Walgreens, round 2, HWGA! :)

[dmr]

You guys are not gonna believe this, and I know it's really not funny but I can't help laughing. 🙂

I go in the main door of the job site (yeah, I know, it's Sunday but we have a major push for tomorrow) and I see Jack (the guy who was asked to leave Walgreens the other day) at the security podium on the phone and he was majorly reading somebody off. I first thought it might be a supplier who was late or something. He was on the phone with Walgreens again and was royally p*ssed.

Turns out that this afternoon he took a roll of film to the store that they said would do a DO/CD with no problem and their machine was down, so they sent him to another Walgreens. This second Walgreens didn't have the machine that did a CD, so they sent him to a third Walgreens and (yep, you guessed it) this third Walgreens refused to do a CD without prints! I asked him if they threw him out and he gave me a dirty look. 🙂 🙂 🙂

Anyway, they sent him to yet another Walgreens and they said they would do a DO/CD for him at no charge for the hassle.

In a way I wish I had known that, since on the way in I dropped a roll off at Wally World and I could have given it to him and asked him to tell them he had 2 rolls. 🙂 🙂

Oh well, so it goes. Jack's Foto Follies is becoming the topic of amusement at the site. 🙂

 

[Doug]

Does Walgreens have any local competition for photofinishing services? I mean, why thrash around with Walgreens if there's a happier option?

Seems to me I recall a German member who said getting processing without prints was simply unheard of there... Yet I've never run into that requirement in my local labs or a pro lab in Hawaii.

 

[dmr]

Does Walgreens have any local competition for photofinishing services? I mean, why thrash around with Walgreens if there's a happier option?

Well, there's Wally World, but I got burned there today. 🙁 There's CVS and Rite-Aid and ...

I did look in the phone book, and there are some indie places, but I personally have had no trouble with Walgreens here, at home, or other places.

Seems to me I recall a German member who said getting processing without prints was simply unheard of there... Yet I've never run into that requirement in my local labs or a pro lab in Hawaii.

For a while, Walmart would not do photos on line or CD without prints, but they were still less with prints than the local indie lab was without prints. Then they changed, they made it impossible to download the entire roll hi-res but they started doing the CD without prints. The first times I went to Walgreens they really weren't familiar with the DO/CD thing. It's not on their menu up front. They have to manually specify zero prints and then add the CD.

 

[Doug]

Isn't there a photo processing lab around? Sorry, I just don't get the idea of going to a mass retailer/box store/drugstore for photo processing... Isn't that the lowest level, with clueless operators and irregular CQ and maintenance? Or if they send it out, where does it go? Might have to pay a bit more to get quality work?

 

[Socke]

Doug, that was me. Here in Bremen you're hard pressed to find somebody doing a CD without prints. Closest is a chemist chain which sends the films to Eurocolor. Processing is 2.50, the CD 4 Euro and a 9x13cm print 1 cent. So I don't bother anymore and get the prints 🙂

OTOH, the scans I get from labs are nothing to right home about, mostly around 1800x1200 pixels at 400KB.

So I order the CD only when I can't be botherd to to my own scanning on an old Canon FS2710, which is much better than what the labs deliver.

One time I shot with my then new 35 planar and just for the fun of it had the roll developed, printed and scanned in the minilab around the corner. So I could show my pictures half an hour after the roll was finished. It was worth the 15 Euro I spent for processing as the shooting took place in my favourite pub and I traded the prints against two very strong Mojitos 🙂

 

[Richard Black]

I guess it is different everywhere. I live in a modest sized city, 50,000, and have had film requests printed or copied to CD that the help at Walgreens knows me by my name. I've never encountered this problem. The board above the counter shows CDs for $2.95. Yesterday, I had the local Moto Photo scan some 120 for me at the next to best scale, 2800x2000, and had 1.5mb scans of each frame. They are nice. The others have different scales, but it doesn't hurt to ask if they have a higher setting. It didn't cost any more.

 

[Nikon Bob]

Richard

That is a very good idea to ask for a higher rez scan especially if it costs no more. I will have to ask next time.

Bob

 

[DougK]

I have to agree with Doug, if Walgreens is that much trouble why use them? Going to the local photo store maybe isn't always as convenient or as inexepensive but I've never had problems with scratched negs or anything like that. I also don't have to explain in small words how film comes in different sizes 🙂. I think last time I did develop-only it cost $3/roll. I'm not going to quibble over the extra dollar if I know there won't be any hassles.

 

[jan normandale]

Hi DMR..

quote "I go in the main door of the job site (yeah, I know, it's Sunday but we have a major push for tomorrow) and I see Jack (the guy who was asked to leave Walgreens the other day) at the security podium on the phone and he was majorly reading somebody off. I first thought it might be a supplier who was late or something. He was on the phone with Walgreens again and was royally p*ssed."

I guess it's a karma thing. LOL

 

[kiev4a]

It's easy to say "just go to a lab." But in our area there is only one "lab" it's a 20-mile round trip and an hour out of my life to drop off film --not to mention gas prices--and the turnaround time is 3-4 days on print film. There's more than an "extra dollar" involved. I normally just get negs developed and our Wallgreens does that for two bucks, in an hour or less, and it's four blocks from the office.

It's easy to say "just go to a lab" if you live in or near a major city. Not so easy if you don't.

I have to agree with Doug, if Walgreens is that much trouble why use them? Going to the local photo store maybe isn't always as convenient or as inexepensive but I've never had problems with scratched negs or anything like that. I also don't have to explain in small words how film comes in different sizes 🙂. I think last time I did develop-only it cost $3/roll. I'm not going to quibble over the extra dollar if I know there won't be any hassles.

 

[Doug]

It's easy to say "just go to a lab" if you live in or near a major city. Not so easy if you don't.

I guess we're pretty lucky here to have two small local labs... the smaller one does better craftsmanship with prints and scans, but the scans are small at 1.2 Megapixels. The other lab offers a "pro" service with 6.1Mp scans from 35mm (2992x2000).

We're such a small city, pop.~15000 including university students, that we don't even have a Wal-Mart or Walgreens. The nearest larger city is 40 miles away in a different county, and still of modest size (Wal-Mart is trying to build a second store there). I think the Rite-Aide store does processing, and I'm sure the Fred Meyer store does too but I've never tried them.

So it doesn't take a major urban area to have a local lab... 🙂

 

[DougK]

It's easy to say "just go to a lab" if you live in or near a major city. Not so easy if you don't.

Good point. If you would, substitute "other retailer offering photo processing" for "local photo store" in my original post. My point was simply that if Walgreens sucks that badly and consistently, it might be time to seek an alternative processor, even if it is less convenient or takes more time.