Balboa Cleaners

I’ve been going here for close to 4 years now, about two times a month. I came to Unilocal to give a review as I really appreciate great service and wanted to make sure anyone that reads this knows about it!
What’s hilarious about the previous comments I read was that everyone said it was expensive. Maybe they’re a dollar more per shirt than the discount place down the street that will lose and damage your clothes every time you take them in. And unless you’re getting 5,000 shirts washed a year… It really doesn’t matter. I’d go so far to say that you probably don’t deserve the service that they offer and their attention to detail if you care about an extra $ 30 a year.
The family that runs the shop might be the hardest working people I’ve ever met. They always greet you with a smile, make sure to have everything in order and are NEVER late. If I need something rushed, they ALWAYS DELIVER ON TIME! I’ve seriously put them to the test here as I travel frequently and sometimes need my clothes turned around quickly.
If you want your clothes to be washed in nasty chemicals by disgusting people, go to the budget place. If you want great service, attention to detail and don’t care about paying a couple extra pennies, I’d recommend Balboa Cleaners.
Cheers!

OK – lots of negative reviews. I’ve become a pretty steady weekly customer.
Here are the good parts:
Convenient location, near other shopping
Good quality – my clothes consistent look good and they have told me when they have gone over tough spots multiple times on shirts – they are actually paying attention
Super nice and trustworthy husband/​wife team
Here are the parts to improve:
Cost (as all have mentioned) is extremely high. But other cleaners in Clairemont and Bay Park are not cheap either.
Do NOT ask them to fix a broken button unless you are not willing to learn to sew… they charged me a lot to fix this (like $ 7)
Overall though, I like this place. It is a family run business and they are nice which counts for something more than $. If money is your only thing you probably buy everything at WalMart.

Wish it was cheaper but hey. $ 12/​dress is pretty average coming from the Bay Area. I paid ahead of time, hoping I’d be offered a discount, but alas. Also, super friendly, don’t know what anyone else was talking about rude. Maybe they like how I was friendly and said good morning! Also, the owner, a Korean man, had a shirt on that said, «I’m not yelling, you’re just hungover» FTW!

I thought I’d give this place a shot since they seemed to have decent reviews, overall the service on the items dry cleaned were good and repair on a blouse was completed in 2 days. My only negative remark here resulting in 2 star review (because I am bothered this much) is that I presented a coupon upon payment and the woman said I needed to present the coupon when I dropped the items off and she did not honor my coupon and told me to use it next time. I will NOT be returning… They need to reconsider this process.

Agreed. Way overpriced. Nothing special. They don’t even tell you how ridiculously expensive they are until you pick your stuff up.
Really surprised they have as many stars as they do. Expect to pay

Prices aren’t great and where it counts, cleaning, it doesn’t consistently come out clean or they commingle clothes of different colors causing unusual bleeding of other colors to the lining of slacks (turned cream colored lining purple). 2 – 3 laundered shirts resulted in several shattered buttons. Had to find another cleaner with more thorough and better cleaning procedures and habits.

They are nice as long as you are giving them money, but a customer problem will be resolved only by giving them more money.
I had them hem a pair of dress pants, and within about eight month the hem came out in the wash. Since I had only worn them twice, I assumed they would gladly do the repair for free, especially since over the past two years they had hemmed about 8 – 10 pairs of pants for me. WRONG! They insisted on charging me for the repair.
They don’t stand by their alterations, so I’m switching to another better and cheaper place for alterations.

**BALBOA CLEANERS BY VONS**
I have tried to give this business my business, faithfully using their services for almost a year now because of the convenience due to the proximity to my house. I have finally had to seek another service because I continually had to take articles of clothing back to be drycleaned again free of charge and I just can’t justify using them anymore. More over the last time I had to take my drycleaning back to be redone it didn’t appear that it had even been done. The final straw was when I had a silk cardigan that I had requested to be drycleaned but it appeared to have been ironed and it was ruined. They also had previously stitched up a belt loop on a sweater that I did not request to be sewn and did not need to be.
As far as them being rude I do not agree with that and because they did have good customer service which is why I kept trying their service. In my experience their alteration service is good but overall they are not a good drycleaning service. Why is it so hard to find a drycleaning service you can trust?

I am not sure why the negative reviews. They are very nice and polite. My items are cleaned well and on time. The prices are reasonable including alterations. I have been coming here for 3 years. It is just a nice mom and pop shop!

