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.