kaz6756 Loc: Canarsie,Brooklyn, New York

I took a roll of B&W (C41) into CVS to get developed. Well 2 weeks later I get the call its in come pick it up.
ok I specifically said NEGATIVE ONLY I didn't want the prints.
Guess what they destroy the negatives and do only prints and they say they give you a CD. I didn't get that either.
They have no right to destroy or not give back my negatives.
So I called Customer service at the main office and she said she was going to see if she can get the negatives and a free CD.
So, I'll see what happens.
Has anyone had this happen? Let me Know.
Thanks

Gitchigumi Loc: Wake Forest, NC

Wow! I can't believe that CVS would have a business model that involves destroying the film negatives! That just sounds so wrong, on so many levels... :shock:

kaz6756 Loc: Canarsie,Brooklyn, New York

I forgot its Fuji Developing.

Gitchigumi Loc: Wake Forest, NC

Shouldn't matter... the negatives are your property and they should not be destroying them... for any reason. Or, am I missing something here? (I haven't processed film rolls in a long, long time!)

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

WOW, I have never heard of something like that, that's bullsh... big time. I would be on them all the time, telling them to go public with this etc. That's a shame!!! I still shoot a lot of film, mostly Fuji Velvia and I use B&H for most of that and never had an issue.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Sounds a tad crazy. Will point out the Darkroom (online site) returns with CD of images, the negatives and scans are placed online as soon as the film is developed, sometimes all in less than a week from Chicago to California and back. Although, the performance of the USPS sometimes takes a week to just get to the west coast ...

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

First who have to realize who you are dealing with, these are NOT photo professionals by any means. Sorry you lost your negs, but they are likely gone forever. And why wait 2 weeks to pick up from a 1-hour lab? Its C-41, those are processed in-house.

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

CVS is not a film processor, just as Costco is not a camera store. Only one of these has good hot dogs.

Picdude Loc: Ohio

When did CVS start selling hot dogs ;)

Darkroom317 Loc: Mishawaka, IN

Use a good lab. I use Samy's in Santa Barbara. They charge $5.25 a roll for E6. I think C-41 is less. The turnaround time is a week.

dragonfist Loc: Stafford, N.Y.

More than likely the person you talked to at the store was a highly paid, (can you say minimum wage?) professional that really cared about doing quality work and providing customer satisfaction.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

It's probably just a mix-up by the dunce they employed to develop your images. Either the store is trying to cover it up or possibly a few employees are just covering up the mistake.

Darkroom317 Loc: Mishawaka, IN

It has become policy at some of the low end places.

http://www.apug.org/forums/forum52/108095-wal-mart-no-negatives.html

Gitchigumi Loc: Wake Forest, NC

I find this amazing... I was looking at some prints just yesterday and, stored with them, were the negatives in protective sleeves. Those were not recent... maybe ten years old. But, that was standard practice then, the negatives were always returned with the prints. Afterall, what if you wanted duplicates or an enlargement?

Today, though, my bet is that the stores send the film to a central processing facility that is fully automated. That means, to me, as a designer and builder of automated machinery, that the film goes in one end, prints come out the other and the negatives are discarded.

Why?? The answer is economics... it takes a major investment in machinery to add the capability to cut and store the negatives, then to marry-them to the prints for placement in an envelope for shipping.

If all you have to do is print and "who cares" what happens to your negatives, its a whole lot less expensive piece of machinery.

And, are those CD's really as good as having the original negative?? My bet is "no"...

So, if you want the negatives, and most UHH'ers do, then you'll want to avoid the mass-processors that handle the drugstores and Walmarts of the world.

kaz6756 Loc: Canarsie,Brooklyn, New York

Ijust got the call to pic k them up. remember I called the main office, to complain so let's see what happens when I pick up and what I get.. I know there was a place in Brooklyn that did developing I'll find them for the next roll. thank everyone I'll try to keep y'all posted with this.!