Kodachrome Mailers

[onsuper8]

I had an interesting experience at the Post Office (in the UK) today whilst mailing of my latest batch of K40's.

The chap behind the counter asked me if I had included mail to and from addresses on the cartridge inside the mailer. When I asked why, he said there had been problems with cartidges "bursting" out of mailers in the Royal Mail system. He added that he had bitter personnal experience of this.

As I for one have never marked cartidges in any way, has anyone else had "bitter" experience? It has made me wonder and can't help fearing that an essential part of some future project may end up languishing in a sorting office somewhere.

[pelluet]

Nope. Never had a bitter experience with any of my mailers and in the last few years I have mailed many many carts of K40 off to Wimbledon.

Has any one else noticed they seem to be taking a little longer to come back at the moment, sometimes up to three weeks where as they generally only took two? I wonder if that is an indication that Switzerland is having more to process??!!

mike

[onsuper8]

Yeah Mike, I'd agree with that, I was starting to get a bit worried a few weeks back when it was getting prolonged.....

[sunrise]

End of the summer holidays?

I just send in a cartridge...

michael

[Scotness]

I don't send mine through the mail - I got to our local chemist where there is a Kodak bag for normal still picture rolls to be collected for processing - it then goes straight through the kodak internal mail

Scot

[aj]

Nope. Never had a bitter experience with any of my mailers and in the last few years I have mailed many many carts of K40 off to Wimbledon.

Has any one else noticed they seem to be taking a little longer to come back at the moment, sometimes up to three weeks where as they generally only took two? I wonder if that is an indication that Switzerland is having more to process??!!

mike

The films are only 1 day in the lab. Standard. The rest is spent on shipping transportation.

And there was a translated extract from german Schmalfilm magazin about how things go a the Suisse lab... A few weeks ago.

[T-Scan]

I stopped using the mailers after 2 reels were lost on return.. just empty ripped packages came back. I'm happier paying the xtra $ for Dwayne's, having my films on 200ft reels, prepped and back the same week. i wouldn't know what to do with the mailers now that the Fair Lawn location is closing.

[monobath]

I'm sure we'll find out before long where to send our K40, T-Scan. Maybe directly to Dwayne's in the prepaid Kodak mailers????

Among the eight lab closures was the company's Fair Lawn, N.J., facility, which is known as Kodak's last Kodachrome processing lab. Kodak representative Charles S. Smith advises, however, seven-day processing service of Kodachrome will be uninterrupted. "Kodak has entered into an agreement with an outside lab to provide the service," he explains.

Not that Kodachome movie film has ever been seven day service in my experience. Must be talking about 35mm slide film.

Above is from the July 14 Photo Marketing Newsline

Anyone else heard a definitive answer on that?

[JCook]

All,

Not UK mailer related but with all the talk here on the forum of Fair Lawn closing I thought I'd post the following.

I sent out three rolls of K40 at the beginning of August via PK59, they were returned within the usual 16 working day period. Also I sent in two rolls during the beginning of last week. We'll see if they show up mid-next week.

So far no indication of any mailer problems when addressed to Fair Lawn.

Regards,
John

[Roget]

I haven't shot any K40 movie film in the last few months, but have been sending quite a few rolls of K64 & 200 35mm film out for processing via Osco Drugs this summer. All the rolls were back in one week, with the exception of the last I sent out 10 days ago.

I began to suspect that the delay might be related to the Fairlawn lab closure, so I called the 800 number today to find out what was up (tracking website has been faithfully saying "being processed" for several days now).

Here's the interesting part, the service rep looked it up, and said the film had gone through the central Chicago lab to a lab in Virginia and was on the way back. I've never heard of a Kodachrome lab in Virginia, and I certainly don't think he was lying, as it sounded pretty much like he was reading everything off his computer monitor, kind of like a FedEx tracking report.

While there is no question Dwayne's is the only lab left in N. America processing K40 movie film, this Virginia revelation caught me off guard. On the downside, the processing price has gone up to about $8.50/roll. I might end up going with the prepaid mailers like I do with the movie film.

[JCook]

I received both K40 back Fair Lawn last week. Doesn't appear to be any turn around lag based on closings.

Business as usual for Kodak process paid K40 carts.

Regards, John

[francis]

in canada and australia i go to a kodak outlet. they think im nuts but eventually put the cartridge and mailer into a canister bag. they ring me when it gets back

[monobath]

I just got two rolls of K40 back from Kodak Fair Lawn, too. I've noticed ever since I started getting my film back on the white reels instead of the black reels (Dwayne's versus Switzerland?), that when I send multiple reels in at once, whether it is 2, 3, or 4 at a time, they always come back one at a time, separated by as much as a week apart.

That really seems odd. I wonder if this is some sort of special treatment that Dwayne's reserves just for those using the prepaid mailers? It is so predictable that it seems like it must be on purpose. Has anyone else experienced that, or am I just lucky :? ?

How about those of you who send multiple carts at a time in to Dwayne's directly, paying their higher processing fee rather than using the Kodak pre-paid mailers? (I assume Dwayne's makes more money on the direct orders than it does on the Kodak prepaid orders.) Do you get your film back in installments, or all at once?

[JCook]

I allways send more than one roll via mailer to Fair Lawn. Usually three of four rolls at a time and yes there allways seems to be one roll that is one or two DAYS later than the others. I've come close to one week late on a single roll one time only, most of the time it's one day later than the rest.

I sent in two more rolls today, we'll see how they go.

John

[T-Scan]

I always send multiple rolls to Dwayne's and get the free prep. they come on 200ft reels with 12ft leaders.