I posted on a problem with a Kodak mailer to the Qualex plant in Fairlawn,
NJ about a month ago. I've had an almost exact repeat of the same situation:
1. Online tracking service says mailer is scheduled to be returned 6/24
2. On or about 6/24 message is changed to "Contact us about your order ... "
3. I send contact inquiry with copy of the message to the email address
supplied.
4. Nice lady answers thanking me for patience blah blah blah, asks what
type of film and the subjects photographed
5. I receive email saying the product is in production and the staff are
looking very hard for it.
6. After a day or two I get a note from nice lady saying order has been
processed and mailed to me.
Having gone through this twice now I would have to say that the nice ladies
involved in the email part are not robots, but there is a lot of canned
language involved. After asking for the name of a manager of the plant, I
was given the name of the manager of the online tracking service, which
turns out to be located in Charlotte, NC. That prompted me to ask how they
work vis a vis the Qualex plant in Fairlawn and I was told they simply
gather as much information as they can and then send it to
Fairlawn. Because you are never in contact with anyone in Fairlawn you
really don't know whether the film is lost at all. I asked if the message
in the tracking system asking me to contact the "plant" was triggered by a
date rollover. I didn't get a direct answer to that, but I suspect that is
what is going on.
So I don't think my film was ever lost at all, Qualex was just SLOW. Kodak
mailers appear to be like flying standby. I still like the tracking
service, though one has to consider it a very imperfect informational
system. At least it is now a little more predictable, which counts for
something.
Three more mailers to go and then maybe I'll give A&I a try.
Joel W.
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|