Berkeley Sewing & Cleaning Center

Sooooo terrrible, please do not give this business your money, clothing and time. First time to this place, took in a pair of jeans to have slimmed in the leg and hemmed. The alterations in the leg were really noticeable when I put them on at home, so I went back and asked to have it fixed. The man was really irrational and reactive when I showed them to him and explained that the alteration looked really noticeable. He threw the jeans at me across the counter and kept saying «I don’t want.»
Adding to the upsetting experience was the way this man treated his wife, who does all the work. She was trying to be nice and was going to fix them, but he kept arguing with her and would not let her be a part of the decision. Ugh, made the situation even more stressful.
They also make you pay for the alteration up front, now I know why… there have probably been many people who have not wanted to pay due to the poor quality.
The only way they would fix them is if I paid another $ 20, basically having them re-​do the shitty job they did in the first place. No thank you. I know how to sew, and could have done this crappy alterations job myself, but I went to a professional hoping that it wouldn’t look completely amateur. No such luck. Wasted money and time and an all around nasty experience. There are plenty of other places in Berkeley, don’t give these people your business.

Horrible service! They did not return my leather jacket. When I called them to check if the jacket was still there, the old Korean guy said he would not check it and hanged up my phone. He was extremely rude.

I went to get a dress altered and I was hoping that Marica would be there again. Unfortunately she was not. The alteration was shoddy and it cost me $ 65.
I will not be going back unless it’s a sml alteration. Maybe hemming. :(

Came here to get a pair of slacks and jeans hemmed.
Right as I went in, the couple that owns the place greeted me with a smile.
The seamstress made sure that the measurement/​pinning of the pant legs was exactly where I wanted it multiple times. No hassle whatsoever.
I just picked up the pants, and I have to say, they did a terrific job. Couldn’t have asked for a better service.
P. S. I was reading reviews and got a little bit scared, but most of them are very outdated, so I took a chance. And I’m glad I did. :]

I brought in a skirt that needed to be a size smaller. It involved hemming and taking in both lining and skirt. The price they charged was very low and the job was done swiftly and professionally. I highly recommend them.

Awful service and terrible work. I’m all for foreign business owners, but their English is terrible so communication is super difficult. Husband and wife couple owners.
I wanted to have an invisible button snap sewn into the neckline of a wrap dress to make it work appropriate. The husband asked me to measure myself and mark the dress. If I could do that I wouldn’t pay $ to him right? So I asked the wife to mark the dress. Came back to pick up and the snap was visible when I tried on the dress.
I asked them to redo it, but then the husband started screaming at me that it was my fault and if I slouch my shoulder you couldn’t see it, and I needed to get out of their store.
Not a one time issue — my roommate also came here last year for jean hemming. The legs were different lengths and they wouldn’t refund her money. Avoid!

Let me start by saying that I hate writing harsh reviews (well, I guess nobody really likes writing them) but at the same time, I have to provide honest feedback. So here goes.
I stumbled upon this place last November to have my dress altered for my friend’s wedding. The Korean man at the counter (whom I believe is the manager/​owner of this place) was very nice and answered all my questions. His wife was okay, too. The seamstress seemed nice enough at first, and I asked her to do the initial pinning to determine what needs alteration in my dress. After that, I asked her how much doing the alternation it would cost and she mentioned it would be about $ 80. I thanked her for her time and mentioned that I would also check with the other tailoring place down the street (Uni Tailoring — which I had actually been recommended to go see by the lady who sold my dress to me). She got upset and thought I was telling her that she wasn’t a good seamstress and said: «I’ve been doing this for 40 years. Its not nice of you to just come and use my time and work for 10 min and just leave.» I was probably going to give them $ 5 for this initial time anyway, even though I’ve been to many places where customers are not charged for basic inquiries. The fact that the seamstress explicitly mentioned having spent time on me and tried to make me feel bad about even considering another tailoring place left a bad taste in my mouth. Still, even though the lady at Uni Tailoring was extremely nice and answered my questions (without expecting me to drop a few dollars for the 5 min of time I had there), I somehow felt a bit guilty about the incident at the Berkeley Sewing & Cleaning Center, so I ended up going back there.
In spite of feeling like I was guilt-​tripped by the seamstress into working with her for my alteration, I do appreciate the end result. The alternation was performed well, got returned to me within 2 weeks, and the Korean man (the manager) was nice enough to verbally acknowledge me as a fair customer and reduce the cost of the alteration based on what I had told him. (I mentioned that the tailor down the block charged about $ 15 less than what his place charged, for the same alteration. This made him reduce the price of my alteration by $ 10 from the original list). I felt good about this, knowing that I was at least acknowledged and treated with respect by the manager. On account of these reasons, I am giving this place a 3 rather than lower.
I hope my rating is fair enough, especially considering that the zipper mysteriously stopped working about a week after I got my dress back (it was working fine before)…I can’t blame the tailoring place for this because they didn’t do any work on my zipper, but it was an odd coincidence.
If I happen to come up to Berkeley again and considered a tailoring place, though, I would consider Uni Tailoring over this one — not only does the place have great reviews, but I was treated kindly and never felt forced to use their services. If one decides to venture into Berkeley Sewing & Cleaning Center, though, be sure to not make the mistake I did, which was to mention that I would check out other places and get back to them!

