CVS Photo Center strikes out

By | July 14, 2006

July 13, 2006

Thomas M. Ryan, President
CVS Corporation
One CVS Drive
Woonsocket, RI 02895

Dear Mr. Ryan,

They say that 96% of customers you lose won’t tell you why they left, even if you pay them. Pay attention… I’m the other 4%.

Your corporation needs a mammoth dose of Jeffrey Gitomer’s Customer Satisfaction Is Worthless, Customer Loyalty Is Priceless. You really need to read it. Then you need to buy copies for everyone in your corporation who has anything to do with figuring out how CVS relates to its customers. Then you need to buy copies for everyone in your corporation who actually talks to customers.

Last night, I decided to upload about 200 digital photos to the CVS Photo Center Web site and order prints of them to be picked up from my neighborhood CVS (#[elided]).

I was pleased to discover that you were offering digital prints for the low price of 19 cents each. I was also pleased to discover that you were offering a special deal — 10 free prints for each 30 paid for. Now, this is about where I stopped being pleased.

Reading the fine print of the free-prints offer, I discovered that the free prints would only be credited to my account after I’d completed an order. In other words, I couldn’t do the simple, logical thing, which would have been to order all the prints I wanted in a single order and receive some of those prints for free automatically. No, I had to play games with doing the math to split my prints into two orders, such that the free prints credited as a result of the first order could be used to offset the second one, and I had to wait until the first order was confirmed before being able to place the second one. Why did you design a promotion intended to attract customers to work in a way that in fact annoys them?

As if that weren’t bad enough, when I placed the second order with my newly earned free- print credits, I discovered that because the total cost of the order after the credits were subtracted was less than $5.00, I was going to be charged an additional $1.49 fee. Now it becomes clear… You designed your promotion the way you did to make it more likely that you’d get to charge people that fee. One hand giveth, and the other hand taketh away. Do you think your customers like paying bogus fees? Do you think your customers like being treated like rubes? Do you think this kind of thing engenders customer loyalty? Duh.

When I went to pick up my prints this afternoon, the woman who helped me acted like she was doing me a favor. I don’t think she smiled once. When I explained to her that I didn’t think I should have to pay the $1.49 fee considering that I’d just bought 200 prints and paid for 3/4 of them, she agreed to waive the fee, but she was pretty darn surly about it. If she was going to waive the fee anyway, don’t you think it would have been a better idea for her to do it with a smile on her face and a cheerful voice, rather than with the obvious attitude that she’d be having a much better day if it weren’t for all those customers with their pesky demands? When I put my credit card into the slot upside-down because I was flustered by the way she’d been treating me and she told me to turn it over in a tone of voice which made it clear that she thought I was a moron, do you think that made me feel like recommending CVS to all my friends and shopping there again at the next possible opportunity? Not!

But the worst was yet to come. One of my print orders simply wasn’t there. They said they’d never received it. This, despite the print-out I was holding in my hand showing that my order was confirmed and had been transmitted to this particular CVS for processing. Do you think anyone apologized? Do you think anyone offered to solve the problem? No, of course not, they just told me I’d have to go home and resubmit the order.

The icing on the cake was the discovery when I got home that several of my prints were misprinted. Great quality control! Now I get to experience the pleasure of writing the misprinted photos to a CD, shlepping back to the store, and getting them to reprint them. Yes, sir, shlepping back and forth to the store is exactly why I submitted my photos for printing through a Web site!

Rest assured, once those misprints are fixed, I’ll be doing my darnedest to find someone else to print my photos from now on.

Don’t treat people like suckers. Don’t nickel-and-dime people. Be friendly and helpful. Empower your employees to solve customers’ problems; indeed, demand that they do so. This is how you win customer loyalty. This is how you succeed. Are you up to the challenge?

Sincerely,

Jonathan Kamens

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37 thoughts on “CVS Photo Center strikes out

  1. frannie

    I download my photos from my computer to a Memorex CD-R. They show up on my computer but when I go to the Kodak Kiosk at CVS, they do not show. Says no images. I go home and double check the zcd and the images are there. What is going on???

