Adorama got me, not good

Zonmail wrote:

 > A few months back I came to this forum to get some information about
 > professional labs and I was pointed to Adorama. I should have known better when
 > it took about 3 months for them to send me a mailer, but in a moment of
 > weakness and not wanting to chance important photos to the local one hour photo
 > place I sent in some very special shots to Adorama, this was 12/22. I called
 > after the New Year but they had an exucuse about the number of business days. I
 > called again today and they say they never got the film. I think it would have
 > come back to me as my return address was on it and I think they lost it. I had
 > a check in there but that is not important, the film is important. This company
 > seems difficult to deal with. I am wondering about others experiences and what
 > recourse if any I have. I only have my stub from the mailer, I should have
 > mailed this so that I could have tracked it.
 >
 > Thanks for any help.
 >
 > Joel Stern

Contact the postal service, and have them do a trace of your mailing. This was
holiday time mailing, so it could have been lost in the volume.

Anytime you are mailing something important, send it return receipt, or use
Priority Mail, or UPS, to get a tracking number.

The unfortunate thing is that the postal service tracing will be very slow, and
might still not discover what happened to your letter.

Of course, you could assume that Adorama got it, screwed it up, and choose to lie
to you. Maybe they did, but you have a middle man in the US Postal Service, and
they are not operating without errors. Gather as many facts as you can first, then
nail the guilty party.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat
Alliance Graphique Studio
<http://www.allgstudio.com><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Adorama got me, not good 

Zonmail <zonmail.RemoveThis@aol.comnojunk> wrote:
 > weakness and not wanting to chance important photos to the local one hour photo
 > place I sent in some very special shots to Adorama, this was 12/22. I called

When I've got really important rolls, ones I care about,
I have them processed locally, just because I've had rolls
lost by mail-off processors a couple of times.

 > difficult to deal with. I am wondering about others experiences and what
 > recourse if any I have. I only have my stub from the mailer, I should have

I've never used Adorama's processing--no idea if they do it
themselves or send it to a lab near them. I've bought equipment
and supplies from Adorama a number of times, and I've never had
a bad experience on that. Not that it helps you, of course.

When it's happened to me, I've called the processor, asked
for the manager, and explained how much I wanted the film
and asked that they try their best to find it--but that hasn't
ever actually worked.

BTW, it IS possible that it really was lost in the mail system--
I've had that happen twice in the last few months.

Fingers crossed for your film ..

_______________________________________________
Ken Kuzenski AC4RD kuzen001 at acpub .duke .edu
_______________________________________________
All disclaimers apply, see? <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.duke.edu/~kuzen001" target="_blank">www.duke.edu/~kuzen001</a><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Adorama got me, not good 

zonmail.TakeThisOut@aol.comnojunk (Zonmail) wrote:

 > but in a moment of
 >weakness and not wanting to chance important photos to the local one hour photo
 >place I sent in some very special shots to Adorama

Unfortunately, this won't help you know.

If you have important photos, take it to a local place that develops on the
spot. As opposed to a local place that sends it out.

If you have really important photos, develop them yourself.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Adorama got me, not good 

Wasn't it Zonmail who said...
 > I think it would have
 > come back to me as my return address was on it and I think they lost it.

I would be much, MUCH more apt to place the blame with the post
office than with Adorama - though it could be that you're right.

I received a check in yesterday's mail that my client forgot to put
my box number on - five weeks ago! It took her four weeks to get
the misaddressed envelope back, and she lives in the next zip code
over.

I avoid the post office for everything except first class mail
(especially that bogus "service" they call priority mail - which is
just first class mail with a bigger stamp) and send anything of even
moderate importance via UPS. It's tracked, it's insured and it's
accountable.


--
Joe Pucillo
Baltimore, Maryland USA

To reply by email, please remove the .xx from the address.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Adorama got me, not good 

From time to time I have seen the postal service loose mail for four to
eight weeks. One of my rolls which was sent to Kodak disappeared for almost
two months.

It is possible that Adorama may have lost your stuff, but the USPS is more
likely to blame.

John
 >> Stay informed about: Adorama got me, not good 

You can go even further and protect really irreplaceable work by using two
rolls of film and having them processed separately (different labs, or at
least different dates).

Even so... NO film should be lost... it's always sad when film is lost.
 >> Stay informed about: Adorama got me, not good