Laundry Woes

We have always had good luck having our laundry done here in Mexico. They take it in the morning and return it in the afternoon, spotless, folded and in plastic bags. The cost is always less than we used to pay in laundromats in the USA. It was one of these laundry services that returned $200 pesos she found in my pocket. Today we got ripped off. We asked Eric, the Mexican worker at the RV park here if there was a laundry service and he said there was but there was a problem. He phoned someone who spoke English who told us the laundry man’s truck was broken down but that Eric would take the laundry to them this morning and pick it up for us tonight.  Sure enough he was here to pick up the laundry at 9:00 am.

Tonight he returned our three bags of clean laundry with the bill. We were charged $390 pesos ($38 CAN) for what they said was 21 kilos of laundry! There is no way there was forty-five pounds of laundry unless they weighed it wet. It was not Eric’s fault, he was just the delivery guy. Our argument was with the laundry and nobody there speaks English. Going by what we have paid previously, probably $200 - $250 pesos would be the most they should have charged. It is not worth driving back to the previous town to argue over $150 - $200 pesos. We would probably lose the argument anyway and end up even more frustrated and disappointed. We will just write it off as a bad experience and will not let it cloud our otherwise very positive opinions of Mexican people. We will just be more careful next time. It was not only us as Claude and Danielle were charged $200 pesos for one bag.

The advantage of dropping the laundry off yourself is obvious. They weigh it and charge you when you drop it off. If the price is outrageous, you simply walk away. Letting them do the washing before you know the price leaves you open to overcharging. Lesson learned.

We felt bad because we did not tip Eric who used his own car to deliver the laundry. We were so upset that we counted out the exact amount and no more. Maybe the laundry paid him or maybe they didn’t. They could certainly afford to! I will have to give him a few pesos when we leave. As I said, it was not his fault.