I just wanted to say that I have used Balboa cleaners for about 15 years. I have had military uniforms cleaned & pressed with proper creases, dress shirts and pants cleaned, and I have had patches sewn, pants altered and leather fixed. I have had martial art uniforms sewn and pressed for competetion. John and his family are honest, ethical and customer service oriented. I have never in 15 years had anthing lost, ruined or have I ever been told that they were unable to clean or fix anthing I have brought to them. In fifteen years I have had consistant professional service. If you are looking for a great professional cleaner then look no further. Come and try them out for yourself. I am looking forward to another 15 years. Thanks John.

Two «pant suits» for my wife… $ 21??? Wouch! Each peice $ 5 each is just not right… Oh and to make sure you all know, this is the place next to VON’s.

time, money, convenience, cleaned properly…
thats pretty much all the factors in play with my opinions of a dry cleaning business. and i have no complaints about here (adjacent to vons). as i expect with most others, the prices aren’t especially competitive without a coupon — which is exactly why i came in (hey, marketing works!). its almost like the «30% off sushi» all the time with just a markup of the «regular» price, heh.
so basically, use a coupon… pretty sure they have them in the mail all the time, and there are options that work for most services. what caught my eye was they offered ‘free dry cleaning (and pressing) of a full suit with purchase of $ 25 or more” in a currently active coupon I received. There was also a «30% off all household items» and I had 2 throw blankets I had needed cleaning for months.
though you typically can’t use multiple coupons for the same visit, the lady was nice enough to write up 2 separate orders so I could use both the free suit (for the men’s dress shirts and woman’s blouses order) and 30% off (for the 2 blankets) coupons.
dropped off saturday, ready on wednesday. everything was cleaned and pressed accordingly, neatly hung. nothing lost, nothing stained… standard successful dry cleaning.
memory is fuzzy but prices i believe to know are:
— standard cleaning for men’s dress shirt — $ 2.75
— special care for men’s dress shirt with stretch — $ 4.30 (she examined all shirts and knew one of them needed it)
— women’s blouse — $ 4.30
— small blanket — $ 15 (the cleaner across balboa next to marshalls told me $ 13…but again, per coupon this place won)
— dress — $ 9.80 (she originally mistaken a tunic as a dress and I had her correct it — big diff in price!)
…all together for 3 men’s shirts, 2 womens blouses, 2 small blankets, and a suit dry cleaned I paid $ 46.90.
*they appear to give out scholarships for local students (pics on the stand in front). nice.

I’ve been doing business with Balboa Cleaners for a decade and have had nothing but good experiences with them. They are friendly and very careful with my clothes. I’ve had some really bad experiences with dry cleaners but Balboa Cleaners have always taken great care of me! Their prices are a bit higher than the others but they never ruin my stuff and that is WAY more important to me. I vowed years ago that I’d never go to a «cheap» cleaners again!

I’ve been here 4 or 5 times, just for basic shirt laundry and pants dry cleaning, and have been pleased. The stuff comes back fine, turn around times are reasonable, the place seems well organized, and the people working the registers have the right mix of pleasantness and professionalism. Mostly I pick a laundry for its location, and there must be 6 or 7 of them on my route between home, but I plan on sticking with this place rather than trying the others.

It’s a shame I have to even give 1 star. I’d give 0 or negative stars if possible. I found this business on
. I chose to take my dry cleaning there because they were close to my office. THE BIGGEST MISTAKE! I took in 24 dress shirts that ranged in price from $ 99-​$ 250 each. A complete suit and a pair of suit pants. Once I got there to drop off everything the people seemed nice. Once I was rung up for the cleaning I was a little shocked at the cost. The suit was $ 9.70, Pants $ 5.30 and the shirts totaled $ 103.20 ($ 4.30 each). I figured you get what you pay for and everything should be worth it. WRONG! After returning home and inspecting the clothes I found the same stains, they were lighter but not removed, all the shirts had 3 big creases on the back running from left to right. Those were not there before. Some of the shirts were still wrinkled. I understand that not all stains will come out due to the type of stain and the length of time before cleaning but most cleaners will tag the garment letting the patron know that the stain could not be removed. Then there is the issue of the new creases on all the shirts.
The gentleman that checked me in and out was named John. At the time of drop off he stated he was the owner. When I called the establishment and asked for a manager John answered and said «the manager is not here» I stated I had a complaint. He quickly said «call later» and hung up. I called later and an older lady picked up. There is a very slight language barrier but we were able to communicate just fine. I asked for the manager. She said «he is not in». I asked what the managers name was. She said «Uh, I don’t know». I asked if the managers name was John. She said «yes». I asked why she said she did not know when previously asked. She said «it gets busy sometimes and they just say no». I hope you see where this is going now. She told me to bring everything back so they can do it again but after all the shady talk I will not be returning to this cleaner again.
I would rather pay someone to do it right and not waste my time. These people obviously have issues and the «manager» won’t even take a call when there is a legitimate complaint. I’m sure if I went back I’d get very snarky treatment and continued bad service.
So if you use these guys and they take care of your garments that’s awesome. I’m just sharing my experience, which seems to be shared by others.
By the way… before posting this review I called them again and asked for the manager. The older lady said «he is not here» and quickly hung up. I called again and told them I’m going to post this negative review… she did not care.