    Reply
  2. Rick

    Jonathan,
    I was just trying to decide to go to Costco, which is cheaper anyway, or CVS. CVS is around the corner and I wanted to avoid mobs at Costco. Now that you mention it though, on top of all the other stuff, I had the same experience at the CVS on Broadway in Clifton, where some little girl also made me feel like a total moron, even though I had never before used their photo kiosk (I was trying to do via Bluetooth-new phone and I never used before either.) She barely helped me also, and took off the second she told me what to do. Forget TLC! This clinches it, I’m going to Costco. It’s starting to feel like 3rd world customer service at some places in the US! I also notice its usually me doing the thanking at some of these places, making me feel like I owe them and not vice versa!

    Reply
    1. Angela

      Hi! I work at CVS in the photo lab. I have 12 years experience, 6 of those spent at Ritz Camera as a key lab tech and photo supervisor. I am kodak certified and fuji certified as well. I love my job and there is nothing more awsome about it then making sure the customers are taken care of and the prints come out beautiful and the best they can be. Customer service is huge, its so important that it can make or break any buisiness. I hope that you called 1800shopcvs and let them know of your story above. They do not ignore the customer feedback. Its so important to hear from you so they can fix what needs to be fixed. Its what the surveys are for at the end of your purchase. We actually have the district managers phone number and give it out to customers for feedback as well. If you are ever in Nashua NH, I work at the one on Main street, I am currently the photo lab supervisor and I would love to help you out. I sincerely appologize to the man above for his experience at cvs. I know I am not personaly responsable for what happened to him but I cringed after reading it. Its awful, shame on the clerk for such poor customer service. I can assure you as well the software has improved and has been fixed and upgraded for the online service. We even have an app for the mobile phones so you can send pictures straight to cvs and pick it up right away. Its gotten so much better. Up here, I know that the other photo labs are just as passionate about helping people as I am, I would invite you to try all of them and let us know how we did.

      Reply
  3. Tina

    I have had problems at CVS when using the kiosks in the store. Nothing major, but annoying, resulting in my having to make several trips to the store in order to complete one order right.
    What amazes me about these posts is the snotty “you get what you pay for” criticisms of the customers! You should not have to go to a photo store to have prints made properly. If a store offers a service, you have every right to expect them to do it right and to be polite and helpful if there is a problem. CVS offers a photo service and has a responsibility to do it right or stop offering it all together.
    My experiences with the CVS staff in the photo department is that they behave like caricatures of spoiled post-adolescents who clearly could not care less whether you get your photos or fall down a hole and die…they are just counting the minutes until their next break.

    Reply
  4. LINDA

    I THINK CVS IS A GOOD STORE, AND I LOVE THE PHOTO CENTER

    Reply
  5. ANGELINA

    I’VE BEEN TRYING TO LOOK AT MY PHOTOS ON YOUR CVS CD AND AFTER HOURS OF TRYING STILL CAN’T GET THEM TO SHOW ON MY COMPUTER. ALL IT SAYS IS NO PHOTO AVAILABLE OR NO EMPTY PHOTOS. AFTER GOING BACK TO THE STORE THINKING THEY DIDN’T PUT THEM ON THE CD. THERE THEY WERE! HOW THE HELL DO I PULL UP THESE PHOTOS ON YOUR CD?

    Reply
    1. julzpirelli

      I’m havin’ the same problem and they look at me like I’m bothering them(Chelsea,MA)and how dare I !!! Thats so so bad, Damn!!!!!!!!!!!

      Reply
      1. Angela

        Hi! I actually work at cvs in the photo department. I have worked in photo for 12 years, I worked for Ritz camera for 6 of those years and I am a photographer as well. Your cd may be saved in a different format. It needs to be Jpeg in order for the Kiosks to read it. If you edit at home then save on a cd and bring it in make sure you save it as a jpeg or it will say that there is nothing on the cd. Unfortunately we are not dealing with fuji machines, its Kodak and there memory is very small, so they will not read large files. They did this because the Kiosks actually store your photo’s until a clean sweep of the system is done, which should be done weekly by the photo lab. Im so sorry you had such a bad experience there. Come to NH, I am the photo lab supervisor at the CVS on main st in Nashua. I would be happy to help you out.

