Traditional China laundries face suits
18/10/2005 11:03
Shanghai Daily news
Chinese laundries, legendary for their excellent work, are now being urged to
draw up contracts with increasingly litigious customers. Laundries should
sign contracts with their clients in order to avoid lawsuits, the Yangpu
District People's Court said yesterday after having handled dozens of such
alleged damage cases in recent years. "In those cases, all the clients
claimed their clothes were damaged after being washed," said Hu Hairong, a court
official. "But since so far there isn't any industry standard to unify the
service quality, both stores and customers suffer a lot in any dispute." In a
recent case, the plaintiff surnamed Chen claimed her leather coat had a
3-centimeter-long tear after being cleaned by a famous laundry in May this
year. Chen demanded 800 yuan (US$99) in compensation. "But both Chen and
the cleaners failed to prove whether the breach appeared before or after the
cleaning," court official surnamed Hu said. Finally, under court mediation,
the store agreed to pay Chen 400 yuan. "So we suggested they sign a contract
to stipulate which kind of washing the store will accept and how to compensate
if any damage was caused to a garment, to avoid later dispute," Hu said. In
another case, a customer surnamed Pan told the court that her 1,692 yuan silk
shirt shrank after laundering at a local store. The laundry insisted it had
dry cleaned the shirt and said Pan had never pointed out its value or said it
needed special care. "Both of them failed to prove the original size of the
shirt and they didn't have any previous contract," Hu said. Pan finally got
1,200 yuan in compensation. Laundries should examine garments carefully and
point out problems before cleaning.
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