In the days before digital photography, we used film. To develop the film, we brought it to a camera store where an envelope would be filled out and the film would be dropped in. That evening, or a day later (or even in just an hour), your prints would return.
That’s how this story begins. My father owns a camera store and a customer came in to develop a roll of film. She placed the 35mm film container on the counter and my father started filling out the envelope. My accident, the envelope knocked into the film container and it dropped to the floor. He didn’t think much of it and the customer picked up the film and placed it back on the counter. The film was sent off for developing.
When the prints were developed, the customer came in to pick them up. Upon looking at the results, the following conversation occurred:
Customer: All of my pictures are blurry!
Salesman: That could be caused by several reasons… low light, slow shutter speed, unsteady camera…
Customer: No, you pushed the film canister onto the floor when you were filling out the envelope!
Salesman: That wouldn’t cause your pictures to become blurry.
Customer: Of course it would. The film got all shook up, which caused the blurry pictures. I want a refund. You ruined my pictures! I’m never shopping here again!!
It’s customers like this that just can’t be reasoned with. Good riddance.
Vartan Christopher Simonian
I *can* see that customer’s logic, but frankly I don’t think she knows how film works.
Michael
I think it’s a case of ‘being too smart for your own good.” She clearly is smart in deducing that dropping something could also move it around, but not knowing what film is or how it works is a disadvantage for her. I’m sure she doesn’t think that if you dropped a book, it would become unreadable because the letters got all jumbled up.
Now that we’re in the digital age, I wonder if she would think the same thing of a camera memory card. I guess we’ll never know.