Friday, August 29, 2014

Nation's Photo Lab has the best service dept.


Whew! I just finished talking with the service department at Nations Photo Lab...for the fourth time! Wow, what a mess I had on my hands, but it all got straightened out. Thanks to them.

I'm the type of person who learns more by seeing and watching. So when I use a new album creating program for the first time it can be daunting. That's what happen to me at Nation's Photo Lab. For serveral days I couldn't get pass 'go'  using their program (you're probably thinking I'm a slow case, and yes I was.)  I had the hardest time even uploading my images, and then remembering to save them. That alone took about two or three days, with every attempt ending in failure after waiting an hour or longer while they uploaded only to come back and find   the, 'fail screen', staring at me from my computer, that was disappointing ( I think my Java needed updating, still not sure what I did right, but I got it to work); then finally I got all my images separated into galleries for each album I was creating. Well, I thought, I'm on my way now to the easy part, creating the album. Well!!!! Not so fast the program said back to me, it's not going to be that easy...for you!  And it wasn't. Now, the first album was easy to make, so easy I'm convinced it must've been a fluke; and that's how it ended. I for some reason missed a very important step for creating the rest of the other albums; I thought I did everything the same, I went around in circles for...I hate to admit it, three days ;(  Three days of frustration, three days of searching out other album companies only to find their quality lesser than I wanted, or the price too high for my budget. Three days.....of almost pulling out my hair...so I grabbed the phone; did I mention my dislike of talking on the phone? Oh, yeah, I do everything I can to avoid using the phone...but not this day, this day I grabbed the phone firmly determined to talk with somebody, anybody, who could get me pass go.
And I did (this was phone call #1), I got a female rep. named Nicole, very sweet and patient with me, she found the missing step I kept overlooking and got me back on track, thank you Nicole. Now I'm on my way, and off I went happily creating the albums for my clients. The albums came out great! I itemized all the loose prints and sizes that were ordered and placed them and the albums in my cart. Now, I'm ready to purchase...but wait! I just got an email from one of my customers about changing the cover to a different design. No problem! Well, that's what I thought. But I can't find a quick way to change the cover without recreating the whole album again!!!!! Huh! Ok...page one...
The album is finished, with the desired cover my client wanted, and I place it into my cart. Well, I'm done...I did it...click! I sent off my order finally...and it totaled a proper amount. Right? It did total the proper amount...no! I ordered the same album with both covers. Just great, @#^&*!!!
I grabbed the phone. (My second phone call.)
"Hi, my name is, Brook. How can I help you?" So I explained my dilemma and suggest to Brook just cancel my order if that's the easiest way. She couldn't do a partial cancellation, which is what I really wanted. So to make it uncomplicated, I suggested cancelling the whole order; and a refund would show up in  a few days on my bank account. Now again I build my albums and pair the loose prints (55 in all) to the lists of several customers.
I'm ready to send out my purchase...again, but decided to check, 'my order' status to verify the original was voided, because I don't want any duplicates. And that's when I notice that my original order was split into three individual orders each having their own order number. I see one was voided, one is ready, and one is still in production. What???   After further investigation I realize the album I didn't want wasn't listed in that order, but it did void some loose prints that were very important. By now I'm thinking what a mess. If I let it follow its course how complicated will it be to find again the prints that were voided? My mine is saying, I can't take anymore, and everything in me is agreeing. So, I grabbed the phone (third phone call).
Brook, can I reinstate the order that was voided? Blah, ba blah, ba blah.  'Sure! she said, no problem!" 'Great! I replied, and thought to myself, it'll be less complicated to have an extra album I don't need, than trying to find all the missing photos I do need. Ok everythings going to be fine, and I relaxed.  The following day I noticed, the price change. Why?
So, I picked up the phone (this is my fourth call).
However... Brook wasn't working, it was her day off. I had to explain all the above to a stranger; and after I did, with the sweetest voice from this new rep (at NPL), informed me everything was ok, the price didn't change, it remains the same and soon would be reflected, just give it some time. Whew!
So, to recap; I got my albums made, [I now know the secret step], I had one order voided out, then reinstated, and the price with all the discounts that had expired were honored back to me. Nations Photo Lab had one very happy and satified customer....me! And they were all very pleasant thoughout the whole ordeal, thank you.