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Alpian's Garment Care
Categories: Local Services Dry Cleaning & Laundry Local Services Sewing & Alterations Dry Cleaning & Laundry, Sewing & Alterations [Edit]
325 E 48th St(between 2nd Ave & 1st Ave)
New York, NY 10017
Neighborhood: Midtown East
(212) 753-7421
- Nearest Transit:
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Lexington Av/53 St (E, M)
51 St (4, 6, 6X)
Grand Central - 42 St (7, 7X)
- Hours:
Mon-Fri 7:30 am - 7 pm
Sat 8 am - 5 pm
- Price Range:
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$$$$
15 reviews for Alpian's Garment Care
15 reviews in English
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Review from Sarah K.
New York, NY
7/8/2008
I recently spent way too much on a white Alice & Olivia dress that I fell in love with and then I promptly spilled food on it the first time I wore it. I didn't want to take my precious purchase to just any dry cleaner so I did a little research and decided on Alpian's. And thank god I picked them because it turns out my dress came with a lot of cleaning drama and they knew exactly what to do about it.
When I arrived at Alpian's, Aida helped me and was beyond knowledgeable about all things dry cleaning. She knew right away that she had received some sort of warning from the Dry Cleaners Association (I wasn't aware this even existed) about Alice & Olivia dresses bleeding during cleaning. As I started to panic she calmed me down and said they were run a test on it and if it did bleed she would write me a note to take to Saks to return the dress since this would mean it is faulty (apparently Saks is very familiar with both Alpian's and Aida so a note from her goes a long way). Alas they were able to clean it without the bleeding.....
But then there was the issue of the pleats. My fabulous dress came with a set of accordion style pleats all along the dress making it a fun party dress and a dry cleaning nightmare. Aida patiently explained to me that when they clean the dress that all of the pleats will come out and that they will have to be HAND PRESSED BACK IN. Holy hell - top ten things I wish I had known before I bought this dress. She assured me the dress would be perfect and that I would have it in a week in time for my event. So I left it in her trusted hands.
Sure enough, one week later the dress came back and it was PERFECT! Apparently the guy who had to press in all the pleats was less than thrilled and Aida had to inform me that next time the cost will double due to the 6 hours of pleating. I assured her that I would never eat in the dress again.
Moral of the story is to not buy a white pleated dress but if you do, take it to Alpian's. They are knowledgeable, helpful and do amazing work. I would trust them with all of my important garments. But be warned they are a little on the pricey side but you definitely get what you pay for. -
Review from Angela R.
Manhattan, NY
3/21/2012
First - they're not the nicest.
Second - they LOST my favorite top and blazer. I was livid. They gave me some compensation, but it still did not make up for it. -
Review from Rebecca G.
New York, NY
12/17/2011
As other reviewers have recommended, stay away from this place!!
I brought in a dress to Alpians after reading reviews on Yelp that mentioned this dry cleaner was able to clean garments that other dry cleaners could not. I have an Ann Taylor dress with faux leather trimming that my regular dry cleaner did not think could be cleaned without ruining my dress.
I went to Alpians hopeful that they would be able to safely clean my dress. Oscar took my dress and assured me that they could safely clean it, but that it would take extra time. At first he said about 2 weeks, but I said I needed my dress sooner-- more like in a week's time. He said ok, and I left happy until I got down the street, looked at my receipt, and almost had a heart attack-- $40 to clean one dress??!!!! My dress isn't even that special-- it's a regular business dress from Ann Taylor! I called Alpians and tried to renegotiate the price. I was immediately rebuffed and asked if I rather take my dress elsewhere. I said no that I rather they clean it, but for a more reasonable price. Alpians refused to lower their price, so I had to turn back around and go back to the store.
When I got to Alpians, I asked for my dress back. Oscar was extremely rude, just as other reviewers have suggested. He was so unprofessional and said that I should have looked at the receipt before leaving my dress with them. Never in my life have I ever been charged $40 to clean a regular dress, so why would I think to look at their receipt? I figured at most the dress would cost $30, but even that would be very high. I told Oscar that I had read Yelp reviews about his poor attitude and that I was going to write a bad review for Alpians. As promised, here you go, Oscar!
