Laundry has been a continuous source of distress for residents at Bankside House. Since the start of Michaelmas Term, the operating system and the dryers have malfunctioned at different times. At a time which LSE is having issues with student satisfaction, some worry that the relatively “easy fixes” like laundry problems would go a long way and are not being solved.
Issues first arose a month after move-in day, the dryers did not work; an email sent to residents on the 18th of October by the Bankside House facilities manager apologised “on behalf of Circuit Laundrette”, and offered students the possibility of using washers and dryers at Butlers Wharf Residence. That problem has since been resolved and dryers are expected to function as normal.
Less than a month later, students were having issues again. The washers and dryers can be activated using an app or card to which students can top-up credit. Last week, washers would not respond to commands from the app, forcing students to get a card from reception (and top it up). Even after Circuit maintenance reportedly visited the facilities on Wednesday the 16th to fix the problem, by Thursday morning most washers could still not be operated. The problem was resolved by a technician before noon on the same day.
On Friday the 17th, Circuit held a “Laundry Student Awareness Day”; a poster circulated via email promised: “meet the Circuit team with free wash on first come first served basis and snacks” and “demonstrations”. To appease students, drying prices have been lowered to 50p until the 1st of December. Sakshi Banka, a resident at Bankside and international student, says that the laundry problem is especially inconvenient for international students: “I couldn’t take my clothes home to wash like some of my friends did”, also adding that initially students were not made aware of the drying problem: “my friend had wet clothes because of a broken dryer she had already paid for”. Circuit staff will hold one more open day on Tuesday 21st of this week, to answer questions and gather feedback about the service.
