my experience with this hotel was pleasant until the end of my stay. on 9/28 I sent my stained suit trousers to dry clean using the hotel’s valet service, but I was stupid to assume that it is high quality and trustable. on 9/29 I received my trousers back, not only the stain was not fully cleaned *but also* the pants had white lint-like fluff all over the fabric. immediately I knew that the trousers was irrecoverable, because I had the exact same pants which I mishandled by throwing it into the washing machine instead of dry clean and ended up with white fluffs all over it, and couldn’t be undone so I had to throw it away. the pants that I sent to laundry at Washington Duke Inn is the second pair I *just* bought, obvioulsy the valet service did not handle it well. I immediately told the hotel staff about it, and they mentioned they could send it back to the valet and try to *fix* it. on 9/30 I got the pants back and as expected the white lint-like fluff is still obvious on the pants. I put on my suit and the fabric of my pants doesn’t match that of the suit anymore. any man who had worn suits before would know that the fabric is the life of a business suit, and even slight mishandling would ruin it. now I am left with another ruined pants that cost me couple of hundred dollars *twice* and a suit jacket that is missing pants. I am so glad I did not send in my suit.\r
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this was not yet the most agitating thing. when I took it up to the manager on 9/30, to sum up his excuses – we don’t do laundry so we don’t take responsibility of what the valet service did, we don’t know whether the pants were in good shape before it was sent to valet, the white stuff is not that obvious afterall. how ridiculous it is to see an upscale hotel rated #4 out of 40 in Durham blame its suppliers for poor service *in front of* the customer, it is just like blaming Panasonic for a broken TV, the labor market for unskilled waiters, the sky for raining. if you look on the valet slip they provide the hotel logo is on it. and why in the world would I complain if I didn’t notice a difference on my pants, shows how ignorant to customers this hotel is. at least I would’ve expected a satisfactory answer such as “yes this is our fault, we will contact valet to investigate and see if something can be done” instead of some ignorant and fault-less response. when I was so done with the manager I wanted to speak directly to the director, knowing that I am checking out the early next day I left my phone number that night, but no one ever called. that night I demanded to speak with the director to get this sorted, but was refused. this is how the hotel show dedication to customer service, made a mistake, no problem just think of some excuse and get away with it. they even dare to charge my valet the next day I checked out, why not attach a slip saying “$6.00 cash or credit please pay for getting your pants ruined”.\r
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