well i'm for one am glad that he did that..screw compusa.. they dont deserve his penny. nor will they ever get another one of mine
This is a pet peeve of mine. "One Hour" means ONE HOUR. Maybe less, but DEFINITELY not more, and stores SHOULD give a discount if they can't do it. They will use the excuse that the processing machine can only work so fast, but I say if you're going to do offer "ONE HOUR" processing service, you should have to put your money where your mouth is. Buy another processor (they really aren't all THAT expensive) or start offering some discounts.
You should have to call it SAME DAY service if you can't guarantee one hour.
As a matter of fact, the only place where I put up with this crap is at CVS because the same day (ONE HOUR) service costs less than the overnight service.
Then again, if people care so much about their pictures, they wouldn't be using cheap disposable cameras and bargain express processing.
<rant>
Sorry but you dont know what you are talking about. I worked as both a sales/lab tech and de facto manager of a Ritz camera for 3 year as my first job. One hour guarantees are dependent on work load, and there is no way that we could "guarantee" that. Now, the store I was in was one of the busiest lab stores in the country,and idiots would come in with 12 rolls of wedding or vacation photos taken on crappy disposable cameras and then have the nerve to demand them in an hour. Processors ARE THAT expensive, especially quality ones. I havent priced them in years but run tens of thousands of dollars, if not hundreds! And cost is not only in the capital of the machine, you have to constantly keep chemicals in the processor 24 hours a day, and keep them heated to strict tolerance too.
Then you gotta worry about quality. I know el cheapo places dont do it, but at Ritz we had to QC every single print by eye, and color/density correct those that were not perfect. And the majority of the stores still had older print machines that demanded an operator at the helm, they werent automated. So you had to peer down at a little negative and guess what density and color corrections to input in real-time. If you were lucky, your store had an automated system that was better, but you still had to QC.
And we usually had the luxury of 2 labtechs at any given time, something that most places dont have the volume to justify. That meant one could have lunch or a cigarette without interuption in the service. Even with 2 techs, one summer that was heavily laden with vacation pictures I worked 7 days/week, 14 hours/day FOR A MONTH because we had so many rolls we'd have to stay at the store until 2-3AM and then go back to work at 10AM to open the store. I'd nap in the backroom if I got too tired.
Please dont even ATTEMPT to start that argument here.
</end rant>
well i'm a photolab tech, so i'll discuss the complexities of one hour photo 
. We clearly state that its not guarenteed one hour, even though on average it is one hour. If we do it faster than hour we aren't charging you more. Anyway for the most part i'm faster than an hour, I always tell people who drop off film if it will take more than hour, i reprint anything they think isn't satisfactory right then and there, we do pretty much everything to keep a customer happy. As for getting another machine, that's ridiculous. They do cost a lot of money, they require a huge amount of maintenance, chemicals, and most of all space, and not forgetting the fact that you would have to hire another tech and pay more salary. For the average 4x6 24 exp roll the store makes approx $7 . With a max amount of 40 rolls/night for our store, 80 for the entire day, that's no more than $560 before my salary, chemicals, paper (remember having the kodak brand name is expensive) and everything else such as maintence. That's before things like free reprints when people bitch, or film that is never even picked up (it happens a lot). If you're willing to pay even more money to get your film done in an hour then maybe it'd be possible to get another machine. Considering the only time there is ever really a film backup (at least when a competant person is working) is when there is a prom or class trip or something like that or if you drop off like 10 rolls, it would go to waste most of the time anyway.
If you want em in 1 hour, go somewhere else like walmart. They'll get your film done on time and give you shoddy prints, or destroy your negatives, it happens a lot when you have giant photo labs, untrained employees, and massive amount of film in machines that work for speed not quality.
