Friday, October 24, 2008

Laundry Day!



Ok, so I've done laundry several times before now, but always forget to bring my camera.
First, the laundry facility (near the mail room) is quite large, with many machines. This is a good thing, because many are often broken. Also, I scoped out the private laundrymat, and they're a little more expensive. I remember when I first did laundry, I was impressed with the number of machines (in how it implies I'll never have to wait), and the size of the machines. By my count, there are 21 1x machines, 34 3x machines, and 5 5x machines. The 1x machines are pretty small. A little smaller than your usual small apartment washer. I'd say 4-5 towels or jeans, or 8-10 shirts and you've maxed out. Then of course the 3x are about 3 times that size, and the 5x five times the 1x size. The prices are not proportional, as the 1x is like 1.50, and the 3x is like 2.00, and the 5x is like 2.50. So, bigger is better for cost savings.

Please keep in mind as you read the below complaint (which is fairly outrageous) that I have done laundry at least 4 times already without having to wait for a machine.

Yesterday, I went to do my laundry and couldn't because 88.5% of the machines were broken! That seems like a lot. Actually, 78.3% of the machines were broken, but since only smaller machines worked, 88.5% of the capacity was broken.
By my count, 0 of 5 large (5x) machines were working, 2 of 34 medium (3x) machines were working, and 11 of 21 small (1x) machines were working. You can see that with 60! machines (totalling 148x (i.e. 5x5 + 34x3 + 21x1 = 148) there's quite a supply for people to use. However, with the outrageous level of almost 90% broken, it's not that convenient.

As I was in there counting some FBG employees started asking what I was doing. I said "counting". They said the machines were almost all down, and I said "yeah, are you going to fix them?" They said, something to the effect of "we don't fix them, the contractor has to come fix them." Another employee came up and said "what are you doing, are you with the contractor?" I said "no, I just count." We exchanged some banter, as I continued to give ambiguous and semi-smart-alic responses, and they continued to say the contractor screwed up the installation and needs to come fix it. One either called or pretended to call security, apparently not believing I was a resident and though maybe I was from the news (as if any news gives a crap that we don't have laundry machines). I was done counting so I left, but probably should have stuck around to see what would transpire if I kept counting and taking pictures. I do love confrontation, but the guys were appearing to be jovial during our "confrontation" so I didn't feel defensive and just went about my business (i.e. going to work when I was done counting).

Update: I went by the next day to take some pictures (which I'll post once I get them off my camera), and they were back to their usual 75% availability. So all is well again in the land of cheap laundry. Let the cleaning begin!





Washers




Dryers


More Washers

1 comment:

Romy said...

Hey, great blog. I'm thinking about checking this place out, and I'm wondering if you or anyone you know has had experience with the package drop-off/pick-up facility and procedure there. Does that function smoothly? If so, that totally rocks!

Also, it looks like FreshDirect delivers to your zipcode. Does anyone in the area/complex use it? This would be a major selling point for me, but if no one is using it, I don't know what the scheduling will be like.

Thanks!