Dry cleaning and the web

I went to have my suit (yes, I do have one) dry cleaned. Looked up dry cleaners in Uppsala, found one that even had a web site. On the web site I found their address, used my GPS to go there, walked around the block with my iPhone until I very precisely located the exact spot where it should be. Except it wasn’t. Walked around the block a few more times, since the maps in the iPhone aren’t all that accurate in positioning the user, so I thought that was the problem. Nope, no dry cleaners around.

Finally, I went into a nearby store and asked if they knew where the dry cleaners were, and they pointed me to the other side of the block on another street. And there I found the place.

I pointed out to the guy that they ought to update their homepage. He told me they couldn’t. The guy that did the homepage died on them three years back and he had all the passwords, and as I understood it, the ownership of the site and the domain. So they’re stuck. They moved the store to a new location two years back, but couldn’t get at the website source. (Yes, I also find it strange that the site stays up, do they pay for it somehow? If so why? I didn’t ask.) A lot of customers walk around the wrong block looking for them and then give up. They had a notice up at the old location for a while, but the new store owners made them take it down.

The moral of the story: don’t ever let your site be set up by somebody else without getting ownership of the domain and the accounts and all relevant passwords. Especially not if they plan on dying just like that. This store is much worse off having a website than if they’d never had one. If they had no website, customers could only find them through the yellow pages, and those you can always update.

4 thoughts on “Dry cleaning and the web”

  1. I am in Uppsala looking for a dry cleaner. What was the actual address and did they do a good job?

  2. It’s Perkem. According to their site and (strangely) the yellow pages, they’re at Dragarbrunnsgatan 24, which isn’t true. Actually, they’re around the corner in Klostergatan. I forgot the house number, but it’s the same block, but around the corner. And yes, they seem to do a good job.

  3. hey, I am in uppsala and I am also in need of a dry cleaner.
    Could you tell me how expensive was it to leave your suit there?

  4. Maria, I have no idea if they’re expensive. The last (and only) time I was there was almost four years ago.

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