As for pricing, one hour is less than overnight for singles (because CVS does not offer singles, only kodak does and they charge up the ass), often overnight double prints cost the same as one hour singles, depending on the current sale in the ad.
and yes if you bitch enough and demand a manager you'll get your dollar back, I just don't think you deserve it, which is why i'll never be manager
. We clearly state that its not guarenteed one hour, even though on average it is one hour. If we do it faster than hour we aren't charging you more. Anyway for the most part i'm faster than an hour, I always tell people who drop off film if it will take more than hour, i reprint anything they think isn't satisfactory right then and there, we do pretty much everything to keep a customer happy. As for getting another machine, that's ridiculous. They do cost a lot of money, they require a huge amount of maintenance, chemicals, and most of all space, and not forgetting the fact that you would have to hire another tech and pay more salary. For the average 4x6 24 exp roll the store makes approx $7 . With a max amount of 40 rolls/night for our store, 80 for the entire day, that's no more than $560 before my salary, chemicals, paper (remember having the kodak brand name is expensive) and everything else such as maintence. That's before things like free reprints when people bitch, or film that is never even picked up (it happens a lot). If you're willing to pay even more money to get your film done in an hour then maybe it'd be possible to get another machine. Considering the only time there is ever really a film backup (at least when a competant person is working) is when there is a prom or class trip or something like that or if you drop off like 10 rolls, it would go to waste most of the time anyway.If you want em in 1 hour, go somewhere else like walmart. They'll get your film done on time and give you shoddy prints, or destroy your negatives, it happens a lot when you have giant photo labs, untrained employees, and massive amount of film in machines that work for speed not quality.
As for pricing, one hour is less than overnight for singles (because CVS does not offer singles, only kodak does and they charge up the ass), often overnight double prints cost the same as one hour singles, depending on the current sale in the ad.
and yes if you bitch enough and demand a manager you'll get your dollar back, I just don't think you deserve it, which is why i'll never be manager
I was a butcher while going to college. I guy came in to pick up a deer we'd processed for him. He though we'd stole some of his backstrap. He took off his coat, threw it on the floor and challenged me to a fight. Remember, I'm a butcher. I've got a rather large and nasty knife in my hand and a few bonesaws within arms reach. The girl running the register called 911. The guy saw her on the phone and hauled ass. He didn't even pick up his coat...
Ok, my store about a stupid fit:
I was in a subway once when the guy in front of me recieved incorrect change from the cashier. A simple math error; happens to everyone once in a while. So instead of nicely pointing the error out, the guys starts screaming at her. (She was a petite girl that looked about 17). I mean, this guy was accusing her of stealing from him on purpose and saying he was going to call the manager up and fire her. Meanwhile, Im speechless at the way this guy is acting. The cashier is in tears crying, understandle as this guy is calling her a stupid bitch that never should have passed grade school math class.
So I step in and start berating this guy, telling him he's being an asshole and that she made a simple mistake. He and his wife looked at me incredulously. Im not the person who usually would do that kinda thing-Im a bit shy. So im trembling as this guy starts yelling at me telling me its none of my business. I said god-damm it IS my business when you are making this poor girl cry over a mistake! I told him that since he had since recieved the corrected change, he should leave the store. At that point he's screaming at everyone and trying to intimidate me. Im not sure what his motives were at this point, he kept threatening to get her fired (even though she was in tears and apologizing profusely). He demands the phone number for the manager, then storms out the door yelling obscenities at me. I ran out after him with an adrenaline rush and asked him to say it to my face. He was too pussy to say anything but his wife rolled down the window and said I was "going to hell".
So anyways I went back in, consoled this poor girl, and called the manager myself. I told her what happened just in case this asshat called her with an exxagerated story. Turns out he did, and the manager told the guy to fvck off.
I was in a subway once when the guy in front of me recieved incorrect change from the cashier. A simple math error; happens to everyone once in a while. So instead of nicely pointing the error out, the guys starts screaming at her. (She was a petite girl that looked about 17). I mean, this guy was accusing her of stealing from him on purpose and saying he was going to call the manager up and fire her. Meanwhile, Im speechless at the way this guy is acting. The cashier is in tears crying, understandle as this guy is calling her a stupid bitch that never should have passed grade school math class.
