new, silk blouse to Claudine’s for cleaning last week. When I brought it home, I realized that she had stapled the dry cleaning receipt right through the paper, the plastic, into the sleeve of the blouse. I took the blouse, still in its dry cleaning plastic back to Claudine and asked her to remove the staples as I wanted HER to be responsible for whatever damage might be incurred to the blouse.
Indeed, the blouse was left with about 10 puncture holes in the cap sleeve. Over the years I ‘ve tolerated Claudine’s sheer human nastiness and lack of customer relations skills, but when she denied that the sleeve of the blouse had ANY holes in it and REFUSED to compensate me in any way, including returning the $ 10 I paid for the cleaning, I was furious. Since I still have the receipt for the blouse, will definitely be going to Small Claims Court next week. STAY AWAY from this nasty woman!

I had been going to [redacted] across the street for several years, and the level of service is nowhere near what Claudine offers. The outcome is about the same, but they never take the extra time to get to know their customers. She even got an oil stain out of a piqué polo that I never thought would be possible — for free! Price wise, it’s a draw — some items such as shirts (which get sent out from both stores — she will tell you that shirts are not dry cleaned ever but laundered and pressed) are much less expensive than across the street, yet she charges a little more for pants and dresses, but the customer experience makes it worth the extra few dollars in the long run. She does not have a tailor onsite, however, and her tailor charges more to hem pants. Also, her credit card minimums are $ 15 versus $ 10 across the street.
So warm and convivial is Claudine that sometimes I stop in just to chat even if I don’t have anything to drop off or pick up. I think she has a lot of regulars like me that do that, but it is beyond me why the competition seems to be doing so much more volume in comparison — maybe its their corner location. I guarantee that none of their customers have ever been invited to the owner’s church (after only a few weeks of patronage).
Most people drop off their dry cleaning and pick it up not knowing anything about the process. If you go to Claudine and ask questions, she will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about dry cleaning and will even show you the machine in the back! Dry cleaning is pretty fascinating and so is Claudine. And if you want to know anything about the neighborhood and its residents and shop owners and landlords, Claudine is your go-​to source.
I never leave without having a good laugh. To Nicole W. — I think you misinterpreted her deoderant remark. When I read that, I laughed out loud because I could picture exactly how she said it. Maybe here sense of humor is not for everyone, but in a world where everything is so impersonal, Claudine is a welcome change and a throwback from a simpler era. Whoever get my household’s dry cleaning business is in for a pretty steady, almost daily stream of revenue.

I am really disappointed, in everything at that Cleaner. Claudine was very unfriendly to begin with, didn’t let that throw me off. I brought 2 pieces to get cleaned, my expensive wool dress still totally smelling from sweat. When bringing it up to her attention she told me to use a deodorant! … Additionally, my the dress had a big stain that looked like a somebody had ironed it on the back. Well, needless to say I will never go there and I would highly caution others.

Claudine’s is great. They replaced a zipper for me and a plastic piece on a dress that holds the strap in place. I have also had stains taken out of formal gowns for a very reasonable price. This is my go-​to place now!

I’ve been coming here since we moved into the neighborhood, 12 years ago. Claudine has always been very friendly and helped me to feel part of the neighborhood, introducing me to neighbors who happened to be in the shop. We’ve always been very satisfied with the quality of the services.

Claudine’s is a great place to get your dry cleaning done. After reading the reviews, I was a bit scared to drop my husband-to-be’s tuxedo to be done before our wedding, and his suit for the rehearsal dinner. But guess what? Not only did they both come back looking super, they found a tie he forgot about in the pocket and cleaned and pressed it at no charge. I was really impressed at how nice they were and how brand new everything came back looking! It was a great, no stress way to start the busiest /​exciting/​happiest weekend of our lives so far.

Very, very unsatisfactory customer service.
I went to clean/​press a big load of shirts and get pants hemmed. The only place to change is a tiny bathroom which I think is gross. I dont want my socks touching that floor.
They wouldn’t hem my pants without the proper shoes despite my insistence that I know how long they need to be. Anyway, I’m not a tailor so I let the hem issue slide and went ahead and had them do the clean/​press (a big load). When I went to pick up I was informed that they do take Amex, however not for the service I got – makes no sense. It was $ 40 worth!
I found a complete lack of courteousness and desire to be helpful. All I got was condescension and resistance. The cleaning was fine but pricey. Never again. Go to Happy Cleaners. The lady there is really nice and they’re reasonable.

Little disappointed with the service and thoroughness here. This was my first trip as I’m new to Prospect Heights and was exploring the area. My initial visit was pleasant and simple — dropped off a pair of trousers and a white shirt. The pick up, however, was a bit tricky — there was difficulty locating my goods, trouble with the register, and unfortunately a key service — the sewing of a button — was not taken care of as promised. Honestly, she seemed sweet and may have just been having an off day, but I’m going to keep looking.

VIP French Cleaners (or Claudine’s) is worth going out of your way for picking up and dropping off the dry cleaning. Claudine’s really sweet and does an awesome job.
This is completely my fault, but I have to revoke one star for when I got my pants tailored… The original hem was so simple (a normal hem with the fabric folded up to form a cuff) that I expected that she would be able to duplicate it. I really should have asked because I ended up with the normal old hem making my pants look a little strange. At least I can wear them now, they were about 6″ too long (I’m so short!). She joked that rather than taking up the pants, I needed to have my legs stretched out.