A Bit of a Sloppy Job

“A Bit of a Sloppy Job”

Written on: 07/04/2012

I was looking to get a couple of my photos enlarged to 12x8 and thought that 'Max Spielmann is the UK's most experienced photo lab specialists' was a good enough statement to get me in there. Obviously the grammar wasn't a consideration.

The guy behind the counter looked a little like I had interrupted his busy schedule of 'staring into the middle distance' and wasn't overly helpful. I asked what paper was available and was told gloss was the only option (they were printed on matt). I left the shop to give them just ten minutes to print them as instructed.

Twenty minutes later they weren't ready, instead I saw that they were sitting in a box of unused frames, uncropped. I asked if they were ready. He picked them up roughly, making sure his thumb print appeared at least three times, which I thought was nice attention to detail, and then crammed them into an envelope like he was stuffing a turkey.

The prints were not awful, just OK. Some scratch marks and printer lines and a slight crease since it was not held flat, not to mention printed on matt paper.

He also called me 'mate' instead of sir and that's too far. Too far, Max.