So I step in and start berating this guy, telling him he's being an asshole and that she made a simple mistake. He and his wife looked at me incredulously. Im not the person who usually would do that kinda thing-Im a bit shy. So im trembling as this guy starts yelling at me telling me its none of my business. I said god-damm it IS my business when you are making this poor girl cry over a mistake! I told him that since he had since recieved the corrected change, he should leave the store. At that point he's screaming at everyone and trying to intimidate me. Im not sure what his motives were at this point, he kept threatening to get her fired (even though she was in tears and apologizing profusely). He demands the phone number for the manager, then storms out the door yelling obscenities at me. I ran out after him with an adrenaline rush and asked him to say it to my face.
He was too pussy to say anything but his wife rolled down the window and said I was "going to hell".
So anyways I went back in, consoled this poor girl, and called the manager myself. I told her what happened just in case this asshat called her with an exxagerated story. Turns out he did, and the manager told the guy to fvck off.
<<How would you get 12 nails in a tire?>>
Most of them probably were little ones that weren't hurting anything, but several were sticking all the way through.
The guy had a construction company....those kinds of trucks always have nails in the tires.
Most of them probably were little ones that weren't hurting anything, but several were sticking all the way through.
The guy had a construction company....those kinds of trucks always have nails in the tires.
Lucky you!
We averaged 120 rolls/day, but it wasnt uncommon to see that and half as much more on any given day.
apoppin
Lifer
Strange . . . yes, today . . . just a few hours ago.
I was at OfficeMax (Palm Springs) Copy center cutting some flyers I ordered and 2 gay guys (I could hear their conversation clearly) were discussing how unhappy they were. The loud one says, "I wish there was a Kinkos here instead. "
He then stalks over to the copy center clerk (who is already talking with a customer) and starts to ask her where Kinkos is. She politely asks him to wait just a moment until she is finished with the customer.
At this point he starts screaming (really loudly . . . I could still hear him 30 yards away at the front of the store) about OM's crappy service and ignorant workers. His friend was really embarassed (and apologizes to me - why, I don't know - for his rude friend). All I could think of in reply to him was 'it must be one of those days' . . . he agreed as I walked to the cashier up front (as the scene continued behind me - if front of at least ten or so customers).
I love when people on ATOT say that. As if there was any way for any of us to prove who knows what they are talking about and who doesn't. By the ATOT measure, you're as clueless as I am.
Then don't advertise it. That's exactly what I'm saying. If your equipment can't handle the workload (I have never EVER gotten prints from CVS in less than 1 hour. To be fair, I have never EVER gotten prints back from Ritz in MORE than an hour, but I paid $20 for 36 prints at Ritz and $5 for 36 prints at CVS. You get what you pay for.
Perhaps there needs to be an exclusion on these non-guarantees? Perhaps they should say in the fine print "One hour valid only on 36 exposures or less. Only valid for one roll per person per visit."
Then some tart comes in and tries that and you have a policy to stick it to. Currently, at every place I've gone to, Ritz, Camera Shop (same thing now), K Mart, Wal Mart, Shop Rite, CVS, Eckerd, Sam's Club and probably a few others, the "one hour processing" is really "same day processing" and if you get lucky you might get your film in an hour or less more than 50% of the time.
I haven't priced them in 3-4 years, but a good-enough-for-CVS quality one was aourn $25k. Not "cheap" but when you consider that it doubles your throughput, that's not so bad. If you can't afford the capacity to offer "one-hour" processing, you shouldn't be able to advertise "one-hour" processing.
Bah, chemicals are negligible. The machine will (should) keep the temperatures accurate, and if you are maintaining one machine it's not much different to maitain 2, 3, 5, 10.
I know el cheapo places dont do it, but at Ritz we had to QC every single print by eye, and color/density correct those that were not perfect. And the majority of the stores still had older print machines that demanded an operator at the helm, they werent automated. So you had to peer down at a little negative and guess what density and color corrections to input in real-time. If you were lucky, your store had an automated system that was better, but you still had to QC.[/quote]
I'll give Ritz the prize for this one. Although for the $20 I'm paying, they damn well better be QCing them! As for someone needing to watch the machine, the one at the CVS I usually go to (it's right behind the counter) is one that needs little operator intervention. They stick the cartridge in and dry prints come out the other end a little while later. It's pretty friggin sweet to someone who used to have to wind the daggone negatives onto the spool manually in a bag and then agitate agitate agitate argh
Anyway, CVS QCs little if at all. And, of course, I've never gotten prints back from Ritz in more than an hour.
