Re: I need to vent

[Greg Erker <erker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>The last few weeks their E-6 machine has
>been broken, so they've been sending film to Universal Color in New Hope, MN
>for E-6 processing. I have had good luck with them so far. However, on
>Sunday National Camera's E-6 machine was fixed, so they would do the
>processing themselves. "Great!", I thought to myself. Now I can pick my film
>up Monday at noon to see what kind of results I got.
>
>At noon today I went to National Camera to pick up the processed film and
>buy two rolls of the new Provia 100F film. The girl behind the counter found
>the box containing my processed film, and told me there will be no charge
>for the processing and for me to see a note inside the box. To my horror the
>note said "Dear Customer: We are sorry to report that due to a machine
>failure, your film was damaged during processing....blah blah blah..."

  Ouch!

>It looks like to me they ran the film through as print film - it has a
>purplish color and everything is reverse (light is dark and dark is light)!
>The packet in which the film was placed when I brought it in for processing
>was clearly marked E-6, and anyone doing the processing should at least
>notice the E-6 marking on the roll. I doubt this was a "machine failure",
>but instead gross incompetence or carelessness on part of the processing
>technician.

  I agree, though I'm not a processing expert.

>All I got in return was a roll of film to replace the one they ruined, and
>my next processing free of charge, for "...either 4x6 or 3.5x5 size prints."
>I took the roll of film and left, letting them keep their free processing
>coupon, since I knew I'd never go there again.

  Not enough IMO. If you have a history there perhaps it would
worth phoning and talking to the owner/manager and trying
to get a decent settlment.  Perhaps 5 rolls with free E6
developing. Even if you don't trust them for important shots
you can still use the film and processing for test rolls etc.


>So tonight I am going to go home and look at the film through the loupe, to
>at least check focus and see if the composition was good. I guess none of
>these will go into the folio! :(

  So sad.

  And I was upset at getting a blue line (scratch) on
the best stereo shot on my fisheye66 test roll.

Greg E.