Crystal Clean Laundromat

THIS PLACE IS HORRIBLE!!!
If I could give it 0 stars I would.
I have been using this laundromat for drop-​off service for the past five years and from day one I have had one bad experience after another. The only reason I kept going there was because it is right across the street and my laundry bag usually weighs about 20 pounds. The girls who work there are insanely nasty, particularly the tall one who has been working there as long as I have been going. She will totally ignore you and continue to fold laundry while you are standing at the counter waiting with your ticket and then when she finally comes over she doesn’t look at you or say a word, slams your change on the counter and throws the bag of laundry on the floor which is filthy. I use a net bag so whatever is on the bottom of the bag gets dirty. And yes, they are talking about you and laughing at you because I understand enough Spanish to know that they are. I’ve definitely heard them call me a bitch. Several months ago when I couldn’t take it anymore I actually asked her if I’d done something to offend her or if there was some kind of problem and she just said, «I don’t have a problem. I don’t know what you’re talking about.» And then went in the bathroom and shut the door. I should have known better than to think I would get any kind of satisfaction out of an exchange with her.
I’ve also had several items of clothing go missing. I would ask about it but was always told by the owner, «Go check at home.» I figured this is just something that’s going to happen when you do drop-​off service until I noticed it always seemed to black sweatpants/​yoga pants that went missing. I’m not convinced this is a coincidence. Anyway, my clothes have come back damp, with stains that were definitely not there when I dropped them off and at least once a month there is a sock or a pair of underwear or t-​shirt that doesn’t belong to me in with my laundry.
The final straw came this week when I went to pick up my laundry and was handed a garbage bag of clothes that had been almost completely incinerated. The girl who works there told me that one of the dryers had caught on fire and she seemed to be thoroughly enjoying delivering this news to me. She told me to come back the next day to talk to the owners. That night I went through the bag, which I had to dump out in my bathtub… it was a black, charred mess… and made a list of every item and how much each cost. I even went to the website where I order all of my clothes from to make sure the amounts were accurate. The total was $ 242, which is actually not that expensive for an entire bag of laundry. Most of the clothes are t-​shirts, sweatpants, etc., not expensive but relatively new and nevertheless would need to be replaced. When I brought the list to the owner she immediately started to argue with me, saying that all the clothes were old and were not worth that much. She offered me 2 bags of free laundry (equivalent to about $ 40). I said that I did not expect to be reimbursed in cash and would gladly take a credit in exchange but for $ 200 dollars worth, not $ 40. I reminded her that I have been a very good customer and have given her somewhere in the neighborhood of $ 5000 worth of business over the last 5 years but she just kept shaking her head and saying my clothes were not worth that much. So I guess now I will be schlepping my clothes down the block to the place on 13^th and 8^th where I’ve been told by a friend that the owner is very nice and she has been very happy with the service. She too stopped going after an awful experience there. The upside to all of this is that I will never have to deal with this place again.

I come to this laundromat specifically because it is the closest one to my apartment and all the other laundromats are at least a half a mile away. It’s exactly what you’d expect from a basic laundromat, except the washing machines are old and inconsistent and the dryers use literal fire to heat the machines. I’m pretty sure this laundromat is ruining my clothes and delicates, since out of the blue my laundry started deteriorating and getting holes. I still come here because I’m not carrying my laundry a half a mile. If you come here, expect the bottom line laundromat.

This place sucks us in sometimes because it’s close to our house but it is terrible. The machines don’t work very well. The dryers eat your quarters, or don’t heat up, or don’t run for the amount of time they say they will. The staff is rude and if you mention that a dryer ate your quarters, they treat you like you’re trying to steal from them. If you are thinking of dropping off your laundry don’t bother to leave detergent for them to use, they will only use it half the time. The rest of the time, they will use some kind of toxic smelling cheap stuff and you’ll have to do your laundry again on your own anyway.
They are terrible.

The absolute worst. Every time I lapse and decide to go there because it’s right across the street, I regret it. As others have said the women working there are laughing at you the whole time, and if you do your own laundry, you can count on them taking it out the second it’s done. I’ve returned just as some of my machines are finishing to find my wet or dry clothes sitting in a cart. A major point of doing your own laundry is not have somebody handling your shit. And I wouldn’t second the opinion that the owners are very nice. They smile and ingratiate themselves if you’re dropping off your clothes but if you are having trouble with one of their antiquated machines they act like you fucked it up and are an idiot. I will continue going to Apple Laundry on 7^th ave and 13^th, where I’ve never had a problem, staff is always nice, and prices are lower.