Again...there should be reasonable exclusions. If your equipment is screwed, you run out of chems, you run out of paper. demand is unusually high, fine. But if you don't have the equipment and personnel to guarantee that your one-hour processing really is one hour a reasonable amount of time (I'd say 85%) then you should not be able to even claim to offer one-hour processing.
If you can't afford to buy machinery and pay employees to have enough throughput, then you can't afford to offer one-hour processing, and you should not be able to advertise it as such.
Again, Ritz is hardly the culprit in my experience, but for me, CVS has been one of the top offenders. In my business if we say we'll deliver in 1 week, we have to deliver in 1 week or there are penalties. We dont' get to make excuses like "Oh, another client made a huge demand before you came in" or "Well, we only have 2 processing machines. When we say we'll deliver in one week, that only holds if there are no other client demands. At all."
I don't really see this as any different. If you can't guarantee one-hour service most of the time, then you shouldn't be able to call your service one-hour service. Because it's not.
johnjohn320
Diamond Member
- Jan 9, 2001
- 7,572
- 2
- 76
Doesn't really fit the stupid reason thing, except for there was a stupid racist involved:
I used to work in Meijer grocery stores for awhile. I was bagging at this lane, and there were to fairly large women waiting to be checked out in my lane. One was white, in the front, and the other behind her was black. As the white woman was being checked out, she started making a big fuss about a lot of random things, and being indecisive about things, and changing her mind, etc. It was a crowded day and people were ancy. The black woman behind her rolled her eyes and said "would you make up your mind, already?" or something to that extent. The white woman turned to her and said "you shut your damn mouth, n*gger, I'll take as much time as I please."
Well, you can guess what ensued. The black woman pushed the white woman over, white woman got up and slapped her, etc. So now, I'm 14 years old at the time and <100 lbs, and I'm trying to break up a fist fight between these two gargantuate women. Finally, a security dude breaks them up, until the cops come, question me (and a few others) as to what happened, and (unfortunately IMO) take both of them off in cuffs. I certainly hope the black woman got out in a few minutes and the white woman rots there awhile. People are so dumb. :|
I used to work in Meijer grocery stores for awhile. I was bagging at this lane, and there were to fairly large women waiting to be checked out in my lane. One was white, in the front, and the other behind her was black. As the white woman was being checked out, she started making a big fuss about a lot of random things, and being indecisive about things, and changing her mind, etc. It was a crowded day and people were ancy. The black woman behind her rolled her eyes and said "would you make up your mind, already?" or something to that extent. The white woman turned to her and said "you shut your damn mouth, n*gger, I'll take as much time as I please."
Well, you can guess what ensued. The black woman pushed the white woman over, white woman got up and slapped her, etc. So now, I'm 14 years old at the time and <100 lbs, and I'm trying to break up a fist fight between these two gargantuate women. Finally, a security dude breaks them up, until the cops come, question me (and a few others) as to what happened, and (unfortunately IMO) take both of them off in cuffs. I certainly hope the black woman got out in a few minutes and the white woman rots there awhile. People are so dumb. :|
I was in CompUSA once, and the lady got mad because the guy gave her a wrinkled $20 bill back as change...got really mad, the guy shrugged, and she stormed off. Far from a fit, but still quite hilarious
Aves
Lifer
- Feb 7, 2001
- 12,233
- 31
- 101
About a month ago in the grocery store, my mother-in-law threw a fit because the wouldn't accept a check for the $600 worth of groceries she was trying to buy without verifying that the funds were in the bank and the bank was already closed.
Luckily for me a saw what was about to happen and got the hell out of there before the screaming started.
You just don't know how much I despise that woman. :disgust:
Luckily for me a saw what was about to happen and got the hell out of there before the screaming started.
You just don't know how much I despise that woman. :disgust:
Ok, semi-valid point.
