Wal-Mart's Online Photo Center - Change for the worse

I'm saddened to receive the email below from Wal-mart's photo center in regards
to the fact that I can no longer download entire rolls from their online photo
center. Can anyone recommend other photo processing dealers that have an
interface for downloading developed 35mm pictures from the internet?



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Trouble downloading photos
Date: Tue, 2 Nov 2004 14:23:41 -0600 (CST)
From: WalMart.com Photo
To: **** ********** ************************

Dear ****,

Thank you for contacting Walmart.com about our Photo Center. Your
comments and questions are very important to us as we strive to meet
your needs.

The option to download an entire album at once is no longer available on
the web site. This is a permanent change to the site. We apologize for
any inconvenience.

If we may be of further assistance, please email us at
, or call us at 1-800-966-6546. We're here to serve you
from 7am to 11pm CST, 7 days a week!

Sincerely,
****

You are apparently a very nice guy. "Saddened"??
I am boiling MAD! This is an outrage! To force a person
to click 49 times the same series of buttons after
he PAYED for this "service"?? This is close
to torchure and should be panisheable. They lost me forever,
and not only for the electronic picture service, but
for film development as such. Well, considering that half
of my visits to Walmart was due to photo development, guess what-
I will go to other places to buy other stuff too.

They made a BAD mistake, this one. I am not an angry person, rather
moderate. So my guess is - most of the people will react
just like me. I hope the idiot who invented
this "inovation" gets his ass fired, but that will already be
too late to get back people who do not like to be treated
like monkeys.

Btw I join your request for info on other photo development service
with results in electronic form.

Regards,
Evgenij


"O.B." wrote in message ...
I'm saddened to receive the email below from Wal-mart's photo center in regards
to the fact that I can no longer download entire rolls from their online photo
center. Can anyone recommend other photo processing dealers that have an
interface for downloading developed 35mm pictures from the internet?



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Trouble downloading photos
Date: Tue, 2 Nov 2004 14:23:41 -0600 (CST)
From: WalMart.com Photo
To: **** ********** ************************

Dear ****,

Thank you for contacting Walmart.com about our Photo Center. Your
comments and questions are very important to us as we strive to meet
your needs.

The option to download an entire album at once is no longer available on
the web site. This is a permanent change to the site. We apologize for
any inconvenience.

If we may be of further assistance, please email us at
, or call us at 1-800-966-6546. We're here to serve you
from 7am to 11pm CST, 7 days a week!

Sincerely,
****

You are apparently a very nice guy. "Saddened"??
I am boiling MAD! This is an outrage! To force a person
to click 49 times the same series of buttons after
he PAYED for this "service"?? This is close
to torchure and should be panisheable. They lost me forever,
and not only for the electronic picture service, but
for film development as such. Well, considering that half
of my visits to Walmart was due to photo development, guess what-
I will go to other places to buy other stuff too.

They made a BAD mistake, this one. I am not an angry person, rather
moderate. So my guess is - most of the people will react
just like me. I hope the idiot who invented
this "inovation" gets his ass fired, but that will already be
too late to get back people who do not like to be treated
like monkeys.

Btw I join your request for info on other photo development service
with results in electronic form.

Regards,
Evgenij


"O.B." wrote in message ...
I'm saddened to receive the email below from Wal-mart's photo center in regards
to the fact that I can no longer download entire rolls from their online photo
center. Can anyone recommend other photo processing dealers that have an
interface for downloading developed 35mm pictures from the internet?



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Trouble downloading photos
Date: Tue, 2 Nov 2004 14:23:41 -0600 (CST)
From: WalMart.com Photo
To: **** ********** ************************

Dear ****,

Thank you for contacting Walmart.com about our Photo Center. Your
comments and questions are very important to us as we strive to meet
your needs.

The option to download an entire album at once is no longer available on
the web site. This is a permanent change to the site. We apologize for
any inconvenience.

If we may be of further assistance, please email us at
, or call us at 1-800-966-6546. We're here to serve you
from 7am to 11pm CST, 7 days a week!

Sincerely,
****

You are apparently a very nice guy. "Saddened"??
I am boiling MAD! This is an outrage! To force a person
to click 49 times the same series of buttons after
he PAYED for this "service"?? This is close
to torchure and should be panisheable. They lost me forever,
and not only for the electronic picture service, but
for film development as such. Well, considering that half
of my visits to Walmart was due to photo development, guess what-
I will go to other places to buy other stuff too.

They made a BAD mistake, this one. I am not an angry person, rather
moderate. So my guess is - most of the people will react
just like me. I hope the idiot who invented
this "inovation" gets his ass fired, but that will already be
too late to get back people who do not like to be treated
like monkeys.

Btw I join your request for info on other photo development service
with results in electronic form.

