Incident & claim report

“One of the three shirts came back from the cleaner with a small tear at the left cuff. I do not think it was there when I dropped it off. The other two are fine.”

Collection photographs for WO-2026-04187 show the three garments in the cleaner's bagging, sealed, at 16:02. The bagging is opaque at the cuff and the tear is not visible either way in our images. Our runner did not open the bagging at any point; delivery photographs at 16:36 show the same seal intact. Ticket 88214 was issued by Sterling Cleaners on 11 Sep, four days before our collection.

Assessment. The garment was in the cleaner's sealed bagging throughout our custody and our evidence neither proves nor disproves the cause. On the balance of the record the damage most likely predates our collection, but we cannot demonstrate that to the client's satisfaction and we are not going to argue the point over a shirt.

Process change, effective immediately. On any garment collection the runner now photographs each item individually at the counter before it is bagged, or records the counter staff confirming the bagging is sealed and unopened. Added to the PE-03 briefing and the runner handbook. Owner: dispatch. Reviewed at the next quarterly service review.