Snappy Snaps

This is a neat and welcoming-looking store, and although Snappy Snaps is a national brand, each branch is independently owned and run as a franchise - this one by a local businessman, Sylvester.

I've always found Snappy Snaps to be rather expensive compared to other high street labs such as Jessops or Boots, but I have always been happy with the results when I have used them, and figured that one is paying for a slightly higher level of service than might be on offer at a less dedicated outlet.

However, the standard of customer service on offer at this particular branch - from no other than Sylvester himself - leaves much to be desired. Accompanying my girlfriend to collect two films she had had developed and printed there, we noticed that from one of the films, only 11 prints had been made. Inspecting the negatives (the film was from a disposable camera), it seemed to us that, while some were too under-exposed to print, several could be printed that had not been. However, upon bringing this up with Sylvester - in an entirely polite and mild fashion - the man flew into a rage, saying that he knew for a fact that nothing could be printed from the negatives, telling me that I didn't know what I'm talking about, and calling me an idiot.

I don't deny that I'm sometimes an idiot, but on this occasion it seems I was right, because he eventually did print the other negatives, and several of them returned serviceable prints.

This could be a good local business, but the owner needs to put some work into become more polite, and more trustworthy.