Widmer’s

Bad neighbors! I can’t open my windows unless I want to hear their employees literally YELLING at each other during break time EVERY DAY. Also, thanks for being a constant source of litter. We all enjoy picking up your employees garbage as it blows into
Working from home for past two days. The windows are closed yet my conference call is being disturbed once again by your employees screaming at each other outside my window. Sigh. Guess I won’t be opening my windows this spring. I understand that I live near a business district. Does Widowers understand that their business is next to a residential area? The bar across the parking lot with an outdoor patio is quieter on a weekend night… Much quieter… Because they respect their neighbors.

I dropped two winter coats of at Widmer’s to be cleaned. One was in bad shape — a cream colored pea coat from Banana Republic. It has gotten quite dirty the last time I wore it, and seemingly I thought stashing it in a closet was the thing to do. Fast forward to who know’s how many years later, and I find the coat in a closet at my mom’s house. Widmer’s asked me to sign a waiver in case the coat was damaged in the process. Fine with me, since it was either going to be cleaned or written off as a lost cause. Much to my surprise, the stains were removed (without causing any damage) and the coat looked fabulous! Additionally, they replaced a missing button on the other coat I dropped off. I had actually mentioned the missing button to the woman when I dropped the coat off, then told her to not worry about it, since I remembered I had an extra button at home. Widmer’s replaced the button (with a matching one from the coat’s designer) free of charge.
It was pricey. Having two coats cleaned ran me about $ 42. But they were both nice coats and well worth the cleaning bill.

I just moved to Cincinnati and hadn’t had a chance to take my dry cleaning in for several months– I had a lot of it. I drive past Widmer’s on my way to and from work every day so decided to give them a try.
My experience was bad from the beginning. When I walked in there were two people behind the counter with customers– neither of whom acknowledged my presence. Finally Pam finished with her customer and acted bothered to have to wait on me. As she saw the pile of clothing I placed on the counter, she made no comment. I joked that it had obviously been a while to which she snidely responded, «you may not know we’re quite pricy…» I was shocked. Professionals know better than to make assumptions about people based on their looks (and I look young but am well groomed and more than capable of paying for dry cleaning!). She didn’t look at any of my items and didn’t ask any questions. I pointed out stains on two of my items to which she responded by pulling out a liability form and berating me for removing the care instruction tags from some items. I should have left then.
When I went to pick up my items, 2 were missing– no one realized this until I asked about them. They were still waiting to be pressed. I was promised a call when they were done. It never came.
When I stopped in a week later I again had the extreme pleasure of having Pam wait on me, well after she ignored me upon entering the store — and for several minutes while she worked on something behind the counter. She continued to be downright hostile through the entire interaction.
If the quality if the work had been fantastic I could overlook poor service, but both of the items with stains were still stained when I got them home. I’m not going to bother going back to ask about it. I won’t be setting foot back in that store. Their loss– I easily paid my more than $ 200 bill.

My first experience here was extraordinary. I had an emergency alternation experience the day before my best friend’s wedding. I was the Maid of Honor and the dress that I bought online was so large that it was falling off of me. I had just arrived in town from Chicago, IL and I first visited the Buttermilk Pike location. The ladies were prompt to greet my Mother and I at the door. Unfortunately, the seamstress at that location was not scheduled that day and so the ladies kindly suggested calling the Madison Road location, which was a godsend. The woman on the phone said yes within moments and asked how soon we could bring the dress to her. When we arrived, the seamstress was in a fitting already with another customer, so the girl at the counter suggested we go next door and grab some coffee from BonBonerie. (yum) When we came back into the store, she had me try the dress on for her and she pinned it to my form. I was so thankful because I was worried that she would simply ask how many inches we needed taken in and ship us on our way. That was not the case, we had good conversation and we discussed the issues with the dress and the bust line. She then offered to have the dress done an hour earlier than she first quoted. I couldn’t have been happier with the experience. Later that day, we picked up the dress and off I went to the rehearsal dinner. The dress fit like a glove and the Wedding was beautiful. Finally, the pricing for the alteration was right on par and I was by no means overcharged. Thanks for the outstanding customer service and making this experience seamless. ;)

Rude, combative, EXPENSIVE. I had a suede jacket with a bad stain on the sleeve. I brought it in and pointed out the stain. When they had finished they didn’t let me know that the stain had not come out, I discovered that and was astounded that not only were they going to do nothing about it but insisted loudly that I pay the $ 44.82 they charged me for attempting (and failing) to clean the jacket. They finally agreed to try again. I called their customer service and their attitude wasn’t particularly helpful until pressed.
I run a business and sometimes things go wrong. When they do here is my BIG secret for keeping customers happy:
1) Apologize that something went wrong (This actually costs you $ 0!!!)
2) Think of and offer a remedy
3) Implement remedy & make sure it is done correctly
4) Give some kind of token/​gift to the client to show good faith and that you do want their continued business
5) Do not argue with the client, do not act as if the client is «the enemy» (Profound Truth: enemies don’t usually give you money)
6) Make it as graceful for the client to continue to do business as you can.
I hope someone from Widmer’s reads the above Super Secret List Of Things To Do For Unhappy Clients above.
They did deliver the garment with a Huge festoon stapled to the front of it where I had indeed signed a paper saying I acknowledged that they can’t get out every stain. Yes, they were right, I did sign that. I did not sign a paper saying that I would pay an outrageous price for a botched job or that it was just fine not to do the job well and still charge me full price. This is my festoon to them.
This is the second time they failed to get out a stain but they have charged me full price each time and been paid in full by me. I will never ever go back there. Ever.

I typically use a lower priced dry cleaning service but visit Widmer’s a few times a year since they do better job dry cleaning.
Positives:
Great Service and clean facility.
Better cleaning & pressing versus lower priced services.
Also has a delivery /​pick up service for convenience
Great customer service
Negatives:
Price is higher than small mom and pop dry cleaners
Time to dry clean is a bit longer versus other places.
Hours could be a bit longer

The service at Widmer’s is second to none, you really get personalized service, they correct mistakes and you are a name, not a number.