Allen's Camera — Local services in Provo

I wish I could like Allen's. I've tried giving them the benefit of the doubt, however, it has proven to be a disappointment time and time again. The last 7 times I've dropped off film for development, I've experienced the frustration of it being in the opposite location (i.e. I drop it off in Orem and it's in Provo, I drop it off in Provo and it's waiting in Orem). I've come to expect this so often, that I've started calling ahead just to know which location it has errantly ended up in. This last experience truly takes the cake though.

I dropped off 4 rolls of film on Monday, 2 B&W and 2 color, and was told that I could pick it all up on Friday after 5 (due to the schedule of their delivery driver). Much to my surprise, I received a call Thursday night saying my order was ready! So I stopped by the Provo location to pick it up only to discover that only 1 of my 4 rolls was done and the rest would be done the next day. Why they felt the need to call me to notify me of part of my order being completed is beyond me... Anyways, Friday rolls around, and thanks to my last 6 experiences with Allen's I knew better than to just swing by after 5 expecting my order to be done, so I called them again. I was notified that one more of my rolls was done and waiting in Provo as expected, however, the other two were still awaiting development in Orem. I was given some excuse about issues with the chemicals for B&W and was told that they would be finishing them right then. Unfortunately, I didn't have the patience to wait around for another hour, or to drive back to Orem to pick up the remainder of my film, as I'd just emerged from surgery an hour beforehand, and just wanted to pick up my film in the agreed upon location (Provo) and to return to my home. The next morning, I had to drive to Orem to pick up the remaining two rolls. It took them 20 minutes to find my film and I of course expressed my frustrations, expecting some amount of sympathy or perhaps an attempt to smooth over this nightmare of a transaction. Instead, the blame was first shifted to the workers at the other location, but then to ME! How is that my responsibility as the customer to ensure you do your job correctly? I clearly stated that I wanted 4 rolls of film developed, and that I would like to pick it up in Provo. At that point, it should be a safe assumption that exactly that would happen. I shouldn't have to hold the hand of the employee through the process of doing their job, but I find myself spending 10-15 minutes every time I drop film off here explicitly stating I want to pick up each and every roll at the same location I dropped it off at. I understand that sometimes mix ups happen, and sometimes there are technical issues with the development process. But when it's happened every single time I've gone here in the last 5 months, that's an entirely different issue. If I had the time and resources to invest in my own darkroom setup, I would have a long time ago.

This is hardly an isolated incident too. Time and time again, I've had to go to a different location than the one I'd requested to pick up my order at. That being said, I'm still giving them one star for their great used lens selection, and their great variety of film options. Another star is for their quality of development/scans. I've never had any issues with the actual quality of work. However, their inability to communicate the simplest thing between locations has proved so frustrating that I've decided to simply invest in a mail-in lab or to start developing myself. I wish I could like Allen's and I've tried time and time again to give them my business, but this is unfortunately, the last time I'll be submitting myself to such...

I was debating to post this review however I'm doing it so everyone gets an idea.

I had some rolls of film brought in to be developed and paid in cash. I brought it in on a wensday. told i'd received a drop box link by Monday. Monday rolled around; nothing, called in on that same Monday a little before closing to see what was going on. since I made the order in the Provo location I of course called them first. was told that the order wasn't processed and they couldn't verify the payment, told them I paid in cash and that I had a receipt for it. I know that the film is developed at the Orem location, so after that phone call that was useless; i called in the Orem location. They told me they didn't start to develop the film and it will be ready by the following wensday. asked if they have my info right and they had it all wrong. I asked if i can come in with my laptop and a thumb drive so I KNOW im getting my photos.

Wednesday came (a whole week by this point) I walked into the orem location and stood there for an hour while they tried to get it all ready for me. I finally got my photos but surprise guess what? the film was cut in the actual frames.

to add insult to injury I was given two 3 dollar off film processing coupons that where expired. and i couldn't even use them together; they both had to be two separate orders to be used.

There is a video floating around on the internet from the owner saying that they have better service than Costco or something along those lines.

well guess what pal; I got better service getting my film processed by bloody Walmart than allen's camera shop.

Now that was for film service, lets get to the products shall we.

Tripods: I bought two here, one of them fell apart after a few months, the other one the clip kept on getting lost so that was on me.

cables: I tried to get an HDMI cable for my Nikon system since the camera took a special type of HDMI cable so I asked several times if it was the right cable. first purchase was the wrong cable. so i tried to get another one but couldn't return the product so i bought another cable being lead to believe that this time it was the right one. turns out it was the wrong one.

bought a cheapo waterproof plastic cover so my camera didn't get wet. it got wet.

bought an SD card and it burned out after a month but I think it was on my end or manufacture fault but whatever it was only 10+ bucks.

They have okay polarizer, but you can get that anywhere else. the only good thing going for this location and Allen's in general is the used lenses; and even then its a shot in the dark because sometimes there will be great stuff and other times its just poop.

like I know this comes off as though this place is garbage but its not; just dont go in there expecting a lot. sure they seem like they are passionate about cameras and film stuff.

but that's like saying oh this is the best burger in the world when you got that burger from a MC Donald's that's built into a gas station and you haven't had food in a week.

honestly this place deserves an average of 3-3.5 stars not a near...

It makes me sad to write this review.

I have been going to Allen's Camera for over two years to purchase and develop film. It has generally gone very well, until recently when I had such a massively poor experience that I will never use their services again.

I got married in December, so my now wife and I made the decision to get several film cameras to use through the events of our wedding to have as special memories. We ended up using 11 film cameras which covered moments from our engagement photos, bachelor/bachelorette parties, bridal photos, the wedding, the two wedding receptions in Utah and Arizona, and our entire honeymoon.

Each camera is able to shoot 27 captures, which would result in a total of 297 possible shots. It is needless to say that we were very excited to have this many photos available to reflect on forever.

We finally got around to delivering the cameras to Allen's Camera, and were told it would take roughly a week to receive the digital versions of the photos in dropbox (which is how they electronically deliver their product).

After a week, I received notification of the dropbox file from them, however the file was empty. I figured it just needed some more time, but after another week had passed by with nothing, I decided to reach out and solve the confusion.

I tried contacting them in every way possible according to their provided information. Over the course of a week, I tried calling, emailing, using their support tool, and even contacting different locations all several times at various times of the days. I got absolutely no response.

Finally, I decided to travel to Provo to ask in person regarding the problems I was experiencing. I was luckily helped and they did find a sort of technical problem that was resolved and they said it should be good to go if I checked the next day.

When I looked the next day, I was shocked to find that out of the possible 297 photos, roughly 160 were developed and provided to me (it was difficult to count because there were so many duplicates).

Keep in mind that each camera costs roughly $16, and roughly $11 to develop. That means after all my purchases through this experience, my cost was over $300, and all I got in return was slightly over 50% of what I was expecting.

Of course, I tried to contact them once again to resolve this, but I have yet to get any sign of contact from them in any regard.

I felt that this review was the last thing I could do to hope for any sort of support and warn others that it's no problem to work with them for one set of film, but anything more than that is a...