UniFirst
Reviews and Complaints

To whom it may concern,

My company has been a customer of Unifirst since June 2016. In the 8 months we’ve used Unifirst we have continued to have issue upon issue with out uniforms. Our issues have ranged from being charged for items we have yet to receive to repeatedly being given incorrect or unacceptable uniforms. The service providers we have dealt with have continued to pass the buck and our issues have yet to be resolved. I spoke with a service manager today and their newest solution is to drop our contract and charge us a buy-out fee. This solution is unacceptable to us and would appreciate any attempt to resolved our service issues in another fashion.
The first and most prominent issue we’ve had is with embroidery. We ordered multiple polo style shirts for our management staff that were to include their names and our company logo on the front and our website on the back. Being a veteran owned and operated company we specified when embroidering the shirts that we wanted the battle Flag on the right sleeve. When we received the polos (after waiting a multitude of weeks) they were not correct. The website was at a nearly 45° angle. When contacting Unifirst we provided pictures of the crooked embroidery and they promised to resolved the issues with both the Flag and the website. Once we finally received the replacement shirts they were all resized one size up. We again returned the order and they once again promised to resolve the issue. Needless to say the third order we received was again incorrect. The third and final order of polo shirts we received from Unifirst had the corrected sizing, corrected website, but still had the American Flag backwards. They gave us their word once again that they would fix this issue. We have never again received another order of polos. When calling and speaking with a service manager we were told they ordered a single polo to make sure it was corrected before placing the entire order but it “must’ve been misplaced”. They reordered the single shirt yet it has never arrived and we have continued to be charged for them.
We’ve also had numerous issues with our Dickies mechanic shirts. The issue is once again with the embroidery. We received our first batch of shirts with the stitching completely through both patches on all of the uniform shirts. We felt, as any company would, that this was unacceptable. We returned the shirts. The next several batches we received never included our full order and were all missing the ASE patches we provided to Unifirst to attach to our head mechanic’s uniforms.
The issues with the mechanic’s uniforms we’re resolved (after multiple attempts) and we hadn’t had an issue with them again until we placed an order for a new mechanic. We ordered 7 of the same matching uniform shirts and 7 matching pair of cargo pants. The cargo pants arrived 4-6 weeks after ordering (a size larger than we ordered) and the shirts took an additional 2 weeks. We were also being charged for the shirts before we received them. Today the shirts arrived and were once again incorrect. They took it upon themselves to embroider the shirts with and American Flag (the Flag belongs on our polos only), and they delivered long sleeve shirts. When ordering this mechanic’s uniforms I initially called the Unifirst office and spoke with Devon. Devon placed the order for 7 medium short sleeve shirts, 7 cargo pants, and a size medium permalined jacket. They order never arrived so our driver placed the order again after they did not arrive. We have yet to receive the jacket and have never heard another word about it.
A few weeks before ordering the additional uniforms we placed an order for 3 of the Manager’s Specials Unifirst was running which included a Cartheart style jacket, coveralls, and a beanie. When we received the jackets there was a zipper tab broken in half and the embroidery was missing letters from our name and from our slogan. I provided pictures to our driver which he passed along to the service manager. They replaced the order and the issues with those jackets were solved. I then placed another order for a Manager’s Special in a size medium for our newest employee. We received the jacket and coveralls with no issue but have never received the beanie.
In the 8 months we have been customers with Unifirst we’ve had 4 drivers and 2 service managers. None of them have been able to resolve these issues.
I now have our service manager writing up a buy our price, this is unacceptable. I will not purchase uniforms through Unifirst and have to turn around and move to another uniform company and reorder uniforms. We are not in the business of wasting money and that is exactly what that option would be doing. Any uniforms we obtain through another company with not be, in fact, uniform with the apparel your company is attempting to force up to purchase.
I am not placing blame on any particular person within your company, in fact, I believe the majority of the issues we’ve had is a direct result of a subpar embroidery company. There have been some issues with misordering, negligence, and late shipping but those things alone could’ve, perhaps, been looked past and blamed on human error.
I am hoping someone within your company will be able to resolve these issues and get our account on track.

I look forward to hearing from someone soon.

Sincerely,
Amanda Bratcher
Precision Diesel Repair

I have used Unifirst for about 15 years and recently fired them because the service was so bad and they were charging an arm and a leg. I had to call many times to complain that we were out of hand soap at my coffeehouse. Then I discovered they had been charging me for months for a rag bag and stand that wasn't even in the building.

