not too happy with ag Photo Labs

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Yardbent

Yardbent

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John
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Yes
my FIRST ORDER of 8 rolls of various 35mm film ( all standard stuff like XP2 and EKTAR 100) for £43 .............from ag on 24/07/16

order was acknowledged on 25th ...BUT advising it was ''PENDING''

''...We want to let you know that your order 33643/240716/78 status is currently PENDING ADVISED
This is because we are waiting for more stock for one or more of the items you have ordered.
Sometimes this is because you may have ordered more of an item than we have immediately available.
More stock is either on order from the manufacturer, or will be ordered upon receipt of your order and as soon as it is available we will ship the complete order to you.
Normally it is only a short delay as we are receiving deliveries almost every day....''

the website showed all in stock at the time...IIRC
the T&C did not address part-shipments
''..or will be ordered upon receipt of your order ..' is poor practice

it's now 30/07/16 with no further update

not too impressed ... not a complaint as such - just saying you should be aware delays are possible
 
and yes - I have sent a status enquiry
 
That sort of thing doesn't bother me TBH.

I think people, and I include myself here, sometimes lose sight of the convenience of online shopping.

It doesn't always go exactly as you want.

It's better than driving, paying for parking, schlepping to the shop, then finding it doesn't have all the stock you want.

On the whole, I find AG very good.
 
simon ess said:
....On the whole, I find AG very good.
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no doubt..................but 'IN STOCK' does not signify a 6 day delay.

i would have accepted a part-shipment if they had been ''caught-short''.....:)
 
simon ess said:
You could have phoned or e-mailed them on the 25th. and told them that.
Click to expand...

In case you missed this .......
''..as soon as it is available we will ship the complete order to you. Normally it is only a short delay as we are receiving deliveries almost every day...''

would indicate my shipment would be despatched shortly
so quite prepared to wait a few days without bothering them
 
The other benefit of online ordering is that there are many places to buy from and they're generally only differentiated by price and service. They'd have to be pretty damned cheap to make up for that service.
 
Many online retailers make it clear if stocks are available or not and will not allow quantités to be added to basket if unavailable..

Those that accept orders and gladly take customers monies only to then express their inabilty to supply the goods ordered are imo not worthy of business.

I have cancelled orders from retailers who have practiced this type of behaviour (not ag i might add!) and purchased elsewhere where stock availabilty is made clear.

For some people à delay is no problèm, myself included, if i know prior to making payment and confirming my order.
However to hand over funds wether it be 40 quid or 240 quid for a company to smuggly sit on an increasing bank balance whilst their customers sit frustrated waiting and wondering when they will receive their goods is imo unacceptable.
It is à long time since i purchased from ag (several years) however when i did, availabilty and delays of produits was ,at times an issue then......an area of their business, it seems, has not been improved upon .
 
Yardbent said:
my FIRST ORDER of 8 rolls of various 35mm film ( all standard stuff like XP2 and EKTAR 100) for £43 .............from ag on 24/07/16

order was acknowledged on 25th ...BUT advising it was ''PENDING''

''...We want to let you know that your order 33643/240716/78 status is currently PENDING ADVISED
This is because we are waiting for more stock for one or more of the items you have ordered.
Sometimes this is because you may have ordered more of an item than we have immediately available.
More stock is either on order from the manufacturer, or will be ordered upon receipt of your order and as soon as it is available we will ship the complete order to you.
Normally it is only a short delay as we are receiving deliveries almost every day....''

the website showed all in stock at the time...IIRC
the T&C did not address part-shipments
''..or will be ordered upon receipt of your order ..' is poor practice

it's now 30/07/16 with no further update

not too impressed ... not a complaint as such - just saying you should be aware delays are possible
Click to expand...


John, I am the owner and a director of Ag Photographic

You are wrong and I thoroughly resent you posting on a public forum these sort of very damaging posts. You ordered a number of films, but the 1 roll of Vista 400 was marked "out of Stock". Our stock system is automatic and the stock item history demonstrates that the Vista was out from middle of the week prior to your order. If we need to examine how clear the "out of stock" message is, then no problem, we can do this.

However, on the Monday morning, to re-inforce the position, just in case - we emailed you to confirm there was an item out of stock. There isn't anything more we can do, other than inform you are our earliest opportunity. The email makes clear that - unless we hear from you - we will simply ship the whole order as soon as it's all available.

