I was reading on Phil's blog today about how people make completely frivolous complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority, and this got me thinking about how stupid the great British public can be (you lot excepted of course).

It reminded me of something that I saw a few years ago. I had dropped a film into the chemists on my way to work to avail myself of their very reasonable 2 hour processing service, and popped back at lunchtime to pick them up.

Now from where I worked to the chemist was about a twenty minute journey, and twenty minutes back, giving me a ten minute window to collect the photos (which I had already paid for). On arriving at the photo counter there were only four people in the queue, and as I joined them I felt confident that I could be back at work on time. The first person wanted, like me, to pick up a pre-paid order (quick), the second dropped of a film and paid for the processing (reasonably fast). Then the two women in front of me stepped up to the counter together. Good I thought, I'm next in the queue.

One of the women then pulled a package from her bag and said to the assistant "I have a complaint"

The woman then when on to say that she had collected some photos the day before, and she got home and looked at them, they were not the ones she was expecting. She then went on to allege that the chemists (for some reason) had gone back through their records, and reprinted an earlier film she had submitted for processing in the past.

I didn't quite understand this, and obviously the assistant did not either, as he asked her to explain again. The woman then spread the photos out on the counter and explained that the prints they gave her yesterday were from a film used at the office Christmas party, but the film she had dropped in was from her summer holiday. The Chemists had (she again insisted) obviously printed the wrong set from their records.

The assistant explained that they do not keep copies of each customers photos, so this could not be the reason, perhaps, he suggested, she had brought the wrong negatives in. "Oh no" said the woman, "I don't get negatives with this camera, and anyway we took this film out of the camera yesterday and brought it straight in didn't we Linda?" Her friend confirmed this.

The assistant then started to twig what was happening. It transpired that the woman had an APS camera and, as is standard with this type of film, the processed negatives are wound back into the film canister and returned with the prints. The woman had assumed that this was a free film, and put it in her camera for her holiday. As the film had already been processed none of the photos she took on holiday were exposed on the film.

As she realised she had no holiday pictures she became more irate, blaming the chemists for not explaining the film returned with her prints was her negatives and not a free film (even though it was pointed out to her that it said on the box that these are the negatives and should be kept safe. One assumes that her camera manual also explained the negative storage process). She then started demanding compensation for the film, the cost of their holiday, and all sorts.

I didn't find out what the outcome was, as by this time I had to get back to the office for a meeting (without having collected my photos!).

So, for all those people who don’t read the instructions, or believe that chemists keep a copy of every film ever brought to them for processing – indexed by the owners name and address, I have done the following: