UniFirst review: bait and switch tactics and poor service 19

We are trying to put together a class of businesses that were aggrieved by Unifirst's poor quality and poor customer service and were then held to the contract of adhesion. Please contact Andrew Bilodeau from the law offices of Bilodeau Capalbo, LLC in Warwick, RI at abilodeau@bilodeaucapalbo.com.

If you could share your story. I am in a dispute with Unifirst, so I started a website Unifirsthell.com. Come to it, and share, please encourage others to do so. It is up and running but still being built on. Thank you. D

The V.P of Unifirst contacted me, we will be released from any further contract obligations as of 10-9-15. Received letter to that effect on 10-12-15. We feel the outcome of the dispute is satisfactory.

Well, here we are, 4 months later, still trying to convince Unifirst management that we as the customer, should be the judge of what is or is not acceptable service. Since our first post we played by their rules, notifying the local office in writing every time there was a shortage, damaged incorrect or dirty uniforms returned to us as useable merchandise, or an issue with incorrect charges on the weekly statement. We logged 6 complaints in 9 weeks, sent a contract required 30 day termination notice, and got ZERO response to any of our communications. We finally got a call from a manager after faxing a second notice of termination on the requested last day of service when the route driver showed up with uniforms and a bill. That call took 2 days to occur, and when it did, we were scolded like a 4 year old for being wrong, and threatened again with breach of contract proceedings. A week later comes the demand letter, they want over $4000.00 to NOT service our account, and still refuse to acknowledge that the overall lack of service is the problem, insisting they have resolved all of our complaints. We will post again with whatever resolution transpires, but our recommendation is hire an attorney before you sign a contract with Unifirst, you will need one.

3 years after I posted my first poor service of Unifirst, our small business is finished with Unifirst contract. So far they are coming up with illogical explanations and not answering my questions. I'll be giving more details how they handle it soon.

We are in the middle of trying to get rid of Unifirst. I have been complaining about the condition of our uniforms for 6 months or more, but got only a new shirt here or there, never a manager checking on the outcome. The final straw was when I, as the shop owner and CSR, was left with 2 shirts to finish out the week before next delivery that looked for all the world like they had been through a wood chipper. The damage to these shirts happened at the plant, not while the were on my back, yet they were put on a hanger and returned as a useable uniform. When I complained, the response was a certified letter demanding over $6000.00 to terminate the contract. We have used them a several separate business ventures, and have witnessed the steady fall of quality and service, while always getting a price increase notification. Our recommendation is to hire an attorney before signing the service agreement, it protects their ability to provide poor service and product while insuring you will be forced to continue business with them, regardless of your dissatisfaction with the company. I may end up stroking a check just to be done with the poorly run and poorly staffed company.

Sadly I find myself in the same situation as many of the others here. After 20 years of being a loyal customer I finally got so fed up with their horrific customer service, extremely poor quality, sometimes taking in all a mechanics uniforms for cleaning only to have a single pair to come back the following week...I could go on for ever complaining but the fact of the matter is that I have been raising heck trying to find out when my contract was up to no avail. Conveniently nobody there could figure out when or where my contract was and eventually stopped returning my calls. So I said I'm done and switched to another company. Let me tell you they suddenly produced the contract real quick and sent over a dozen letters from a law firm saying they are suing me for breach of contract to the tune of thousands of dollars. Watching my teenage daughter open a letter at my home from their law firm saying they are suing me personally was a horrible and humiliating sight. Well I can tell you what they don't realize is that I sit on the U.S. dealer board for one of the biggest tire companies in the world. We use Unifirst as our preferred vendor for all 2500+ independent dealer locations. Even if I have to pay every penny to get them off my back, I can assure you that I will fight tooth and nail to ensure they will no longer be the preferred vendor and will advise the thousands of dealers that the council represents to absolutely stop using this deceptive company that has obviously outgrown their capabilities to give even acceptable service.

We only signed up with Unifirst because the sales rep that came out to us told us we would not be stuck in any contract, and that after 1 month we could cancel if the uniforms were not working for us. We agreed to this because it was something we wanted to try, but not commit to because we are only a seasonal business and we were not sure uniforms were something we needed. When we called to cancel they told us we could not and that we were stuck in a 5 year contract...WHY WOULD WE AGREE TO A 5 YEAR CONTRACT IF WE ARE SEASONAL AND ONLY EXPERIMENTING?!? Insanity...worst policy I have ever heard of, not to mention the sales rep COMPLETELY LIED to us and now he wont even talk to us when we call or return our phone calls. This manager agreed to let us do 6 months on 6 months off, but we do not want the uniforms at all... they are always ripped up and missing buttons, and when the holiday pick ups are changed they dont even tell us... they just show up on a day we dont usually do uniforms and then were screwed for the week. Unifirst is the WORST. I hope they go out of business before we are stuck with them for the next four years, which seems unlikely since they keep raising the cost on us! UGH! DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY IF YOU ARE CONSIDERING IT! TELL EVERYONE! THEY ARE LIARS! A company that was any good would not have to TRAP people in 5 year contracts and lie to them to get them to sign the damn contract.

