Citi Island Laundry Center

The worst. It’s my first time here. I pulled my clothes out of the washer and I could feel soap on my hands. The rinse cycle didn’t really rinse. I told the attendant and she said it was my problem since she couldn’t see any actual soap bubbles. Just the worst. Avoid this place.

As of this review, Citi Island Laundry is STILL in business. In fact, very much so.
The review prior to mine pretty much says it all. Average laundromat. Pros: open 24 hours, dryers work decently. Cons: rude staff.
Do NOT use their dry cleaning services. Just use the self-​serve washers and dryers. You’ll be okay.
The women who work there are rude as hell. The guy who works there nights, yeah, he’s rude too, but there’s less hassle with him. I do have to say, one time one of the dryers wasn’t working. He gave an immediate refund, so there was no problem. Social skills, however, is not this staff’s forte.
As for language barrier, I think the City Island staff does understand English, more than they let on. Still, this laundromat is a bit better than the tiny one closer to the M train. While the lady who works there is nice, she definitely knows no English, and is hardly around for help. Plus their dyers suck.

BTW, Unilocal records are incorrect for this business. This place is Open as of January 2011, and in fact has been open for at least two years since I’ve lived in this nabe.
When things work at this establishment, it’s like any other laundromat or dry cleaner… just ‘fine’.
But if you have a problem, and unless you speak Chinese, you can forget about the problem being resolved. The management here speak very little English. It’s one thing if you are located in a predominantly Chinese neighborhood and you have a business and only speak Chinese. But in this neighborhood, there are very few Chinese… in fact no real Chinese population to speak of. Most people here are either Spanish or English-​speaking. So it really bothers me that they have a business in this area and yet speak hardly any English or Spanish. I would never think of opening a business in Chinatown if I didn’t speak Chinese!
Anyway, I used this place a few times for dry cleaning but eventually stopped going to them, as I got sick and tired of going to pick up my dry cleaning by producing my slip, then having the manager mumble to me and motion for me to go into their back room to try and FIND my own items. This happened on numerous occasions. How inept can they be? And whenever I tried to ask him something about the dry cleaning process I was met with a blank stare as he either had no idea what I was saying, and/​or didn’t know how to formulate a reply in English.
Today I decided to wash my down comforter, as I have done MANY times in the past at this laundromat as well as others. I know how to wash and dry a down comforter. It must be on the Gentle cycle, and then dried at Low temp. Well imagine my surprise when I retrieved my comforter from the dryer only to find ‘burn’ stains all over it and the satin edges of the comforter all melted and stuck together.
I went to find the manager on duty, and she asked me to show her which machine did this. She then asked what temp I dried it at. I told her «Low». She then pointed at the machine to show that the High light was lit up. I told her I know that I hit the «Low’ button… it doesn’t matter what the machine shows after I removed my comforter from the machine. Then she asked me how long I had it in the dryer. I told her ’80 minutes’. Then she said that was ‘too long’, as if THAT was the cause of the problem.
I’ve never heard of their being a time limit on drying, and I’ve ALWAYS dried my down comforters for over an hour, with no problem. And when it comes to my huge featherbed, heck, that takes HOURS to dry in the dryer, and I’ve done that in the past with no problems.
It was very clear to me that the woman was looking for every possible excuse to try and blame me, and that she had no intention of accepting blame or giving me any refund, and that she was using the language barrier as an additional way to get out of it.
Needless to say I guess I’ll have to find another laundromat, even though it seems most of them suck in their own ways. Like there was one other in my nabe that I used to use, but the manager there was so incredibly rude that I stopped going there as well.
In any case I’ve written to the BBB about this, though I doubt anything will come of it…
Argh!!!