However you did come off sounding a bit clueless about how things work. If I made the wrong assumption, I apologize.I'd love to see where a store advertises guaranteed one hour service. Everywhere I have had film processed (ritz, kinkos, CVS, walmart, wolf, cord) has had a disclaimer of some sort display, printed, or posted. I'll agree with the point you made below, that if a store cant process a certain % of rolls in the advertised time, then they shouldnt advertise it. But you seemed to be making the point that they shouldnt advertise it all at if they cant deliver 100% of the time.
Again, I've never seen any guarantee made by a photo lab as to the turn-around time. Of any kind. At ritz we did have disclaimers saying 1-hr depends on workload. Sometimes you cant even guarantee one specific roll in an hour. Try putting a roll of konica or scotch/3M through the workhorse noritsu 901's and sometimes you'd end up taking 2 hours to get the colors right.
That is my experience with CVS, who you seem to be making most of your comments to as well. They never have my film back on time. I've dropped stuff off at 10AM and told them "just get it done by 5" yet they still wont have it done.
2 machines, especially of that quality, would be a nightmare to deal with in a mini-lab. Undoubtably, calibration would never be the same so if you needed to make corrections you'd have to have to wait until the machine they were printed on was open again, etc. And for those places that that only have one tech (most places) keeping up with refilling chemicals, reloading paper, dealing with jams, etc. is bad enough on one machine, I cant imagine two. Most CVS-type places it would be physically impossibly to have two operators considering how small the areas area (at least from what I've seen).
Chemicals are NOT negligible. Sure, stabilizer is fairly inexspensive but the other stuff (and not even including paper) is more expensive that most would imagine.
Understood and I know what kind of machines you are talking about. Thats why Im never happy with the quality from those places. :disgust: Most better places have a dedicated processing unit and a dedicated printing unit.
Here again you post as if any advertising of 1 hour services have an implicit one hour guarantee. I disagree and in ads/flyers/magazines that I see, there is always a disclaimer that its workload dependent. They do that because too many people bitch exactly like you are, when in reality there was never a guarantee.
Sorry for the thread hijack.
I probably don't have as much experience as you, but I've had at least one foot in photography for the last 6 years, and I did work in a print shop for 18 months. I've used a few different processing machines, so I know something about them.Originally posted by: Lucky
Ok, semi-valid point.
They don't. THat's my gripe. They advertise one hour service, but there is no guarantee of any kind that it really be an hour. It's nothing more than a lure to get a customer's foot in the door. They can advertise it as much as they want, yet they can escape any responsibility for having to deliver what they advertise by simply using a vague disclaimer that really says you may NEVER get one-hour service.
Sorry, that was misleading. There's no way you can ever make a 100% guarantee. OTOH, what good is an 85% guarantee? With specific enough exclusions (not valid during the following holiday and high-demand periods, which is exactly what many places do for their "guaranteed next-day" services) it shouldn't be that hard to say "your film will be done in an hour or you get 50 cents off" or some such.
By 85% I'm saying if your equipment can't handle a little more than your average demand, then you shouldn't be able to advertise the service as one hour.
If a lab gets 10 rolls in an on average and only has the capacity to do 6 rolls in an hour, there's a problem. If they have the capacity to print 12 rolls in an hour and suddenly one day there's 20 rolls from 20 different people, that's a different story.
Quite true. But then....why can't these places just offer "same-day" service and stop lying about "one-hour" service?
Basically, when someone comes and whines that their film took more than one hour, you'd shut all those whiners up if you simply stopped calling it one-hour service. I don't think CVS in particular has any intentions of EVER actually getting it done in an hour. So why bother saying so? It's a scam...
Ahhh, but if you have to process 500 prints a day, you have to process 500 prints a day whether it's in 1 machine or 50 machines. I see your point about calibrating all the machines, but as far as the chems and paper go, since the total amount you need isn't based on how many machines or techs you have, the amount of chemicals and paper you need wouldn't increase very much.
Most better places are more than $5 for 36 prints
I am fully aware that there was never a guarantee and this is what pisses me off. When did photo labs gain exemption from false advertising? Advertising anything does carry with it certain implicit guarantees. One thing that is very specific is that you may not offer to sell any good or service that you cannot actually provide. How can you offer me one-hour service and then tell me that it's actually going to be 6-hour service? I can't offer you x widget for $5 and then tell you I can't give you x so instead I'll give you y which is of lesser value for the same price...that would be illegal in many states.
