cheating?!.. how'd you react?

mentos_007 · Oct 26, 2004

Hi! today I had a stupid situation in my local photo lab. But I'll tell you the whole story:

I went to my friend to take some shots of her. Some of them turned to be a perfect photos to documents. Because she is going to have birthday party next week I decided to make a gift with my hands... I mean I'll have some shots printed, glue them togheter on a nice paper and put it in frames. Ok. I went to the lab, left there a cd with only one photo because I just wanted to see how it will turn out. Unfortunately it was the photo that was a prefect - id-card photo. For a better view I'll post it down here:

I put there 4 shots just to cut one off and take for myself because we are a very good friends. AND... what happened?

After having it pronted, the woman in the lab told me than I have to pay for it as for normal document photos - 15 zlotys (our Polish currency) while I ordered it as a simple 10x15 cm photos on a matt paper for 0.70 zlotys. (So they counted it more than 15 times!!!!)
And they do ordered me to pay it!
I was shocked! I didn't expect they might think that I want to put those shots to documents! Finally I paid them 1 zloty and I said that for the next time I'll show them and explain exactly what I want. So the final was very positve for me but I FELT LIKE A FOOL! They made an idiot of me...

How would you react? And feel after such a situation?

MDowdey · Oct 26, 2004

you jump over the counter..take the guy by the neck and threaten the life of him, his wife, his dog, and the house they live in.

always works for me. :wink:

md

mentos_007 · Oct 26, 2004

hahah but I asked seriously

Big Mike · Oct 26, 2004

There is a saying...the customer is always right.

Anyone who has worked in retail will tell you that this is not actually true (just ask MD). But anyway...

The point is that it's their responsibility to make sure they are doing the job that you want them to do. If they make a mistake, they should pay for it...not you.

Tell them that you will be spending a lot of money (zlotys

) on this type of stuff and if they don't want to treat you right...you will find another place to go. And don't let them make you feel like a fool.

mentos_007 · Oct 26, 2004

yeah yeah,,, thanks Mike ... but you see, sometimes you want to be "legal" and others misundertand your intentions. And I don't like when people think I'm cheating while I'm not

actually, in a few days I'll be going to have some biiiig prints in their lab but I feel bad after today

MDowdey · Oct 26, 2004

Big Mike said:
There is a saying...the customer is always right.

Anyone who has worked in retail will tell you that this is not actually true (just ask MD). But anyway...

The point is that it's their responsibility to make sure they are doing the job that you want them to do. If they make a mistake, they should pay for it...not you.

Tell them that you will be spending a lot of money (zlotys ) on this type of stuff and if they don't want to treat you right...you will find another place to go. And don't let them make you feel like a fool.

mike you really are the voice of wisdom. i couldnt have said it better myself..
m
d

mentos_007 · Oct 26, 2004

exactly

but this is the best lab in town

Big Mike · Oct 26, 2004

Well if you want to use that lab a lot in the future...you can try one of these two methods.

You can be a hard ass. Every time you go there...check over your order and make sure that it is perfect. Make them redo any little thing that you don't like...at their expense. Keep doing this until they realize that they had better to a darn good job on your stuff or you will make them do it again. They won't like you...but you will get what you want.

Another option is be super friendly. Get to know them and let them get to know you. If they like you, they will be more likely to do a good job for you. But this may backfire on you if they slack off because they know you will not get upset...to their face anyway.

Bottom line...it's your money. So you are in charge.

MDowdey said:
mike you really are the voice of wisdom. i couldnt have said it better myself..

I just wanted to use the word zlotys.

santino · Oct 26, 2004

you reacted like I would react :thumbsup:

you ain't no fool, they are fools. I hate such stories (unfortunately I experienced some too

).

rangefinder · Oct 26, 2004

Not quite sure what you provided them. If you provided one (1) photo and they printed it 15 times you may be stuck.

Here's what I do for passport/ID photos.

Here a standard size is 4x6 inches. So I create in photoshop a 4x6 and put two (2) 2x2 photos on it. Then have them print the "4x6" at $0.25.
When I get home I cut them out. IF I give then a CD with one (1) 2x2 on it they print it two times and it cost me $0.50.

So the best thing to do is put all the photos you can on the 10x15 as ONE DOCUMENT/FILE. Then have them print the one 10x15 and you should get charged for only the 1-10x15.

As mike said the "Customer is always right" - but not everybody agrees with that. If you're taking them a lot of work and they are getting a lot of money from you I think they should have compromised - maybe charged you half price - and told you how to submit these in the future so that misunderstandings like this could be avoided.

If I was the lab I would not want to lose your business - especially if it looks like you will bring me more business in the future.

Here I had a lab like that. They were the best in town. So I went to another lab that wasn't the best and made friends with the manager and his lab technician Melissa. Everytime I took them work I would give Melissa lessons in color printing. Now their lab is the best in town and gets all my processing work. The other lab - well they are not doing too good.

Not Neve · Oct 26, 2004

If I were you, and I still felt I got the bad end of the deal I'd ask to talk to a supervisor/manager. It could be that the woman is an employee (not sup/manager) and is just charging according to how she's been trained. Someone else may be able to over-rule the decision.

If this is a typical way someone would have something printed then the woman at the lab could've/should've explained exactly how it would've been charged. Then again, if it's a typical order she probably thought you understand how it was charged.

No guarantees that a supervisor/manager would correct it to you satisfaction but maybe they would've explained why it was charged the way it was, and why they couldn't charge less, if that's what they decided.

This isn't directed at you/your situation, Mentos, but I don't think the customer is always right. Sometimes the customer is just obnoxious!

fadingaway1986 · Oct 27, 2004

Not Neve said:
If I were you, and I still felt I got the bad end of the deal I'd ask to talk to a supervisor/manager. It could be that the woman is an employee (not sup/manager) and is just charging according to how she's been trained. Someone else may be able to over-rule the decision.

If this is a typical way someone would have something printed then the woman at the lab could've/should've explained exactly how it would've been charged. Then again, if it's a typical order she probably thought you understand how it was charged.

No guarantees that a supervisor/manager would correct it to you satisfaction but maybe they would've explained why it was charged the way it was, and why they couldn't charge less, if that's what they decided.

This isn't directed at you/your situation, Mentos, but I don't think the customer is always right. Sometimes the customer is just obnoxious!

I agree there with what you said about that is probably how they are trained...

But as she took it in on cd, the person at the lab was probably not aware what was on the cd...

mentos- is there some law or something in poland to do with document photos? Any reason why you might have been charged more?

I know that here, people cheat and do their passport photos themselves - and they get charged just for the size of a print (44c for a 4x6)

rangefinder - i think she said they did compromise - and she ended up paying $1. (or that funny word for whatever they call their currency)

Artemis · Oct 27, 2004

I would have just said.

"This...is...not...what...I...wan
t....you...re....do...it...or...I...open
...a...can...of...woopass...on...your
...human...butt...and...it...will...be...shaken...first..."

Then give your angry voice...and...if possible...have a can of coke and remove the labell and write "Woopass!" on the front of the silver
...then look at the lady...and start shaking it...

Naw seriously Id just say "Im not paying you zlotys for something I didnt want...you want this can of woopass or something?"

jadin · Oct 27, 2004

If you ordered it like you said it's their mistake. And their loss of zlotys. (oh that is too fun)

Here artemis, this is for you... a company called "Jones Soda" makes this: