Chemist ruined communion photos.

P.A.C

Hi all im loking for advice my nephew made his first holy communion last saturday. My sil left the photos into be devoped this morning then got a phone call to sya the photos have been ruined. We are very upset nobody else in the family had a camera on the day so these were the only photos.
And the chemist in question were of no help in fact the girl was sooo rude and hostile and very dissmisive (sp). I cannot beleive this has happened and then to be treated in such a rude manner.
They offered her a dissposable camera!!!!! I explaned how sentemental the photos were and that a dissposable camers cannot get the day back, we cannot redo the church and the rest of the special day. Is there anything i can do. Iv sent them a letter but dont expect to get very far after the way we were treated the other day.
Ps, sorry for the spelling!!!

delllat

P.A.C wrote: »

Hi all im loking for advice my nephew made his first holy communion last saturday. My sil left the photos into be devoped this morning then got a phone call to sya the photos have been ruined. We are very upset nobody else in the family had a camera on the day so these were the only photos.
And the chemist in question were of no help in fact the girl was sooo rude and hostile and very dissmisive (sp). I cannot beleive this has happened and then to be treated in such a rude manner.
They offered her a dissposable camera!!!!! I explaned how sentemental the photos were and that a dissposable camers cannot get the day back, we cannot redo the church and the rest of the special day. Is there anything i can do. Iv sent them a letter but dont expect to get very far after the way we were treated the other day.
Ps, sorry for the spelling!!!

absolutely nothing you can do ,the only thing they legally owe you is a refund of the purchase price

preilly79

I'm afraid that Delllat is correct and the chemist are 100% covered. It hasn't happened to me personally, but I know of many that have suffered the same. Unfortunately they're only required to refund you the cost of the film ... essentially, that's all they ruined. The memories captured on the film have no quantifiable value, to them at least.

Why not post this over on the Photography forum and see if one of the very talented people there would offer to re-shoot some photos of your nephew in his outfit?

smelltheglove

Why dont you use this as an excuse to get a day out, I covered a couple of communions lately where the family and extended family went for a meal or even just a few drinks in a fancy place, one being Finnstown House in Lucan and then got their photos taken outside in the gardens.

It is very disappointing your pictures have been lost but under the terms and conditions they only owe you a refund, irritating but there is nothing else that can be done!

the_syco

Were the photos ruined, or the negatives ruined? If it were the negatives, how ruined are they?

RangeR

Are they also not liable for "duty of care" to the photo's?

A similar thing happened a few years ago [but was in the UK]. Boots [I think] lost someone's photos and said that it was tough. They were brought to court when boots only offered to pay for a replacement film.

The Judge sided with the customer as the photos were of a highly sentimental value and awarded a huge amount to them.

I don't know if the same can be done here but I would not be happy to be treated that way.

MarkR

What else can the chemist do really? It's unfortunate that you only had a single disposable camera's worth of photos. No camera phone pics? Some of them have very good quality lenses now actually.

As mentioned before, get everyone back in their suits and skirts and head out for a meal. Take pics on a few cameras, and get your photos redone.

Musha

The boots story is all hearsay no basis in news reports.
Sentiment has no value, just the product to capture it. You cannot expect a photo lab to insure it self against mishaps when it handles thousands of photos every day.

Hard to believe nobody had a digital camera with them, even school friends mums and dad in group photos?

P.A.C

Thanks for all the replys. It was a boots dissposable camera. The rude assistent told my sil on the phone that it was because it was a boots camera that they are not very good and they had the same problem last year.
When i said to her that if she had a problem before with this type of camera she should have at least warned my sil, she told me she didnt say that, that she said it can happen with any dissposable camera that its the way they are made, she said it was just a freek acident and could have happened with any camera. They could have been more sympathetic to the situation instead of being so dismissive and realy rude. My sil has asked some parents in her sons class to see if they have any photos of him.
Iv sent them the letter and wait but thats all i can do.
My sil will just have to arrange something like what was mentioned, a day out.