I’ve never really gone to a dry cleaner but I expected that the armpit smell in my suit would have been taken care of, especially after mentioning it. Considering I have a job interview and graduate school interview this week, its kind of important! They were nice enough to take my wool jacket and suit jacket on short notice and get it back to me in 2 days, but I wonder how much they really did. My jacket has a funky odor now and the suit jacket seems like it was never cleaned. All that for $ 20. I’ll try someplace else next time…

Dry cleaning and minor altering work here is fine. But their seamstress Marika is wonderful. I bought 2 dresses last minute at Crossroads for a family wedding, and needed to get them altered within 24 hours, as neither fit properly. I ended up crying in front of Marika about wanting to look beautiful when I felt so ugly inside (going through a break-​up). Other tailors just admonished me for buying a dress so last minute. Hi — relationship in shambles! Kinda hard to keep it together!
Anyway, Marika comforted me and took charge immediately. Promised to fix one dress and to try to fix the other one by the next day. She ended up completing both within a few hours, and at the wedding, I definitely glowed :) Whenever I look at these dresses I’m reminded of Marika’s compassion and quick stitching, and I’ll definitely go back to her for my tailoring needs.

I’ve now been here twice, both times to repair broken zippers. Actually, the second time the zipper was completely stuck on the pocket of my very favorite pair of pants. If you need any zippers replaced, this is the place you should zip over to; the tailor is a magician. I am so impressed with his work on my pants and jacket. The people who run the place are super nice and helpful. Downtown Berkeley is very fortunate to have this business.

I have never felt compelled to write a Unilocal review until now. I will never go back and want to warn others to stay clear of this place as well. Not only did they screw up my order, I received the worst customer service I have ever received at any business, ever. I would give this place 0 stars if I could (unfortunately, Unilocal won’t let me).
I went in last week (⁵⁄₁₉) to get my bridesmaid dress hemmed for my friend’s wedding in early June. I asked if I could pick it up a week later (on ⁵⁄₂₆) and was told they needed more time than that and I could pick it up at any time today (⁵⁄₂₇). The husband asked me if I wanted to pay in advance and I said no. I came in at 2:30pm today with the printout they provided and gave it to the husband. Not only could he not find the dress, he couldn’t find record of my dropping off the dress.
After 15 minutes of searching for the dress, he asked me to go to the back with him to look for the dress as he ran the conveyor. After running it through all the garments twice, I really started to panic because it’s too short of a notice to reorder the dress from David’s Bridal. Finally, the wife found the dress in a pile with other clothes. It had not been altered and it was obvious that she had completely forgotten about it since I had first tried on the dress more than a week ago. Instead of apologizing or even acknowledging that they nearly lost my dress, the husband tried to place the blame on me, saying that he had until closing time to finish the dress and I had come in too early and should come back in a couple hours. I told them that I intended to take my dress elsewhere, expressing that I was not happy with the quality of service I had received thus far and had concerns about how the dress might turn out. His wife told me I could get my dress back if I paid a $ 5 «penalty» fee. I refused and insisted that I get my dress back. The husband apparently didn’t want to part with the $ 40 he would otherwise get if he completed the job and chastised his wife in Korean. Then he repeated the whole bit about me coming in too early and how he had until 6:30pm to finish the job. His wife would not hand over the dress. We argued for a few more minutes and then the husband had the nerve to tell me it was my fault for being «too impatient.»
I finally did get my dress back and headed over to Uni Eleganza & Uni Tailoring just a few doors down and immediately received friendly, attentive service. I’m glad I didn’t pay up front to Berkeley Sewing & Cleaning (I know they never would have refunded me the money) and that these people didn’t get the chance to mess up my dress.