All Unifirst customers in North Carolina better beware. I just heard that they are going to jack up all prices by 10% for their annual price increase. That is not right. Their contract says they will go up a max of 5% or the CPI (consumer price index) . I hope all their customers see this and refuse it. They are ripping all their customers off.

We have had the company for 5 months. Have had issues since the beginning. My mechanics shirt smell horrible, ripped, and still waiting on two jackets. Maybe we will get them by next winter but I doubt. The pants came without being hemmed. When I call nothing gets done. So Time for the lawyer. I hear they are lovely in court so we shale see. Instead of waiting on them to sue me I decided to be proactive. It is horrible service and wouldn't recommend them to my worse enemy. And Please don't reply with the contact us bull. I have every other week for 5 months. The only thing you could do to satisfy me at this point is let me cancel my contract without the court date.

1) Unifirst raised prices above our contract amount. For a couple months they issued credit for the amount that we were "short paying" but eventually they stopped doing that. 2) Unifirst charged us for items (soap, paper towels, etc) that were not delivered. We actually had to conduct a sting operation to prove that we were being billed for stuff not delivered. 3) Uniforms were cheap/shoddy. At one point Unifirst agreed that any uniform older than 18 months would be replaced, however, this didn't happen. 4) Unifirst did not repair items that were tagged for repair. The items would either come back from laundry with the repair tags still on them, or they wouldn't come back at all. 5) For all of the above and more, any time Unifirst managers were confronted with complaints, they blamed us. We've cancelled with them and of course they are trying to sue us. Bring it on. I'd rather pay the lawyers than these guys.

They came, they spoke and they fixed to their best ability our cost issues.

Unifirst Canada ltd are dishonest, and mistake ridden.
The salesman who presented Unifirst Canada uniforms to us gave us a great quote lower than our then supplier. The quote had to blanks with "TBD" filled in (to be determined). These were special size charges and replacement uniforms, something we never had to deal with or had seen before. The charges from these two item sometimes double our weekly invoice. They frequently short the guys so they have to wear the same coveralls 2-3 days. However they still charge us the same, and their invoicing is confusing enough. I think the more confusion the less likely you will complain. We have complained with 3 written letters to no avail, just a reminder they have signed contract. Beware and buy Canadian!

They are rude, they are disorganized, poorly trained and the worst company I have ever dealt with. They lie when you catch them making a mistake, YOU the CUSTOMER are WRONG when you deal with them, this is a service company? When you call the regional office and ask for a call back, they will not call you. When the message you leave for the regional manager says: "I don't want to talk to the people in my branch they are rude to me" You won't get a call back from regional you will get a call back from the jerk who made you so mad to call regional in the first place. Please look at other companies before you sign with them. Are uniforms that important to take this abuse just to have them? I don't think so.

They just sued me for breach of contract . I was a customer of theirs for 16 years. They promised to lower their prices on my next 5 year contract which they did for exactly ONE MONTH then they jacked up the prices again. I thought that this was just a mistake, they wouldn't really raise prices on me just one month after signing a new contract would they? Could they? When I tried to figure out what was going on I called them for weeks and weeks with no one calling me back. I finally got a meeting but no one showed up. They obviously had no intention of talking to me so after 2 months of begging them to talk to me I left. I figured they broke the contract because it said in the fine print that they couldn't raise prices without written notice, which I didn't get. I didn't figure they would even care if I left since no one would talk to me. Let me tell you if you want a call from Unifirst stop using them. Now I was getting calls daily, sales people stopping by, managers stopping by threatening me. I couldn't get them to leave me alone now that I left. GET A LAWYER BEFORE YOU EVER THINK ABOUT LEAVING, even if you think they broke the contract first like I did. I am not a lawyer so I made the mistake of thinking this was about what was right and wrong. That contract is so one sided, they don't have to live up to any of it, my lawyer said they broke about 4 things in their own contract, but none of that mattered. I now owe them $16000 + $10000 for their lawyer fees. That doesn't count the $8000 I paid mine. BEWARE OF UNIFIRST!

The so-called agreement they give customers to sign is a disgrace and is totally one-sided. If you do not pay your bill on time, even if Unifirst did not perform as required, they will sue you for "liquidated damages" under the contract, which could be over $100, 000 even for a small company. They routinely bill for services not supplied (i.e., uniforms not actually delivered). You can only claim that they breached there service agreement if you notify them in writing TWICE within the periods set forth in the agreement. ONE SHOULD NEVER SIGN THE FORM UNIFIRST AGREEMENT.

they suck, they lie, never do business with this co.

I'm in the same situation . In fact they refuse to service my account now and are sueing me for breach of contract.

I worked for Uni1st for almost four years and they treat thier clients like ###. No issues are ever really resolved unless the client does seek legal advice, only then will Uni1st back down and begin correcting the problems. Uni1st has no problem sueing the client however, and will take down little mom and pop businesses who they were ripping off to begin with. The uniforms are old and in massive need of repair or replacement. They do not hold good to their word on the clients service or the price of that service. Note to all of you in FRC = you are in danger. In less those uniforms are new or under 6 months of age get the FRC material refurbished = which Uni1st claims they do, but they don't. They should be replacing FRC every 6 months, but again they don't. Unless you have someone on your side watching your uniform account, repairs, replacement, integrity of FRC, and charges, in all likely hood you are being screwed !