Regards,
Evgenij


"O.B." wrote in message ...
I'm saddened to receive the email below from Wal-mart's photo center in regards
to the fact that I can no longer download entire rolls from their online photo
center. Can anyone recommend other photo processing dealers that have an
interface for downloading developed 35mm pictures from the internet?



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Trouble downloading photos
Date: Tue, 2 Nov 2004 14:23:41 -0600 (CST)
From: WalMart.com Photo
To: **** ********** ************************

Dear ****,

Thank you for contacting Walmart.com about our Photo Center. Your
comments and questions are very important to us as we strive to meet
your needs.

The option to download an entire album at once is no longer available on
the web site. This is a permanent change to the site. We apologize for
any inconvenience.

If we may be of further assistance, please email us at
, or call us at 1-800-966-6546. We're here to serve you
from 7am to 11pm CST, 7 days a week!

Sincerely,
****

Your reply got me to thinking about the quality of Wal-mart prints over
the years. At one time, I remember that their overnight film
development used Kodak processing. Excellent pictures. At some point
they switched to Fuji and the pictures have become extremely grainy.
If I wanted grainy pictures, I would not have purchased Kodak film, ya
know?

Your reply got me to thinking about the quality of Wal-mart prints over
the years. At one time, I remember that their overnight film
development used Kodak processing. Excellent pictures. At some point
they switched to Fuji and the pictures have become extremely grainy.
If I wanted grainy pictures, I would not have purchased Kodak film, ya
know?

"O.B." wrote in message
ups.com...
Your reply got me to thinking about the quality of Wal-mart prints over
the years. At one time, I remember that their overnight film
development used Kodak processing. Excellent pictures. At some point
they switched to Fuji and the pictures have become extremely grainy.
If I wanted grainy pictures, I would not have purchased Kodak film, ya
know?


BJ's and Costco still use Kodak (Qualex) print service. BJs charges only
$3.99 to develop and print 24 5x7s!

I have been unhappy with every batch of film I've ever sent to Wal-Mart or
Sam's Club. Washed-out colors, unsharp prints (probably due to poor
enlarging lenses, because the detail was on the negative, but not the print)
and color balance that was awful. For example, grass that was Kelly green,
and blue skies that were closer to gray than to blue.

Kodak's processing has always produced better results. It is consistently
the most bang for the buck--especially if you use the prints as proofs, and
you scan your own negs for editing. I've seen others that have praised
Wal-Mart's processing, but I am unable to say anything good about them based
on my personal experiences.

"O.B." wrote in message
ups.com...
Your reply got me to thinking about the quality of Wal-mart prints over
the years. At one time, I remember that their overnight film
development used Kodak processing. Excellent pictures. At some point
they switched to Fuji and the pictures have become extremely grainy.
If I wanted grainy pictures, I would not have purchased Kodak film, ya
know?


BJ's and Costco still use Kodak (Qualex) print service. BJs charges only
$3.99 to develop and print 24 5x7s!

I have been unhappy with every batch of film I've ever sent to Wal-Mart or
Sam's Club. Washed-out colors, unsharp prints (probably due to poor
enlarging lenses, because the detail was on the negative, but not the print)
and color balance that was awful. For example, grass that was Kelly green,
and blue skies that were closer to gray than to blue.

Kodak's processing has always produced better results. It is consistently
the most bang for the buck--especially if you use the prints as proofs, and
you scan your own negs for editing. I've seen others that have praised
Wal-Mart's processing, but I am unable to say anything good about them based
on my personal experiences.

In rec.photo.film+labs O.B. wrote:

Can anyone recommend other photo processing dealers that have an
interface for downloading developed 35mm pictures from the internet?

Ofoto.com does this, although not for "full resolution" scans.

the years. At one time, I remember that [Walmart's] overnight film
development used Kodak processing. Excellent pictures. At some point
they switched to Fuji and the pictures have become extremely grainy.

That's not grain, it's pixellation from scanning on a Fuji Frontier
digital minilab. Some people think it makes their pictures look sharper.
Others, like you, don't like it. The Agfa d-Lab.2 scans at 400 dpi
instead of 300 dpi, so pixellation is less of an issue.

Wasn't it Bill Tuthill who said...
Can anyone recommend other photo processing dealers that have an
interface for downloading developed 35mm pictures from the internet?

Ofoto.com does this, although not for "full resolution" scans.

Clark Color Labs (District Photo) can also do this, allowing 30
days for download of "hi resolution" (about 250ppi) files for an
extra buck, I think. You can find their mailers in just about
any Sunday newspaper.

I use them for my 7 year-old daughter's film, and APS images come
back "hi-res" at 1692x968 px. Given the size of the APS
negatives, you can infer that 35mm scans would either be
~3000x2000 or 1500x1000. Maybe they have info on their site:
clarkcolor.com



--
Joe Pucillo
Baltimore, Maryland USA

To reply by email, please remove the .xx