<p>Dear BamaBound7 and all other future residents considering this service,
Do not waste your money. I am writing this review in May of 2013 because I was so furious with this company I wanted someone, at least one person, to be convinced to not purchase anything from this company. To begin, I paid for the 20 pound bag for the Spring 2013 semester which was around $435.00. It was convenient that the truck was outside of my dorm and that they’d wash my clothes for me. But, there were so many negatives. The biggest was how they ruined about 1/3 of my clothes. It was absolute carelessness. All of my light colored clothing was COMPLETELY RUINED AND UNWEARABLE because someone handling my laundry didn’t care enough to sort correctly. There were terrible black stains on EVERYTHING I had turned in… About twenty-five pounds of laundry that week. Also, every time you go over the amount that you have pounds allotted per week, you get charged twenty dollars. Forgetting to pick up your laundry at the end of the year is an 80 dollar charge to your account. Dry cleaning is not included in the service and costed me about ten dollars per item. Not to mention the professionalism of this service is inexistent. If you were to call their 1-800 number nothing will be resolved. You will just be billed more. Now, at the end of the year I have all of my clothes damaged, I have had to pay 80 dollars to ship the rest of my clothes back, and I was so nervous that they’d ruin more of my clothes that I stopped using the service when this happened and WASTED even more money. There are many places around campus that will do your laundry more professionally and if not, do it yourself. I never write reviews but felt so inclined to do so that I had to share my experience. This is one of the worst companies I’ve ever dealt with and I am heartbroken at the malpractice.</p>
<p>^ sorry you had a bad experience. </p>
<p>IMO part of going to college is learning how to take care of yourself, which includes doing laundry. of course, there are a <strong>few</strong> exceptions where a student may not have time, but, for the most part, college kids should be handling doing their laundry on their own.</p>
<p>parents should think twice (or MORE than twice) about laundry service.</p>
<p>I happened to be looking at my D’s Bama Cash account the other day to see if her Dining Dollars balance had been transferred, and I noticed that she had spent a grand total of $70 on laundry over the course of the year. That’s about a tenth of what the laundry service charges. Now, she probably could have done a few more loads, and I’m sure there was mixing of whites and colors involved, but with the exception of some inconsequential pink tinting, we had laundry success, and I think she earned a solid B+ in LNDR 101. This is a kid with little laundry experience before she stepped on campus, so I think all of these incoming freshmen are capable of doing their own laundry.</p>
<p>NRDMOM, have a got a deal for you 
My DD can do laundry. Started making her do her own laundry in the 6th grade when she came downstairs with hers and started telling me that “this shirt from … can’t be washed in… these shorts…” I looked at her and said, “there it is. Have at it!”. If you know how to sort and what temp they need to be on and dry or line dry, you are on your own. Both my DD’s do their own. Now, putting it all up is another story, ugh! </p>
<p>So, here is the deal 
When my DD needs something done on her car or thinks there is something wrong she can trade out doing laundry for your DS looking at her car for her :)</p>
<p>i may be wrong, but i think the NRD boys know computers … not cars.</p>
<p>Caution:</p>
<p>If you have an inexperienced laundry-doer make sure you take a few minutes to look at the machines on campus with them.</p>
<p>(At least in Riverside) They don’t have hot, warm, cold settings like the machines at home - they say something like whites, colors, delicates? something like that anyway, for those of us with lots of experience it’s obvious, but less so for the inexperienced. Also you can’t set the time/temperature separately - if you choose whites it something like hot water/12 minute cycle, colors warm water 10 minute cycle, delicates cold water 8 minute cycle…or something like that…</p>
<p>My son who’d done more than a few loads of laundry at home was COMPLETELY confused when looking at these machines and called asking “what do I set them on???”</p>
<p>One of them knows cars it appears:
“He’s interning with a BMW master mechanic”</p>
<p>Great skill to have for sure!</p>
<p>NRDMOM will tell you that NRDSON knows everything.</p>
<p>NRDSON knows many things.</p>
<p>He knows computers.</p>
<p>He knows BMW’s.</p>
<p>He does not respect the automatic.
