Allen's Camera — Local services in South Salt Lake

Not even remotely happy with my experience here. I've called them a few times for a variety of reasons; and the girl that usually answers the phone (idk which location she's at exactly) is always really nice. However, the guys working at the Salt Lake store are extremely unhelpful and seemingly impatient; alongside the fact they treated me like a complete idiot.

I was quoted $40 with a 7-10+ day lead time to process ONE roll of 35mm color film (24 exposures at that, printed in the lowest / most basic quality). I thought to myself "okay??" and asked for clarification on pricing, because their website says prints are $7 ish and prints + scans are $15. The guy I was speaking to stumbled and eventually stated that there was an extra fee since the roll hadn't been processed. I figured "okay, I'll come back when I get paid", and left.

(He also seemed uninterested in processing my film as the conversation progressed. I asked what the typical lead times were for processing since i come from the era of "1 Hour photo" (for disposables at least*), and he effectively said "wellllll, we're REALLY backed up so it might take awhile").

The same guy also didn't seem to actually understand what he was explaining to me, and his colleague just stood there and stared at me like I was from a different planet, which dragged out the conversation and made me and even my wife really uncomfortable while I was trying to understand pricing and lead times, so that way I could have an idea of what to expect moving forward.

I called around to two other local shops for quotes, explicitly explained that I had a roll of undeveloped / unprocessed 35mm color film, and each shop quoted me the same exact prices as what's stated on their websites for film processing ($15ish for scans).

Idk what I did or said wrong, but my wife and I agreed that the staff at Salt Lake seemed clueless, and they treated me like a complete idiot while not bothering to actually explain the price difference from what their website says VS what was quoted directly for film processing.

Y'all need to fix your verbiage or add better disclaimers that ACTUALLY explain the additional fees. This entire process was confusing and left a bad taste...

I have been developing 110 with allens for over a year. I want to preface this by saying that when they put in effort, my scans look amazing. Sadly those moments are becoming few and far between. This is the 3rd time they used the wrong process to develop my film. I know 110 is a hard format to develop and scan but that fact is so far detached from their mistakes because I’ve seen the amazing work they do. They outsource b&w to nichol’s who have amazing staff who understand how frustrating Allen’s is to work with. I was under the impression that my film would be sent there as it says ON the roll b&w. Instead I call today for an update a week and a half after I dropped it off to find that they developed it with the wrong process knowing that their b&w was down. The man on the phone was super understanding and I feel really bad for expressing my frustrations to him. His manager on the other hand I could hear in the background belittling and blaming me for the mistake. Handling the situation more like the manager of a local fast food chain then a manager of an established photo lab. I’ve given Allen’s so many chances because like I said, when they put effort and passion in, the end result is amazing. But this isn’t the first time it’s happened and each time it seems they have a dismissive and apathetic attitude towards something that means more than they can understand. My disabled roommates grad photos were on that roll. I’m beyond bummed at the situation and the way they continue to handle them. Thanks for the...

Canadian passport pictures rejected multiple times

I recently visited Allen's Camera, and unfortunately, my experience was disappointing and very frustrating. They claim to do Canadian passport pictures, but they tried, and my own and my son's got rejected twice each, so four sets of pictures got rejected by the Canadian government. I reached out the first time, and they retook them. Mine was retaken without adjusting the lighting (which was the main reason for rejection), and my son's was retaken with the addition of some lights, but they were rejected again. Of course, I reached out again, both in-store and on the phone, and the gentleman was rude. He agreed to retake the pictures, but without changing anything to the lighting, which upset me because that was the main reason they had been rejected. The gentleman even suggested that I could have altered the pictures, and that would be the reason they got rejected. But who would do that? I'm an honest Canadian citizen who only wanted to renew my passport. The gentleman also commented on my makeup, which is none of his business (and I don't wear a lot of it!). And with all that, my passport had expired, so I couldn't even go to Canada to have them taken there (where every pharmacy does it and they are set up with the proper lighting). I finally went somewhere else (Nichols Photo lab), where they have a tool on their computer. They ran it to test the pictures. They passed the test and were accepted! Now I have my passport in hand and will never set foot...