        Reply
        1. Anonymous

          Yeah angela that wasn’t their question what-so-ever. They aren’t having a problem reading a CD on the cvs kiosk. They burned at cvs cd at the kiosk, and can’t read it on their computer at home.

          Reply
  6. susan

    WHY DO YOU GO TO A DRUG STORE FOR YOUR PHOTOS? THEY DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY! WHY DON’T YOU TRY YOUR LOCAL PHOTO STORE. THEY SPECIALIZE IN PHOTOGRAPHY!!!! WHEN YOU GO TO WALMART OR CVS YOU END UP SPENDING MORE MONEY BUYING OTHER STUFF. SO IS IT REALLY SO CHEAP TO GET YOUR PHOTOS PRINTED THERE? THINK OUT IT!

    Reply
  7. Elizabeth

    I agree with you. The promotions are deceptive. If other companies are beginning to use them, then they are buying into the deceptive advertising routine as well, and I won’t buy from them. If you are giving me a discount, let me use the discount now. Otherwise, it is a ripoff.

    Additionally, though I haven’t dared use their photo services, I have used their pharmacy, and the customer service experience was the same. They overcharged me, got irritated that I wanted my refund, and then refused to give me the amount in cash. They insisted on putting it on a CVS store card. I did not want to spend that money in their store. It was their mistake.

    As a result, I don’t use them for anything, much less photos. I considered it once, but they wouldn’t list their prices without requiring me to create an account (and probably sell my email to spammers). Generally a bad experience.

    Reply
  8. linda

    BeWare uploaded my photos to CVs on-line. Promised that afternoon. At 7 PM no photos and no one in the store even knew how to download them although they ever clearly on the computer. 2 days later went back. Quality of all photos was terrible. I just tossed them. But the final insult was I was refused 12 of my 80 photos. Shift manager stated that they were “professional” and she wanted a release. They weren’t. Then she wanted the negatives. They are digital. No negs. I pointed out that there was no copyright on the photo but was told that “they could tell” they were professional. I demanded the refusal in writing and that they shred the photos in front of me.

    I called customer service who asked to see the photo file, but I was so irritated that I couldn’t even find the photos in my bag to give the reference number. I was to be referred to the district manager. let’s see the same DM who has refused to honor rain checks, extra care bucks, and is allowing store managers to alter timecard entrys and threaten employees. Yea right. I was told that unless I could prove that the photos were mine or provide a release they would not release the photos.

    I have sent in a BBB complaint. Another joke.

    Bottom line is I guess have a signed release from anyone in any photo you take of family and a signed release from anyone who sends you a family photo or CVS will seize your photos.

    Will not be using them again. Poor Quality, Poor Service, Poor delivery and release of your own photos to you only if they agree. In other words take lousy photos with a bad camera and you are OK.

    For the record the photos in question were emailed to me by a friend who took the photos for me as a gift. She has very high end equipment but is by no means a professional. Legally I did not sign a release agreeing that she owned the rights to the image of my daughter. Why would I? Hey Dad before you take those photos we have to sign a contract and mutual releases!!!!

    What jerks!!!!! The joke is I could have gone home and dummied up a release and just brought it back, but why should I have to.

    Reply
  9. Sue

    After many frustrating attempts to download my photos I ended up on this photo blog. I had all my photos loaded and ready to go to Walgreen’s on line service but thought I could save a few bucks by going with CVS Labor Day Sale. I can’t get any part of my photos to download and I’ve tried two different browsers. It has been my experience that if there are problems on line there are usually problems in the store as well.

    Reply
  10. James

    I’ve been using Wal Green for about 4 years. Many, many photo orders and never a problem. Plus Walgreen photo sofeware allows editing, cropping and photo correction. They have free, half price prints and enlargements from time to time. 15 cents each for 100 is standard pricing.

    Reply
  11. Linda C.