I decided to give this place a try since it had mixed reviews between 5 stars and 1 star, boy was that ever a mistake. The customer service here is horrendous. When I came to pick up my clothes they would not accept a coupon saying that it had to be presented at the time of drop off. Are you kidding me!?! This is how you treat a new customer! The prices are double of a normal dry cleaner and they ruined a $ 200 pair of suit pants. When I brought the pants back to show them the damage, they told me they were already like that. I wore the pants a week before taking them in and I know for a fact they weren’t like that. They did nothing to right the damage other than waste 5 minutes of my time theorizing what could have caused the damage. Thanks, that really helps. Do yourself a favor, if your thinking about trying Balboa Cleaners just throw your clothes in the trash and pay the garbage man $ 4 a garment to take them away. (To the person who thinks the bad reviews may be for the place by Burger King, its no mistake, Balboa Cleaners in Vons plaza is HORRIBLE!)

Wait a minute! I think Unilocalers are getting this dry cleaning facility mixed up with the one a block away called Balboa Crest (next to Burger King). These guys, Balboa Cleaners, are next to Von’s (corner of Balboa & Genesee). I was a long time customer of Balboa Crest, but after 10-​yrs and a change in ownership I gave those guys the boot and started coming here to Balboa Cleaners. These guys are FAB-​U-​LUS! Everything I have cleaned comes back great and nicely presented. They even have coupons which I get in the mail. I don’t mess around with my dry cleaning because clothing is just too expensive to replace on the whim. I would recommend these guys to eveyone with high standards and a budget. Give them a chance and they’ll win you over!
LOVE THIS PLACE! The owner, John, and his wife are beautiful, honest, hard-​working people!

wow I can’t believe these bad reviews, My fiancée and I swear by this place. I have had my clothes cleaned and altered for 5 years now with out any problems and they come out looking new. I wouldn’t go anywhere else. In fact since we are moving to to another part of town I was still thinking of driving over just to come back. My experience has always been great and the family that works there has always been friendly

I agree with Serena B. This place is OVER PRICED and not very friendly. I had a minor alteration done on a cheap little sundress and they never told me how much it would cost. I figured maybe $ 7 or $ 8. When I picked it up, they charged me $ 30!!! And it was terrible work. I could have done that kind of bad quality myself.
I do not recommend this place. Still looking for a good alterations/​dry cleaning near Genesee/​Balboa.

I wouldn’t even give this establishment one star if I had the choice.
I took two dresses this morning (Thursday 08÷09÷07) to be cleaned. I showed the areas where the dresses particularly needed to be cleaned (namely the hem) — and he immediately starts «I don’t know if that will come out. I can’t promise anything. I don’t know.»
Well, I’ve had these same two dresses cleaned at my prior cleaners up in Los Angeles and I never had any problems — same areas always needed special attention — and they were always well cleaned — and my cleaner never told me anything about not being able to clean them.
So my first indication was these people probably don’t properly dry clean garments.
Then I advised him I needed them completed by 2pm the following day. It was as though I had just informed him I would be giving him a rectal exam. Now I got the long rant about how he could never properly clean them in such a short amount of time. Hmmmmm… They claim to offer same day service — yet when I request next day service it’s an impossibility?!? Interesting.
He gives me my ticket and he’s going to charge me $ 36 to clean 2 dresses!!! JOKE!
I told him that it was outrageous to charge $ 36 to clean two dresses… my last cleaners charged me $ 5 a dress. I asked for the dresses back — and he tosses them at me over the counter and said, «yes, please, take them» in the most horrible attitude. I nearly stopped to tell the guy off — especially considering their hangers have «WE LOVE OUR CUSTOMERS» printed on them. I just simply took my dresses, informed him he didn’t have to be rude with me and left.
Took the same dresses to another cleaner in my neighborhood and — hmmm, what do you know only $ 4 to clean the dresses — and I would have them by the following afternoon — no problems!