Now they are threatening litigation and trying to get $4097.90 that I don't have.

Don't ever sign a contract with them!

BUYER BEWARE- I am another victim of the Bait and switch contract. Insurance for repairs is supposed to be included, and then its not. They refuse to pick up uniforms, and continue to charge. I have been in business 15 years, and this is the first time I have contacted my attorney to handle a problem. If you do business with them I guarantee you will wish you hadn't.

I was fired in July by Unifirst for allegedly creating a hostile work environment. I filed wrongful termination and retaliation claim against them with the Equal Rights Commission and the EEOC. They accepted my case and are investigating.
I would like to hear from other former employees who have experienced the same treatment. I also received a call today from an employee there. They are working him more hours, paying him no overtime and asked him to quit. They are bullying him.
Any employees receiving this kind of treatment?

I have a problem with a company that supposedly sends down write ups from corporate HR three weeks after the alleged incident without even speaking with the accused. Then HR refuses to address the issue with the employee in question. Instead, he is informed that HR will not contact him, or give him any information. Seems like a bit of a railroad job.
I would think that there should be some recourse or standard protocol for situations such as this.

We recently got duped into a 5 year contract with Unifirst. They were not forthcoming on the terms of contract in fact the salesman indicated there was not a contract. After 36 weeks of constant inaccuracies in invoices, charging for coveralls we did not even have such as 12 weeks they charged for one employee who did not have a coverall we told them we wanted to cancel our service. They came back with a 9200.00 penalty to quit the service. The charge for a damaged pair of coveralls are up to 225.00 each. They will not tell us how long normal wear is for coveralls so we get charged for all wear. You have to do your own inventory of their goods and monitor the invoices very closely They make their money by overcharging the customer.
Highly recommend if you do go with them designate a person to monitor the service and invoices and read all the fine print.

Has any one had any good experience with Unifirst? I work for a company of approx. 60+ workers, a while ago I received information from this company and I'm now looking into it more, thinking that it may not be such a good idea. All employees need clothes that they can work labour intensive in and get dirty (just so everyone knows the area of business I work for). Unifirst seems like a good idea, the representative that had come to see me was really nice. She made it seem like it was all smooth and easy to implement, also that the average cost for one uniform is between 50 and 70 cents a week. I budgeted out that if every employee had a set of 5 for each week it would be about 10 grand for the whole year. This is reasonable to me, and it would be nice to see our employees all in one idea of clothing.

With that being said, my question is that, upon reading many complaints about this business, has anyone experienced a good situation with this company, or should I really just stay away all together? Thank you to whoever responds for your time.

after a 16 year career with a great company, Jonna Eskew was forced to resine from her job for stealing over $750.00 cash and misposting / embezzlement of checks to customer accounts.Office credit has been issued for several thousands of dollars of proven misposting / embezzlement of checks / cash that are unaccounted for. Mrs.Brian Eskew has admitted to going to Unifirst account Rib Crib that pays cash weekly after regular business hours in Wichita Falls Texas and collecting cash because she was behind on her house payments. Mrs.Eskew's father is the local McGruff, the crime dog. How proud he must be.

I am writing to complain about the treatment of a recently terminated delivery driver of your company in the Springfield office. I am complaining to corporate because it deeply concerns me that you allow certain "slackers" to be tolerated within your company, while other hand workers members of your company are fired because of petty, silly things, which if brought to the delivery person's attention, would have been handled in a calm, polite, and professional manner. This employee who was recently terminated has been with your company for the past 4 years, shows up ready to work, dressed in uniform
At 2:30 am. Does a 12 to 14 hour day Monday through Friday, and is terminated because of, a big Y employee who makes an invalid and dumb remark to the corporate office? This is just sad. Terminating a hard working employee is not the answer. If there are any questions about work ethic I would politely have you look into people like Christian Robak, Frank griffin, or Pat Mccue who are sliding by on doing less than the minimum, and are still employed. I implore you to take into consideration this hard working employee's  exemplary level of commitment to his job and his dismay at this recent termination. I am unaware of your company's warning system for grievances towards employees. As it stands, trivial complaint should be heard but dismissed immediately because of lack of substance and common sense,  and not result in immediate termination.

In closing, if an employee is not to be notified by the company they are servicing of any policy, they should be notified immediately by the management of said company in a professional manner.

This is not the case. This recent termination of this employee is said result. I am shocked to her this considering what has been said of this exemplary employee, and what they have been exposed to working for unfirst, that numerous complaints were not made to corporate concerning managements corse of action and own said responsibility.

