Laundrolounge

When my washing machine died on me, I turned to Laundro-​Lounge, as it is only a couple blocks away from where I live. At first, I would drop off and pick up my laundry, but when I found out that they also offered pickup and delivery, I thought I had died and gone to heaven.
…fast forward a couple weeks…
After about the third or forth time that I had my laundry picked up and delivered to me, the owner, who was the one doing the drop off, had an extra bag of clothing that she said was given to her by one of her staff, who said I had left it there when I came in and did laundry on my own…
Weird, I had never done my own laundry there, and had only used their full service option. I just chalked it up to an odd occurrence and continued on, blissful in the knowledge that I would never have to do laundry again, thanks to Laundro-​Lounge!
Around the same time, my fiancé had started complaining that he couldn’t find certain articles of his clothing. A few hoodies, a pair of jeans, a bunch of tee shirts– I assumed we had just put them away for summer storage and they would reappear in the Fall.
On a side note: right around the time that my washing machine packed it in, my fiancé and I were retiring from the Royal Canadian Air Force. Knowing that we would probably never get the chance again, we spent a large portion of our retirement allowances on bedding from The Bay (mostly Hotel Collection), and clothing for ourselves (Abercrombie, Hollister, True Religion, a bit of Ralph Lauren and some D&G). These were special to us not only because they were awesome things, but because they signified the end of one chapter in our lives and the beginning of glorious freedom.
Back to the point…
One day, I had to stop in to pre-​pay for our regularly scheduled drop off because I wasn’t going to be home, and the fiancé didn’t have any cash on hand. To my surprise, the girl behind the counter was wearing a very distinct blue hoodie with a hot pink Hollister emblazoned across the front. I had one just like it, and told the girl as much. Her attitude changed from friendly and she was quite curt with me, quickly rushing me out the door.
It was getting close to the end of September, and seeing the familiar hoodie made me wonder if we actually had put all of these missing articles away for the winter, so when I got home, I hauled the suitcases out of storage…
Turns out that the fiancé wasn’t crazy when he insisted that our clothing and bedding had gone missing. None of the items he had stated were gone were in storage, and my blue and pink hoodie was no where to be found.
We rounded up a list of our purchases from eBay and The Bay… between his and my clothing we were missing 6 hoodies, 14 teeshirts, 3 pairs of jeans, 2 dresses and 2 full sets of bedclothes.
When the lady dropped off the laundry that we had sent earlier that day, we did not send another bag off with her as we normally did, and I didn’t see her again for a few months, when I finally got the nerve up to say something to her, as I was walking by her business early in the morning.
When I went in and talked to her, it went just as I thought it would, with me in tears, explaining how much it hurt to be betrayed by someone that I had trusted with such personal items, and how every time I walked by her establishment, I felt that horrible sad-​angry hot feeling in my stomach. She was sympathetic, and confirmed that yes, her staff had been stealing my laundry, and that there had been some left in the lost and found for a couple months, but she had donated it.
In spite of her admissions, I didn’t ask for anything in return but an email to my fiancé, who was more hurt over the whole situation than I, apologizing for what had happened. When I left her shop, I fully expected to return home to find that my fiancé had already received her email. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. She never got around to it, I guess.
Why she couldn’t have contacted me when she found out what her staff was doing is beyond me, and why she didn’t stop by with the clothing she knew was mine that had appeared in the lost and found bin is baffling. She had my home and cell numbers, my email address and my home address.
I cannot recommend Laundro-​Lounge to anyone, at anytime, especially if you plan on leaving your laundry unattended with the staff there.

Doing laundry is hardly an enjoyable activity, but the location and staff of the Laundrolounge make it feel like a little less of a chore!
The facility is always clean, and the staff are always super friendly and helpful. The machines have ample space, and the cost is about on par with what I remember laundry being when I was a broke, fresh out of college young adult. They have a couple of big washers and dryers for your bigger loads (like bedding) and are happy to let you use them. There are also comfy seats, books and magazines to read, and free wifi!
If you go during peak times you may have a bit of a wait for a machine, but I’ve only had this happen to me a handful of times in the eleven months that I’ve been going here.

It’s been an awfully long time since I’ve had to use a laundromat, but the Laundrolounge web site made it seem like it might almost be fun.
It wasn’t. But it wasn’t hell on earth like I remembered either.
The staff at the LL were friendly and most of the machines were clean and operable. There was ample place to sit and free wifi as promised. But I didn’t exactly want to move in.
Most importantly, the joint doesn’t have a sign saying Laundrolounge. The most prominent thing you will see from the street is a Maytag logo. Very confusing.

Great place to do laundry! Comfortable couches for waiting, free wifi (that doesn’t always work… but hey, it’s free), and there’s even a small student discount for those of you who are students. The dryers could be a little faster; heavy cotton towels can take a long time to dry. Doesn’t seem to be a ton of choice in laundromats in Victoria, but you can’t go wrong here! Oh yeah, the sign doesn’t say Laundrolounge on it; took a little effort to find it (corner of Cook and Yates).