What a mission! All I wanted to do today was take some photos on my USB drive and get them printed. This was not as easy as I thought it would be!
I drove over to Harvey Norman’s at about 1:00 found a park – surprisingly easily – and headed for the photo lab. There were loads of people who obviously had the same idea and now I know why… they were having a special, only 12 cents a print. Oh well I thought, my 28 prints will be really cheap. So I queued up and waited and waited and waited. I was standing where I would be first to use one of four machines, which seemed excellent, however after waiting 20 minutes for ONE of the four people to finish was NOT so excellent. All four of these people had a selection of memory sticks and CDs that all had photos on that needed to be printed. These people have obviously waited for months (or maybe years) to get their photos printed. Each image had to be carefully thought about whether to print it or not, many red eyes were fixed and an endless range of party pics were re-coloured.
After half an hour I couldn’t stand it anymore and took my frustration and stress out on the poor unsuspecting old man who was standing far too close behind me in the massive queue that had formed. I asked him if he could please not stand so close. Every time I moved a bit closer to get away from him and his awful breath he would move in even closer to the point where we were touching and I couldn’t get any closer to the people using the machines. He seemed quite shocked that I didn’t like having him so close.
After 45 minutes I gave up and walked out. I knew the minute I walked away a machine would become vacant, but after seeing all four of the people eject their disks getting me all excited, only to be infuriated as they found yet another disk to insert and start all over again. There should be a limit to how long a machine can be hogged like that. There is a 200 photo limit per order, but these people just kept creating new orders. I crossed the road to try out Warehouse Stationery they were having a 15 cent special, however the wait to use the machines was not so bad. I stuck my USB drive in and created an order, but this machine ran out of paper and did not print me a receipt. I explained this to the lady at the counter when I went to pay and she said never mind. BUT… contrary to what the signs said there was no longer a one hour wait, I would have to come back tomorrow sometime after lunch. I walked out.
Next stop… Camera House in the Glenfield Mall. No queues at all but their machines would not read my USB drive. The guy behind the counter said that sometimes it’s like that!!! I walked out.
I tried the flash new machines at The Warehouse, once again no queues and this time the machines did like my USB drive, BUT they don’t print on matt paper yet. So I walked away thinking I should wait till the special deals are over and go back to Harvey Norman’s where I always go, they have the best quality and a really good price (25 cents). Actually I stopped in on my way home and there was no queue, but I will have to wait till tomorrow to pick them up.
New Horizons 