Photographic specialists Jessops ought to be ahead of the game if anyone is (Jessops)

Member Name: mdtt1983

Product:	Jessops
Date:	11/08/02 (783 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good quality prints, Good Staff Knowledge

Disadvantages: Poor Digital printing service, Rather expensive

First of all I know for a fact that not all Jessop stores have in-store digital printing, but many branches do, in the form of a standalone digital printing kiosk.
When I went in the Jessop kiosk, it appeared to be designed for self-service, and it proved extremely easy to use. With slots for Compact Flash and SmartMedia cards, Memory Sticks, CD-ROMs, floppy disks and Zip drives, it seemed to have all the different media types covered with the exception of SD memory cards, as fitted to some of my Panasonic models.
A series of screens walked me through the whole process, from inserting my card, identifying the number of images I want to print, to choosing how many to print and at what size. Even a beginner would find the screens easy to navigate and understand.

The Queue

At the end, though, the kiosk requested authorisation from a staff member before the order could be processed. That?s where things started to go awry, since I then had to join a queue at the D&P counter, leaving my memory card still stuck in the kiosk and hoping no one else would come along and try to use it in the meantime.
I got the job authorised in due course, but then hit further problems. Unbeknown to the member staff who served me, a large print order had gone in just before. In the end, my one hour print job still wasn?t ready an hour and a quarter later. I couldn?t wait any longer, and in the end Jessops had to send the prints on by overnight post?
Jessops were good enough to provide a £5 gift voucher for the inconvenience, but it was still a disappointing experience. It demonstrated too, how digital camera users like myself won?t get any preferential treatment just because their job is simpler.
In a ideal world, digital printing kiosks could be entirely self-contained, spitting out finished prints in the same way as passport machines provide photos while you wait. Ah well, I can dream?
The Jessop prints were very good quality, but at a charge of £1.
39 each for my 6?x 4? prints, I?d hope so! A cautious thumbs up for Jessops service, though, but the cost is a big sticking point, especially since the one-hour turnaround time is clearly subject to availability and workload.

Summary: