Photo Machine Woes..... Then Crazy Customer

Yesterday (Sunday) I opened photo, and had problems straight from the start. First of all the control strip in the film processor failed. FAIL! DO NOT PROCESSES CUSTOMER FILMS! I had an order due at 9:00 am, a little less than an hour away. I tried running another film strip, which also failed. Then a third. Failed. The little machine that scans the control strips let me know that I could expect a call from tech support within an hour. By the time the third one was finished I only had 10 minutes left until my first roll of the day was due, and I couldn't process it. The guy whose film it was showed up promptly at 9:00 expecting his pictures. I explained to him what had happened, and that I was expecting a call on correcting the problem. He seemed upset at first but then said that it was okay. I told him to try back in a couple of hours.

In the meantime, I was also having problems with getting the printer to do what I wanted it to. There was a note from the closer the night before requesting that a CD order be redone. So, I went to do it, and found out that the order was for close to 2,000 pictures, and I would have to prejudge every single one of them six at a time, and they take FOREVER to load for me to prejudge them, it would have taken me literally HOURS to stand there, wait for each screen to load, and then approve them, wait for the next set, etc. And once you start the prejudge, you can't stop it. There's no way to get out of it without a reboot. There was no way that I had time for that. I could still print digital orders, and there were some waiting to be printed, but I couldn't with that prejudge screen up. So, I reboot, release the waiting digital orders for printing, and then it automatically went straight back to that damn CD prejudge. So every single time I wanted to print someone's digital order, I had to reboot the printer, and each reboot takes about 5 minutes for everything to load. I finally found a way around it, though. By selecting the CD order on the list of orders to be released BEFORE the prejudge screen shows up and pressing the "reserve" button, it would stop it from trying to be ordered every time. Took me 5 reboots before I figured that one out......

Okay, back to the film processor. Now two orders are passed due (a second one due by 10:00 am) and still no call from tech support. I hang tight though and try to get a few other things that I can done in the meantime. I go to the stockroom fill up a boat (something we use to put stock on) and bring it out onto the floor for filling onto the shelves. I barely even get started on that, though, when photo started to get a little more busy. I kept telling people that I could take their rolls of film today, but I may not be able to process them today, and explained why. They were all okay with that and left me their films. The order due at 10:00, however, was taken back by it's owner. He needed it today. But I did gain one customer who came in from Rite Aid, who had his film developed there, but couldn't get the prints made. I took his already developed film, made the prints, and then gave him a few dollars off since the film was already processed and uncut. And in all this time, I still hadn't heard back from tech support. So I ended up calling them. No answer, but I left a message with my name, store number, and described the situation.

I phoned the customer who had the 9:00 am pickup, and explained to him that I still hadn't heard from tech support but that I had left a message with them, and I didn't know when we'd have his pictures ready, but that we'd call him as soon as they were. He was very appreciative of my call and not upset in the slightest. By the time that I had to give the front cashier her lunch break came around, still no call back from tech support. I told the manager on duty at the time that if tech support called, I'd be paging her to the front so that I could take the call back in photo. Exactly what happened about half way through the lunch break.

I explained to the tech about how all three attempts at processing the control strips had failed, and he asked me to describe what the strips looked like to him. Dark and cloudy near the bottom, spots of green around the edge on one. His answer, the pack of control strips that I was using may have been exposed to light. Try running one from a new pack. If it still fails, call tech support back. I grab a fresh pack of control strips, get one ready, and process it. Ahha! Success! It passed. All that wasted time for nothing. By this time I should have already been to lunch myself, but I had catchup to play, and wouldn't you know it, the minute I get my film processor back, photo gets busier than it's been all day. I had to talk customers into letting me have two, two and a half, and even three hours instead of just one hour. They were all okay with that though (some people throw a fit when they can't have it in one hour or less, so I was relieved not to have to go through that with anyone!) and I was soon starting to get caught up on earlier film orders. By this time it was already 3:00, I was to be off at 4:30, still hadn't taken my lunch break, but as luck would (finally) have it, the guy for the closing shift had come in an hour early. (3 instead of 4). I told him what I had gone through and turned the lab over to him, and punched out for lunch. My day of woes in the lab was finally over, but with all that had happened, I barely noticed the time passing by. It was a very fast day for me. I love the opening photo shift! The day goes by fast, it's generally slower than closing as far as customers go, and when you're off the sun is still out. And you're not stuck staying late cleaning up, either. Haha!





Okay, next, now that I've bored you to death with that long thing. Crazy customer tonight! I closed the register tonight, and while there a lady came up to me, threw $1.25 down on the counter, said it was for the soda in her hand, and started to walk off.
"Maam, I need to scan that"
"Can't you just type it in?"
"No, I actually need to scan it."
"Look, it says 'refreshing cola' on it, you can't just type that in?"
"No, maam, I need to scan it."
"Well then let me scan it myself"
"I can't let you do that maam"
"Why not? They let me do it over there!" (points towards the cosmetics counter; then starts muttering something about how she shouldn't have to 'be in the system' as if scanning her soda would put her name into some kind of system of ours).
"I'm sorry, I have to scan it."
"Well then I'm taking it over there! I have enough going on, I don't need this!"

She then grabbed her money and walked over to the cosmetics stand. According to my coworker over there, the instant she got there she picked up the scan gun and tried scanning it herself, but it wouldn't scan because the manager was in the middle of a pickup from the till. I guess she started to get frustrated again, and the manager told her it was okay just to leave the money, he'd take care of it later. As she stormed off towards the door, as she passed by me, she yelled "I NEVER TOOK NOTHING FROM YOU GUYS!" Crazy, crazy lady.

Well, I think that's enough for one blog. Only working days left til my next day off. Can't wait!

Until next time!