Balcony Film Lab - missing scans - advice needed!

W

woobl

Messages
6
Edit My Images
No
Hi all,

I sent a number of rolls of film to be processed by Balcony Film Lab (http://balcony.industries) back in February at the cost of about £200. I got the colour scans back but never received the scans for the approx 9 black and white rolls I sent in as part of the order. I've emailed multiple times and despite knowing they have seen the emails (I use a tracker), I haven't had any response. I imagine they've either lost the scans or something else has happened to them which they aren't wanting to discuss. I have a number for the owner Rashid and have left a message, but no reply. I've held off posting about it until now but after two months I feel I've given them the benefit of the doubt.

I signed up to them as they offered decently priced film and processing through their membership, but if they can't even be bothered to reply and rectify things like this, it's worth next to nothing.

Any ideas of recourse on this? I'm not sure how to approach them to get some sort of response, let alone a refund on the processing.
 
If this is them then there's a business address:

BALCONY INDUSTRIES LTD overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK

BALCONY INDUSTRIES LTD - Free company information from Companies House including registered office address, filing history, accounts, annual return, officers, charges, business activity
find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk

Company isn't that old and it's already missing filings.

How did you pay? If it was paypal you should be able to get a refund and see if you can get paypal to refund the lot to cover some of the loss of the films.
 
srichards said:
If this is them then there's a business address:

BALCONY INDUSTRIES LTD overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK

BALCONY INDUSTRIES LTD - Free company information from Companies House including registered office address, filing history, accounts, annual return, officers, charges, business activity
find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk

Company isn't that old and it's already missing filings.

How did you pay? If it was paypal you should be able to get a refund and see if you can get paypal to refund the lot to cover some of the loss of the films.
Click to expand...
Ouch. They'll be heading for a statutory strike off if they don't get their Confirmation Statement in soon.

I paid with American Express, so I can hopefully do a chargeback and get some money back. Still won't get the shots back though which is most disappointing.
 
For the sake of 3 minutes and £13 to file, that's a dumb oversight, and makes you wonder about their other business competencies. Were they VAT registered? Did they pay their VAT to HMRC if so? Hmmm.
 
Very poor show IMO, if they have screwed up then they should own it. To just ignore your attempts to resolve it just isn't on. I will imagine they will be shutting up shop soon enough, the analogue community is pretty tight and word will soon get around.

Shame really as I do like to see people opening new labs
 
They might have sub-contracted the development of the black and white film.
 
I am slightly confused, did they process the B&W films and return the developed negatives to you without scans or is everything lost?

Just to add, I process and scan my own film so I don't know how labs usually operate regarding delivery of negatives.
 
zx9 said:
I am slightly confused, did they process the B&W films and return the developed negatives to you without scans or is everything lost?

Just to add, I process and scan my own film so I don't know how labs usually operate regarding delivery of negatives.
Click to expand...
No, they haven't even returned the negatives, even the colour films to which I received the scans for. Established labs (AG Photo in my experience) send you the scans then post back the negs. If I hadn't had sold my Pakon, I'd be doing it myself a lot more!
 
Last edited:
Where are they based?
 
RaglanSurf said:
And where are you based?
Click to expand...
I'm in London as well.

I have since gotten some sort of response from them after I threatened sending them a letter regarding a CCJ. First off, they blamed my Dropbox account for not having enough space for their uploads (incorrect - I have plenty). They then said they would upload the scans again (not that I received them the first time) on the 30th. Still nothing. I'm now emailing them everyday for an update - I know they are opening the emails as I see it on my tracker.

I'll give them until tomorrow before next steps.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top