After recently marrying, I took in my wedding dress to AUSTIN CLEANERS be preserved as a keepsake and pass-down for my daughter. Upon pick-up, I stated a concern over the hue change in my dress. Rather than providing good customer service, owner Adam Dartez, accused me of lying and trying to get out of paying the $200 charge, and immediately swiped my card. To make absolute certain before returning to Adam's shop on McNeil/183N, I looked over all my wedding pictures and met with my dress shop owner, Sherry Ayles with Customary Couture in Cedar Park. After a noticeable side-by-side comparison, Sherry called Adam (whom she refers to all her brides) to verify my claim. After that conversation, Adam called me saying to take the dress back to his store to be looked at.
Two days after the mishap, I return to Austin Cleaners with my dress and pictures for additional proof, aside from Sherry's call. After enraging bewilderment from a lack of an owed apology and refund, I finally asked Adam to apologize for his initial disrespect and to refund the $200; it wasn't until then that he actually did so, and began trying to take my dress in to find a solution.Due to lack of trust for Austin Cleaners, my husband and I asked Adam if he would write up a notarized statement mentioning what happened to my dress and what steps were going to be taken to be rectified before handing over my dress to be worked on, and Adam willingly agreed. My husband called Adam the following day to remind him of the notarized statement, and forewarned Adam if failed to do so we would file a claim in Small Claims Court, and he acknowledged and agreed once again.
The day we agreed to do the exchange, I called beforehand to make sure our agreement was still intact. However, the response on the other end was a, literally, whining Adam about having been unsuccessful at the bank, and that he was retracting his promise to provide a notarized statement. I reminded him of the agreement and stated that he had forced me into filing a claim, the response from a legitimate corporate company owner was, "ok fine, if that's the route you want to take."
Luckily, my incident took place post-wedding. And while many out there might make attempts to defend Adam, my complaint is against his immoral conduct professionally--he disrespected, offended, and belittled me throughout the entire ordeal, and he linked it to "having a bad day". The simple facts are his company ruined my wedding dress, not a blouse, nor slacks, my wedding dress. And while it might still look nice to some, the point of the matter is the dress was returned to me in an altered state from the initial drop-off--in my eyes the dress is ruined.
So if you want to avoid this sort of nightmare, AVOID AUSTIN CLEANERS.