Photojoe

Time machine and a digital camera. Not helpful but at least you know in future.

delllat

your taking a big chance using a 2euro camera to take once in a lifetime photographs regardless of where it gets developed


digital media would have been a more secure bet

Cabaal

delllat wrote: »

your taking a big chance using a 2euro camera to take once in a lifetime photographs regardless of where it gets developed


digital media would have been a more secure bet

Agreed, once they are off the camera they can be backed up and doesn't matter them if a chemist deletes them all

ScouseMouse

Are you sure it was the chemist?

Sometimes the cameras theyselves have a fault in them that light gets in and exposes the film. I had a few come back to me a couple of years back but all I could do was offer a refund. It is really unfortunate this has happened, but there really is nothing you can do.

rubadub

MarkR wrote: »

What else can the chemist do really?

Take out insurance against this sort of thing to a higher value of the film cost, I thought that would be common practise. I would have thought this would be similar to leaving something in for repair or to be cleaned. If a dry cleaner ruined a €1000 suit you would get compenstation. Now I realise the suit value would be refunded, and in this case they are refunding just film and so are using that same very low value. But they should reaslise it has a higher monetary value.

Like if DHL were transporting a dog and killed it would they just refund the price you paid for the dog? which could have been free.

I suppose it might leave them open to insurance scams.

Would it come under some other description, like artwork? like if I sent a painting to be retouched and was ruined can they just give me a new blank canvas as a replacement?

jor el

superscouse wrote: »

Are you sure it was the chemist?

Sometimes the cameras theyselves have a fault in them that light gets in and exposes the film. I had a few come back to me a couple of years back but all I could do was offer a refund. It is really unfortunate this has happened, but there really is nothing you can do.

That's what I was thinking. They could have developed the film, and found them all to be blank, but they may not know if the camera was at fault, or if something else went wrong in the processing.

Surely there were other family's at the communion, who would be willing the get re-prints done of their photos? Your own personal photos will not be there, but the whole day is hardly gone.

Also, just one disposable camera for a day like that? It couldn't have been that important.

delllat

rubadub wrote: »

Take out insurance against this sort of thing to a higher value of the film cost, I thought that would be common practise. I would have thought this would be similar to leaving something in for repair or to be cleaned. If a dry cleaner ruined a €1000 suit you would get compenstation. Now I realise the suit value would be refunded, and in this case they are refunding just film and so are using that same very low value. But they should reaslise it has a higher monetary value.

Like if DHL were transporting a dog and killed it would they just refund the price you paid for the dog? which could have been free.

I suppose it might leave them open to insurance scams.

Would it come under some other description, like artwork? like if I sent a painting to be retouched and was ruined can they just give me a new blank canvas as a replacement?

insurance companies steer clear of these kind of things since its impossible to put a monetary price on sentimental value ,how could anyone actually decide how much these things are worth?? and how could they prevent people leaving in damaged film to claim compensation for having their "valuable" pics destroyed

most lucky items and things of great sentimental value are essentially rubbish to anyone but the original owner

insurance cover could be provided but it would vastly increase the cost of developing the pics which imm sure you wouldnt like if your using a 2 euro disposable camera to take once in a lifetime pictures

Little A

Disposable cameras are notoriously unreliable - I wouldn't use them for anything other than snaps for a night on the town.

I'm sure if your sis-in-law asks some of the other mums, she'll get some pics of the big day & then dress up again to capture the family snap.....use a digital!! Beg borrow or sell!!

rubadub

delllat wrote: »

insurance companies steer clear of these kind of things since its impossible to put a monetary price on sentimental value ,how could anyone actually decide how much these things are worth??

