The days of going to the laundry room on your floor only to find that at least one of the machines is broken may finally be over.
A day later than planned on Nov 6., new washing machines and dryers were installed and are ready for use in every on-campus housing building. Just like the previous machines, the new ones work free of charge.
No reason was given for the delay, except that the laundry rooms in the first two floors of both Boulevard Apartment towers still needed an part installed.
Keith Paylo, vice president of student affairs, said that both student feedback as well as prior plans to go with a new laundry service provider factored into this decision.
“As I always say, the student experience is everything to me,” Paylo said. “It is no secret that the laundry experience for students was not up to standard, so we re-evaluated and decided to not renew the contract with the previous company.”
The new laundry appliances, which are made by LG, are serviced by Fowler Laundry Companies, based in Union, N.J.
The former Speed Queen and Maytag appliances in the laundry rooms before the company change were serviced by CSC ServiceWorks, which is based in Melville, N.Y.
Paylo also said that the newly chosen machines were decided by Fowler, since Point Park does not decide what model of machines are serviced.
According to their website, Fowler Laundry Companies is a licensed partner with LG.
Comparing the two companies, CSC ServiceWorks has 1.1 stars on Google with 408 reviews, while Fowler has 2.9 stars with 67 reviews. While users on the platform praise CSC for quick response times for maintenance, many of the bad reviews refer to constant breaking machines and bad workmanship.
On Fowler’s side, most of the good reviews talk about cheap installation prices, new machines and good customer service. However, the bad reviews mention refurbished machines being advertised as new, surprise price changes and poor installation jobs due to contractor carelessness.
In terms of customer service, Paylo said that the new laundry company working with the university has been receptive and helpful to administrator feedback.
An upcoming feature with the new laundry machines will be the ability to see how much time is left on a selected washer or dryer right from your phone. Currently, the Office of Student Life is working on network setup to get the app functioning. The app is not available to students yet but should be available in a couple of weeks, according to Paylo.
Veta Piscitella, from Student Life, said that the machines are nice and should be treated with care. Unlike the old machines, powder products such as OxiClean cannot be used.
In Lawrence Hall, students often complained on the Snapchat Community Stories about the Maytag washing machines being broken. Out of the ten machines available in the laundry room, it was not uncommon for students to find only a few that weren’t broken.
Chris Hill, vice president of operations, said that these problems were usually the cause of user error. According to Hill, students would try to open the washer’s door before it was done draining, causing the machine to throw an error code and sometimes spill water onto the floor.
Additionally, the washing machines would also sometimes leak laundry detergent out of the loading tray, causing the front of the machine to be covered in detergent.
Last semester, at least two floods were reported in the Lawrence Hall laundry room. A mat was installed on the floor to attempt to mitigate potential water damage.
So far, no floods have been reported this semester. However, broken washing machines remained a common topic on the community stories.
It is not clear how much Point Park is paying Fowler for the new contract versus how much the previous laundry company was paid for their contract.
