A friend got screwed over by a store- what should we do?

[slackerinabox]

A friend of mine (well, my film production class partner) recently got majorly screwed by the film processing lab that we go to.. The way our movie film works is that you shoot your film and then get it processed at a lab.. The lab gives you back the processed film and you edit that.. So she handed in her raw film for our final project about a week ago and went to pick up the processed film today.. After bullsh1tting for an hour ("oh, we'll get your film.. We're just a bit backed up today!") the cashier tells her the awful news - there was a chemical spill and her film was ruined... She was pissed and they didn't have any good news for her... So what should she do? I'm sure that our professor will gladly give her an extension to reshoot but here's the problem - film shoots cost money.. The film alone cost around $200. The shoot itself had around $200 of incidental expenses (transportation expenses for the actors, food- when an actor is working for free you can't take him to mickey d's) and then there's the time involved... So, even if she gets to do a reshoot, she'll have to spend 2 more days of her time and $400 more money.. I suggested that she write an invoice of all of her expenses, get it notarized and then hand it to the management of the Lab.. is this fair? What if they refuse to pay her expenses? What sucks is that she's an immigrant from Taiwan and money does not come easy for her.. Should she see a lawyer about this? Any advice would be great.

 

[isekii]

sue em

judge judy baby~!

 

[slackerinabox]

Originally posted by: isekii
sue em

judge judy baby~!

Seriously? I'm not very sue happy and I don't think that she is either.. but does this justify judge judy's attention? When she spoke to them they seemed indifferent "Oh, these things happen.. You're not the only one who lost film... Talk to your professor, she'll understand.".. I would have verbally kicked their asses and made a scene until they handed me money from their register.. I guess it's not her style

 

[bockchow]

i say go with the invoice and a note from the teacher backing it up. if you get shot down then go over there heads and just keep going. with retail the more you bitch and yell and the more people you talk to the better your chances are. the first couple people you talk to will more than likely try to blow you off because they don't want to have to take it to thier boss.

 

[Turkish]

dude what are you smoking ... threaten them for going to the small claims court or something. they damaged her property.

she should definetly get her money back + some extra for all the trouble.

 

[slackerinabox]

Originally posted by: Xiety
dude what are you smoking ... threaten them for going to the small claims court or something. they damaged her property.

she should definetly get her money back + some extra for all the trouble.

Sadly, I'm not smoking anything.. It's obvious that she has to get the money back for the actual film.. The incidentals is what we're worried about... The note from the teacher is a good idea... I should pick up my film before I go in there with her - wouldn't what them to have an "accident" with my film as well!

 

[AlienCraft]

When she left her film ,was there a receipt? I'll bet there is some fine print about damages, etc.
It won't absolve them from negligence, but it will force you to small claims court.
She needs to toal her expenses for that shoot and sue for that amount. NOT what a replacement will cost, only what the TOTAL NET LOSS from the original ruined film.
That is all you can sue for, iirc.
sux, tho.....

 

[slackerinabox]

Originally posted by: AlienCraft
When she left her film ,was there a receipt? I'll bet there is some fine print about damages, etc.
It won't absolve them from negligence, but it will force you to small claims court.
She needs to toal her expenses for that shoot and sue for that amount. NOT what a replacement will cost, only what the TOTAL NET LOSS from the original ruined film.
That is all you can sue for, iirc.
sux, tho.....

I'm still not clear - she would only be able to sue for the cost of the media (film) or also for the expenses that she will occur since she has to reshoot the whole thing (film plus other expenses)?

 

[Lvis]

I would imagine you will have little trouble getting them to replace your film, but the expenses being reembursed is iffy.

As others have said, small claims court is an option. No doubt you would get the film money, but they could make all kinds of arguements as to why they shouldn't have to pay for the other stuff.

But it's not much money, really. Talk to the manager, see how they want to handle it.

 

[DurocShark]

All they're required to do is give you an equivalent amount of unexposed film. Nothing else. The recipt you got for the film probably had that spelled out too, but even if not, this has been tested in court over and over.

 

[kranky]

I worked in a film lab. If you get them to give you replacement film and process that for free, that's about as good as it gets. The lab has no liability at all. We used to process film for people who were spending $40,000 a day for the shoot, and their processing bill would be about $500. If the lab was obligated to reimburse people for their costs if things went wrong, the cost of processing would be 50x higher.

The nature of the film lab business is that stuff will happen. No lab will take any liability for anything above and beyond the cost of processing because they could never afford it.

My recommendation is not to try to push them around with notarized letters and lawyers because the only way you are going to get something out of them is if they feel like doing it. You can't make them do anything. The way I would do it is to see if the teacher will approach the lab on your friend's behalf. Your friend isn't a big customer, but if all the students use the same lab, the teacher has some clout. The teacher could explain why it is such a hardship on the student, and perhaps the lab, as a goodwill gesture and to show support for students and the school, blah blah blah, would be gracious enough to give the student replacement film and free processing.