Incompetent Photo Developing at Walgreens

One. If you waited four or more years to have you film developed, Did
you really care about it that much?
Two. The expiration date on you film means something, film over time
does go bad, and thus creates issues when developing the film.
Three. With so many issues you claim to have, Its hard to believe that
you are telling the whole truth.

It's a shame that you had multiple bad experiences at Walgreen's. I
have worked in a Walgreen's lab for a number of years and I know that
all but one of your problems were easy to avoid and/or rectify.The
employees are obviously not trained.

Unfortunately, film jams do happen on occasion, even in
well-maintained equipment.This very thing has happened on my shift. It
was a machine malfunction that was not something we could have
foreseen or prevented. If rolls/frames were ruined the best thing to
do is be completely honest about the extent of the damage and be
sensitive of the customer's understandable displeasure. People rarely
go to the trouble of getting film developed of images they don't want
so, of course, they are always upset when things go wrong.

I do agree that yes, you had a bad experience, but why would you wait
so long to develope your film? It obviously expired and it should of
been expected that the pictures would come out in a less desireable
state. However, I worked at walgreens photo lab myself and I do my
best to make sure customers photo's meet my standards which are pretty
high. Walgreens doesn't care about thier photo lab although aside from
pharmacy it brings in the most profit. Yet managers keep on pulling
trained photo techs out of photo to work cases and over stock and ring
customers on the front register, which is wrong because the customers
in photo who are there specifically for thier pictures should be
waited on first and not the 4 other people in line who just want to
return something, complain about an item that walgreens is out of,
need cigarettes from up front or dont want to wait in the huge line up
front consisting of 5 people with 1 item each. I think if Walgreens
made a policy to make the Photo lab strickly for photo not random
poeple wanting random items, it would a better place!

Actually , the only cost effective way to salvage old expired film is
to develop it and have them printed as B&W prints. They will look
great but they will be B&W not color this advice applies to you four
year old film.

will care , it hard to ruin film, unless the machine is not maintained
well.

Depending on how bad the creases are , another lab could print them
for you.

If you really want to be demanding , make WAG send them out for photo
repair/restore at no cost to you. Photo restoration is a send out
service that WAG offers !

Miss

AS A former employee of this DISGRACEFUL COMPANY. You are right to
give them a chance to do your order CORRECTLY and they have failed.

Here is what is happening, WALGREENS DOES NOT CARE ABOUT THE PHOTO
DEPARTMENT ANYMORE. THEY HAVE THIS INANE POLICY CALLED YOU WORK FOR
THE COMPANY.

IT MEANS THAT EVEN IF YOU ASSIGNED TO WORK THE PHOTO LAB, THEY ARE
ACTUALLY INSTEAD BE ASKED BY MANAGEMENT TO PROTECT $100K WORTH OF
COSMETICS.

THEY WORRY MORE ABOUT PRODUCT THAN CUSTOMER.

GO TO CVS OR WAL-MART

ACK! I would have flipped my lid. I haven't used actual film in years,
(I love my cheapie little digital camera), but based on your info I
would never let Walgreen's near any film I might use in the future.

I've always had good luck with sending in film rolls to a mail order
lab like Clark or York. Of course, that was before digital photography
came into the scene.

It was very reasonable, I usually sent in 2 rolls and got double
prints which with shipping amounted to 11.00. If you have any more
film I would suggest this or find another store.

We are the type of people who want to see our holiday and vacation
pictures immediately, so film is dropped off quickly and developed.
However, I would not be happy to find that photo memories of such
events to be mangled or unviewable.

Unless April is present, I would not continue to drop off film at that
location after so many mistakes.

12 different occasions?
I would have stopped going there after the first error.

The problem that Walgreens is facing is a turnover rate and the
photolab is an area of the store that you just can't put a "warm body"
in and hope everything will go smoothly. The photolab is a complex
and highly involved department. When I hire someone new for the store
I hire them as a service clerk. During the first month I see how
intelligent and dedicated they are. It is through the experienced
staff that I decide who will work in the photolab. I just don't take
a person "off the street" and put them there.

However, it's getting harder and harder because of the turnover rate
to get intelligent and adequate help in the photolabs. Just today the
district I'm working in received "SOS" e-mails from two stores saying
they were desperate for help. One store was down to only 1 photo
clerk.

By the way you state that these are film from severall years ago (i.e.
4 years). Film that old has expired. Film needs to be developed
before the expiration date. Much more than likely your pictures would
come out with some sort of discoloration.

Donald, I admit I started laughing about half way through your letter
because these people sound like the Keystone Cops! But you're right,
it isn't funny at all. I actually think you're taking it rather well.
I'd be very upset if my pictures were lost or ruined.

Taking your business someplace else is definitely the right decision.
Even if you hear back from Walgreens, I don't think I would give them
another chance.