I’m glad to hear that other customers find the staff mean and surly. That might sound like a strange thing to say, but I have been wondering for months if I’d inadvertently offended the two women who work here. From the way they treat me, you would think I had slept with both of their husbands — at once.
When not playing on her phone while long-​suffering customers wait at the counter, the plump one can be found barking orders at people who have the audacity to leave laundry carts outside of the designated area. Unfortunately, there is no advance warning (written or otherwise) about the acceptable zone for parking your cart, so learning about this secret rule is a matter of trial and error.
Expect several of the machines to be out of order, and several others to be reserved exclusively for the use of staff. Of the working machines, some leak, which will (naturally) be considered the fault of the customer by the women who work there. Consider the medium setting on the dryers equivalent to hot in most places, and the hot setting equivalent to tossing your clothes onto a barbeque for 45 minutes. The dryers cost «25 cents for 6 – 7 minutes» — it is not clear when the extra minute applies, so good luck with correctly estimating when your clothes will be done (if any brave souls dare ask the staff, please let us know). And if you aren’t zealously guarding your clothes the moment that the cycle finishes, it’s likely they will be dumped (whether dry or not) into an empty cart, which you will be on your own tracking down.
But singed clothes are for the fortunate few, since you will be lucky to be able to use the machines at all during weekends. The last wash is at 7pm every day, which is about the time many commuters get home from Manhattan, so it is difficult to avoid the weekend mêlée. Sunday late afternoon to early evening is your best hope.
Still, I don’t go to a laundromat for the experience, so they’d have to annoy me slightly more than they already do to outweigh the major benefit of their close proximity to my apartment.

Owners are great. Customer service is awful. All reviews that mention the women there being absurdly cold are correct. Made me go elsewhere.

I’ve never been anywhere with customer service this bad. Every experience here has been really unpleasant, but the most recent takes the cake. I put my laundry in some machines and discovered (upon closing a door to one of the machines) a tiny illegible sign saying it was broken. I tried to open it up and remove my clothes, unsuccessfully, then approached one of the women working for help. She yelled at me for accidentally putting my clothes in a broken machine and refused to help me get my clothes out. I asked her to unplug the machine for me, she said no, then she walked away from me and refused to respond to me. I repeatedly asked her for help and she refused to acknowledge that I was even in the room. So… never going back, despite it being directly across the street from my apt. On other occasions, I’ve gone back to find them locking up with my clothes out of a machine with 10 minutes left on the timer (and 10 minutes left until their stated closing time) and just generally had really unpleasant experiences. They employees seem desperately unhappy. It’s a really depressing place. Only plus? Minus the old school machines, it seems reasonably clean.

I completely agree with the reviews about the customer service in this place. I’ve used the drop-​off service a few times and it was fine, but every encounter with the staff has been unpleasant. The people who work here are the absolute worst. If they were just unfriendly or indifferent, I wouldn’t mind so much. I don’t need to be fawned over or to have the red carpet rolled out, but they are outwardly hostile and disrespectful. After my most recent bout of bad treatment while trying to drop off clothes, I told them to forget it and I took my stuff one block over to 8^th Green Cleaners (8^th Ave and 12^th Street). They were really friendly and the place is clean and modern. Green Hangers Cleaners on 7^th Ave and 8^th Street is also great.

I rank this somewhere between a 1 and a 2.
Most of the staff are mean/​surly — they actually yell at people or ignore you if you have an issue sometimes and are often just really rude. This goes for the owners as well as most of the staff who work there.
You can pay extra to have them wash/​dry/​fold your clothes for you, but beware that the dryers often run hot. One neighbor told me her his fitted bedsheets were returned with a the elastic completely melted and flat/​not stretchy anymore.

Overall it’s exactly what you’d expect from a laundromat that’s been in operation since the 70’s. Maintained machines that are usually in some state of repair. Almost every time I’m in there there is a different machine being worked on. I guess they take good care of the machines, and they always get my clothes pretty clean, but I’m giving Crystal Clean laundromat 2 stars because of the women who work there. They have never been courteous to me. When I do drop-​off service, I always get some brand of fuck off-​ishness from them. When I do my own laundry and fold my clothes on the counters, they act as if I should leave, or am in their way. They will stand there and scoff at you as you take up precious space on the counter. I just really never feel welcome there.
Laundry Ladies: You do a great job folding my clothes, but don’t treat me like I just dropped off sheets from someone who shit the bed.
Verdict: Despite being affordable, it just carries some negative vibes in the joint, I’m going to avoid it.

I went to do some shopping last night and left my clothes in the dryer at this laundromat. When I came back my clothes were in two baskets but I couldn’t help feeling like there should’ve been more clothes. I wasn’t feeling well & must not have noticed it. I was the last one in the place and the two women there didn’t say anything as they cleaned up the place. Now, I know for sure I’m missing some important clothes. Either the clothes got mixed up with someone else’s pile or the women were teaching me a lesson & said nothing. I’m going over there to see if the items were turned in or set aside.

Doing laundry here on the weekends is like the olympics. If you’re not scooping your wet laundry out of the dryer at the exact second your wash cycle finishes, someone else is there for you, dropping your stuff on the floor and throwing it all into a laundry basket while you stumble in.
Finding a dryer to put your stuff in is a different story. There just aren’t any available. A few are reserved for the staff doing the drop-​off laundry, but the rest are just FULL.
This place drove me to do drop-​off. I couldn’t handle the stress. That being said, their drop-​off is $ 0.90/lb, and generally pretty nice.

Washers work fine. Cleanliness is expected. Dryers could use some improvement