He shakes his head sadly at Mustangs.</p>
<p>I will tender your offer, but she is probably better off with just tech support, unless she wishes to be lectured endlessly on the superiority of ‘in-line engines’ and such.</p>
<p>NRDSON doesn’t know <em>everything</em>, just more than Class2012.</p>
<p>I agree with MikeW that doing laundry is part of the experience of going away to college. That said, moms need to realize that their children may need each and EVERY step explained. I’ve told this story before, but my daughters witnessed the following in the laundry room.</p>
<p>Two boys entered the laundry room with laundry in tow. They dumped the laundry in the floor and began the tedious task of sorting whites, lights, and darks with much discussion and deliberation between them. After successfully sorting the laundry, they opened the washer and tossed ALL of the laundry in the same machine together. Apparently one or both of the boys’ moms had explained the need to sort, but she must have assumed they understood the purpose of sorting was to wash the items separately. :)</p>
<p>Also, if your child isn’t familiar with the difference in detergent, fabric softener, and bleach, you may want to explain. One of their D1’s friend’s mom provided Gain detergent and fabric softener for her daughter. The girl thought they were the same thing and used the fabric softener for several weeks as detergent before someone told her differently. :)</p>
<p>The Univ. of Alabama iPhone/iPad app was just updated and released this morning to include a “laundry tab”. This new section will give laundry alerts, show washer/dryer availability in the dorm building and a timer. The Crimson Ride section was also updated. </p>
<p>My DW will be teaching my son how to do laundry very shortly. He’s very tall so we don’t dry his shirts in fear of shrinkage. We’ll need to get him a hang dryer.</p>
<p>The laundry detergent pods are easy, lightweight, work in all machines, and most work in all temperatures. Look for 3 in 1 branding. Has detergent, stain remover and some fabric softening included. May not be enough fabric softening for linens and towels for some people. But adding in a dryer sheet seemed to be “good enough”</p>
<p>I was curious, based on a few other posts, above, how much my S had actually spent on laundry his 1st year…so I checked his BamaCash account transactions. He spent exactly $80 on washing/drying. He did 38 loads 1st Sem and 26 loads the 2nd Sem. Each load (of either washing or drying) is $1.25, BTW. </p>
<p>I love the episode of New Girl on TV when 1 of the roommates (when confronted about never washing his towel) states that the towel is washing itself when it dries you…and since you’re clean, there is no need to clean the towel, right? Fortunately my S has not heard that ‘wisdom’! I believe that he/suitemates did some loads together (esp their towels), as it is sometimes hard to scrape together a whole load when it’s just yourself and you have 1 lone towel that you don’t want washed with your other things. I don’t believe that the bathroom rugs ever got washed, however, and at move-out, they got tossed.</p>
<p>what about dry cleaning? Is there someplace on campus where students can get their shirts starched?</p>
<p>Shirts being starched is regular laundry, not dry-cleaning. </p>
<p>1 Stop Laundry on Paul Bryant may be the closest. Use the Reese-Phifer bus stop on the Crimson Ride.</p>
<p>Starch ??? I think the only starch our son was exposed to was rice or maybe a potato.</p>
<p>I agree with you 110% MemphisGuy</p>
<p>NRDMOM, we may have a match made in heaven.
My DD is a car fanatic, comes by it honestly. She does indeed drive a BMW (thanks to a mom that is very into cars and received said BMW as a surprise bday gift many years ago. Said car was handed down to DD when car fanatic mom got a newer BMW).
She is also not a fan of said Mustangs. Lol
DD knows her cars and had desired to drive one car that dad had in the stable that was a stick. Sadly, DD inherited moms height and could not reach the clutch enough to drive it effectively. DH sold that one to obtain another desired vehicle for his own pleasure. In our house it is all about the garage(s). </p>
<p>Thankfully, both DD1 and DD2 know the difference between detergent, bleach, and fabric softener. And why to sort and was separately.</p>
<p>I like it when shirts taken to the laundry come back with light/med starch. Heavy starch can be “too much”, but light/med starch gives a nice professional crisp look.</p>
<p>Light starch is preferred for warm humid days in the southern climate</p>