WASHINGTON -- Customers of a U Street Corridor dry cleaners that apparently closed shop without warning Monday will be allowed to retrieve their clothes.
Councilman Jim Graham's staff got in touch with the owners, who "will attempt to open the store for pickups." Dates and times follow:
- Mondays from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.
- Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
- Saturdays from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
"I have 20 shirts in there," said former Cornerstone Cleaner client Suleiman Vick. "That's [worth], like, $200."
A sign on the door of the dry cleaners at the corner of 14th and U streets in Northwest eloquently read:
"STORE WILL BE CLOSE
IN 30 DAYS
PICK-UP ONLY
CALL (703) 625-0333"
Which made that a popular number. Some who tried to call the owner were told their clothes might be at an off-site facility. Others only got a message saying the voice mailbox was full. No one answered DCist's Tuesday calls to the number listed for Cornerstone Cleaner.
Landlords opened the building Monday to help customers reclaim some of their items. But many left empty-handed; their clothes supposedly at the off-site facility, which nobody seemed to be able to locate.
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The D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs has received several complaints and directed them to the Office of Consumer Protection (202-442-4615, consumer.protection@dc.gov). DCRA also had said they would try to track down Cornerstone's owners and managers to find the items in the off-site warehouse and said they'd arranged with the property owners to let customers retrieve their clothing from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, according to DCRA.
