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Cintas Uniform Co.

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RobT

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ANyone else on here that deals with Cintas?

I am really starting to get annoyed at their exorbant fees. My service charge went from $8 a week to $19 in 1 year.
 
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I got rid of them this week. Weekly service charge is up like you said.

Besides that, I was paying 21 cents each for terry towels. Every week I’d get charged for 2 or 3 “damaged” towels at $1.99 each! Our delivery guy just threw the entire bag in the truck; he never looked at it or had us sign anything that the towels were damaged.

I told them that if they were going to charge for damaged towels that we had to have the driver show them to us before leaving and we had to sign off on it. The next time we were charged without knowing was their last delivery.

Tuesday they showed up with an invoice billing us for 3 “damaged” towels from the week before. We told them to pack up all of their stuff and hit the road… that’s the end of them.

Costco sells terry towels for 20 cents each in packs of 50. You can use them, throw them out and still be paying less than with Cintas. I’m just going to start bringing them home and washing them. I’m hoping to get at least 3 washes on average. We’ll be doing the same with aprons.

I’m tired of donating $300 per month to Cintas for garbage service!
 
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My Cintas guy asked me if it’s ok to charge $5 per service for the loss of towels due to mold growth. It sounded reasonable, so I agreed. I know it would be cheaper to do it myself, but who has time to run a restaurant and do laundry?
Does anyone use disposable towels? I know they’re not as eco-friendly, but there could be several benefits (i.e. no Cintas or other service, no laundry after coming home, less chances for cross-contamination, etc.)
 
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We bought a bunch of towels at Sam’s Club a year and half ago, still using them. We soak the towels all night and run them in the morning. We don’t have alot of time either, but it’s a way to save some bucks.

We try to do as much as we can without relying on outside sorces, especially since companies are starting to get more greedy then they normally are.
 
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pizzafanatic:
My Cintas guy asked me if it’s ok to charge $5 per service for the loss of towels due to mold growth. It sounded reasonable, so I agreed. I know it would be cheaper to do it myself, but who has time to run a restaurant and do laundry?
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That’s a cost of doing business, baby! They need to build their cost structure to include that, or I won’t sign on. My towel/apron guys are spectacular in terms of service and not nickel-diming me over junk like this. I may pay a few cents more per item, but the only add-on cost on the invoice is a mandated environmental impact fee they collect. Sure, if it looks like malicious damage, I’d pay it . . . but mildew and mold are unavoidable in storing wet/dirty towels week to week waiting for pickup.

We will avoid going back to washing our own towels until we get a washer/dryer in the shop for staff to run during clean-up phase each night. It is a real load on our lives to have to add business laundry into our already stacked up personal lives. We were running out of towels and aprons too often, and we are paying a good price for what we are getting.
 
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Just a word of warning—you probably signed a 3-5 year contract with your linen company, and it will cost you more to get out of the contract than it is to pay the higher prices they are charging now.
 
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In the stores we do have linen service, we have forms that have to be filled out with towel and apron counts before they can pick up. Linen companies are notorious for shortage and damage charges.

In other stores, we buy towels from Costco. There’s a laundry mat in the same center to clean them but we could just wash them in the sinks just as well. You can also just keep buying new towels and it would be cheaper than a linen service.

Employees can be responsible for cleaning their own aprons as they are for the rest of their uniforms.
 
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Penelope is correct here. Please read your Contract. I currently have less then 4 years left, and it will cost me $5000 to get out of the contract, unless they cannot resolve the issues. The contract states you have to Notify the company general manager by REGISTERED mail ($10) of any problems or concerns.

i came across this website and apparently there are alot of disgrunted customers.

http://www.cintasexposed.com/
 
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RobT:
i came across this website and apparently there are alot of disgrunted customers.

http://www.cintasexposed.com/
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Whoa, someone has way too much extra time to put this site together. It looks better than most corporate sites. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a competitor. :?

I, myself, am fairly pleased with my Cintas service. I had weekly service at first, but asked to change it to bi-weekly to reduce my costs. Cintas did it without any hassle. I think a lot has to do with the service guy that’s assigned to you. My guy, Robert, does a nice job. In one instance, he ran out of TP on his truck. Even after telling him that I had enough until his next visit, he still made a special trip to drop some off a few days later. He told me that it was complimentary. That’s pretty good service in my book.
 
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pizzafanatic:
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RobT:
i came across this website and apparently there are alot of disgrunted customers.

http://www.cintasexposed.com/
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Whoa, someone has way too much extra time to put this site together. It looks better than most corporate sites. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a competitor. :?
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This is an independent website hosted by UNITE HERE, a labor union that, with the Teamsters, is organizing Cintas workers.
This site is for informational purposes and is not an advertisement, solicitation or promotion. It does not provide legal advice.
We recommend you consult a lawyer if you want professional advice.
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The behavior of Cintas in the article is similar to other linen companies as well. Most of us ignore the small items on a linen bill and they know it. I was sued by a linen company after they tricked an employee to sign a 5 year contract.

I do not have a contract with Cintas now, they don’t like it but I get great service and low prices.

