Textile product manufacturers are required by law in Australia to provide care labelling on almost all consumer textile products that is accessible, adequate and appropriate for the item, detailing both permitted and prohibited treatments.

These care instructions should be provided on attached care labelling and professional cleaners and consumers are required to follow them.  In addition, consumers have a responsibility to handle their textile items appropriately during the course of use and wear and their own care treatments. 

When problems do occur following professional care treatments, the cause is usually one of the following three possibilities:

  •   incorrect, inappropriate, or even no care labelling information provided by the manufacturer
  •   incorrect, inappropriate or careless handling by the professional cleaner
  •   inappropriate treatment by the consumer, such as food/beverage spillages or exposure to light

Dry Cleaning Complaints Arbitration Service can examine, analyse and, where appropriate, test submitted garments or other consumer textile items in order to determine which one of these three causes is most likely to apply to the complaint being made.

WHAT CAN DRY CLEANING COMPLAINTS ARBITRATION SERVICES PROVIDE?
Dry Cleaning Complaints Arbitration Services can carry out the analysis and reporting of garment or textile product problems arising out of professional textile cleaning treatments, such as dry cleaning or laundering, in order to resolve disputes between professional cleaners and their customers, or any other interested parties, including retail organisations, wholesalers, manufacturers or insurance companies. 

This service is professional, independent, impartial, and scientifically based and the reports are clearly formatted into easy to understand sections.  As far as possible, the analysis and report will attempt to resolve the issue of responsibility for the garment or consumer textile problem that has occurred in order to resolve the dispute between the professional cleaner and the customer.  These reports are accepted as evidence to legal courts, such as State Small Claims Tribunals. 

Where appropriate, DCCAS reports will also be supported by high quality technical bulletins and relevant other material, prepared by external textile testing organisations with which DCCAS is affiliated. Such material can provide important additional technical information about the nature of the textile problem that has been analysed in order to assist in the resolution of the dry cleaning complaint.

WHO PROVIDES DRY CLEANING COMPLAINTS ARBITRATION SERVICES?
Mr Steve Pyott provides Dry Cleaning Complaints Arbitration Services.  Steve is an Associate of the Textile Institute, and is therefore recognised internationally as a Chartered Textile Technologist.  Steve has had over thirty-five years’ experience as both a full time and part time lecturer in Textile Science and Technology in higher education institutions in both the UK and Australia, including TAFE institutions.

Steve has also had over twenty-five years’ experience as a Textile Consultant to commerce and industry, the textile care industries, insurance companies, the legal profession and individual consumers.  Steve has been preparing technical reports on garment and textile problems arising out of professional care treatments for clients all over Australia since 1982.  Steve has, therefore, written thousands of technical reports on garment and textile problems. Steve has also offered short courses in Textile Fundamentals to Queensland dry cleaners and other groups, such as clothing manufacturers and retailers, on a number of occasions.

Steve’s most recent full time academic position was as a Lecturer in Textile Science and Technology at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, from which he took early retirement in 1992.  This followed permanent disability to his left hip, arising out of a major car accident.  During this time, Steve had established comprehensive textile testing laboratories at the Kelvin Grove College of Advanced Education before it eventually amalgamated with and became a campus of the Queensland University of Technology.  From these laboratories, Steve offered textile testing and textile consultancy services to commerce, industry and the professional textile care industries.   

Steve’s most recent part time teaching position for the last three years was as a Teacher of Textile Science and Technology at the Mt Gravatt Campus of the Metropolitan South Institute of TAFE (MSIT), Queensland’s lead institution for training in Textiles, Clothing and Fashion. 

Steve had been teaching the final year Textile Testing subject in the Associate Diploma/Diploma in Textiles, Clothing and Footwear in this campus’s well-equipped textile testing laboratories.  Steve is also the author of Textile Care and the Consumer, published by Longman Cheshire in 1985.  This textbook became widely used by both senior school and TAFE students in Australia.

WHAT DOES DRY CLEANING COMPLAINTS ARBITRATION SERVICES COST?
Dry Cleaning Complaints Arbitration Services is offered for a fixed fee of $180.00 per individual item, plus a nominal return postage and handling cost of $10.00, or $20.00 in the case of very large items, such as doonas, bedspreads, curtains or wedding dresses. A recommendation is always incorporated into the Conclusions section of the report that the party deemed responsible for the dry cleaning complaint should be liable for providing full redress to the complainant, including, where applicable, the full costs of obtaining the technical report from Dry Cleaning Complaints Arbitration Services. These technical reports are routinely acceptable as expert evidence to legal courts, such as State Small Claims Tribunals, but, if required, they can also be formatted into a statutory declaration witnessed by a J.P., for a further fee of $50.00.

HOW DOES THE DRY CLEANING COMPLAINTS ARBITRATION SERVICE WORK?
Dry cleaners or customers can log onto this site in order to download the Dry Cleaning Complaints Arbitration Information Form. The form should be completed by the professional textile cleaner or by the customer in conjunction with the professional textile cleaner concerned with the garment/textile problem.  If necessary or required, Dry Cleaning Complaints Arbitration Services can approach the professional textile cleaner independently.  In order to assist with the resolution of the complaint, it should be filled out as fully as possible, and any or all other relevant information or correspondence about the complaint should be attached for information. 

The completed form and attached information, along with the garment and the fee and return postage costs should then be sent to Mr Steve Pyott, TCS Textile Consultancy Services, P. O. Box 132, Kallangur, Queensland 4503. 

IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT THE DRY CLEANING COMPLAINTS ARBITRATION SERVICE CANNOT BE CARRIED OUT UNLESS FULL PAYMENT OF THE PROFESSIONAL FEE, ALONG WITH APPROPRIATE RETURN POSTAGE AND HANDLING COSTS, ARE INCLUDED WITH THE COMPLETED ENQUIRY AND ITEM.  

Methods of payment include cheque, direct EFT payment into a bank account and PayPal and all payment method details are specified on the Dry Cleaning Complaints Arbitration Information Form.

The textile/garment problem will be analysed by appropriate examination and testing, where applicable, and a professionally formatted report will be prepared. The report and item submitted will then be returned to the client, normally within fourteen days. 

If the matter is very urgent, it may be possible to turn round an enquiry within a shorter period but additional fees may apply. 

Reports are considered highly confidential to the client requesting the analysis and they will not be made available to any other parties without the express permission of the client.  Receipts are not normally issued for payment of fees and costs but they can be provided on request.

ADDITIONAL SERVICES AND INFORMATION AVAILABLE FROM DRY CLEANING COMPLAINTS ARBITRATION SERVICES
Clients can contact Dry Cleaning Complaints Arbitration Services at any time for obligation-free comment or advice about any issue relating to textile or garment problems and professional cleaning.  The Dry Cleaning Complaints Arbitration Services can be contacted by telephone or fax on 0732046354 and mobile on 0418726885 or by e-mail using enquiries@drycleaningcomplaints.com
 
The Dry Cleaning Complaints Arbitration Services will also make available report summaries of garment and textile problems analysed by Dry Cleaning Complaints Arbitration Services on the Dry Cleaning Complaints Arbitration Services web site.  Full access to a complete version of a technical report can be made available for the payment of an enquiry fee of $50.00.  These full copies of the technical reports will have all client identification information removed in the interests of full confidentiality.

Dry Cleaning Complaints Arbitration Services is willing to work with manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, professional textile cleaners and any other interested parties to assist in resolving disputes and overcoming technical problems related to the unsatisfactory care performance of consumer textile products.

All Forms, Reports and Images are copyright to DCCASS -Dry Cleaning Complaints Arbitration Services, 2008