October 8, 2007
Drycleaner Sues Unhappy Customer
Are disputes between dry cleaners and their customers a new source of income for lawyers? The owner of an Upper East Side drycleaning business is suing a man for papering the neighborhood around his store with fliers that impeach the quality of his service. Todd Ofsink owns Todd Layne Cleaners on East 77th St. and is suing Evan Maloney for $100,000 for defamation. Maloney had some negative customer experiences at the store, so he set up a site called ToddLayneCleanersSucks.com and began posting fliers.
A judge recently ruled that Maloney was barred from entering the store, but the court ha thus far yet to rule on whether he was free to continue with his site and the fliers. Some of Maloney's problems with the cleaners include closing early before he could pick up his clothes, detergent that gave his fiancée hives, washing his cellphone when he left them in his pants pocket, and returning clothes without drying them. Ofsink claims that Maloney is a kook who was demanding unreasonable levels of service and wants him to stop badmouthing the business to neighbors.
Maloney is a software engineer, but also a documentary filmmaker who considers himself a 1st Amendment advocate. The New York Sun wrote about him last week after he challenged claims that Columbia University was a bastion of free speech for inviting Iran's president to campus. Maloney says that the school censored him while he was filming a documentary about political indoctrination at American universities. He was also mentioned in a New York Times profile of his movie's producer back in August.
And as insane as this all may be, it has nothing on the DC judge vs. dry cleaner saga.
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It certainly is pretty unreasonable to ask for dry clothes from a launderer.
what a douchebag, thankfully my beloved NY Post shows what this guy looks like. why can't the NY Sun get a photographer?
What a loser! The article says this guy kept going back for NINE MONTHS and had more and more complaints. You'd think he'd wise up after the first month or two! Sounds to me like he's looking to cause problems...Get A Life!
This guy is a douchebag. If he hated their service so much, why did he go there 5 freiking times!! I usually stop after the 1st or second time. I hope he loses. dumbass
I've been there too! The place is overpriced, but the lady behind the desk was nice to me when I went. Oh yeah, and she's super attractive too. Pffffffffffft!
I live on the block and use this dry cleaner and I've really never had any of these problems. They're actually pretty nice + usually give me a discount.
I worked at a dry cleaners when I was in high school...people are INSANE when it comes to their clothing. If you don't want your cell phone to get washed, then don't leave it in your pants. Is it really that hard to check pockets? This guy sounds like a tool.
I nominate him King Douchebag.
He left his cell phone in the pocket and THEY were supposed to have noticed it and take it out before they washed the clothes? What are they, his wife? His mommy?
This guy is an asshole.
Not Chinese or Korean - owned? His business probably does suck - he don't know ancient chinese secret...!
What would expect from this ultraconservative right-wing nut? I hope he has a lifetime of bad laundry service, he deserves no less.
Creating a website documenting the bad services rendered isn't really douchebaggy. If it was a blog, we'd all flock to it, right? Besides, I don't think overpriced crummy businesses should be around, so while it wouldn't quite be my style, this is at least one way to get that place to improve its business and make that guy stop pissing off the general public.
Why the hell did he keep going back if all of his previous experiences sucked? Fool.