What, you still do your own laundry?
You fire up the washing machine, throw in the colours separately, add the powder and then put it in the drier when it’s done? Then you manually fold it?
That’s so old school!
After all, this is the 21st century that we live in and there’s an app for everything.
Laundry is the latest part of our lives to get an app makeover.
For £15 with the Laundrapp you can get 1.5 times your typical washing machine load done by a professional cleaner. They’ll pick up your laundry, wash it, dry it, fold it and then deliver it back to your front door.
You can also get 5 shirts washed and ironed for £8, as well as bedding, suits and dresses. The Laundrapp website has all the details.
I must admit, I was a little nervous about first using it.
Having backpacked my way around the world previously, I’m no stranger to the occasional item going missing.
However, my laziness, intrigue and a voucher code from Laundrapp (see end of post) got the best of me, so I jumped in and ordered.
I quickly downloaded the app from the App Store (also available on Android) and entered in my postcode to check if my part of London is covered.
Next, I entered my payment details. Using the camera and clever character recognition technology, I didn’t even have to type in my credit card number.
This gave me one of those “huh, cool!” moments you get with new technology.
With payment details entered, I chose the service I wanted.
Then I simply set the pickup time and delivery time.
Fortunately, they could pickup the next day and then deliver two days later. This was a pretty good turnaround time. Even better, they could deliver after office hours.
How convenient! I explained to nobody around but myself.
I hit the great big green “Place Order” button and the process was done without getting up off my comfy spot on the sofa that had perfectly formed to my bum.
The next day, a friendly chap appeared, who started chatting to me in Greek having recognised my name! The process looked a bit like this:
My laundry then disappeared for two days and suddenly it was back in my hands washed, dried and folded.
I’m pleased to report that all items came back and there was no shrinkage or any other of the typical laundry mishaps you make as a student.
In all, it’s a pretty clever service and it all felt very seamless.
Would I recommend it?
That depends on whether you’d rather save £15 or would rather save the time it takes you to wash and dry your clothes.
Fortunately, there’s no harm in giving it a try and making up your own mind. Especially because for your first order you get £10 off.
You can do that either by either visiting the website and grabbing a code on there, or alternatively using the code LONDONCYCLIST which will give you £10 off and in return give me £10 off my next order too!
To download the app head to laundrapp.com and optionally use the code LONDONCYCLIST for £10 off.
Now if someone could just come up with an app to fix my puncture without getting up off the sofa…
Advertorial! What does this have to do with cycling?
A number of cyclists tragically KSI lately. New CS1 route announced. EW CSH being opposed by LTDA. London Bike Show. Why not cover these?
Totally agree.
Whilst I appreciate that this website doesn’t pay for itself and needs some sort of income. This sort of article is ridiculous, it’s got nothing at all to do with cycling, let along London cycling.
Hey Tom – woah, didn’t expect such backlash against this post. Thought it would just be something lighthearted to share. To be clear, this wasn’t advertorial – we were not paid to post this up.
However, I hear the feedback and I’m hopeful that what I cover in future will be more to your liking.
Hey Penelope – appreciate the sentiment and all of these are covered inside our Friday newsletter which we send out on a weekly basis.
True Andreas, but you led with this as your top story in the newsletter? More important than cyclist deaths and new cycle infrastructure developments? 🙁
I agree my coverage of late hasn’t been what it once was. I use to be able to dedicate my entire week to London Cyclist but these days I’ve got another business which takes up much of my time. Good news is, I’m hopeful that this year I’ll be able to get someone to help me full time with the site. The plan is for someone with a journalists background so that they’ll be able to bring more indepth analysis and interviews with key decision makers.
Don’t be too down on yourself Andreas! It’s only that this was uncharacteristic. Seemed like a inappropriate post to signpost to as your headline, that’s all. I’m still enjoying the blog 🙂
Hi all,
Joe from Laundrapp here. I thought I’d take the time to respond to them and lay out a full response. Here goes…
I contacted Andreas myself after one of our team, who is a regular reader, pointed out how great Laundrapp is for cyclists who don’t want to get their work clothes messed up in a backpack. I emailed Andreas with a £15 voucher so he could test this for himself – in the same way movie critics will get sent DVDs for free.
Andreas wasn’t paid for this post, nor was there any special treatment. He didn’t ask for payment, nor was any offered.
To be honest, I’m actually a little embarrassed to have caused such a fuss for Andreas, so if anyone has any more questions about the post or the app then I’d be happy to answer them!
Thanks,
Joe
Not sure I agree that there wasn’t any special treatment. Laundrapp don’t seem to be able to actual deliver your clothes back, although they are very good at picking up the clothes and then taking the payment. My own experience coupled with a quick internet search backs this up. And why is there no number to call you? Oh wait, I get it now…
Hi Anonymous – I’m sorry you had a poor experience with our service, especially as we’ve made several improvements and expansions since this blogpost was written. We’re actually in the middle of adding phone support too and the reason it’s taken so long is to do with the number of staff we have to hire – it’s a substantial investment for a small start-up!
I’m not entirely sure what the issue with your order was, but if you’d like then you can contact me directly at Joe@laundrapp.com and I’ll do my best to get it sorted out for you!
For someone like myself who carries clothes to wear at work and carry home to wash I think it’s bang on for cyclists. You can have collections and deliveries of work garments at work and not carry luggage back and forth.
I am equally concerned about cycle safety information, which Andreas covers, but for more in depth cover try Stop Killing Cyclists. Read the name on the tin. This one says Happy Cycling in London.
I had the misfortune of trying to use this service. Its an absolute farce. You book a time slot to have them pickup and they never show, spent hours waiting for them to arrive and sent several emails(As they have no phone number to contact them on) and they just flat out ignore you. After several days they email you saying that its not their fault they never showed up or contacted you to say they weren’t showing up because traffic was heavy and tell you to rebook another time that they wont show up at. They still haven’t refunded my money or cancelled my order. A horrific service.
Agree with some of the other posts. This company is a joke. I encourage all fellow cyclists to avoid it like the plague. Used once, two weeks and 25 emails later it turns out they’ve lost all my stuff. No phone number says it all
They are extremely unprofessional, EXTREMELY.
They lost my shirts and they did not contact me for days. Moreover I was chaged and I was not refunded
Ridiculous
They just charged £48 for a bag of laundry — charges to dry clean jeans that I didn’t request, washing a bathmat I didn’t have. I complained, they suggested it was my fault for not specifying wash and fold only, I said I did specify that to the collection guy, and now they’re not replying to me. Avoid them.
To Joe at Laundrap
It might be more helpful if you actually addressed the specific complaints expressed here. Every startup encounters problems but folk generally support businesses that listen to them and resolve their issue. Issues.
A simple apology is often enough
Got my suit jacket (that I wore once) back for the second time today…. still not fixed (after it was ruined the first time sent out)… and still missing my 2 suit bags and 5 hangers… unimpressed and very upset! Hoping this gets rectified very soon!!
S far I paid to lose my suit bags and get my jacket ruined…
This low quality service ruined my best shirt with chemicals they couldn’t then remove. AVOID AVOID AVOID.
Customer service, very impertinent. Asked me to pay an independent service to investigate the situation when I asked for refund!!! As if a person that doesn’t have the time to do their own laundry will ever bother to deal with this!
All I can do is to inform other people to AVOID and spare themselves such an unpleasant experience. I saw many other people had similar experiences, which is not aligned with the ridiculous prices these people ask for.
Laundry service is good for mummies to wash clothes in a reasonable price. I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I dont know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.