I worked in a one-hour photo lab in the early 2000s. People loved their disposable cameras. They also loved the junky souvenir disposable cameras, which were made out of used disposable cameras.
We had one of these lovelies come in that was “waterproof” and had the pre-exposed sayings on the bottom. We were slammed and I was prepping the film, developing the film, and printing. The rest of the staff took turns between the counter and packing and pricing the orders.
I struggled to get this camera out of its so-called waterproof casing, only to see that it was taped together with about a foot of black electrical tape, which promptly fell apart. This roll of film was going to be all messed up. It finally came out of the developer and it was bad. There were light leaks all through the roll, and the frames didn’t match up with the pre-exposed banners that were to be at the bottom of each frame. There were about two good pictures out of the whole roll. Since we don’t want to charge customers for junk pictures, we wrote a note on the envelope to have the customer only keep what they wanted.
A while later, I was at the counter helping customers when a guy picked up this roll of film.
Me: “Hi, sir. Take a look at the roll and let us know which ones we can print.”
He began looking through the pictures, and then he started yelling at me.
Customer: “You ruined my film!”
Me: “Sir, there was a light leak in the camera. We have no control over that.”
Customer: “I went to R.I.T.!”
I was the only one there besides this guy who knew that R.I.T. was the Rochester Institute of Technology, a school known for its amazing photo program. It was my dream school, but I never made it there. I did go to my local community college which had an amazing photo program, and the instructors were known at R.I.T.
I pulled the film out of the envelope and showed him that I knew what I was talking about.
Me: “If we had ruined the film during processing, the light leak would be consistent throughout the film.”
He looked shocked that a big box store one-hour photo employee would actually know what happened to his film.
Me: “I can show you the disposable camera that your film came in if you want.”
Customer: “I’m not going to pay for the prints!”
So, I simply removed all of the prints that were there, put the photo sleeve back in the envelope with just his negatives, and slammed it on the counter.
Me: “Here you go. No charge.”
And I went on to the next customer. He simply tucked tail and left.
Never assume that someone with an hourly job at a big box store doesn’t know what they’re talking about just because of where they work. You might just get your a** handed to you.