But.......you have not contacted us before making this post - other than an email sent Saturday evening around the same time this thread was started, when we were not here to respond of course. Presumably to justify the second post on this thread.

Oddly - also on Saturday evening, you emailed us to ask for some mail bags so you can send us films for processing.
 
Last edited:
@AgPhotographic

thank you for your reply

hardly ' a damaging post' -- I did state it was not a complaint - however I apologise since it does appear the Vista was (and still is) Out of Stock at the time of my Order

regards.
 
Always been good with me and use them all the time for my non C41 work and then I use Photo Express, Hull with TP discount.:)
 
I've always had good experiences with them too (mainly for processing, but also the odd film order).
 
AgPhotographic said:
You are wrong and I thoroughly resent you posting on a public forum these sort of very damaging posts.
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That's really not the way to deal with customer complaints in a public forum, even if the customer is wrong.

AgPhotographic said:
Oddly - also on Saturday evening, you emailed us to ask for some mail bags so you can send us films for processing.
Click to expand...

Also, sharing publicly the private details of a customer's dealings with you is bang out of order. I've used you before, but never again.
 
Yardbent said:
@AgPhotographic

thank you for your reply

hardly ' a damaging post' -- I did state it was not a complaint - however I apologise since it does appear the Vista was (and still is) Out of Stock at the time of my Order

regards.
Click to expand...

Thanks very much John.

abdoujaparov said:
That's really not the way to deal with customer complaints in a public forum, even if the customer is wrong.


Also, sharing publicly the private details of a customer's dealings with you is bang out of order. I've used you before, but never again.
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I totally disagree with you. I am running a business here and such a thread is damaging, and completely unjustified. It is absolutely the way to deal with a "non-complaint". I would be doing s disservice to the people I employ and rely on the success of this business if I didn't respond robustly.

I am struggling to see where I have shared customer details on this forum? Other than the name "John". Are you serious?
 
AgPhotographic said:
Thanks very much John.



I totally disagree with you. I am running a business here and such a thread is damaging, and completely unjustified. It is absolutely the way to deal with a "non-complaint". I would be doing s disservice to the people I employ and rely on the success of this business if I didn't respond robustly.

I am struggling to see where I have shared customer details on this forum? Other than the name "John". Are you serious?
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You told us what he was ordering. It's none of our business, it's not for you to talk about on a public forum, and it shows a cavalier attitude to your customers' business. And yes, I'm serious.

I'm going to be blunt, as you're being blunt. Despite some supporters in this thread, the name AG Photographic is practically synonymous with poor customer service on this forum. Some of your competitors are recommended regularly, but you are recommended with caveats if at all. When you respond "robustly" as you did here, I'm just getting that impression reinforced. "The customer is always right" is, of course, nonsense, but even when the customer is wrong, the best track you can take is conciliatory and explanatory, not bluster and points scoring. He is, after all, a customer. You don't want to make people ex-customers even if they get things wrong, especially in front of an audience of potential customers.

Still, it's up to you. You're running the business, as you say. I'm just an ex-customer.
 
abdoujaparov said:
You told us what he was ordering. It's none of our business, it's not for you to talk about on a public forum, and it shows a cavalier attitude to your customers' business. And yes, I'm serious.

I'm going to be blunt, as you're being blunt. Despite some supporters in this thread, the name AG Photographic is practically synonymous with poor customer service on this forum. Some of your competitors are recommended regularly, but you are recommended with caveats if at all. When you respond "robustly" as you did here, I'm just getting that impression reinforced. "The customer is always right" is, of course, nonsense, but even when the customer is wrong, the best track you can take is conciliatory and explanatory, not bluster and points scoring. He is, after all, a customer. You don't want to make people ex-customers even if they get things wrong, especially in front of an audience of potential customers.

Still, it's up to you. You're running the business, as you say. I'm just an ex-customer.
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When you start digging yourself into a hole, stop digging. You're clutching at straws to try and justify your ridiculous post. The customer had already told us his name and what he had ordered.

And in order to try and justify your position further you take to trying to - completely unjustifiably- run down our business here further. Everyone here can see the absurdity of what you are saying - so my advice to you would be to stop and save yourself further embarrassment from the contradictory, false assertions in your posts.

