Alabaster Cleaners

Anwar has been been picking up my laundry for about four years and it has been outstanding. Very reasonably priced and next day service. Still boggles my mind why no one else in this building uses them – especially the single guys. My advice if you are considering it – just try it once. Unless I am missing something this company is a hidden gem especially for people that don’t want to spend their time at a laundry mat.

Hanging out at the local laundromat is the most soul-​sucking experience of my entire life. I wait until I have three loads or so, and then am hauling pounds and pounds of laundry. My neighbor Stan turned me on to Alabaster Cleaners. Anwar is amazing, and I love the options of scent-​free, dryer-​sheet-​free loads and bleach for the whites. My clothes have never looked better and he even gets the dog hair off. I wish I had done this long ago. Now, if I could only rent a parking space in my neighborhood, my life would be perfect.

I have used Alabaster for at least six years. Anwar, who does all pick-​ups and deliveries, is friendly and ON TIME all the time! Our clothes are clean and fresh, no broken buttons or creased collars on dress shirts. And if there is ever a problem (it happens once in a while over six years, right?), Anwar comes over, collects the item, and delivers it in perfect condition within 24 hours. Terrific customer service from a great company. I would be lost without Alabaster Cleaners and I recommend them to everyone!

My business has used Alabster Cleaners for two years. They are fantastic. Free pickup and delivery and always on time. My laundry is always clean and well folded. The customer service is great. I highly recommend them for your business or for home!

I’ve been using Alabaster for over five years. They’ve consistently delivered good quality laundering and dry cleaning with free pickup and delivery, competitive prices, and great customer service. Just text them on a weekday morning and they’ll pickup your bag and return it the next business day. There’s very little not to like about that! Kudos to Anwar in particular.

I have been using Alabaster for 3+ years now and they are the best. They wash/​dry/​fold my clothes, separate when necessary, deliver promptly when expected, and always are accommodating. Definitely recommended to anyone who doesn’t have a laundry unit in building!

Anwar and his team are top class ! Friendly, kind and understanding I always enjoyed greeting him each week. As a mum of 4 small children and a busy husband, wash and fold was at the bottom of my to do list :-(…lucky for me my huge bag of weekly wash bag of clothes are collected Monday morning & returned by Tuesday 3pm in pristine condition beautifully cleaned and folded, no stress, no hassle, very little expense (under $ 50 a family of 6 most wks and bag was 4ft high) and more time to be with my family — a no brainer ! Thank you for a brilliant service and essential investment to any busy family ¹⁰⁄₁₀

This is the only wash-​and-​fold place I’ve found that will wash/​dry my clothes and leave them detergent– and fragrance-​free. I’ve tried other places, asked them to use hypo-​allergenic detergents /​double-​rinse, etc. but inevitably, the clothes came back with fragrance or small traces of detergent. Sometimes it’s due to the washers and dryers that have built up residue, so no amount of rinsing will work.
I used to hand wash everything, which was a time-​suck and a PITB. Alabaster has been a life-​saver. In the last year, I’ve had 1 – 2 instances (once there was dryer sheet smell, another time my towels got overheated and one area looked burned). When I brought these things up, they were addressed and didn’t happen again.
I’ve been a loyal customer for a year. Can’t imagine going anywhere else!

I went here to get my laundry washed and folded. There is a Friday special of 99 cents per pound so I tried it out. The woman there was nice but I wasn’t impressed by the outcome. My other laundry place weighs the clothes after they’re washed, not before because it’s going to be heavier. Before I left she handed me a pair of pants because they said dry clean. I tried to explain that we’ve washed them before and it wasn’t necessary, but I felt like I was wasting my breath. I told her that if anything else said dry clean to wash it anyway. After I took my clothes home I noticed that NONE of the slacks were washed, my roommate had to go to work with jeans on, not that kind of job. I understand that she didn’t want to ruin them, but I specifically asked her to wash them, and there was no change in the amount I paid her. The slacks made up a nice amount of weight. Needless to say I will not be going back. Don’t be fooled by the .99 cent discount, I paid a good $ 15 more than I did at my other wash and fold place.

I’ve been using Alabaster Cleaners for years and they always do a fantastic job and there’s never been an issue with timeliness or lost/​damaged items. Absolutely love AC!