In closing I hope there is another resolution other than the termination of this employee with unfirst. Other employees may require further analysis and observation. Especially those employees who are "comfortable" doing less than the minimum just because they have worked for the company 20 years.

A concerned customer

Have been waiting for my uniform pants to be delivered for over 3 months. Waited 3 months to receive my shirts which were unacceptable upon inspection. Our company logo was barely attached at one corner on three of my shirts. They have no communication within the company when questions are asked. Three different people took my order when I inquired on the status of my uniforms. No one has an answer on the delay either. My size is a normal size which should not be a problem filling. When I call the office, all I get from the receptionist is that she will have someone call me. I am still waiting on that call. There are several employees here at work, which is a very large customer, that have been waiting longer than me for their shirts. If I ran a company like Unifirst runs their business I would be out of business. Very poor customer service. I will push to end our contract with Unifirst if service continues as is. From what other employees say it is not going to change with Unifirst.

If you are planning to use Uniclean/Unifirst for your garment services please RUN NOW! We had been a long-term customer of their's for many years. Their contract is very wordy, and there is a lot of fine print. If you think you have a case against them based on your contract; you dont. They will twist that contract as much as they can to make it sound like they are in the right. In addition to contract issues; you will have never ending invoice and inventory problems. You will be overcharged on a weekly basis. Coats will not properly be cleaned and/or replaced. They will falsly charge you weekly for damages and mending charges. If they do charge you for such things; request that all questionable coats be shown to you before they continue with mending and/or replacement of the garment. If you don't manage your weekly invoice; start doing so now. Make sure you check your invoice weekly; monitor your inventory, and make sure your're not being charged falsely for garments.
I cannot stress this enough. If you run into problems; be persistant and stand your ground. Before you sign any contract; make sure you take an hour to sit down with your lawyer. It sounds crazy to have to sit down with a lawyer over a uniform service contract, but trust me, you need to! Unifirst will nickle and dime you to death on a weekly basis; thats how they screw their customers out of a lot of money. They're management team is VERY shady. One person will say one thing and then a week later; they'll tell you something completely different. Unifirst will NEVER admit they are in the wrong; they will always claim the customer is to blame. Every problem that developed with Uniclean/Unifirst was automatically put on us and they claimed that we, the customer, was to blame. In the end; if you want to end your contract, Uniclean/Unifirst will automatically try and go after you with legal proceedings and law suits. If your planning to end your contract; make sure you have documentation of all of your emails/conversations between Unifirst and your company about the problems you've been having. Sit down with your lawyer before you decide to end your contract. Your lawyer will tell you what you are legally required to pay out of the contract and they will help you avoid any issues. If you don't; Uniclean WILL sue you for breach of contract. Sitting down with your lawyer prior to stating to end the contract will put you ahead of them.
If you haven't ended your contract already but want to; go for it. In the end, you will be saving your company a lot of money by year's end even if you have to pay buy-out costs. We switched to a smaller, mom &pop-type uniform company and we are saving our company over 10k in costs by year's end. If you're looking into using Uniclean/Unifirst; i suggest that you quickly bypass them and find someone else. I took over management of our coat inventory and it literally became a full-time job day after day. It shouldn't be the customer's responsibility to manage their coats and the invoices. I'm quite confident that Uniclean/Unifirst does this to the majority, if not all, of their customers judging by what we've found online. We paid Unifirst a lot of money every year to do a decent job and provide us with quality services. Unfortunately; the reality was FAR from quality.

David Mummert is a disgrace to your unifirst name. I have watched and heard this man cuss and threaten your route driver and am appalled that he is in your management team. That is really not saying much for your company.

I placed a large order with this company on October 15, 2010. I normally order all my uniforms from Aramark and I have never had a problem. To date I have not received my order. No one from the company keeps in touch with me. The only way I get information is if I call. It is ironic to me that this company is being featured on Undercover Boss this Sunday. I would like to be able to speak to the owner and tell him that his San Jose, CA operation is falling short in their customer service division. I will never use this company again and I will not recommend them to any of my business associates
Dawn Davis
Manager
Valley West Apartments
San Jose, CA

My wife got sick and about died last January after she got out of the hospital she went back to work and was let go, are they said laid off, but everything they done says they fired her Sueann the lady in charge of the plant in Owensboro ky lied about everything, it pretty sad a person loses there job for getting sick