Dry Cleaner Ruined Very Expensive Jacket

Hi all,

I have an issue with a local dry cleaner in Zurich (Enge) that promised me that he'd have a jacket clean and delivered in 1 week. This was vital that it was completed in 1 week because I was leaving the country and needed it for a trip in 9 days. A week goes by and he's dodging my messages asking for an update. He avoids me for 48 hours and finally responds to my inquiries that it will be ready the night before I'm supposed to leave.

Long story short, he returns my jacket and it appears to be clean but I neglected to smell the jacket before paying him and it turns out the jacket is absolutely rank with a stench of dry cleaning chemicals. It's NOXIOUS. I have to store it in a different room because of the smell. The odor is literally filling my flat.

What I think happened was that he failed to clean it in time along the usual timeline, forgot about it and rushed the cleaning and drying process to meet the promised deadline which resulted in my jacket being ruined. I believe the lining/interior fill of the jacket to be ruined. It's completely unwearable and I'm left with a very, very expensive, useless, toxic jacket.

I need advice for legal remedy here. I have to recoup the cost of this jacket and I don't know how to go about doing so in Zurich. Does anyone have any advice? It's a Canada Goose Parka and it was very expensive. I'm not flush with cash and it was a huge expenditure for me. The vendor has been unresponsive and I apparently need someone with some authority to get a resolution.

Any help/advice is greatly appreciated.

Usual Swiss process - send him a registered letter giving him 2 weeks to repair the damage and then threather a debt recovery process.

Could it be fixed by cleaning it again hence taking away the chemical smell?

Please forgive my ignorance - I have zero experience in this realm. How does someone start the debt recover process? Assuming no response from a certified letter.

https://www.as-recht.ch/en/what-can-...d-enforcement/

Cheers friend!

As a very first step you must complain to the company and ask them to fix the problem. It’s likely they have insurance to cover such situations.

And document everything. Even if just notes of your discussions date/time and any agreed steps.

Take the jacket to the cleaners. If you are worried about language issues bring someone who speaks Swiss German or high German.

Explain the situation and ask them to fix it. Ask if cleaning it again will solve the issue.

Why do you just send messages to them? Go and ask them to sort it out.

Um, probably as they said in the OP, they were leaving the country the next day.

But seeing the town is Enge, OP might do that when he/she is back? An email can already now be sent.

Um, when he returns?

If the smell is that bad, how could you not notice it right away? If the jacket was placed in plastic this will intensify the smell of dry cleaning chemicals.

It is never a good idea to store anything with down in plastic.

You need to take this matter up with the dry cleaner directly but it might be worth your while to have the jacket looked at by someone from Canada Goose. I'd give them a call and see if they can help.

Canada Goose International AG

Baarerstrasse 133

6300 Zug

041 727 59 00

If it was folded in a bag and he was in a rush in a room that already smells strongly of various cleaning types, then it's obviously easy not to notice this stuff until later.

Are these jackets usually ‘dry-cleaned’? I don’t have one but my pillowy winter coat symbol shows No to drycleaning but to be washed at 30 degrees.

From the ‘net’: While it's fine to have it professionally cleaned, dry cleaning is not recommended, because the chemicals can damage the filling.

A very quick google would have answered that for you: https://www.canadagoose.com/ch/en_CH/faq/faq.html

Parkas: When your down-filled parka requires cleaning, it is important that you take it to a reputable dry cleaner and that you do not machine wash it. Machine-washing your parka will void the warranty.

happened to me with a mountain force jacket too. i just had to buy another. nothing you can do.

if i recall, chuff had some experience with his mattress too.

It very much depends on the jacket. Some say wash, others say dry clean.

Same with down filled duvets.

Tom

and mattresses.

Down-filled matresses

Not true. There are a number of CG jackets that are cold machine-wash only and specify "Machine wash cold. Do not dry clean."

https://www.canadagoose.com/at/en/wo...ns-lightweight