    I wish I had seen this last month. I just got the courage to get a VCR Tape converted to a DVD when CVS offered a free extra DVD with the order…courage, bec. this was two VCR Tapes of the only copies of our family’s movies 30 years ago…You guessed it…They have lost one and the free DVD was NOT included with the one they did successfully return!
    You have to wait 2 weeks before checking back for them so do you think they will ever be ever to find them…My name and address is on the VCR Tape but I am holding my breath! Sorry I didn’t know about their record. I inquired about how reliable this was and was told they hadn’t lost one yet and they KNEW to include the x-tra DVD as the offer was ON when I was doing the transaction so no need to MENTION it on the paperwork that accompanied it…Yes, no need. I had a machine that was supposed to do this for me but it hasn’t worked for us since purchase even though a technician set it up and thought he had it operating but it didn’t copy so I gave up on it and sent them to CVS…..in case you’re wondering why I didn’t do them myself…What other safe options were there???

    Reply
  12. mrx

    lol

    Mike Christ is a complete jackass. He should have had a backup plan.

    Just remember, you get what you pay for. The client got what he paid for, nothing, because Mike skewed up and couldn’t deliver the goods.

    Reply
  13. Karen K.

    Dear Sirs,

    I have been trying for two days to download my 2 photo discs I picked up from CVS Picture CD’s. I am so fristrated that I just cannot believe it. I went back to CVS because the computer said no images were on the CD’s.
    At CVS they put the discs on their computer and the images were there.
    However, I have downloaded every program required and I still cannot get this to work. They said at CVS “we’re sorry but the images are there” .
    When I get Kodak CD’s they work fine and easy every time.

    I just want to cry because they are the pictures of my company Xmas party and I cannot get them. Also I paid about $12 for each pictures and CD’s and now I am out that money and cannot get my pictures. What kind of computer wiz do you have to be to get these blasted pictures??? I will NEVER shop at CVS again, there is a new Rite Aid and I will go there. The people at CVS did nothing to try to help me.

    Sincerely
    Karen K.

    Reply
  14. Adam

    I am also a Photo Lab Supervisor for CVS just like Joe and I completely agree what he has said. If you were unhappy with your order or your experience with that particular CVS store you should have spoken with the Lab Supervisor or even the Store Manager. In my area, the lab supervisor is even considered a management position and we are even more “empowered” than a normal employee. There are a lot of people in the company who love their job (such as myself) and we take it seriously. Today, I had an online order come through to our store for 1 print and CVS.com wanted to charge 1.68 for ONE 4×6 print. I decided to waive the fee without even having the customer ask, that is completely ridiculous to have to pay 1.68 plus sales tax just for one 4×6. If you have any questions for me in regards to photo processing, feel free to email me (assuming you can see my email as I am not posting it in the comment)

    David, if you have not yet figured out the answer to your question in regards to the CVS Picture CD, the answer is yes. You can remove the CVS Photo software from your computer and your pictures will still be on your hard drive. When you launch the CVS software, it simply reads your My Pictures folder on your hard drive. I will admit that I have both the Kodak and CVS software installed as both their own advantages.

    Reply
  15. David

    I ordered prints and a CD at my local CVS. They convinced me to go with a less-expensive CVS Picture CD instead of a Kodak Picture CD like I usually get. Alas, when I put their CD in my computer, the photos were not on the CD and I ended up with the 116MB CVS Photo Editor Plus on my computer replacing the Kodak EasyShare software on every one of the hundreds of photos on my computer. Here’s my question: If I remove this program from my computer, will all my photos be gone too, or will they simply revert to Kodak EasyShare? Thank you for taking time to help me with this.

    Reply
  16. jik Post author

    If you “are all empowered to do what it takes to make the customer happy,” then I wonder why no one from CVS responded to my letter. Boy, that makes me happy.

    Reply
  17. Joe

    I am a CVS employee, in fact im a Photo Lab Supervisor and I can tell you that these certain situations DO NOT reflect the company as a whole. To the original poster…..our promotions are not designed to be misleading as you assume. They are designed to attract people to use our services for an extended period of time. With the promotion we had over the summer where you buy 30 prints and get 10 free, the intention was that you would hopefully place more that one order online and then in turn, use the credits on your next order. It’s not trickery, it’s not deception, it’s business logic.

