Cinelab Inc — Local services in New Bedford

As an experimental filmmaker, who still shoots and edits on 16mm (and has very little money), I do not think that I could continue my craft without Cinelab. I have been sending thousands of feet of my beloved negs over to them for about a year now. Largely getting work prints made with occasional scanning, and the quality has been outstanding. I have yet to get an answer print made, but most of the time I get my work prints back and am blown away by both the subtleties and vibrancy of the color and tones. I spoke with the man who facilitates the printing over there and he modestly assured me it was more of what I was doing haha, but still I believe that the credit is still largely do on their side. Bill is a great guy, and have had several phone conversations where he helped me think through some potential work flow options (as I was doing some optical printing work). Sure, you can see in the reviews below about some disconcerting comments, which originally made me hesitate about sending my film over. Some (not all) people just love to get off on these reviews, when they might be just releasing there emotions. If you are really concerned about your project, which you should be no matter what lab you send your film to, be organized and leave detailed instructions about literally everything that you need to happen down to saving your negatives to ship back, and I can say that you won't have any isues. Because of the affordability and quality of Cinelab, they are the only lab that I can...

Dropped off my order November 12 and today is December 24th- never received it. For all of November and early December, the company told me they would e-mail me the order and I never received it. As of the last two weeks, I have four unanswered e-mails and two unreturned phone calls . For the first few weeks, I would talk to someone on the phone and they would tell me “expect it in your e-mail Saturday or Sunday”. Never received my order to this day. Don’t know if they lost my super 8 footage, damaged it , or are just genuinely ignoring me. Very frustrating experience . I just wish I had my film back so I could get it developed somewhere else. Being busy is not an excuse for terrible customer service! Every time I call they tell you to e-mail the support center and I do. You never get an answer on the phone and never get an answer through e-mail. The most ironic part of this whole experience was the very first week they told me I would have it in my e-mail in a few days. I don’t understand how every week you could tell someone they would have the job done , and it never gets completed. I also reached out to their social media’s . They said mostly all jobs were done and sent out by December 20th....

For months, this lab has been snarky, insulting, cynical, and condescending toward me—a client who simply wanted a proper scan and clear communication. See for yourselves how they publicly call a client "childish". That attitude alone is unacceptable. They scanned my film twice. The first scan was done at the wrong bit depth despite my clear 16-bit request. After an urgent rescan, they introduced hundreds of hairs, dust, and debris that were never in the original footage. Their scans introduced unfixable jittery motion completely missing in my original footage. Now I’m paying out of pocket to fix their mistakes. They claim to have done everything out of goodwill—but they charged me hundreds for lineup prep, so it was never free, and they can’t use that against me. Their excuses about a “messy EDL” and “badly prepped film” don’t explain the thousands of debris introduced during scanning, which are completely unrelated. Worst of all, their dismissive and insulting attitude has made this frustrating experience even harder. If you want a lab that respects clients and delivers what they promise,...