Sunday, May 13, 2007

digital photo printing.

How hard can it be? All I wanted was to print some pictures, OK quite a few pictures but still it shouldn't be too hard should it. I tried online, it was tight but I could get it done in the time scale I needed. Then you have to sign various agreements. I don't want to give away my copyright. Nor will I accept that however bad the print I can't return it. How about we might ship in 2 days or not but we won't even discuss it until 30 days after you place the order when we might print or give you a refund, our choice which. I did find two river where the contract wasn't too bad so I tried to upload my pictures. One told me I didn't have their prefered browser so I would be restricted in how speed and quantity. OK a bit harsh but I was getting desperate, I tried to upload. After three attempts I accepted this wasn't going to work. So try the other site with a decent contract. Same problem I can't upload my pictures.
Well I have used Jessops instant printing before and it was good if expensive I thought I would try one of their more cost effective options. Fist problem they can charge me for 1 hour service but it will be 4 hours to do. Ok not great but I can live with it we can watch the grand prix then collect them. We turn up and being a careful sort I check my pictures. They have all been cropped and are useless. We complain and are told we should have known that would happen it's our fault. He can prove we should have known and shows up on the upload machine that if we had pushed 2 apparently irrelevent buttons it would have shown the cropped image. We pointed out we don't normally push random buttons and suggested there should be some sort of note to tell people. This has been suggested before but apparently everyone knows already so there is no need. After much arguing we persuaded the manager to reprint if we set the images up the way he wanted so I set to work. After 15 minutes the manager informed up there was no guarantee what he would print the second time be there would be no refund on them. Oh and they wouldn't be printed for 24 hours and we would have to still pay for one hour service. I don't think so. Instead I am sitting here waiting for the instant booth to do it's thing. It is slow and costs more but it is reliable, except for the pictures it has lost. Nearly time to get them to open the machine for us. Only took another 2 hours. Who would have thought it could be so tricky?

3 comments:

Nellie's Needles said...

Sounds like you need a printer for photos. I, too, despise having my photos printed elsewhere. Yeah, for printers where I have total control.

Ferret said...

I have one but it is insanely expencive to run, the ink costs a fortune. It is also very slow, it can take half an hour for a small picture. So I have to use other systems when I need a lot of pictures done.

Penny said...

That sounds like a right pain. Not like taking in a film, where they just print the whole thing for you.