Just a fixed limit, like they do with registered post or lost suitcases on planes. I am not talking about arguing saying they are wedding pics so should be €500 more than christening ones or something. Airlines might pay a certain limit no matter what is in the bag.

delllat wrote: »

and how could they prevent people leaving in damaged film to claim compensation for having their "valuable" pics destroyed

Yeah, thats what I meant about being open to scams, dunno a way around it, unless the developers did admit fault and it was obviously their fault, like a smashed up camera or something.

delllat wrote: »

insurance cover could be provided but it would vastly increase the cost of developing the pics which imm sure you wouldnt like if your using a 2 euro disposable camera to take once in a lifetime pictures

indeed, it would be nice to have it on offer, for people leaving in film who would not mind paying more for peace of mind. Also it might make the developers more careful knowing their premiums could go up. They could currently be speeding things and taking shortcuts safe in the knowledge that if they screw up the process they only have to replace a cheap film. They could knowingly be using a dodgy machine on its last legs, putting off getting it fixed at the risk/expense of losing peoples pics.

delllat

rubadub wrote: »

Just a fixed limit, like they do with registered post or lost suitcases on planes. I am not talking about arguing saying they are wedding pics so should be €500 more than christening ones or something. Airlines might pay a certain limit no matter what is in the bag.


Yeah, thats what I meant about being open to scams, dunno a way around it, unless the developers did admit fault and it was obviously their fault, like a smashed up camera or something.


indeed, it would be nice to have it on offer, for people leaving in film who would not mind paying more for peace of mind. Also it might make the developers more careful knowing their premiums could go up. They could currently be speeding things and taking shortcuts safe in the knowledge that if they screw up the process they only have to replace a cheap film. They could knowingly be using a dodgy machine on its last legs, putting off getting it fixed at the risk/expense of losing peoples pics.

digital cameras are dirt cheap thesedays though ,you can copy the pictures to a laptop or external harddrive with a single click and the cards are much more robust than storing pictures in a disposable camera

insurance companies will insure you for just about anything if your willing to pay the premium but using a digital camera would be a cheaper solution

the_syco

You skipped my questions, so I ask again: have you gotten the negatives back from them?

Mostly, the operation for the chemist is to send the photo's off to a central processing facility, who processes the negatives, and sends the prints back.

P.A.C

Hi all thanks for the replies. They said the film snapped as it went through the machine. Then they took it out of the machine. She gave me back the roll of film so iv left them in with a friend and he said he would take a look in the dark room and see if there is anything on it that can be saved.

You don't have to tell me about having a digital camera. I have no idea why on earth in this day in age they don't have one. Sure iv got one she could have borrowed that. I thought she had a proper camera, she never asked for a lend so i presumed she had one. And im sure other family members that went to the church would have brought one if needed, i wasn't at the church i was doing the food. Baffles me!!!! Well i think she has learned her lesson. I would never ever use a disposable for such an important occasion. I had a confo a few weeks back and my camera had been playing up so i even borrowed a good one to be on the safe side.
At least i know what to get them for xmas lol!!!

Thanks again.

Lollipops23

hi OP
I learned the hard way about disposables-i got one for my Debs.didn't want to bring my mam's to the hotel as i was scared it'd get broken!took loads of pics,went in to get them developed only to be told they were blank!!turns out the camera was shot and didn't take any of my pics....:(devestated!but was the shítty camera and not them to blame.

grumpytrousers

I'm not offering help here, so sorry...but isn't insurance largely pointless? Even if you got a wedge of cash, it still doesn't replace the day. You can't buy a replacement communion day that will be the exact same, although obviously you could stage a darned expensive recreation of it.

If i was, say, given a guitar by Paul McCartney it'd be priceless. Not the intrinsic value of it, but the fact it was 'given' to me by a legend. I could insure it for millions, but even if it got stolen and i made a successful claim, i'd still never be able to replace it.

Sadly for the OP, there's a lesson learned there. Nowadays, it's a case of tradeoffs. You can either carry around a camera that takes good pictures and that you can rely on - this'll cost you. Alternatively, take the risk on a disposable camera. As others have said, the latter are only suited to a night where even if the camera itself is lost, it's really no biggie.