Because of their extremely inconvenient pick-​up/​delivery policy, I stopped using Alabaster– but I miss them. I’ve been a customer of Alabaster for nearly a year and a half. I loved everything about them: very professional, prompt pick-​ups and deliveries, and fantastic wash and fold.
Relatively recently, they changed their pick-​up and delivery policy. Now all pickups are done by 9am and all deliveries are in the afternoon before 5 (no weekends). No exceptions. It’s not hard to see that those times are not very convenient for people with a typical 9 to 5 work schedule! Either you leave your bag of clothes at your front door (where they may get stolen or your newly clean clothes covered in street grime) or you give Alabaster a key to your apartment (!!) Unless you have a doorman or a garage, your ‘options’ just aren’t reasonable.
Please Alabaster, give your customers more (and better) pick-​up and delivery options so I can come back!

It’s not that I hate doing laundry– I actually like it but I have a physical disability which makes routine stuff like laundry hard. I have plenty of offers from friends to help me but for some reason I feel too guilty to make them do my chores even though some of them swear they really want to. I’ve worked in housekeeping and retail before and I’m secretly a perfectionist in this one particular area of life… so I’m a little worried I’d accidentally melt down on on one of my do-​gooder friends if something got folded imperfectly. This is where Alabaster Cleaners comes in. I call. They pick up my whole entire neglected wardrobe worth of laundry. I pay them and they bring it back clean, folded, and wrapped and sorted neatly like it’s my birthday and I’m getting new clothes as presents.
It’s a bit spendy for me but when I just can’t do my laundry myself and can’t bear the thought of making friends pick up another chore of mine, this is where I turn. I like clean laundry as much as the next person and using this service has always been a real treat.

Unreliable and untrustworthy. Here is my account of our odyssey with Alabaster SF.
⁶⁄₁₃ Alabaster driver picks up 2 big bags of laundry at our home.
⁶⁄₁₅ Alabaster driver returns about half of the laundry. We pay $ 25. I claim that about half is lost to him. He swears
that this is all he ever got. I tell him we will wait until the laundry has gone through our own next washing cycle
so we know for a fact if something has gotten lost.
⁶⁄₂₅ Laundry goes through our own wash cycle and we do indeed find many items are missing.
⁶⁄₂₇ I email Alabaster claiming lost laundry including a detailed list and asking for reimbursement.
⁶⁄₃₀ Alabster’s manager emails me, apologizing for the inconvenience and announcing that they would conduct an internal
investigation, for which they would need 1 to 2 days.
⁷⁄₅ No email from Alabaster has arrived regarding the results of their investigation.
I send them a follow-​up email
⁷⁄₇ Alabaster’s manager sends me an email in which they agree to reimburse us for $ 250 for lost laundry, which I
reproduce in its entirety below.
From: San Francisco Delivery
To: Karsten Weide
Sent: Thursday, July 7, 2011 1:39 PM
Subject: Re: Comment from San Francisco
Hello, Mr. Karsten Weide
I would like to thank you again for your patience. We have investigated the matter as much as possible. We have searched
our facility thoroughly, and we have contacted all customers that received service the same day as you, and none reported
receiving extra items. The driver has
relayed that he can not recall the amount of laundry that he picked up from you. The log kept at store indicates your order
weight 10 lbs before being laundered. The laundry attendant is extremely confident that the order was correct.
In the majority of the cases where laundry is reported missing it is generally found by the customer at their home. In
cases, though rare, where there is a mix up in the store one customer who received service the same day will receive an
entire bundle of laundry that is not theirs. It has never happened that laundry was mixed inadvertently.
However, given that the driver can not recall exactly what was picked up we can not verify our accounting either. Because
there is still some uncertainty on our end we would like to offer a settlement of $ 250.00 for your missing items. We work
really hard to try to maintain a high level of customer service, and we do appreciate your patience. We are especially
saddened that this was your first service with us.
In the Wash & Fold industry it is common practice that wash & fold items are «at your own risk» items, meaning that since
the items are not counted and tagged like dry cleaning there is no way to validate claims for missing items other than the
weight upon receipt, and the memory of
those involved in the process. For dry cleaning and laundered shirts replacement costs are deter minded by the age of the
item or limited to 10X the cost to clean the item. This is a standard dry cleaning guideline.
We hope you will accept this settlement offer. In the case that your items are found we will gladly return them to you
promptly with no change to the settlement offer.
Please contact us if you would like to discuss this offer. If this offer is satisfactory please respond with the name the
check should be made out to, and the confirm the address.
Best Regards,
AC
⁷⁄₈ I accept the offer of a $ 250 reimbursement check by email.
⁷⁄₁₅ No check has arrived, I send an email to follow up.
⁷⁄₂₂ No reply to my ⁷⁄₁₅ email.
I call the manager who suddenly reneges on the agreed-​upon reimbursement with a slew of excuses (your email accepting
the reimbursement was unclear whether you accepter the $ 250 offer, we never got the second bag of laundry, we can
only give you a credit against future business [like we would give them more business before they made good on
the damage they caused], you have to produce receipts for all the lost laundry…)
I send Alabster an email, setting a 48 hour deadline to deliver the reimbursement check to us.
⁷⁄₂₄ No check has arrived.
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In the aftermath, I reported them to the BBB, who contacted them repeatedly, but they just played dead. Now they rate an «F» with the BBB:
Do I sound gleeful? You bet I do.