I will never again set foot in this shop and would advise others to stay away, as well. I had such a terrible experience with the seamstress there that I was ‘inspired’ to join Unilocal and write this review. I have never been treated so rudely in my life as by that woman — and I have had jobs in retail and food service, so *always* strive to be polite to employees everywhere I go.
I needed alterations/​stitching on two formal gowns. I dropped them off one week in advance of an important performance for which I needed the gowns (I am a professional musician). When I returned the next week to pick them up and tried them on, I discovered that the bodice of the first gown had been taken in too much, causing the zipper on the side to buckle. Also, the restitching on my second gown had been botched, causing the zipper to poke out unattractively under the fabric. When I asked the seamstress what she could do to fix these issues, she immediately lost her temper, called me «crazy,» saying «this is bull****» and «it’s not my problem.»
The older Korean gentleman eventually gave me a partial refund and said he would talk to the owner about redoing the stitching on my second gown (the seamstress refused to fix the first). It’s now been over 2 weeks since the date of this incident, and I have yet to hear back from them.

FWIW, the couple WAS very cute, but come on…
Compared to other dry cleaners;
1) My laundered shirts weren’t too crisp,
2) cost was almost twice as much as other cleaners
3) They didn’t want to take my credit card. They said they «preferred» cash. Is that a dodge of some kind, or is the credit crisis affecting debit cards now?
I’ll eventually try them again, but for now I’m gonna investigate some of the other cleaners in the area.

The couple who run the shop are extremely friendly and accommodating. I took in a bunch of dry cleaning and 5 pairs of pants/​jeans for alteration. I wanted some of the things within a week and they not only agreed to have everything done in time so that i didn’t have to make two trips to get my stuff, but everything was done perfectly. The man even helped me carry my stuff to the car in the rain. The alterations are a little expensive but the work is quality and the service good.
I recommended this place to my friend who was leaving town in 3 days and they completed her alterations with the same quality and stayed open half an hour later than posted hours when she called and said she was running late.
They do ask that you pay when you drop off. Also, You can park in the lot in back but be sure to pay even if you’re just running in… I got a ticket.

Berkeley Sewing Center used to be fantastic. It was owned by Bert Hajnal for years, and I had many things made there. I was thrilled with his work and fair prices.
But more recently it was purchased by another couple as Bert sold it to retire.
The new couple seemed nice at first, but they don’t take responsibility and they over charge. I asked them to hem a jacket (straight, unlined bottom hem to make it shorter). They charged $ 80. I figured okay, it’s about double, but they are convenient.
But when I picked up the coat, I brought in a new pair of white pants ($ 238 purchased yesterday) where I wanted to have a new zipper (hidden flat zipper verses the one that showed in the pants).
I had had Bert do the same zipper for $ 12 a couple of years ago. The new couple quoted $ 25 and I thought well, it’s double, but whatever. Then the wife dropped the new white pants on the floor. I was 5 feet away trying on the coat.
The pants ended up with two black stains, and they refused to clean them for free, even though they got them dirty right in front of me. They wanted $ 10 to clean.
So $ 35 for a zipper that should cost twelve, as well as the man telling me I had dropped the pants and caused the black marks. Then he crumped up my pants and shoved them to me and told me he wouldn’t clean them.
I was shocked. Well, needless to say, I’ll never go back. Not taking responsibility for their own mistakes is a real problem, not to mention the high prices.

I love the Korean man who’s always at the register here. He’s super sweet and patient.
The staff are knowledgeable and kind.
They always does a great job hemming my jeans! $ 10 to hem, and $ 18 to keep the original inseam. It’s a little pricey to keep the original inseam, but I don’t mind supporting good local businesses.

The power of a smile is pretty high on my list. This place takes care of all my cleaning, mending and fixing needs with aplomb. And the people who own it are SUPER nice.