The Chances

I've gotta say, I've been a little disappointed in the Sam's Club photo department as of late.

With the 15 Days in May photo contest coming up, I was getting my images ready. I wanted to get as many 5x7's as I could to make a better decision as to which one to enter, so this past week, here's how the schedule went...

Saturday: take the pictures (4 rolls)
Sunday: take film into Sam's
Sunday: pick up photos ($30), turn in several for 5x7 enlargements
Monday: pick up 5x7's ($6), turn in two for 8x10 enlargements
Tuesday: go to pick up enlargements ($10), notice one enlargement was done wrong, the other had specks of lint, ask for a redo

So this past week I spent $46. When I asked for the redo, I was treated like a lower-class citizen! When I pointed out the problems, the woman wouldn't even look me in the eye any longer, then threw the negatives onto the table in a huff.

I'm certainly not a customer service expert, but why is this happening? $46 a week isn't my average, it's more like $10 a week, but even still. Nowadays I go in there maybe 2-3 times a week, and they know my name. I'm at the point now where all I say is "Picking up 3 enlargements" and they just go get them. My point is, per month lately I've been spending maybe $75 in their department.

So why the bad attitude? I had this happen at Wal-Mart, and I stopped going there. But let's get real for a minute, at Sam's Club the 8x10's are $1.99, at Wal-Mart they're $4.99. The 5x7's at Sam's are $.69 apiece, while at Walgreen's they're $2.49. Sam's has the best price, and with the volume I've been doing lately, I can't really afford to spend much more. I could take them into Elliot's, but they charge $12 per 24-exposure roll SINGLE PRINTS. The 8x10's are $6.95.

I'll be picking up my 8x10's tomorrow... well, 8x12's. 8x10 the machine cut off the fireworks from the previous diary entry, so I had them redo it at 8x12. Hopefully they'll be done right, because tomorrow night is the Camera Club.