    As for the person handling your order, I agree. They didn’t handle the situation properly and we do always try and keep a good and healthy attitude but we are all human. I don’t want to make excuses for anyone but you can’t tell me you’ve never had a bad day or something that has put you in a mood or a funk.

    In regards to the time issues and delivering the prints, that we cannot control as we are not the ones placing the orders. It is the customers responsibility to read their choices before making them to make sure that they are getting exactly what they want. The options are clear as day and if you can’t make the choice you want, you cannot hold CVS liable for that. We do not control those issues at a store level.

    Similarly, for the the quality issue, the software on the Photo Center website has safeguards and warnings against low quality issues. If the picture you have uploaded does not fall withing CVS and Kodak quality guidelines, an alert will pop up saying that the image may not print properly or that there will be quality issues with that particular print.

    And finally, as for your issues at the store level, did you ever ask to speak to a manager or a Photo Lab Supervisor? We are all empowered to do what it takes to make the customer happy. Sometimes we need a manager to step in and make that happen, but when the right people don’t get involved or if the customer just refuses to be satistied, of course you aren’t going to be happy. 99% of the time we do are jobs well and to the best of our abilities. I’m sorry you had such a poor experience in that particular store with that particular employee, but as a whole we all care and we all work hard to satisfy everyone.

    “You can’t please all the people all the time.”

    Reply
      1. Anonymous

        “shut up, dude really!!!!” ??? why, because he’s right? can’t see why he needs to “shut up”. this whole feed is hilarious. i think people expect the red carpet to be rolled out every time they step into a retail establishment. wrong. you aren’t a king/queen just because you are deciding to give cvs your money. yes they should provide good customer service. but sometimes they don’t. it is what it is. if it bothers you that much, just do them a favor and stop shopping there. for every customer they lose, there is two to replace them. if this is what people spend their time stressing about, some snotty cashier who was annoyed that you slid your credit card wrong, then they must have a pretty sweet life. cashiers can be snotty, but i have better things to worry about.

        Reply
  18. markscott

    CVS coporation took my wifes pass port and placed in ads
    on the photo counters in over 15 stores for 6 months.
    We were infuriated. CVS only only offered 2000.00 not including the lousy attorney we fired from a firm in
    Mesa,Az.
    This company steals photos of customers and uses them without permission for months. Do they know that that is
    very serious. We are now seeking 6 figures from this pariah company spread the news, this company is bad news.

    Reply
  19. grdenvariety

    wow, right now I’m TRYING to upload photos to the cvs photo site. my dsl connection is great, and so far it’s taken 42 minutes to upload SIX photos to their site (this is the 3rd try – just thought I’d log out, log back in, refresh, etc in case it was a fluke). after this and reading these comments, I’m outta there…

    Reply
  20. nancy

    maybe you can help… i dropped off 2 rolls of film at cvs, yesterday….. tried t pick it up.. the manager stated that my films broke their machine…. therefore, i will not be getting my film back… they said it is stuck in the machine and a service tech will be getting them out in a day or two… he told be that my film 100% likely to be ruined… his attitide was -sorry about the incident…..and please return if you have future film to develop…. what the heck???? does this happen often??? can i at least get more sympathy and a new roll of film??

    Reply
  21. Julie

    Wow! I was just minutes away from ordering photos from my Amazon trip through CVS. So glad I stumbled on these emails before I did. It’s a big order too – over 300 pictures. I’ll look for someone else to do them. Thanks everyone!

    Reply
  22. karen

    I ordered photos from cvs through their website. They were ready an hour later like they said but the quality was terrible. They were blurry. None of the pictures I have had printed at Walmart were ever blurry. And cvs is supposed to be Kodak. If I was Kodak I’d want to make sure someone using my name is printing quality photos.

    Reply
  23. Buddy Weaver

    I was going to try cvs and upload some photos but after reading the previous comments I am taking my business somewhere else. If management can’t handle their business any better than that, I don’t want to be any part of it.