I can't speak as to the quality of Alpian's dry cleaning, but I can say that they are over-priced and snooty. They have no idea what good customer service means; I sensed they thought they were above that because apparently "they're the best at dry cleaning."
Fortunately, as I was leaving Alpians very disgruntled, I came across Little J's Cleaners just down the block. I asked a lady who was leaving the store if she liked Little J's. She enthusiastically said yes, so I gave them a shot. I could not be happier! They charged me only $18 to dry clean my dress, and they did a fantastic job!! Plus, it only took them like 3 days to dry clean my dress; Alpians is full of it when they said it would take several weeks because the dress required "special" dry cleaning. And, even better, Little J's is organic! Dresses are normally $14 to dry clean (a little more than the $12 I pay at my neighborhood dry cleaners), but mine was a little more because the faux leather trimming takes a little extra care to clean. The little Asian lady at Little J's could not be sweeter!
Bottom line: Alpians are jerks and better watch out because with such a great dry cleaner in Little J's just next door, they are bound to lose a lot of business with their over-priced services and piss-poor, stuck up attitude. -
Review from Norah K.
Portland, OR
1/24/2007
So I splurged on this very delicate, very white Prada dress which I absolutely LOVE TO DEATH. It's one of those dresses that can almost justify it's $1,000+ price tag because it's so damn cute and wearable. Anyway, I wore it twice and put it away in my closet. The second time I wore it was to a sweaty summer roof party so you can imagine what it looked like when I pulled it out of its garment bag eight months later. Dirty. Yellowed. Blood stains (what the ???) I was crestfallen.
Given that I was not going to surrender this dress- to date it cost $600 per wear, yikes!- I needed to find a drycleaner that was up for the challenge. I did some research and found Alpian's...I believe it has been rated best dry cleaner in the city before. I arrive, show them the dress and received a very skeptical response as to whether anything could be done. They agreed to try. I called and checked in a week later and they said they were still working on it. When I finally picked it up after another week, I was completely shocked and delighted: it looked better than the day I bought it. Any other cleaner could have ruined such a delicate garment, but Alpian's made it prettier. I would have paid even more than they charged to clean it, simply for making such an expensive garment wearable again.Listed in: Five Stars For You, Darling.
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Review from Joan H.
10/31/2007
This is a weird review because I did not actually utilize the service - so I cannot be sure how much you can rely on what I have to say, except that I think what I am about to say can guide you in deciding whether or not to come here.
I had this bright orange Versace dress that an ex bought for me. I hardly wore it - probably wore it only two or three times, put it back into the closet, forgot about its existence. Then I decide to break it out for a wedding.
First, I wanted to figure out whether or not to get it tailored further (it was a wee bit big when I first got it, and it was adjusted slightly then; it always seemed off still, and I'd also just lost a bit of weight, and wanted to be sure it fit like a glove). I consulted Stanton Street, and they said it looked fine as is.
Second, I took it to my local cleaners to get it cleaned up/pressed, but learned it had some weird holes in the fabric, and because the local tailor was out, I'd have to take it elsewhere. These holes were really annoying - it looked like some moth ate through the top layer of the fabric, but not straight through. I figured, this can get fixed right?
Third, there were also some significant stains that would have to get taken care of.
So a very troubled garment indeed, and I felt I had to come to Alpian to get the star treatment. Trouble is, I was told that 1) the holes were not repairable in a way that wouldn't look weird; and they could also shorten it to make them go away, but it wasn't going to look good overall for the dress; 2) the stains were so set in that it would take extensive expensive cleaning, and even then the colors might be off.
With this very honest advice, I realized the dress was a goner.
So bottom line - you can get expert honest advice right here. If they thought it could be done, I'm sure they would have done it. I'm just sorry they couldn't do it :( -
Review from Joy h.
