London Drugs — Local services in Vancouver

Extremely Unprofessional and Frustrating Experience at London Drugs Photo Lab

I want to share my extremely disappointing experience with London Drugs regarding their VHS-to-digital conversion service.

On April 9, I visited London Drugs and placed an order to convert two VHS tapes into digital format, paying $85.10 upfront. At no point during the ordering process did anyone inform me that I would need to purchase a USB separately to receive the converted files. I assumed, as any customer would, that the price included everything necessary to complete the service.

A few days later, I received a call from the store telling me that I needed to pay extra for a USB in order to get my digital files. I was frustrated because this important detail was never mentioned when I originally placed the order. Still, I agreed because I needed the service completed.

On April 25, I received both a phone call and an email confirming that my order was ready for pickup. Thinking everything was finally completed, I went to the store. When I arrived, the staff told me that I needed to pay an additional $21 before I could collect my order.

When I asked why, I was given a vague and confusing explanation: they claimed my VHS tapes were not in “Canadian format” but were an “international format,” and that converting international tapes required extra fees. I asked them to clarify what they meant, and the employee could not explain it clearly — she just repeated that it was because my tapes were international.

I stood there for about 10 minutes waiting, confused and frustrated, until the photo lab manager finally came to talk to me. After reviewing my order, the manager admitted that it was a mistake and that I did not need to pay anything extra after all.

At that point, they went to retrieve my USB — and shockingly, they realized that the USB was still in its original, unopened packaging. They hadn’t even started the conversion process. They never plugged in the USB, never transferred anything, and yet had called and emailed me saying my order was ready.

In other words, after all the back-and-forth, the calls, the extra charges, and the wasted trips, nothing had been done. I ended up waiting another 20 minutes in the store while they processed a refund. They eventually refunded the full $85.10 back to my credit card, but by then they had already wasted weeks of my time.

To summarize: • They failed to disclose hidden costs at the time of the order. • They called and emailed me falsely stating the order was completed. • They tried to charge me additional fees with no clear explanation. • Staff was confused, untrained, and unable to properly communicate. • They wasted my time making me go back and forth for nothing. • Zero accountability until I insisted on speaking to a manager. • They never even attempted the service despite saying the order was “ready.”

This was one of the most unprofessional customer service experiences I have ever had. I have completely lost trust in London Drugs’ ability to handle anything related to media conversion services.

They clearly did not know what they were doing, and their lack of organization, transparency, and professionalism was...

I come by this location often whenever I’m the downtown area and normally everything is fine, but today I was stopping buy just to pick up a few items and was shocked by the behaviour of one of the staff. I was in the store for no more than fifteen minutes yet managed to witness this man disrespect multiple customers including myself in a way that was completely unreasonable. The first thing I saw was a customer that had clearly accidentally left his cart in the aisle, to which this staff member practically yelled at him in front of the whole store to not leave his cart in the aisle. Myself as well as several other customers looked over simply stunned that he could speak to another person that way. Next, I saw a different customer try to exit the store but accidentally tried to walk through the entrance, and again this staff member yelled at him saying “exit that way”, and exaggeratedly pointed his finger to the exit, and was overall extremely condescending and rude. I honestly don’t think I could encapsulate his behaviour over a written message but I assure you that it was not just myself that was taken aback by the way he acted. As I left the store I felt it just wouldn’t be right to not speak up , so I approached him and said “excuse me?”, to which he did not respond, and I assumed he didn’t hear me so I repeated myself politely. He then refused to look at me and said “yeah, speak to me” without having the decency to look me in the eye or listen respectfully. All I asked for was his name tag, which he reluctantly showed me, again not saying anything and just shoving the card in my face. His name was Steve M. Please do better. I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone speak with so much animosity towards others before, let alone someone working professionally in a customer service position. I normally would never bother to write a review of this nature but I feel as though I would be doing people a disservice by...

Looking for an iPhone battery replacement? Just go to the Apple store – it's only a couple hundred metres away.

What was supposed to be a quick tick off my list before an intercontinental move has turned into an ordeal.

When things go right, you end up saving time not queuing upstairs, but when they go wrong (like how your device almost catches fire when they're opening it up), you're without your phone for a week or two (or longer).

London Drugs and other Apple Authorized Service Providers are at the mercy of Apple's escalation processes which are slow. You can't plead your case directly to an Apple Store employee who can work around those roadblocks if they sympathize with your predicament – instead at LD you have to wait because your technician has to wait.

I dropped off my device on Monday, it's Thursday now, and the tech says it might be a week or two from now before I get my phone back as we wait on Apple. For me, it was more cost effective to obtain an interim device on my own than wait for a replacement and risk being caught out by a work incident, unprepared and without my mobile (and all the software on my backup).

Delays of this length, for in my case a device I need for work, are absolutely unacceptable. Especially when they're aggravated by the fact that LD's Apple technician is only there certain days of the week and it seems that only they themselves can deal with Apple.

It's hard to get too frustrated at LD here since they're frustrated on their end too, but it certainly seems better to just take your stuff directly to Apple – best case is that your complaining gets you a faster result, at worst, at least you get to vent directly to the organization...