    Buddy Weaver

    Reply
  24. Bob C

    Ok I admit I made a mistake, grabbed the wrong checkbook in a rush and wrote a check to CVS (formerly our neighborhood OSCO Drug) on an account I had closed a few weeks earlier because of changes in bank fee policy. Two days later when I finally discovered my error and attempted to correct the situation by taking cash, a credit card, and the proper checking account books along with the original sales receipt back to the same store my repeated attempts to make payment were refused by the store manager. 2 weeks later I received a mailing from ClearCheck Payment Solutions LLC informing me I had been turned over for collection because CVS had been unable to collect the $28. This was a deliberate lie as I had been attempting to give them the money all along! My name and business had also been posted in a national database as a credit risk prior to CVS or ClearCheck ever making any attempts to receive payment. Remember I have been going into this store with cash in an attempt to settle the accont every other day for 2 weeks! Hello, I made a mistake… CVS and ClearCheck deliberately and knowingly violated the Federal Debt Collection Practices Act and various other Federal and State Consumer Credit Laws. Furthermore the store asked for a Credit Card for payment, then attempted to charge an additional illegal $11 card processing fee plus the allowable $30 bad check charge. It was like going to coffee with a loan shark and borrowing a dollar for coffee, then being told the next day that you owe them $100! Just Google or Yahoo “CVS+Consumer+Complaint” and you soon discover the board and CEO of CVS have all been convicted of stock market fraud, anti-trust law violations, and their pharmacies have been found guilty countless times for mistreating patients, including many cases involving wrongly filling prescriptions that are reported among the more than 250,000 hits on the internet search engines. CVS is a documented predatory criminal organization by the AG of the District of Columbia, the California Consumer Council, and the State of New York, as well as many other court documents.

    Reply
  25. pilgrim

    As far as the original post … there are lots of promotions like that, where buying something now earns you something you use later – a reward, free something, a gift certificate, etc. You are off base suggesting it’s deceptive.

    Crummy photo quality and random delivery, and just as importantly the wasted time that results – no excuse for that.

    As far as the Las Vegas photo guy – if you’re ticked, imagine how your client feels! If I was paying a “professional” to shoot a job and found out he’d failed to deliver because he was depending on the teenagers at the corner drug store, I’d be ripped.

    Reply
  26. Mike Christ

    I have patronized a CVS store two blocks from my home since it opened 4 years ago. I was, and AM, the largest customer of the photo department. I have developed a good rappaport with the photo lab personnel and, at one time, the management. That is now H.I.S.T.O.R.Y

    Under the former manager, the store was very clean, well stocked, with helpful and knowledgeable people. Today it is a ghetto with dirty and stained carpet, inexperienced personnel, and two assistant managers who are frustrated beyond belief. I don’t know why they remain employed with this company. I think the new manager, Tom Schultheis (sp) is an idiot. I will go beyond that…If his brains were cotton, they would lack the quantity to fashion a tampon for a pissant. Get the picture? Yeah, I know, it’s graphic.But, quite frankly, the guy’s cheese slid off the cracker long ago.

    Now, the problem of tonight. I shot a wedding at Lake Las Vegas that cost the groom in the neighborhood of a cool quarter…Nope, not 25 cents….We’re talking 250,000.00 smackers! I was to do a special shoot of 80 photos after the wedding at the reception. I did. I also was to make one set of 4 x 6 prints and a CD and deliver them to the airport where a chartered G5 was taking 16 people to France. I assured the groom that this was Nooooo Problemo…..Well, yeah, it WAS a problem! The photo lab didn’t call me and tell me that there were NO Kodak CD’s to burn to. All out….Negative stock. I called to get a final price on the work, and the lab guy (new and inexperienced) informed me that there were no CD’s but my prints were ready. I asked him if he called around to other CVS stores to see if he could borrow a couple of CD’s? He hadn’t. Well, I told him to call the Desert Inn/Eastern Avenue location and tell them that a guy (Me) was coming right over to get a couple for the Flamingo/Mountain Vista Store. He said fine. I drove like a maniac to the store, and was informed they were also out of CD’s, and that THEY had checked with other stores to borrow. I had an 11:00 deadline to have prints and a CD at the Executive terminal at McCarran International Airport before the charter took off.

