The Laundry story: Day 11-13

On Monday in the morning, I called the front desk asking for laundry service.  They referred me to the floor maid.  She’s a 40-50 year old typical Shanghai worker.  Most likely she’s hired long time ago by the university as permanent (literally) employee.  To my surprise, she said that there will be no receipts and need payment in cash up front.  Given the price is only a fraction of the Shangri-La, I didn’t argue.  By the time I came back in the afternoon on Monday, it’s all nicely done folded on the desk.  This was pretty nice.

So in the evening, when BL spilled soup on his shirt, I told him about the laundry service.  On Tuesday morning as we were heading out, BL asked me to bring the shirt to the maid who doesn't speak any English. So I did and paid.  Since she didn’t have change, she said that it will come back with the laundry.

A few hours later when we were heading out for the afternoon tour of Yu Garden, the maid caught me and gave me the change.  I was in the hallway and saw her put the finished shirt back to a room. 

Unfortunately it turned out that she thought BL’s room is next to mine, while it’s not.

So BL didn’t find his shirt in the evening but he didn’t say anything until I asked him how’s the laundry service on Wednesday morning. When I learned that he didn’t have the shirt in his room, I asked the maid.  She frantically told me that she left it in the room next to mine and the guest checked out at 7am that day, unlikely a plot trying to steal the shirt but to catch an early flight. Since he’s also a foreigner who doesn’t have a cell phone, it’s a lost case. 

Okay, when I found out it’s not likely BL’s going to get his shirt back, I told the maid that don’t worry and BL probably won’t need it back.  Even when DA heard this story, he said that BL probably would use it as a story, much better than having the shirt back.

This assumption turned out to be a mistake.  BL worried about running out of shirt for the trip.  And the shirt is obviously not very cheap: $30-$40, about a week of the maid’s wage (BL probably makes 100 times of that). Although BL doesn’t really need that shirt, he still thought it’s the maid’s mistake, which should be compensated if he’s in a 5-star hotel. Unfortunately this is not an any-star hotel and the maid is a permanent employee of a state-owned company’s guest house.

The situation escalated when BL and DA were waiting for me downstairs.  Our host lady SJ, who heard the story as a joke from DA, believed that we should take care of BL by asking a new shirt.  This started a new round of discussion between her, the maid, and the manager.  They argue that since it’s not a new shirt, they should not pay for the full value, which is BS. I was so tired of this and regretted telling BL to have laundry in the first place. So I told the host to take BL out buy a new shirt and she will pay for it. Then I will reimburse her. It’s much simpler.  They went out and got a 120 RMB yuan golf shirt, which is not very expensive since they thought the maid is going to pay for it.   

Anyway, I gave the 120 RMB ($20) to SJ on our train ride back to Shanghai. I’m glad it’s over.