Good news and bad news for Mesa Cleaners customers
"So y'all are open for good? Permanently?" I asked Mesa Cleaners owner Naushad Sultan back in July. "Yeah permanently, ok?" Sultan said.
Not so much. When we first covered Mesa's sudden closure this summer, at the time, Goodwin Management had locked the doors claiming Sultan owed more than $18,000 in rent.
He insisted that was settled.
Read Mesa Cleaners owners locked out, again — owe more than $41k
But property manager Scott Wilson told me Sultan hadn't paid all of the money.
In August, he locked Mesa out again. Notes posted to the door from desperate customers demanding their dry cleaning back -- and the delinquent notice was at more than $41,000.
Back to present day, Goodwin Management says they now have the legal right to open the place up for customers to get their clothing back --- with proper ID of course.
A note on the door from Wilson said "By the way you will not be charged for the dry cleaning as that's the least we can do to help defer the agony of your 3-week-plus wait for your clothes. Again, I am very sorry you all have had to suffer through an extremely unpleasant situation that has been out of our control until September 4th."
Read Mesa Cleaners opens back up after mysterious closure
"Went to a wedding a while ago. Left my clothes here and came to pick it up and there was stuff on the window saying that it was out of business and you'll get further notice, I've been trying to contact them," said Mesa Drive customer Sam Boesch.
Boesch was one of the customers happy to rescue his long-lost dry cleaning on Thursday. And he voluntarily paid for it.
"I asked for a service, I got my clothes back all dry-cleaned. Looks that way so I'm good to go," he said.
Meanwhile in Central Austin, the Mesa Cleaners location at the Triangle is still closed.
But the situation at the Mesa Cleaners on Dessau road is very different: a fresh start.
"Yep, not affiliated with Mesa in any way," said Rachel Huynh.
Huynh is the new owner of that location.
"Up for grabs and it just kind of fell in our lap and I've been in this business for so long and I couldn't turn it down," she said.
Huynh says she called customers whose dry cleaning was still inside and made sure they knew there was a new captain steering the ship. And no, she's not keeping the Mesa name. She's changing it to "Dessau Cleaners."
"Definitely give them that customer service and also...not close you know at random times and I promise that we're going to be open always! Every single day just so we can best serve our customers," Huynh said.
Goodwin Management says the Mesa Cleaners on Mesa Drive will be open temporarily from 10am to 5pm so customers need to come pick up their dry cleaning as soon as they can.