    No one at the lab knew if the Noritsu would take a non-Kodak initialized CD.

    I sure as hell don’t know. I told them to take a shot, but they had shut the Noritsu down. No one was willing to crank it up and Take a shot. There was NO WAY a “foreign” CD would have harmed the burner, and no one knew if the Kodak “Easyshare” program was ion the disk before burning, or if it were burned in at the time the disk was burned with customer work.

    Let’s cut to the quick. I have a BIG TIME showbiz customer who is NO LONGER my customer. He is NOT a happy camper, and his word-of-mouth to other entertainers who don’t know me is going to SERIOUSLY impact my business. I had to face him personally on the jet. Their plans were to drop the CD into the unit on the aircraft and project on the big screen for the entertainment of the group heading for France, and to transmit the images to email addresses around the world as they partied on the flight.

    Thanks CVS. I lost the SECOND Customer I have lost due to sheer stupidity and incompetence on the part of your management.

    I spend a small fortune between myself and my wife on prescription drugs in that store. I also spend a small fortune on photo finishing. No more.

    There is a new Wal-Mart Supercenter that will be exactly as far from my home as the CVS I used to patronize. I’m going to try to get them to make a move on the 2 decent photo people that exist at CVS, and see if those people will make a move. People may HATE Wal-Mart, but they DO have their crap together. They are NEVER out of anything. No questions asked if you’re unhappy. I don’t see too many unhappy people shopping in their stores.

    Oh, and I don’t care HOW much CVS advertises, I’m going to tell my story to everyone I can find. I’ll steer them anywhere but CVS!

    My client, now unhappily on his way to France, DID not Pay me the 1,500.00 that I was going to get for this last moment job. And he WON’T because I didn’t deliver.

    I AM going to look into the idea of a lawsuit against CVS because there was every opportunity to notify me of the problem. They didn’t. But, I’m NOT going to blame inexperienced photo personnel….I blame corporate bean-counting “management” before any poor slob front line checker/janitor/stocker/complaint department/photo printer getting 8.25 an hour while the store manager is asleep in the office…..YES. Asleep in the office. Now Sav-On has the same corporate leadership. Beam me up Scotty…

    Mike Christ – 50 years a photographer in Las Vegas…A Lab man and holder of 27 photographic patents. I’ve forgotten more in the past ten minutes than most of the upper management will ever KNOW about customer service!

    Reply
    1. Anonymous

      Dear Irate Las Vegas “Photographer” ,

      What dummy would trust such an important business transaction to a DRUG STORE??!! Be irate at yourself. Anyone with more than 2 brain cells could figure this one out.

      Sucks to be you,

      WORD!

      Reply
    2. Anonymous

      I agree with other anonymous. What the hell kind of professional uses a CVS?!? That blows my mind! Your own fault.

      Reply
  27. abbasegal

    We like ofotoKodak EasyShare. The main promotions they tend to run are discounted prints — so far I haven’t noticed any of the shenanigans you mention. One can have the prints delivered to CVS for a $1.49 fee. (I wouldn’t be surprised if the CVS system was just a re-selling of the Kodak system with the CVS front-end instead of the Kodak front end, but not knowing the shady behind the scenes processes in the photo developing world I can’t say for sure).

    They do probably send spam to people who register, though. I’ve gotten pretty good at tuning out spam from places like that that I don’t even notice it anymore…

    Welcome back!

    Reply
  28. jik Post author

    I just reprinted my letter with the following postscript:

    P.S. I found out after writing this letter why one of my print orders never made it to my local CVS. I received an email message indicating that the missing order had been processed, was being shipped to the store, and would be there in 1-2 business days. Tell me, from the customer’s point of view, what possible legitimate reason could there be why three of my four orders were handled within hours by my local CVS, whereas the fourth, for no discernable reason and without any prior notification, was printed at a central facility and shipped to the CVS, thus delaying it by several days?

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