First time using the local lab...

[Kyle]

There's only once place in my town that will do anything besides 35mm C41. Up until today I've never used them. I never really had a point, a buddy of mine works at the local Ritz and he took care of me with all my color print stuff, I did all my B&W developing myself, and used mailers for chromes. Well, today I dropped off a roll of Fuji 160C in 120 at the local lab. They told me it would be a couple hours and would cost $4. I got busy at the end of the day so I had my dad pick up the film for me. He got home and said "That film was $6 and some change, not $4..." I looked at it, and they gave me someone elses film! :bang: It was more expensive because they gave him someone's roll of 220. So now I have to go back there in the morning and hope that the other guy they mixed my film up with either hasn't picked his up yet, or caught the mistake before leaving the store. I needed this roll to do a print before my class tomorrow afternoon! I hope this is a fluke and not an indication of what is going to happen if I continue to use this lab.

Sorry for the long post, but finals are coming up, and on top of this photo project I have papers and then studying to do. I just had to vent...

 

[RML]

Scold them real good! 😀 Seriously, make it very clear in a polite way that you have much more work for them but that you expect them to take care of your films. This time you can let it slide as (so far) nothing serious happened but that you take this mistake as a serious warning. With a repeat mistake all of your business will go elsewhere again. If it is a professional outfit then they can handle that kind of critique. If they give you bleeding hard time then just walk away and never return. Don't even waste time and mince words with them in that case; just leave.

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

Last week my usual place messed up. They missed a promissed delivery time. And I just said in a very level voice 'Bring it to my home later'. Big trouble for them but they won't mess up again.

 

[BrianShaw]

Last week my usual place messed up. They missed a promissed delivery time. And I just said in a very level voice 'Bring it to my home later'. Big trouble for them but they won't mess up again.

Ha... that happened to me too. The lab guy missed a promised delivery date by 2 days and offered to drop the film off at my house "whenever it's finished". I thought he was being a very nice guy, but then I found out that he's one of my neighbors. Now when I drop off film, he always says "Tuesday... but if it's finished sooner I'll bring it by your house." He's no better at keeping his schedule but we now have a very nice relationship. If I have a hard deadline I go somewhere else. Believe it or not, he's okay with that!

 

[Kyle]

Well, went in this morning and I started to say "this the..." and he finished "wrong film? I'm so sorry about that..." and went and grabbed mine. Apparently he realized the mistake after my dad left but they didn't have my number and couldn't call me. He refunded the difference between the cost of 220 and 120 processing and apologized. I just said it was OK and left. I never can say anything beyond that if the guy is being cool about it.

 

[BrianShaw]

So, I wasn't going to ask... but were there any good photos on the wrong film?

Once -- a long, long time ago -- I was processing 50 to 60 rolls of E-6 per week. I used a lab that would do my work overnight and I'd pay the next day with a company check; They would put my slides in a small box and that was our routine. One day, I stopped at the lab and "the new guy" came out with a very large box and a paid-in-full receipt. No matter how much I insisted that the job wasn't mine and I never paid, he kept saying "sure it is... it's been billed to your account... there you go." So I kept insisting that it wasn't mine. Heck, I didn't even have an account with them. The owner eventually heard the commotion and quickly snatched the big box back, handed me my smaller box, grabbed the check out of my hand and bid me adieu with a sly grin. It ends up that there was a porno production firm in the same town that had a very similar corporate name. Ever since I've wished I just took the box and ran. Ever since, I've always said that if another mistake like that occurs, I'd sneak a peek!

 

[Kyle]

All that was on the roll was some pictures of trains. Nothing interesting.

Thats a great story, though!