Tesco photo developing

MY EXPERIENCE:

I recently had to place no fewer than 10 disposeable cameras in for developing following our wedding and being eager to see the pictures.

I decided to use the newly refurbish photo kiosk at my local Teco store in Upper Boat, Pontypriddd.

Rather than bore you to death with store details, I will concentrate my review solely on the photo kiosk & my experience with the service developing my disposables & as I haven't experience their digitial photo devlpoing, I will refrain from commenting on this product.

The kiosk is locate inside the store, nbetween their lottery terminal and the cigarette counter, it is slightly set back from the other 2 counters. The counter has a terminal for people to use to pick and choose their digital snaps for developing, which is self service.

To get your pictures developed, you need to hand your camera to a member of staff. Well, we found this difficult initially, the 3 counters being so close together were being run by one chap, who was really run off his feet but he ensured everyone was seen in turn, politely apologising for the delay in being seen to.
This lovely chap was very apolpgetic for the delay, he then took the cameras and placed each one in an envelope.

After the cameras were bagged up, the assistant took our name and 2 phone numbers, a home and a mobile number & then gave us the top tear off strips stapled together with our name details and the amount of cameras we had left with them.

We were asked whether we'd like 4"x6" or 5"x7" prints, we opted for the 5"x7". We then asked the assistant if we could get the photograps done on a one hour service. No, we couldn't, as part f their streamlining, there are no 1 hour, 1 day, 2 day or week services, they are just done in order and the same price charged, this is great if you are a frequent hour user but maybe not quite so great if you are not really in a hurry to get your pictures, you'll still be payng the same as someone who wants their pictures in an hour, anyway, we were told it was abut a 2 hour wait for the picture because the chap was on his own and incredibly busy, this was OK for us but it could prove to be annoying for those who want to do thier shop & pick up their photos at the end of the shop, I'd be hard pushed to shop for 2 hours!

So we left our precious wedding picture in the hands of Tesco. I'm not going to bore you with what I did in those 2 hours (well, I took the car to the car wash then I.......yawn).

Upon returning tp the counter, we again found it was being manned by one person and the queues are the counters either side were horrendous. We opted for having a wander around the shop and coming back to the counter.

On our 2nd return, we were served by a slightly brusque older assistant who asked if we had our tickets in a slightly impatient manner. She flicked through our little stapled pad of slips and said 'Are you sure you bought this many in?', I replied 'Yes, they're from our wedding', she huffed back at me then asked 'Digital or film' whilst flicking through some boxes 'Film' I told her. She continued to look for our pictures and I started to panic like a Bridezilla!

She looked really hard under the counter, taking packs out of boxes but than came back and said 'I can't find them, can you come back tomorrow?'. Slightly bewildered, I enquired what would tomorrow brin if she couldn't find them today?. She shrugged at us.

I then spotted the chappie who took our initial cameras and pointed him out to the assistant. She went and spoke to him. After what looked like a heated discussion, the original male assiatnt came back over, found the picture within seconds. The obviously annoyed the older female assistant and she made a comment about him putting things in the wrong boxes, I have to say he took this very well and told her 'I put them where management tell me to!' & I felt slightly embarrassed at being caught in the middle of a staff disagreement!!.

After the photos were found, they were paid for at a cost of £5.78 per pack of 27 exposures, there are different prices for higher exposures, but you get charged regardless of how many pictures actually come out, as many places do. They came in a black photo wallet encased in a plastic bag.

THE RESULTS
We were very please overall, the pictures come presented in a Tesco black photo wallet with a section for your negatives. You also get an index print which shows you all your pictures in minature on. You get to see which have come out and which haven't, however, a few pictures had come out on the index print which a black section to one side, probably covering about an inch of the picture, but these had been removed from the photo pack, which is a shame as the black could easily have been cut off and I would have liked to make the choice myself about whether the photo was no good, instead we didn't get the photo at all.

The photo all come in a gloss finish & all photos were printed on Kodak paper.

The gloss finish is what we had wanted. However, because they were glossly, they became stuck together, I am not sure if they had been packed too soon after being devloped but we had a few lose encounters with photos nearly being ripped because they had become stuck together, but luckily everything was OK.

The pictures came out fairly sharp, colours were good and they had removed blank pictures prior to be collected.

Our negatives were suppied in a plastic wallet seperate from the rest of the pictures.

THE VERDICT:

I would recommend this photo service from Tesco, it isn't the cheapest in our area, Asda are but only do pictures in a matt finish which looks cheap. They offer a wide range of services for reprints, digital film and photos on CD, however you do have to ask as a list of services werent' actually on display, they said this was an oversight but we have visited a few times since and we haven't seen a price/service list.

The pictures come out well, unsure if this is solely down to Tesco or if the camera and photographer have some play on this! The print quality was good, although I think the person who actaully packs these, packed some of ours too soon and they hadn't dried properly.

Overall this service is good, depsoute the fact there are no different development services available, but then, you are likely to get your pictures on the same day. It would be good to get a definate 1 hour service though, Asda do this as do our local Sainsbury's, so this is a disappointment on the part of Tesco, staff levels could also be improved at the counter.

Great pictures, fairly good price, same day service.

PRICE:
I paid for 27 exposures, 5"x7" £5.78
Also offered 4"x6" size 27 exposures £4.68