Found Undeveloped Film (Page 4): If the fine print on the processing form states that you will not get your negatives back and that by filling out and submitting the form you agree to...

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

ButchS wrote:

If you can afford to pay for a couple of hours of attorney time. Hire a lawyer to write them a letter demanding return of your property.

If the fine print on the processing form states that you will not get your negatives back and that by filling out and submitting the form you agree to those terms, then paying an attorney is not likely to achieve anything.

richardsaccount

This just came to mind. I sent a reply to you suggesting you do a search on labs that return your negatives.
If you do find one. Just have one roll developed at first. If it turns out to be a dud then in all probability the others may be also.

BebuLamar

ButchS wrote:

So... customers should just roll over and play dead?

I would also recommend writing a letter of complaint to your state's Attorney General. Report them to the Better Business Bureau, write a scathing review on Yelp, and generally make a nuisance of yourself.

Customers do what customers are supposed to do. Don't do business with places that don't do it to your liking. However pharmacies don't really process film for money so they don't need your business.

ButchS Loc: Spokane, WA

rook2c4 wrote:

If the fine print on the processing form states that you will not get your negatives back and that by filling out and submitting the form you agree to those terms, then paying an attorney is not likely to achieve anything.

You would be surprised what an attorney's letter can do. I know a person who got themselves in enormous debt to credit cards. Their attorney wrote a letter to all of their creditors, that basically said: "joe is not going to pay the balance he owes you. You can sue if you want, but Joe has no assets, so there is nothing you can get."

All the creditors had "signed agreements" too, but they all eventually just went away and didn't bother "Joe" again.

When you sign "boiler plate" agreements, it really only protects them from people who don't have the fortitude to fight.

jackm1943 Loc: Omaha, Nebraska

Buddy Love wrote:

I hope I don't offend anyone but I have to ask. br... (show quote)

You didn't mention whether it was B/W or color film. If B/W, my guess is that it probably still contained useable images. I have developed 35mm b/w film that was 40-50 yrs old and still found images.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

ButchS wrote:

So... customers should just roll over and play dead?

I would also recommend writing a letter of complaint to your state's Attorney General. Report them to the Better Business Bureau, write a scathing review on Yelp, and generally make a nuisance of yourself.

None of that will do any good, as they have covered themselves legally, and likely have already disposed of the negs, so you can't get them back. Just be an informed consumer and patronize companies that do return the negs.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

ButchS wrote:

So... customers should just roll over and play dead?

No, customers need to ask questions in advance. I have my limited developing by done by a local camera store, because I had already determined that they return negatives regardless of the results. One time I repeated my mistake of not attaching the film to the mechanism ..... so they returned a completely unexposed negative strip to me.

ski Loc: West Coast, USA

Demand the developer return the film strips..... They are your property even though there are no images on them...

Bill P

[quote=jerryc41]I've never heard of the developer keeping the negatives. Why would he want them?

They don't keep them, they put them in the dumpster. Mailing them back probably requires a special envelope and they don't want to pay extra postage.

BebuLamar

ski wrote:

Demand the developer return the film strips..... They are your property even though there are no images on them...

You try that and see how successful you are. These places have fine prints on their receipt to cover their ass. The only thing you can do is to not giving them the film to process. However, they don't really care as photo processing for most of them is a service they do to get you in the store. They don't really make money on that business.

drmike99 Loc: Fairfield Connecticut

richardsaccount wrote:

I would try one of the national labs. Bryan's (sic?) in Parsons KS will return your negatives for a fee.
I would do a search engine check of labs.Good luck.

Dwayne’s in Parsons Kansas.

The Woodpecker

Buddy Love wrote:

I hope I don't offend anyone but I have to ask. br... (show quote)

Some caution here. Last year I found a roll of undeveloped 35mm film in the back of a drawer. Judging by when the furniture was last moved I knew the film to be about 12 years old. I took it to my local Walgreen's where I was acquainted with the manager. She promptly developed the film while I did some shopping. When I returned to the counter she started making the prints and placed them on the counter as they came out of the machine. One after another, relatives and friends - Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas dinner, a birthday party; a house warming party. I was in tears when she had finished. Everyone in the photos was dead.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

For those that seem not to have had a roll of film developed since before 2013, this July 2019 post might help in your understanding of the world of 2019 ...

https://thedarkroom.com/retail-film-processing/

chrisg-optical Loc: New York, NY

The Woodpecker wrote:

Some caution here. Last year I found a roll of un... (show quote)

I was expecting a different conclusion...but after 12 years much can happen.