I would suggest that people realize that linen companies are like hornets- be careful- do not sign contracts and negotiate. ALL vendors should be treated the same way as well.
 
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I’ve got Aramark, and their no better then Cintas… after I signed with them 2 years ago (deal was $35 for service every 2 weeks, included white towels and blue grease towels, 2 rubber mats and 1 large logo mat)… Once we opened and started recieveing it all, it was fine… after about 4 months we started getting jacked with all the damaged towel fees and they decided to raise the minimum to $35 EVERY WEEK… after heavy compaling over the phone about 6 times, I decided to stop paying for my service… one of the managers finally came down after that and pretty much threw the contract at me. (aparently it was 5 years and i did no know!) and bascially told me that if I don’t continue paying it, they will charge the “early termination” fee. So I said fine, he left, and i took the contract and read it throughly… there is a clause in there that states if your not 100% satisfied you must put it in writing and mail it to them, and if they do not fix the problems within 30 days, the contract if voided.

So I listed every single thing that they did wrong (came out to about 4 pages) and sent it Certified Mail so that I would get a signiture back when they recieved it. Well after I did that and recieved the signiture, 2 weeks later my bill is back to $35 every 2 weeks and no damaged towels ever… i even throw some away just to see if they’d do anything, they dont! HA HAAAAA I GOT THEIR ASSES IN A SLING! :twisted:

anyway, it’s been about 16months since then and it’s still the same price. 🙂

freakin chumps always trying to screw everyone.
 
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“Integraoligist” said:
I’ve got Aramark, and their no better then Cintas… after I signed with them 2 years ago (deal was $35 for service every 2 weeks, included white towels and blue grease towels, 2 rubber mats and 1 large logo mat)… Once we opened and started recieveing it all, it was fine… after about 4 months we started getting jacked with all the damaged towel fees and they decided to raise the minimum to $35 EVERY WEEK… after heavy compaling over the phone about 6 times, I decided to stop paying for my service… one of the managers finally came down after that and pretty much threw the contract at me. (aparently it was 5 years and i did no know!) and bascially told me that if I don’t continue paying it, they will charge the “early termination” fee. So I said fine, he left, and i took the contract and read it throughly… there is a clause in there that states if your not 100% satisfied you must put it in writing and mail it to them, and if they do not fix the problems within 30 days, the contract if voided.

So I listed every single thing that they did wrong (came out to about 4 pages) and sent it Certified Mail so that I would get a signiture back when they recieved it. Well after I did that and recieved the signiture, 2 weeks later my bill is back to $35 every 2 weeks and no damaged towels ever… i even throw some away just to see if they’d do anything, they dont! HA HAAAAA I GOT THEIR ASSES IN A SLING! :twisted:

anyway, it’s been about 16months since then and it’s still the same price. 🙂

freakin chumps always trying to screw everyone.[/qu

I did the same exact thing with Cintas and it worked like a charm. All that contract BS is for suckers who do not know any better…call their bluff and you will get what you want
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I don’t like my delivery guy in cintas. At the very beginning, it was fine because we would offer him pastry and drink here and there for some extra towels. After a while, he got too comfortable and started approaching my husband for burritos (which can be very costly to make) in exchange for extra towels. I had to cut down production because they were upping prices of service charge apparently.

I drew the line when he came in one time and ask for two burritos. We gave it to him and told him kindly that he could get only pastries next time around. Now every time he would come it feels like a cold shoulder with no extra towels.
 
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Anyone got aramark in your area, been using them for years and generally happy, there is no loss/damage teatotalling with my guy, and they do our full color logo’d rugs for us too.
We get the blue towels, i love those because when your bleach concentration is correct for your sanitizing buckets, they turn white anyways.
 
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I bought a washer and dryer last year and had it installed in our basement, we wash all the towels and aprons once or twice a week when it’s slow. You just have to make sure that no one puts the dryer on high, this can cause a fire if you are drying towels that have been used to clean up grease.
 
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WARNING…saving $40/week could cost you EVERYTHING!! We actually had a linen company years ago when we ran out of towels. Long story short is that we ran down the street before closing to do a load of towels and aprons until our next service and we left them in the laundry bag when we grabbed them out of the dryer. They don’t even have much oil on them other than a little bit that might get on pizza pans, but it was enough to make them catch on fire when they are hot from the dryer. It all worked out in the end but we were closed for over a month and had alot of headaches. Turns out that this happens alot more than you thing and if you have these washer/dryer units in your shops I bet your insurance company does not know about it.

I make a point to NEVER SIGN A CONTRACT! Never had a problem if it was a reputable company to go month-to-month although I do remember having to send a registered letter to Cintas years ago…switched to a local competitor with no problems
 
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It may also depend on your local Health Dept. Here, if they know you do your own laundry, they will scrutinize you quite closely. I just point to Cintas, and they don’t even give me another look. Just something to think about.
 
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I dropped Cintas as they cost way to much and I have a local supplier that was already doing my rugs (logo mats flipped out and cleaned every other week). Cut my expenses at each location by 40% for the same towels and aprons.
 
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we use Domestic Uniform and Linen. same story here. I’m having a washer and dryer installed next week to do our own linen. i founded them cheap on Craigslist.
 
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