Manhattan, NY
12/30/2010
STAY AWAY! I stopped going here about 5 years ago, until then I was a devoted customer. The fact that I would take time 5 years later to write this is to make sure everyone is forewarned of them, I saw some 4 star reviews and I want everyone to be prepared.
The story of my raincoat:
They said they delivered my raincoat to our front desk - the doorman did't have it, I called and said it was not delivered.They told me to check again, I went back to our building and the doorman and I went through every hanging garment, not there, Called them again very nicely, I was screamed at by the girl at the front desk. She yelled you have it in your buidling ! We don't have it !!!! She told me someone in my building had taken it and I should contact the people in my building. I then called and wrote notes to every single person in my building to ask if they had my coat by mistake??? Very time consuming and embarrassing. No coat. After 3 or 4 days of searching I went over to the store to say it was not delivered could they please look again. There it was hanging in the store, they simply said oh here is your coat. No apologies nothing! They spoke to me as if I were the one in the wrong.? The owner never called, They never offered me, a very good customer, any kind of little concession. Not even a simple apology . BE WARNED DO NOT USE ALPIANS THEY ARE THE WORST! -
Review from Rahul S.
2/15/2011
I recently switched over to Alpian's and they are 10x better than my other dry cleaners, Kim's. They are quick, reasonably priced, and do a great job. Most importantly, they don't destroy my buttons like other places.
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Review from J J.
New York, NY
Updated - 8/12/2011
I thought things couldn't get worse after getting a horrible experience with Alpians and decided to take out a shirt to wear after keeping it in the closet for a few months. I reach down to take the numerical tags that dry cleaners usually place at the bottom of the shirt and saw that the tag was stapled to the shirt! It took me minute to pry the staple out, leaving two small punctures on my custom shirt. It's outrageous that a "professional" dry cleaner would be so negligent with the shirt. Stay away and get your dry cleaning done elsewhere!
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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4/22/2011
I recently moved into the neighborhood and gave Alpian's a try based on their review on Yelp. My… Read more »
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Review from C. K.
New York, NY
9/11/2009
While it can be pricey, they do amazing work and are very professional. I brought in my beloved white coat, which had been previously cleaned by another cleaner with no success, and they completely restored it to its original condition! It is not in my neighborhood and I usually go to another cleaner close by, but I now bring all my coats and anything requiring more care to them.
Their attention to detail is amazing too - for one of my coats, it indicated "do not dry clean" on the label as it had been scotchguarded by the manufacturer. They called me to make sure it would be okay to go ahead with the cleaning. I verified with the manufacturer that it could in fact be cleaned and of course it came back perfect! -
Review from jon d.
New York, NY
3/27/2007
at first glance there isn't much to differentiate one cleaner from another. alpian, as a korean american it hurts me to say this, but, this is by far the best service in town. the pick-up and delivery service is super convenient. they have cleaned almost every pair of timberland boots i've owned, easily doubling their "wear span". i go through timbs like naomi campbell goes through assistants. they also offer the heaviest starch this side of korea.
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Review from E K.
New York, NY
12/4/2007
I have been a customer of Alpian's for over a year. Although the service is slow, I am happy with the work quality. However, I just had THE WORST customer service experience of my life. Aida, who is the new general manager of the Midtown location, scolded and spoke to me like I was a child for following up on a previous request that WAS NOT completed. She proceeded to ask me if I am not happy with the service, why I come back. I told her that I am 100% happy with Alpians, just not Aida. She then told me that I should go somewhere else becaue I will have to deal with her everyday, and hung up. I have been reaching out to get a hold of an owner to tell them about this, but of course they will not give me the owner's name or number.
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Review from Andrea K.
New York, NY
9/12/2008
I dropped off some overnight wash and fold laundry and a few additional dry cleaning items. The wash and fold costed $1 per lb, which was fine. However, all of my whites all came back yellow in color, a few of my colored wash also have bleach spots. Alpian was supposed to call me to inform me of the dry cleaning cost, so I check my cc balance the next day and they charged $210 for cleaning/minor alterations for 5 items! $30 to dry clean a single dress! Absolutely ridiculous! I will never go back or refer anyone to this cleaner!!
