I've bought Rodinal in the last few months from Freestyle. No hazmat charge. Some things are ground shipment only and no international but I don't think theres an extra hazmat charge anymore.
I've bought Rodinal in the last few months from Freestyle. No hazmat charge. Some things are ground shipment only and no international but I don't think theres an extra hazmat charge anymore.
Forty years without a problem, two day delivery to my door. Hazmat ships FedEx ground only with $20 per box charge on top of regular shipping.
I love Freestyle. They support us and have great people in the store. I love to go there and have gotten great deals on short dated film. Nice to have faces in the store to deal with and talk about what we do. On a first name basis with all of them and even showed them and told them about our adventures in x-ray film. Like Kirk said they will be here for us. So I'll always buy from them. Plus they are not that far away.
Free style is great if you are in the US, but their shipping charges for overseas are super high. If they could find a convenient location overseas to open a new store they might clean up in the international market...
Unfortunately, doorstep theft of big ticket items is a factor. But if a package is low value and you live in a 'low risk' area, the UPS driver may have flexibility to leave it w/out signature.
Great to hear of your good experiences purchasing from Adorama - but if ever things go pear-shaped, you are always welcome to email me directly for advice or after-sales support: Helen@adorama.com
Thanks as always for your input - I understand about big ticket items. But I'm usually talking about a few rolls/boxes of film or paper. I'd make arrangements if it were a $500 scanner.
What's with the folks getting hit with hazmat charges from Freestyle? I haven't run into that in YEARS. (I did back in the 90s.) Everything in their catalog that's a hazmat shipment now says, "These chemicals may be shipped by ground ONLY with NO ADDITIONAL SURCHARGE. No air shipments of these chemicals are allowed." At least that's what's in the last catalog I have and that was the case with the last such shipment I got from them, September 20th of last year (which contained two gallons of Rapid Fixer, which is marked as hazmat - due no doubt to the sulfuric acid hardener.)
It's odd; I think there is an upper value - tho' I don't know what that is - for leaving packages outside the front door. But I think some UPS drivers make a lot of it up as they go along.......otherwise I wouldn't get to hear about $5,000 pieces of kit being left 'under the bush' during a thunderstorm!
Likewise. As a matter of convenience I deviated from this over the holiday season and spent about $130 on film at one of the big NYC stores. First package got loast and wasn't delivered on time (not really their problem), they replaced it but shipped an "alternative" -- gray market, short-dated film. Not at all what their ad depicted. What's worse, I ended up leaving an ebay "neutral" since the deal was 50-50 in terms of satisfactory... only to discover that those putzes only return feedback when positive feedback is left for them. I paid, I was patient, I was polite, I even paid for the 'lost" package when it eventually showed up. They were cooperative, polite, and responsive... but someone in their organizaiton is engaging in bait-and-switch. Not bad enough for me to start a separate "I hate XYZ thread" or return the film... but bait-and-switch nonetheless. From now on it's Freestyle... and if that isn't possible I might just have to go digital!
I've asked my UPS delivery person about that, because she sometimes leaves them (generally at the back door, though) and sometimes doesn't. She says they are allowed to excercize their judgement. The problem is that they don't all have good judgement! My delivery person pays attention to weather, and indications that we might be on vacation, etc. I'm blessed to have a UPS delivery person who is intelligent.
I support freestyle as does the photography facility where I'm an artist member. The facility is called Pittsburgh Filmmakers, which is a community darkroom/educational facility. They are the outsource for Pittsburgh university's and colleges such as Pitt and Carnegie Mellon among others. They provide courses for credit as well as a vast array of equipment and darkrooms etc. Freestyle provides student and facility discounts and i routinely save money using Freestyle while supporting film. I haven't been charged any extra fees and would say customer support and shipping is the same as B&H and others.
Bookmarks