Montclair Photo — Local services in Oakland

I popped in with a tattered paper print photo that was in bad shape and asked if they could scan it in and clean it up. The young gal with darker hair was super sweet and helpful. But then (sorry names were not shared) the redhead lady came over and basically said they couldn’t help me, they wouldn’t be able to improve it at all. I said that’s odd my friend who has photoshop said he could clean it up- said I’m not looking for perfection just a cleaner image… she then said well we could do that as well but it’s $90 an hour for photo editing- I said that’s fine - but then she still looked doubtful and just kept saying « I doubt we could really fix it I don’t know » dude. Just so lame. Work from a place where you tell your customers what is possible not what isn’t. I would hav me happily paid for an hour or more to get a better quality image - very special memory on this tattered paper of my sons first day in K. Now he’s in college. The owner needs to train the redhead lady to engage with customers on a more positive can do approach. I told her I would be happy with a slightly cleaner image - no perfection required. I know at least that would have been possible. She just lost your store $90 or more with her approach. Disappointing as I have always had such a pleasant experience here over the last two decades. Will find a new spot for...

I've always appreciated this conveniently located, high quality photo and printing shop in our neighborhood for passport pictures, film developing, and misc print jobs. The team has always been courteous and attentive. But recently they went above and beyond in providing a service experience I will never forget.

A family member was missing amidst a mental health crisis and our family was incredibly concerned for their safety. We needed to print hundreds of fliers quickly on a Sunday morning. It's not easy to find printing shops open on Sunday, let alone before 10am, but Montclair Photo delivered. We sent them our file and they had hundreds of copies ready within 10 minutes of them opening and us calling. They printed an extra and posted it in their window without us even asking. Finally, they offered a discount for the print job given the nature of the situation. The kindness, responsiveness, and generosity they showed just blew my family and me away and reminded us of the goodness...

Ridiculously expensive.

This place offers services like digitizing photos and film processing. While film processing requires specialized equipment, most other task tasks can be done practically by oneself for free. Scanning, for example, costs $6.99 for the first page and $0.99 thereafter, when it can be done for free with a phone. Even at Office Depot, it’s 75% cheaper, with the first page being $2.99 and each page after being $0.25. This store is basically making money off of people not knowing/wanting to operate a scanner themselves. It was a mistake that I visited this store: it was the closest store to me. They are ridiculously expensive.

And yes, they need to upgrade their Windows. No one uses Window 10 anymore. It’s like coding...