Last updated: December 2004

The following question was submitted to John Roska, an attorney/writer whose weekly newspaper column, "Q&A: The Law," runs in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Illinois Edition) and the Champaign News Gazette.

Question

What can I do about a dry cleaner that damaged my dress? It came back with stains and the colors ran. They say it's the manufacturer's fault so they're not responsible. I just want somebody to reimburse me.

Answer

Manufacturing flaws often are to blame when damage occurs during cleaning. It's common, therefore, for dry cleaners to say it's not their fault if they followed the instructions on the clothing label and something bad happened.

Those care labels are required by the Federal Trade Commission on all clothes sold in the U.S. (Except, according to FTC regulations, leather and suede garments, hats and gloves, and reversible items without pockets). Although the regulations permit labels saying "cannot be successfully cleaned", the main purpose of labels is to provide cleaning instructions. Since 1997, those cleaning instructions can use symbols instead of words.

The FTC takes those care labels seriously, and goes after people whose labels aren't right. For example, Tommy Hilfiger got spanked with a $300,000 fine for using labels which, "when followed, resulted in dye bleeding from one portion of the garment into another".

In your case, try taking the dress back to the retailer where you bought it. If it won’t help, contact the manufacturer directly.

If you think the dry cleaner is to blame, ask to be reimbursed for your loss. Be prepared to ask for a specific dollar amount—a surprising number of people who want money are caught short when asked "how much"?

Disputes about what and who caused the damage can sometimes be resolved by having the cleaner send the item to the International Fabricare Institute's Garment Analysis Laboratory in Maryland. The IFI is supported by dry cleaners, but its written reports explaining what went wrong are considered authoritative.

If a dry cleaner accepts responsibility, the reimbursement will often be based on the IFI's "fair claims guide", which pro-rates an item's full replacement cost according to age and condition. The guide lists life expectancies for things that get dry cleaned, and a table to figure the pro-ration.

The IFI's life expectancies for different items tend to be short; for example, ties last 1 year; dress shirts last 2 years; "office" dresses last 3 years, and wool sport coats last 4 years. Items in average condition about mid-way through their life span are reimbursed at 40-60% of full replacement cost; items beyond their life expectancies get 10-20%.

If you don't like what the dry cleaner offers, your last resort is small claims court. You'd have to prove that the dry cleaner was negligent, and the dollar amount of your loss.

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