Fuji Color Processing in Albany NY

[Battou]

As soon as I can afford it I am buying Film processing equipment of my own. In addition to Rite Aids poor film selection and failure to comply to contract to customers from national management when they made the agreement with Fuji color processing, there are issues with an extended wait time for processing of film (having gone from two to ten days), periodic damaged prints and now an incident involving four frames that where just screwed up from the processing lab two of them where completely unsalvagable to me due to scratching, pitting and chemical staining, Oh I was pissed. I did not bother scanning one of the unsalvagable ones. Frames 10,11,12 and 13 from one roll of film where damn near toast, I had tried rerinsing but that only resulted in a marginally better scan for the chemical streak, it did nothing for the others. Frame 10 was salvageable and 11 took some work but managed to salvage it, 12 and 13 where a total loss, Not that frame 12 is much to look at, frame 13 is far worse, I was so excited about that set, that pissed me off royally :angry1:.

11 (Second scan)

12

That was from a couple months ago, I finally had my fill of their poor processing. However I did give them one last chance to redeem them selves and they blew it completely.

I had twenty two rolls of film to be processed. Of those twenty two rolls there was over a dozen instances of the same processing error shown above, But that is not the worst of it. On all twenty two envelops shipped I printed the information and in the box they provide specifically for special instructions, I had in large bold red text "Film Only - No prints" This took up the entire box, it simply could not be missed.

They sent back double prints for everything including one roll of film that was literally ripped in half. What should have been a fifty USD order suddenly became a two hundred USD order.

When I called to complain, it took me several hours to get through to their support staff. When I finally did get through I ended up with an individual who spoke with such a heavy middle eastern accent I could not understand half of anything he said. Given how pissed I was at this point I was in no mood to monkey around with a pissant support tech, I wanted a supervisor. He was unable to provide one so I told him I would try back later. After another several hours of trying I did get through to another support tech. An American this time, one I could actually understand. I told him I wanted to speak directly to the supervisor. He asked what the problem was and I told him that I was having a major problem with chemical stains due to improper rinsing and that the special instructions box was ignored when the "Film Only - No Prints" was in big red text and could not be missed. He very quickly says " that is a service we do not provide" I told him "You've lost my business" and hung up the phone.


Now, I don't give a rats ass who you are, if you do not offer a service requested, you send the film back with a note saying "We do not offer this service" You do not process out the product of a different more expensive service and bill for it, that is fraud as far as I am concerned. Further more, According to the manager behind the Rite Aid photo counter this is not the first time the special instructions has been ignored so what is the point of a box for special instructions if it's just going to be ignored?


Fuji Color Processing labs has lost my business for good due to their incompetence. I've already been told that my discontinuance of photo processing at Rite Aid has had an impact at my local branch as I was their biggest film processor. Fuji processing may be able to right off one mid to large film shooter but I don't think they can right off too many. I'm hoping this little vent might inspire a few other lab switches. That stunt on top of their previously poor performance was just uncalled for.

Additionally, any of you who are one our service providers who do offer a send out service using Fuji Color Processing labs, I would suggest you do what ever you can to swap to another sent out lab as this could backfire on you and cost you money should an incident like this occur with your send out customers just like this one did to my local Rite Aid.