Exceptions for high-demand and broken equipment are reasonable, as are limitations on how much film one person can drop off. If a lab gets backed up and has to give 50 cents off on 40 rolls that day, they should just have to eat that $20.
Advertising one-hour processing when you rarely can make good on it should be just as illegal as any other bait-and-switch tactic.
hahahhaSorry for the thread hijack.
It is I who should apologize!
Sorry
I guess the bottom line for me is that when a company offers a "100% satisfaction guarantee" they aren't guaranteeing that everyone will be 100% satisfied, they're saying that they'll take the hit for the few people who aren't. They're prepared to eat some (hopefully small) loss in exchange for the added buisness that will hopefully come from the security of having such a guarantee.
Likewise, if a photo lab is going to offer "one hour" service, it should carry with it a guarantee that it will be done in an hour or some concession will be made (I think 50 cents per roll would be reasonable). Occasionally outside specified "blackout" periods they might get backed up and the company loses some (hopefully little) money, but they would get added business from being flat-out guaranteed in an hour or you get 50 cents back.
Back to the topic, I had some incidents when I worked at a Bruegger's Bagels:
Once a guy came in with a coupon for 3 free bagels. No strings attached.
He gives me the coupon and says he wants 1/2 dozen. A bagel is (was) 50 cents. If you buy less than 6, you have to pay sales tax. He BOUGHT 3 and got 3 for free. There's no way I can tell the system that he bought 6 now give him money back on 3.
The total charge is $1.59
This guy starts flipping about the sales tax! "What the hell is that? I shouldn't have to pay tax! If I go buy a loaf of bread I don't pay tax!!!!"
"This isn't a loaf of bread."
"So what? It's no different."
"Look, you're only buying 3 bagels. I'm giving you the other 3. You aren't buying 6. You're only buying 3."
"I don't care. I've got 6 bagels, so I'm not paying the sales tax."
I wanted to rant to him about having so much friggin money stolen from my paycheck to fund a social security program that will run dry before I even get a penny out of it, but I thought better of it. I just told him that he was already bilking me out of 3 bagels, and that he can either take his 3 bagels for free and get the hell out of my store, take 6 bagels and pay $1.59 and get the hell out my store, or just get the hell out of my store.
He actually bought the bagels.
Another time a dude walks up to the register with a copy of the NYT. I dunno how it's supposed to work for real, but when they trained me they said to just charge cover price for news. Cover price 35 cents.
I ask him for 35 cents. He says "Well, it's actually 50 cents."
"The paper says 35."
"Well, it's 50 if you don't live in NYC."
"Really? Well, we still only charge 35 cents for it. Think of it as a 30% discount and enjoy your day!"
"NO! It's 50 cents! You can't charge 35 cents for it!"
I couldn't believe this guy was arguing with me over me saving him 15 cents! Eventually I just told him the customer is always right and pocket the extra 15 cents.
People are strange.
I've had a few wacky incidents. One time I was in Target and there was only a few registers open and the lines were long. Anyways, this guy (trailer trash) all of a sudden throws 2 10pks of kit kats on the ground, sticks his middle fingers up and storms out of the store. Funniest thing I've ever seen.
Second story is bizarre to say the least. I worked at Circuit City a few years back as a summer job in the music section. Anyways, this lady comes up to me saying someone is trying to hit her with crutches. She is in tears and shaking. So I turn around and immediately get a few co workers to see what was up. Some wacky lady with crutches said that this lady was trying to zap her and her kids. Get this, she thought the remote control for her keyless entry was some sort of zapping device.
Second story is bizarre to say the least. I worked at Circuit City a few years back as a summer job in the music section. Anyways, this lady comes up to me saying someone is trying to hit her with crutches. She is in tears and shaking. So I turn around and immediately get a few co workers to see what was up. Some wacky lady with crutches said that this lady was trying to zap her and her kids. Get this, she thought the remote control for her keyless entry was some sort of zapping device.
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