Let me first say that I know that there must be high-quality labs out there. In fact, some of you probably own/operate them. If you run or know of one those l abs that cares as much about my images as I do, I'd very much appreciate it if y ou'd post the name and location of the lab.
My experience of late has been primarily with labs that don't care about my phot ographs, and I'm tired of ruined images and service personnel who couldn't care less about their jobs.
My most recent experience:
I took some 4x5 Velvia in at around noon one day. The lab's advertised turn-aro und time for E6 was three hours. They told me that it would be ready by 4:00p.m . I returned a bit before that time and waited in the car until it was about 4: 00p.m. I went in, and the woman told me that they had called me to let me know that it would take a bit longer. I hadn't received the message, but I didn't mi nd the delay. She told me that it would take about 20 more minutes. I left, we nt somewhere else, and returned 35-40 minutes later. She told me that they were drying and that it would be a few more minutes. I went somewhere else, then re turned about ten minutes later. She said that it would be just another minute. She said something about it being movie day. By this time I was already late f or an appointment. I waited outside for a couple of minutes (there wasn't reall y any place to wait inside), then went back in. She went into the back room and I waited. And waited. After a couple of minutes I got so fed up with the rude ness that I left. During the experience I had received only the slimmest hint o f an apology. I won't be visiting that place again unless it's an extreme rush (ironic).
The really pathetic part of this is that I had driven a long way to get there be cause a closer lab had previously scratched my slides. I told a friend (also a photographer) about it and she said that the person in charge would want to know . The lab examined the slides when I brought them back, admitted that I probabl y hadn't done it (the film was scratched under the mount, too) and didn't acknow ledge any fault of theirs (I'm glad that those were only test rolls). Also, the other part of my initial order had been about a day late.
Both of those labs are so-called "pro" labs (when I had one of the "consumer" la bs develop some snapshots they overcharged me).
I'm sure that there are lab experiences that have been more disastrous (that wou ld be a thread), but this is enough for me to want to find a lab that I can trus t.
Again, if you know of a lab that consistently has high-quality processing (E6) a nd customer service, please post the name and location.
Thank you.
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