Do not trust CVS to develop your film

Over the weekend, I decided to try some black-and-white 35mm film in the Nikkormat FTn camera.  The plan was to start shooting with some new black-and-white film, experiment with some different colored lens filters (a Bower red R2, my Tiffen 85b orange), and see what comes up.

I went downtown and shot at a few different locations, then went up Central Avenue and took pictures of various street signs – each time using different exposures and different filters. I did this for a few hours, taking breaks when it started to rain.  These were not “I want to win a prize” shots, these were just test shots around the neighborhood.  Yeah, I took a few pictures of Nipper.  I always take pictures of Nipper when I test out new cameras or new equipment.

Normally if these were photos I wanted to enter into competition, I would send the roll of film off to McGreevey Pro Lab in downtown Albany, or, if I was shooting Kodachrome, to Dwayne’s Photo in Kansas.  But it was Sunday, and I wanted to see how the film turned out, and with that in mind, I stopped by my local CVS on Central Avenue in Albany, the one across from the Hannaford Plaza.

I went inside.  The cashier, Brett, asked if he could help me.

I showed him the roll of 35mm black and white film.  “You can handle black and white film, right?”

“Yes sir,” he said.

I didn’t seem convinced, but I figured he knew what he was doing.  I explained that there was black-and-white film in the cartridge, and asked if there were any concerns about different developing techniques.

“No sir, we can handle black and white film.”

Okay.  I gave him the roll, and explained that I wanted one set of prints and a digital CD.  He rang up my order and gave me a claim check, and said they would be ready in an hour.

One hour later, I returned to CVS.

“Hi, I’ve come to pick up my film.”

“Oh, Mr. Miller… um…”

The fact that he didn’t say, “Here it is,” caused me grave concern.

“Yes, it’s the roll of black and white film.”

“Well, Mr. Miller, um… see, here’s the thing.”

Unless your name is Adrian Monk, I don’t want to hear you use the term “here’s the thing” when describing anything I ordered, anything I bought, or anything that needs repairs.

“Mr. Miller, apparently we can only develop C-41 processed film, and your film was C-50 process.”

There is no such thing as a C-50 process, which told me two things right off the bat.  Brett didn’t know what he was doing, and he probably did something to the film that I don’t want to know about.

Against all hope, I wanted to hear what he had to say next.

“Okay, so you didn’t develop it.  Just give me back the roll, and we’ll be okay.  Where’s the film?”

“Um… we tried to develop it anyway… and we destroyed the film.”

The words didn’t register immediately.  But then they did.  Like knives to my throat.

“You destroyed the film? You destroyed the film?”

If that had been star trails or light trails or long exposures or photos of things I couldn’t recreate, or if that was stuff I had a deadline to produce … I mean, thankfully they were just test shots, but that was the only roll of that black and white film I had … and I wanted to test it out before I bought more of that stock.

I immediately asked to speak to his supervisor.  The supervisor, a photo technician named Sardj, explained that Brett had made a mistake and should not have processed the film, as the cartridge clearly denoted it was not to be developed as a C-41 film.

See, here’s what happened.  CVS processed the film using a photographic process called C-41.  It works fine for color film.  But the only two black and white 35mm films that work in the C-41 process these days are Kodak Professional BW400CN, and Ilford XP-2 Super.  That’s because the majority of these pharmacy photo centers can only handle C-41 film, and that the other type of film has to be formulated so that the workers only need to put the cartridge in the developing machine and press a couple of buttons.

And since my roll of film wasn’t t either Kodak Professional BW400CN or Ilford XP-2 Super, what CVS should have done was put it aside and call me – I did give them my cell phone number – but instead, they put it in the machine and used the C-41 process to develop the wrong type of film.

Now sometimes people do use something called “cross-processing,” where you develop slide film as if they were negative films, which gives the final product unusual and unexpected dreamlike coloring.

But you can’t do this with black and white film.  In fact, the C-41 process involves bleaching the film – and the minute my film hit the bleach, all my images were washed away.  Every single one of them.  I was left with a strip of 35mm clear plastic.

As for the C-50 designation, there is no C-50 processing; the “50” was the film’s ISO.

Now to their credit, the CVS manager offered to replace my film with whatever they had in stock.  The only black-and-white film they had was that Kodak 400 speed, which is not what I wanted to use.  And they didn’t have any Kodachrome or anything else that would have made me feel better.

See, here’s the issue.  I asked ahead of time if the film could be developed – asked twice, as a matter of fact – and CVS said they could do it.  And if the photo lab technician was behind the counter at that time, he would have seen that the film was not C-41 compatible, and would not have developed it – or at least I have to think that way.

Now of course there’s going to be plenty of posters that are going to say, “Come on, Chuck, you took your film to a CVS, you got what you deserve.”

Maybe I did.  But it’s what I’ve said before.  If you don’t know what you’re doing, don’t do it.

As I said, it could have been much worse.  All I lost were some test images.  Imagine if those had been photos from a trip.  Imagine if those had been from somebody’s wedding.  Yikes.

So Monday morning, I called CVS’ customer service line.  A person named Anna answered the phone, I gave her all the information regarding what happened.  She apologized for the incident, and said that someone named Robert – the supervisor for the CVS stores in that region – would be calling me back.  Haven’t heard back from Robert yet.

So here’s the deal.  Yes, CVS needs to replace my film.  The film I shot on Sunday morning was ISO 50 efke brand 35mm film.  I think three rolls of film – essentially treble damages – will restore my faith in CVS.

But after this, do you think I’m going to take any other photo processing products to CVS?

I’d just as soon send it to Rocky Mountain Photo Lab.

UPDATE: My cell phone rang this afternoon, I saw the area code on the caller ID as 413.  I picked up the call.

“Hello?”

“Is this Chuck Miller?”

“Yes.”

“Hi, I’m from CVS, and I’m here to resolve your situation regarding the film you lost.”

The representative told me that the people at the CVS store at Central Avenue were re-trained after the incident, and were instructed on the proper development and non-development of C-41 and non-C-41 film.  She also told me that, yes, they would order three rolls of the 35mm efke film and send it to me immediately, at their cost.

Now that’s customer service.  Much appreciation to the CVS front office for helping to make things right.

UPDATE June 11, 2013: CVS will no longer develop film in a one-hour photo format.