I've been in business for 20 years; I've never worked for anyone other than myself; and I have an honours degree in Law - I think I'll pass on your management consultancy.
 
I've never ordered from you - and probably never will - but as an observation on this thread 'You are wrong' is still very harsh. Maybe a rephrase would have been a little more polite. I understand you've been in business for 20 years, and have a degree in law. All very commendable. But to simply state 'You are wrong' really doesn't sit well with me in terms of customer service. Maybe the OP was wrong. But your attitude really isn't great here. It's no skin off my nose as I'm just an observer. If I was a potential customer though, even if the OP is blatantly wrong dancing around a maypole naked - your attitude still stinks. I can see you have no interest in taking constructive criticism though, if in your shoes and a customer was wrong, I might have said something like:

I can understand your frustration that your order hasn't been dispatched, however I think you're mistaken, I've checked the stock system (which is automatic) and it shows clearly that one of your items was marked out of stock well before you placed the order for it. as much as I can understand that you're not very happy, I think on this occasion you've made an error, and would much appreciate you contacting us to discuss the issue, where I could have explained where I think you'd made your mistake, rather than trying to tarnish our reputation here on the forum.

Instead 'You are wrong' has just tarnished your reputation in my eyes - even though the OP was wrong.
 
cymruchris said:
I've never ordered from you - and probably never will - but as an observation on this thread 'You are wrong' is still very harsh. Maybe a rephrase would have been a little more polite. I understand you've been in business for 20 years, and have a degree in law. All very commendable. But to simply state 'You are wrong' really doesn't sit well with me in terms of customer service. Maybe the OP was wrong. But your attitude really isn't great here. It's no skin off my nose as I'm just an observer. If I was a potential customer though, even if the OP is blatantly wrong dancing around a maypole naked - your attitude still stinks. I can see you have no interest in taking constructive criticism though, if in your shoes and a customer was wrong, I might have said something like:

I can understand your frustration that your order hasn't been dispatched, however I think you're mistaken, I've checked the stock system (which is automatic) and it shows clearly that one of your items was marked out of stock well before you placed the order for it. as much as I can understand that you're not very happy, I think on this occasion you've made an error, and would much appreciate you contacting us to discuss the issue, where I could have explained where I think you'd made your mistake, rather than trying to tarnish our reputation here on the forum.

Instead 'You are wrong' has just tarnished your reputation in my eyes - even though the OP was wrong.
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Thanks for the measured post - yes, "you are wrong" is harsh. I take that on board. But I still think it was justified in view of the fact that it is broadcasting across the internet - with the aid of Google - damaging inaccuracies about this business.

If we are at fault - and I would freely admit that we have never been perfect - I am more than happy to take it on the chin. Although, I think for anything other than the worst offences, a public forum is a sledgehammer and often disproportionate. Personally I would be very reticent to run down a business on a public forum in anything other than exceptional circumstances, simply because you are afforded such a public platform from which to broadcast.
 
I agree with you completely - and I know if it were my business I would want to put a wrong right - I'd just try to do it in such a way that my reputation was strengthened rather than being confrontational.
 
AgPhotographic said:
When you start digging yourself into a hole, stop digging. You're clutching at straws to try and justify your ridiculous post. The customer had already told us his name and what he had ordered.
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And then you added the detail about mail bags, just so you could score some points in the argument. That's not good customer relations, but I'm no longer surprised about that.
 
Interesting post. I have used AG only on a few occasions for some prints, with the first few orders long long time ago, and I believe under different owner? Service was very good and quick. Recently I made an order again. It was slow but still good quality. I was not happy with two of the prints due to the choice of paper, partly mine partly labs fault, ans they agreed to reprint on different paper for free...
This was 6 weeks ago and numerous emails ago. To be honest I lost faith, and the above comments from AgPhotographic demonstrates approach to client which I can not accept. Bye bye AG, I am going somewhere else.
 
@Pietrach

''...partly mine partly labs fault, ans they agreed to reprint on different paper for free...''

I suggest you address your complaints direct rather than on my thread - which I consider now closed.........:)
 
Yardbent said:
which I consider now closed.........:)
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As you have reached an amicable agreement, I think that is the best course of action :)
 
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