Photography Frustrations

[drietz]

I just had the most infuriating experience.

Got home from work and sat down to develop two rolls of film so I could give my high school girlfriend her graduation present - a photo of her that I took during a visit to Santa Cruz. Realized that I'd used the last of my XTOL a couple weeks back so I headed off to the local photo outfit for some more.

They were out of stock of chemistry, but offered to develop the film for me. I told them it was Kodak Tri-X, black and white. They said, "yeah, no problem."

Went back the next day to collect my photos and there were my envelopes with "BLANK" written on them in sharpie. My heart sank...they pushed them through the C41 developer and the bleach completely ruined the film.

And to add insult to injury, the kid behind the counter charged me for the service. After half an hour with the manager, who blamed me for not saying the rolls were black and white, I left $24 poorer and furious.

Seriously, is it that hard to push a couple rolls of Tri-X?

[roseyscot]

that stinks. if the envelopes were blank, why'd you give them a cent? couldn't you have walked out empty handed and been $24 richer? if you paid with a cc, you should dispute the charge.

[sonny]

idiots
but yr not the first

[drietz]

that stinks. if the envelopes were blank, why'd you give them a cent? couldn't you have walked out empty handed and been $24 richer? if you paid with a cc, you should dispute the charge.

Good question. They gave my blank rolls of film and demanded that I pay because they performed a "service."

Being a teenage bike racer and not a varsity quarterback, I guess I let myself get bullied into it, which is my own weak-willed problem.

[s_curran]

Thats really unfortunate. You really have to find a lab you like, the good ones haven't charged me if there were images that did not come out. I shot e6 for a bit and went back to shooting c41 when i got frustrated with labs (and cost). I recently found a great lab and the e6/c41 process costs the same, and they do high res scans for a total of 16 bucks or so with processing, so I have been shooting a mix of film.

[s_curran]

Good question. They gave my blank rolls of film and demanded that I pay because they performed a "service."

Being a teenage bike racer and not a varsity quarterback, I guess I let myself get bullied into it, which is my own weak-willed problem.

I would write some bad reviews online, it was a clear case of them not caring about the customer and there property, they might send you a refund.

[ericpmoss]

I feel for you. I caught a thunderstorm illuminated by the setting sun between Half Dome and North Dome on my Mamiya 7. Nailed it.

The lab had an accident and cooked all the slide film from that trip. At least they didn't charge me.

From then on I sent everything to Edgar Praus in Rochester NY (Praus Productions Inc. [4photolab.com]). I'm sure there are other good labs, but the one that cooked the film *was* one of the other good labs.

[jitahs]

Nope. You should write a yelp review, see if anyone contacts you.

Otherwise you need to talk to the manager and be firm.