************************USE AT YOUR OWN RISK*************************
Lost clothes, missing and broken buttons, stains that werent there before they were handed over!

What’s funny is that I lived around the corner from their store for five years and never realized they were a delivery laundry service, and now that I live ten blocks away, I find them on Unilocal.
My washer and dryer are in the basement, down a flight of very steep stairs. I tore the meniscus in my left knee and find the stairs very difficult, especially carrying anything. As a consequence, my laundry was piled to the ceiling.
So I came to Unilocal,searched for «service laundry,» and saw a lot of good reviews for Alabaster.
They deserve them. I’ve used them three times now, and my clothes are just so wonderfully clean and folded so well that I can now fit everything into my linen closet and drawers, whereas before, I had overflow into other closets and rooms.
The price is affordable for me, and even the one time there was problem (for some reason my web reservation didn’t go through), they raced over when I called, and got my laundry back to me – same day!
Love them.

new staff = new attitude
=friendly and helpful service.

It saddens me to hear that people have recently had issues with Alabaster. I’ve used their services off and on now for 3 years and have NEVER had an issue. They’ve always been on-​time when picking up or delivering my laundry, and if they were ever going to be late, I’ve received a call.
Syndey M.‘s review on 4÷2÷2010 is very interesting as just yesterday (4÷7÷2010) my boyfriend scheduled pick-​up service for this morning at 8am with a drop off of 6pm… and he’s a NEW customer. Very odd indeed.
One word of advice if you use their online scheduling… make sure your requested pick-​up time is 6 hours in advance… BUSINESS TIME as the website mentions.
I wouldn’t use anyone other than Alabaster. Their laundry comes back clean and smells wonderful. Not to mention that it comes neatly folded in blue wrapping. :)

«Apparently they are too busy to take new customers on their pickup/​delivery service. (Found this out only after trying to work with their schedule and was rejected service)» –Tina P.
^VERY true!
I called in the other day to schedule a pickup (lol, after reading all these reviews I was surprised someone picked up!), the person asked where do I live and what not, I gave the guy my address, then afterwards he asks, «Are you a new customer?» and I said, «Yes» then he goes, «Well our driver is in downtown at the moment (which I don’t live at), and I can have him to come down tomorrow morning instead.» Well, I was fine with that, and I asked, «Should I call back tomorrow instead?» and he goes, «No it’s fine. I have your information.» and I said, «What time should I expect him to come around?» and he went, «Around 10 AM.» and that ended the phone conversation.
Now it’s the next morning and I’m up around 9:15 AM to gather my belongings and I woke up a little early just in case the guy decides to come up a bit earlier too. Fast forward to 10 AM, nobody shows up. I decided to give them a call, and of course, nobody answers. Tried calling again around 10:15, nobody answers. Okay. it’s about 10:45 AM now, I’m just gonna give this place one last shot, nobody answers and I’m not gonna waste my time leaving a voicemail.
For the Unilocalers who get their laundry picked up in a timely manner as promised, or have had good experience with them, kudos to you. It’s the same reason I decided to give this place a shot, I figured there were more good reviews then bad and hopefully I wouldn’t have to be one of the negative reviewers too.
It’s a shame (for people like me and others who tried getting service from them but got nothing), because I gladly would’ve continued service with them every month for my laundry (I’m new to this whole Wash N’ Fold thing), if they had just came the first time around like they said they would, even after I offered to call back again the next morning. Atleast keep their word if they’re saying I don’t have to call back the following day or be honest that they can’t take anymore new customers at the moment.

Apparently they are too busy to take new customers on their pickup/​delivery service. (Found this out only after trying to work with their schedule and was rejected service)
Too bad for them — we would have been loyal customers if the service was good.
I really should have believed these past 3 bad reviews.

Called and got an answering machine. I called back and left a message stating that I wanted to start service. It has been 2 days and no call back. That is a true sign of a failing business. Don’t waste your time.
Price should not be the main factor when searching for a laundry service which handles your expensive clothes.