My Photobox Print Nightmare!

[::: CooliceT ::]

hello all.

well... i was looking forward to today when the rest of my prints was supose to come. all of my A2 prints arrived at around 7.30am.

open the big tube.. and found to my horror...
well... just look for yourself. there all ruined!

all over solarized, all the white ruined, all completly useless to me.

only 4 PRINTS! out of 12, prints actually are ok, and didnt have this.
even one of the A2's in the whole package was ok. (though it was the darkest image out of all of them. so no wonder...)

anyway... here they are:

now of most of you that printed with these before...
ever had this problem? or is it just me...

i even used there icc colour profiles of there site, made sure everything was correct before i printed, took me a few days! even the site when i was uploading told me.. 10/10 for printing, so i thought no problems...


my question is now... what do i do?
there is only one email link...

Customer Service and Support*
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 0870 428 1071
Fax: 0870 428 1073
... and they dont work weekends..
*Email support is available every day of the year. Telephone support is available 8:30am to 6pm Monday to Friday excluding UK bank holidays. Calls are charged at BT’s Standard National Call Retail Price.


i only uploaded a few of them to show you, but there all like this. and obviosly not what i paid for. i will send them a email, aswell as these attachments, if no reply. i will phone them monday...

but im not happy at all

 

[MrSix]

Call them up, I've done it before and they're really helpful.
They probably had a mishap with the printers and they'll be glad to sort you out with a new batch.

In all my time of using photobox I've not had a single problem with them, the speed at which they process orders is second to none and I've even ordered 100+ photos at 4pm one day and received them at 8am the next.

*EDIT*

Just read through some of your captions....what a dramaqueen!

lol - It reminds me of the Peter Kay sketch where he's talking about how to get a free holiday by throwing tins of beans and crap all over the walls of the room and then taking photos of yourself next to them pointing in a disgusted manner, then when you get home send the photos to Watchdog.

 

[::: CooliceT ::]

Call them up, I've done it before and they're really helpful.
They probably had a mishap with the printers and they'll be glad to sort you out with a new batch.

In all my time of using photobox I've not had a single problem with them, the speed at which they process orders is second to none and I've even ordered 100+ photos at 4pm one day and received them at 8am the next.

what was the problem with there printer?
and dont they check the batches before they send them out?

like... there must be quality control of some kind there.
i know i would not send a picture of this state to my clients.

i will phone them monday and see what they say,
upset though, as my sister moved into her new house at my parents was visting her today, so was going to send some prints to her.

was looking forward to them.
what did you say on the phone to them?

im sure they will be helpfull. (hopefully) as the first few prints was superb, just a shame there all not.

 

[MrSix]

what was the problem with printer?
and dont they check the batches before they send them out?

like... there must be quality control of some kind there.
i know i would not send a picture of this state to my clients.

what did you say on the phone to them?

It might not be their printer actually, the solarisation will be from a colour profile getting screwed up somewhere along the line no doubt - maybe an incorrect upload (Yes...I know it said 10/10 OK for printing, but that just goes on the file size and image size).

As far as quality control goes, I'm not sure what they do - perhaps they only check every "X" number of batches, who knows.
The number of prints they do it wouldn't surprise me if it's not just cheaper to automatically print them and put them in the envalopes / tubes by machine, then wait for somebody to complain about the quality than it is to employ a quality checker.

I had a batch re-done because they were too dark, which actually turned out to be my fault because I'd processed the prints on an over-bright monitor. They told me that they'd re-do the prints for me anyway as they wanted me to be happy.

Just phone them up and explain, tell them that the prints are solarised and would they be able to re-do them for you. Tell then you'd be glad to send the prints back to them as an exchange (chances are they'll say don't worry about it anyway). It costs them a nominal amount to print their posters, so they aren't going to mind doing a few more for "free".

Just whatever you do, don't be arsey or a dramaqueen with them...speak to them nicely and I'm almost certain they'll sort you out.

 

[::: CooliceT ::]

It might not be their printer actually, the solarisation will be from a colour profile getting screwed up somewhere along the line no doubt - maybe an incorrect upload (Yes...I know it said 10/10 OK for printing, but that just goes on the file size and image size).

As far as quality control goes, I'm not sure what they do - perhaps they only check every "X" number of batches, who knows.
The number of prints they do it wouldn't surprise me if it's not just cheaper to automatically print them and put them in the envalopes / tubes by machine, then wait for somebody to complain about the quality than it is to employ a quality checker.

I had a batch re-done because they were too dark, which actually turned out to be my fault because I'd processed the prints on an over-bright monitor. They told me that they'd re-do the prints for me anyway as they wanted me to be happy.

Just phone them up and explain, tell them that the prints are solarised and would they be able to re-do them for you. Tell then you'd be glad to send the prints back to them as an exchange (chances are they'll say don't worry about it anyway). It costs them a nominal amount to print their posters, so they aren't going to mind doing a few more for "free".

Just whatever you do, don't be arsey or a dramaqueen with them...speak to them nicely and I'm almost certain they'll sort you out.

no problems, thanks for the reply.
i wont be arsey, i will just explain the problem in hand and ask them what should i do next. im sure if there any problems, i can send them back or show them via email.

i did double check everything and made sure the colour profiles was correct, aswell as double checking the uploads.

i let you know how it goes on monday

 

[ScarySquirrel]

I know this is kind of OT but those pictures are amazing.

