Topic: Trouble with Ilford Labs USA

[jharr]

I like the fact that Ilford is offering printing services for b/w from negs or scans. However, I am in the process of getting a print made and it has been kind of painful. First off, I had my scanned file in TIFF format, just like their web site says is acceptable. "Our preferred file format is GREYSCALE JPEG. However we can also accept RGB in both JPEG or TIFF format." I tried numerous times to upload the file to their site, but would get an unhlepful "Failure" error every time. I contacted their support and after one exchange saying they needed to ask "the developers" about it, they never got back to me. When I contacted them again, they told me that the file MUST be in jpeg format. It would have been awesome to know that the information clearly printed on the web site was totally wrong. The jpeg version uploaded fine and I made the purchase. Today I looked at my credit card statement only to see that they charged me twice for one print. So now I get to spend more time going back and forth about this problem. I have to say, even if the print is perfect, I don't think I will be using this service again. There are local options where I can walk into the shop and talk to a person face to face. I just thought I would give Ilford a shot, but I think they blew it. You never get a second chance at a first impression.

Anyone else dealt with Ilford USA for printing?

[Bryan]

Are they associated with The Darkroom.  They are both located in San Clemente, CA but have different P.O. Boxes.  If not you may want to give The Darkroom a try, I've had great service from them.  I haven't made prints from digital files but I do have all my color film processed there as well as some black and white.  They also do silver prints. 

https://thedarkroom.com/homepage/

[jharr]

I have used The Darkroom for development services, but not printing. It does look like the same service (same max size for prints). Silver vs Pigment is probably a debate for another thread, but I have had good results from professional ink printers on b/w photos at 8x10 size. That is what I can get locally in San Diego, so I might just stick with that if the alternative is this problematic.

To Ilford's credit, they did recognize the double billing quickly and promised to fix it.