Alyssa S.
Google
While the lab produces high-quality scans, which is why my boyfriend and I have been repeat and loyal customers for over a year, my last experience was beyond unprofessional.
I filled out an online order and dropped off 4 rolls (two 35’s and two 120’s- totaling ~$80 in processing & scanning), along with a few of my boyfriend’s rolls in a separate order. We both received emails confirming they were ready for pickup at the same time. But when I arrived they only had his order and they could not locate mine. I was assured they would be located and included with my next order for pickup, as I was currently dropping off my next order to be processed. I made no fuss and agreed to come back another time and just pick all of them up at once.
When I received the email that my new order was ready for pickup, my boyfriend called to confirm they were holding my lost negatives with the new before he went to pick them up for me on his way to work.
However when he arrived:
1. No effort had been made to locate the missing negatives- 3 weeks later. And they were still nowhere to be found.
2. My new order was not available at the original drop-off location and was left at the Starr St location (despite being dropped off at the Williamsburg location)
No one from the lab ever followed up to update me on the status of the lost negatives, so I assumed they were located and placed safely with my next order. He was then told they would look for them and give us a call the same day, but we never received a call- they blamed it on them being busy. I sent an email that night, then called again the following morning. Again, was told they were busy and will call me back later. Eventually I received one of their automated emails that my order was ready to be picked up so I called them to confirm they did indeed have it, and asked which location I should pick it up from. They confirmed it was at the Starr St location. Later that same day I received an email saying that they moved my order back to the broadway location to be picked up because they remembered my boyfriend told them it was easiest for us to pick up from there- which is correct and why we always pickup and drop off to broadway with only a few exceptions. Then I was lied to and told that my boyfriend “told them it was easiest to pick up from bushwick because he lives over there” and that the email was just a typo and was meant to say bushwick. My boyfriend and I live together, nowhere near bushwick, and nowhere near any transit to bushwick.
Being run around in circles for a month to pick up film negatives that had “fallen behind a drawer” isn’t acceptable in any world. Being lied to instead of just admitting you made a mistake is crazy. And losing a customer’s irreplaceable film negatives and failing to search for them for 3 weeks with no communication is deeply unprofessional. Their new two location system is extremely disorganized and seemingly pointless if all of the processing is still done at the Starr St location.
I tried resolving this privately, fully understanding the weight of public reviews for businesses like this. I was ready to let the whole thing go after going to pickup my order this week and them offering a refund without my asking, but after the millionth runaround and having to take a 4th(!!!) trip to pick up 1 order because of their error(s) and miscommunication, here’s my first ever negative review.
The only positive here is that I finally got my film negatives back and didn’t haul 2 metal bricks up mountains in Colorado just to make clicking noises.