Definitely call them, email them these pics and I am sure they will explain and sort you out with a new lot

 

[Paul11]

always found them over accomodating to keep a customer happy and my guess is that they would print them all again for you for free

 

[::: CooliceT ::]

always found them over accomodating to keep a customer happy and my guess is that they would print them all again for you for free

id be worried if they came out the same again.
i just sent them a email with a few pics of the problems.

i will probably phone next week if no reply.
im sure they will sort it out, as im sure if they turn out nice this time i will use them again, as the quality they print at and the paper its on, is super!

Fuji allways make good print papers

 

[geeza]

im no photo expert but it look they have used the fill brush in pait to replace some colours they didnt have. If i got them Id demand money back and send them back with a big arrow pointing to all the crap places saying

"What the ****?"

 

[MikeHunt79]

Mine came thru today also - they all looked good, but I ordered 7 prints and only 6 came thru.

I've sent off an e-mail, and I'll give 'em a ring on monday - I'm sure they'll send the extra one out.

 

[Guru]

I'd just chill till Monday and phone them up. I reckon they will re-do the entire order for you and have it checked.

That way you'll maybe end up with multiple copies of the ones that turned out ok...few gifts for people maybe

Good Luck.

 

[::: CooliceT ::]

I'd just chill till Monday and phone them up. I reckon they will re-do the entire order for you and have it checked.

That way you'll maybe end up with multiple copies of the ones that turned out ok...few gifts for people maybe

Good Luck.

yea im sure that is what they will do, just re-run the A2 order through.
im sure they will check the pictures this time, and then send it.

i sent a email, but will probably phone them monday anyway.

 

[MrSix]

im no photo expert but it look they have used the fill brush in pait to replace some colours they didnt have. If i got them Id demand money back and send them back with a big arrow pointing to all the crap places saying

"What the ****?"

Yeah that'd be awesome - maybe send them a photo of you holding up your keyboard in a menacing fashion too.

 

[danza]

I complained to them once before as a load of A3 prints they sent me had a severe yellow cast. They sent some more, apparently the day I called them. They didn't turn up.

I phoned again and they said they'd send more right away via courier. Again, they didn't turn up. At this point I gave up.

6 weeks later They arrived, and were fine. That's the only time I've had problems with them, and they do seem happy to help. I think I was unlucky.

 

[Ry@n]

Yeah that'd be awesome - maybe send them a photo of you holding up your keyboard in a menacing fashion too.

Ha ha quality. Made me laugh anyway.

Its true though, just chill about it, im sure things will turn out well.

 

[glitch]

i even used there icc colour profiles of there site, made sure everything was correct before i printed, took me a few days! even the site when i was uploading told me.. 10/10 for printing, so i thought no problems...

Are you absolutely sure that the profile you have used has a wide enough gamut to support the colours that have been affected?

Did you check?

 

[::: CooliceT ::]

Are you absolutely sure that the profile you have used has a wide enough gamut to support the colours that have been affected?

Did you check?

there isnt any colours that are effected its only the white area's.

and i used there ICC colour profile of there site, that there printers use. so there should not be a problem there.

remember, i had 3 A3 prints, same profile. but all was fine!
all the A2's are messed up, (different printer) and all the white area's was solarized. so nothing to do with me.

 

[SDK^]

Send them an e-mail and they'll resend you the prints.
Only the extreme highlights are affected so either you need to change your images to fit the sRGB profile or PB need to alter something their side.

Photobox are not Pro developers so they will not check every single print before shipping, hence the low print cost

im no photo expert but it look they have used the fill brush in pait to replace some colours they didnt have. If i got them Id demand money back and send them back with a big arrow pointing to all the crap places saying

"What the ****?"

With comments like that it's quite obvious you're no expert

 

[::: CooliceT ::]

Send them an e-mail and they'll resend you the prints.
Only the extreme highlights are affected so either you need to change your images to fit the sRGB profile or PB need to alter something their side.

Photobox are not Pro developers so they will not check every single print before shipping, hence the low print cost

yea i have sent a email. hopefully they reply monday morning.
if not i will phone in the afternoon.

the sRGB colour profile i did not use because like i said before they use a FUJI ICC colour profile on there printers. i used this.

the smaller printer was fine, so it maybe that profile on there A2 printer. i will have to ask them.

the profile they used is a lot darker than the sRGB profile. so if i converted to that, i would have to do a lot of work.

we see what they say tomorrow.

 

[SDK^]

the sRGB colour profile i did not use because like i said before they use a FUJI ICC colour profile on there printers. i used this.
the smaller printer was fine, so it maybe that profile on there A2 printer. i will have to ask them.

Seems like the fault is your end then.
Photobox will still re-print your images but YOU need to change the ICC profile embedded in them.

Quoted from photobox.co.uk/quality.html (bottom section)

Profile support
Are ICC profiles available for your photographic printers?
We don't publish profiles ourselves however we are working with the manufacturers of our printers in the hope that we can provide ICC profiles in the future.

Do you support profiles for Fuji Frontiers?
It is important to note that the Fuji Frontier printers currently strip out any embedded profiles in your images, so you should ensure that your images are submitted in sRGB. You can also use our calibration print to adjust your screen to match our output as closely as possible (see above).

Do you support profiles for Polielettronica Laserlab prints?
Presently we are in the process of having new profiles made. While this change is being implemented, we cannot unfortunately support profiles.
We hope to be fully supportive of icc profiles on the Polielettronica Laserlab in the near future.

You should have course bear in mind that if you supply the same image for printing at large and small sizes - with an embedded profile - then it is likely that you'll notice a difference in the final output due to the profile being used in the larger but not the smaller prints. To avoid this problem, some photographers paste their smaller images onto a larger canvas in order to print them on the Polieletronica, trimming the prints once they receive the order. This then ensures that the larger and smaller prints all take advantage of the profile handling capabilities of the large format printer.