CHICAGO — In a customer-facing business such as dry cleaning, there are typical interactions that happen every day. But, every now and then, there are those experiences with clients that stand out and become unforgettable — for better or worse. 

Andrew Rivkin, owner of Embassy Cleaners in New York, received what seemed like a routine call a few years ago. A potential customer explained she had garments in a storage facility that might have mold, and she wanted to meet at the facility that weekend to go through them. When asked how many pieces were in storage, she said enough to fit on two rolling racks — about 100 pieces, Rivkin figured.

When his driver arrived at the storage unit, he discovered approximately 750 garments waiting. But these weren’t ordinary clothes.

“They were all couture garments, including several one-of-a-kind, custom-made gowns by Oscar de la Renta and Carolina Herrera, which were priceless,” Rivkin says. “It turns out that this customer is a scion of a family that is one of the most prominent American industrial, political and banking dynasties whose name is familiar to most Americans.”

The project took months of meticulous work, Rivkin says, with most of the cleaning done by hand. Embassy charged tens of thousands of dollars for the job, but the relationship didn’t end there.

“After completing the process of cleaning these garments, we held them in storage for quite some time,” Rivkin says. “Curators from several museums, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan as well as other comparable museums, stopped by from time to time to go through these garments in order to pick out various pieces of interest that were later added to their collections.”

The customer remains a client to this day, Rivkin says, which he takes as a testament to the trust his company earned handling irreplaceable pieces.

John-Claude Hallak, president of New York City-based Hallak Cleaners, has seen his share of unusual customer requests over several decades in business. But one client stands out — and not in a good way.

“Years ago, we received a phone call from a Russian supermodel, who happened to be one of our better clients, looking for ‘a piece of silk’ that she claimed we had lost,” Hallak says.

She explained that she had placed it in a zip-top baggie and put it in the pickup bag with about 15 other pieces of clothing. Hallak’s team never saw it. She then claimed it was an antique, about 12 inches square, and worth $4,500.

“I explained that she might have advised us in advance of what we were receiving so we could locate that tiny item and take special care,” Hallak says. “She insisted that we lost it, and my team watched as we mailed her a $4,500 check for the claim.” He made good on the claim, he says, because the client did spend more than $40,000 a year on cleaning.

Although Hallak’s practice of settling almost any claim without a fight was well known to his staff, he says they weren’t shy about questioning his sanity in this case.

Several months later, the same customer sent in a haute couture skirt that had — as part of its design — 10 to 15 zippers over its surface. Some were functional, and some were broken. Hallak’s tailoring staff reflexively repaired the broken zippers before returning the skirt.

“She called upset that we had ‘changed the design of the skirt,’ but there was really no way to tell that we had even touched it,” Hallak says. “She demanded $3,500 for the skirt.”

This time, Hallak was on the phone with her, and his staff listened in as he shot down her claim request.

“I remember this quote precisely: ‘Ms. A., contrary to what you might think, we are a dry cleaner — not an ATM,’” Hallak says. “And I received the only round of applause I can recall from my office staff in over 45 years of business. I’m pretty sure she heard the applause on the other end of the phone.”

Come back Tuesday for Part 2 of this series, where we’ll explore elevator mysteries and going above and beyond in customer service.