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Review from jessica d.
San Francisco, CA
9/4/2009
Wow, this place is AWESOME. Went here recently while on vacay in NYC and needed to get some of my & my hubby's clothes dry cleaned prior to a business trip. My boy is not normally impressed easily, but he was amazed by the condition our clothes came back in. At Alpians they have impeccable attention to detail. The clothes looked better than when we brought them in there! Also, they were able to turn things around fast b/c my lazy a** procrastinated and didn't bring the stuff in before the day we needed to leave NYC.
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Review from Dayna L.
New York, NY
9/8/2010
This review is for their wash & fold service.
I moved to NYC last December, and quickly found out that my neighborhood is completely devoid of laundromats (Midtown East - if you know of any please message me!). So we (my sister/roommate and I) conceded to send our laundry out. We had decided on Alpian's because of their glowing dry cleaning reviews. Although it was the most expensive, it also had the best reputation on Yelp & CitySearch. So we started our service in January, and have been regularly sending our laundry out since then. That is, until the last couple of months of increasingly poor service, leading up to our decision to terminate our accounts with Alpians.
The worst of the many incidents happened about a week ago, when I called on Thursday to schedule a drop-off of my laundry. I was informed that it was ready, and could be delivered any time. I specified 2pm that day, because that was the first time I could get away from my office to come home and meet the deliveryman (we live in a walkup). Sure enough, I arrive home at 1:50, wait around for 25 minutes with no sign of a delivery. So I call Alpians, and the woman who answers the phone (who is new, and apparently somewhat mentally challenged, to put it mildly), tells me to "hold on," puts the phone on the desk, at which point I can hear her call for the deliveryman to whom she says, "I'm sorry, I forgot to tell you, this lady's laundry was supposed to be delivered at 2:00." After a couple of mumbled sentences (all of which I'm privy to as a result of her inability to operate the "hold" button), she returns to inform me that the deliveryman is "on his lunch break" and how long would I be at the apartment. I told her, once again, that I only left the office to meet him, so I'd only be around until he showed up. She said "ok 5 minutes."
Surpise surprise, 15 minutes later and still no word from her. So I call back, ask to speak to her supervisor, who again tells me that he just left and that it would only be "another 5 minutes." 15 minutes later, a total of about two hours gone from my office, and the deliveryman finally shows.
The only explanation in the degradation of service has to be a change in management - in fact, when discussing the declining quality of service with our deliveryman, he shared with us the fact that having just returned from a few days off due to an injury sustained while on the job, the manager (apparently a female) was refusing to pay him for his days off and would be terminating his employment due to his absences. Granted, this could just be the ramblings of a disgruntled employee, but then he proceeded to inform me that Omar, the ONLY decent employee with any type of work ethic or communication skills, had already put in his notice.
This news, following a series of unbelievable customer service nightmares, culminated today with a phone call from Alpains, after calling to have my laundry picked up, with a notification that the price per pound would be increasing from $1.25 to $2.35 per pound. That's almost a 100% increase! Already considering terminating my relationship with them, I politely told the woman who called to cancel my account. After we hung up, I realized that the highest rate any laundry service charges anywhere in Manhattan is $1.25, so an increase of this magnitude could only mean they were trying to drive their wash & fold customers away.
Suffice it to say, with business practices as shady as these, I wouldn't recommend doing business with Alpians under any circumstances - not unless you're comfortable with dishonesty, lack of dependability, and lackluster service. Your money would be better spent buying a new wardrobe - because at $2.35/lb, you'd be doing so anyway every couple of months. -
Review from Katie H.
Hoboken, NJ
4/15/2009
I have been going to Alpians Garment Care for years because not only do my clothes come back perfect, but the customer service is great. When I have a stain, they know exactly what to do and with red wine as my favorite drink, that is very important.
