Archived The official Photo thread

[redandkhaki]

things should be better once our ETL-HL leaves. He is signed off to be an STL and kind of took over our store while our STL was sick for a month or so. He does the hours and screws the front end and gives all the extra hours to HL. Every single ETL and TL hates him. Luckily rumor has it that they have placed him in a store so he should be gone in a couple of weeks!

 

[GSTL]

i'm at a high volume store. Would anyone like to guess how many photo hours we get a week?

Wouldn't surprise me if your like our store and get none all though the printers are going at full blast throughout the whole day.

 

[Zone]

How did you solve the problem where the computer "forgets" how to print any labels for any orders that came in during your off hours? Mine is doing exactly that. Anything that comes in after I leave and before the computer does a self reboot, it will not print a single label for those orders. Anything after its midnight reboot works fine.

...all internet order tickets printing as FIRST NAME; last name. Also for the occasion when you have 3 separate guests with the same last names (and sometimes firsts).

You guys want to hear something creepy? In about a week or two after I posted this, these problems were fixed. That's either a weird coincidence or someone at Spot and/or Kodak is on the ball watching these threads. If the latter is the case, thank you mystery stalker! :good:

 

[OrangeJuice]

How did you solve the problem where the computer "forgets" how to print any labels for any orders that came in during your off hours? Mine is doing exactly that. Anything that comes in after I leave and before the computer does a self reboot, it will not print a single label for those orders. Anything after its midnight reboot works fine.

...all internet order tickets printing as FIRST NAME; last name. Also for the occasion when you have 3 separate guests with the same last names (and sometimes firsts).

You guys want to hear something creepy? In about a week or two after I posted this, these problems were fixed. That's either a weird coincidence or someone at Spot and/or Kodak is on the ball watching these threads. If the latter is the case, thank you mystery stalker! :good:

Sounds like my store! Stuff is randomly fixed one day without warning and no one really has an answer to who fixed it. Just that it works now!

Now if someone could fix that book/calendar machine thing, that would be great.

 

[band_rules16]

Now if someone could fix that book/calendar machine thing, that would be great.

I'll be right over, all I did last year was fix photo. Half the time I wasn't scheduled in there and I was pulled in to call Kodak because my fellow photo TMs were incompetent. (minus one, but he barely worked.)

Last year, our piggy (waste transfer unit) started having issues, so I was calling metafix every other day to get that fixed. Then we needed a new canister and then a new part for the filtration process. We couldn't empty our machines for a few days.

Then our prints in seconds broke down, causing us to get a new printer for one of the sides (since we had two on that machine) and yours truly got to install that...then we had to get a new CPU for another kiosk and a new screen for the third...you get the picture.

Our one hour...someone broke a roller so we had to order a new one...and I had to constantly fix the paper cartridges for enlargements...we had to put a new hose on our printer too.

Then our GE decided that ALL photo supplies needed to be out of the GSTL office (since regular TMs had no business being in there, they said) so that was a huge project to get it out of there and into the lab or the back stairwell. Guess who did all that? Yours truly again.

I sure hope my store misses me.

 

[redeye58]

I sure hope my store misses me.

My words when I left the front end....

 

[Barcode]

Really pleased with the new dry lab equipment so far... We've got 2 8x10 printers, 3 4x6 printers, and 1 5x7 printer, all managed centrally on the Apex! God it works so amazing. My only complaint is that 200 print orders take FOREVER compared to before, but smaller orders go much quicker so I guess it evens out. We'll be hard pressed to keep all 3 4x6 printers going too.

Also I believe 4x8 greeting cards will come out of the 8inch printer (and just cut every 4 inches), so that will be nice for the holidays -- greeting cards won't grind 4x6 prints to a standstill like they did this past year.

I heard they are eliminating the Photo Lab Assistant and Photo Team Member positions as well? Anyone know anything on this?

Our Photo Lab Assistant got hired right before we switched over to Dry Lab, and they're saying if they DO remove the position she'll get to keep her pay. Wow, thats kind of bogus lol. Guess it pays off to be the TLs/ETLs favorite. I don't think Specialists got so lucky did they?

 

[redandkhaki]

i know our photo specialist kept her pay and I was the Photo Asst and kept my pay when they took the drive lab away from us when we switched to the dry lab. My STL told me that if they eliminate a position and it's not a demotion that they won't take away the pay.

 

[Retail Girl]

As of this week, anyone with photo hours at the end of their shift was sent home early. Ours have been officially cut...not that most of them were used for that, but that means the one that keeps it stocked and going will have to find time to do it with her other hours (ha!).

 

[redandkhaki]

i laughed a little bit every time i do my VIBE walk and check yes that the photo lab is staffed appropriately. My ETL and I just shake our heads every time it's brought up.

 

[ThatCashierChick]

We just went dry lab.


According to the gstls, that means photo members are now cashiers.

 

[Zone]

Go Go Gadget Necropost!

Did any other labs get the nice slap in the face this morning that all the settings on the APEX computer and Kiosks have been reverted to "default" and is now locked remotely? Of course there is a way to unlock and restore your favorite settings, but it reminds you that it will revert back to default in 7 days.

Now, it wouldn't be so bad if Target would listen to my MySupport messages telling them that the default settings are wildly and completely wrong.

I'm seriously considering writing an unofficial report on the matter and kicking it upwards. Any thoughts?

 

[eleuthreophile]

Did any other labs get the nice slap in the face this morning that all the settings on the APEX computer and Kiosks have been reverted to "default" and is now locked remotely? Of course there is a way to unlock and restore your favorite settings, but it reminds you that it will revert back to default in 7 days.

Mine has always done this...? I've tried to remove the option for 1 hour premium (we're a dry lab and thus don't have premium paper anymore) and I've changed the estimate delivery times (5 photos are NOT going to take 20 minutes to print at an ULV store with zero orders ahead of it), but it's always defaulted back a week later. It drove me batty until I gave up on it.

However, I did notice that on our kiosks, accessing order management etc requires a password now. It's not the same as the password to access settings/diagnostics (which is our store number), and it's not 0000, 1111, etc, and it's not 1234, 12345, etc. I have no idea how to unlock it and now we can't resend orders that don't print right.

Also, we recently got a thing saying we're supposed to shut down the dry lab printers every single night, then reboot APEX and turn all the printers back on in the mornings. We've left out printers on continuously since going dry in August of 2011 with no obvious issues, so I don't see why they're just now telling us this.

 

[Barcode]

Id call kodak and see if they can help! Before i left they had started and to crack down on kiosk changes too :/

 

[eleuthreophile]

Id call kodak and see if they can help!

I have to cover the service desk, photo, and often I also have to answer the phones, so my sr TLs REALLY don't like it when we call Kodak, especially because they usually keep us on the line for at least half an hour for nonsense reasons. So I'm really hesitant to call. :/

 

[cmp1488]

Call KS & S, they should be able to remote you to the screen to set your passwords. Typically at my store we have two different passwords. One for a print password/order management to resend and one for for settings/diagnostics. I periodically every few months go in and change the print password so that when the gstls/gsas give it to the guests they just cant walk away with hundreds of prints without paying for them. My lab is a dry lab now for a year and we have one hour as well as instant prints.

 

[eleuthreophile]

Call KS & S, they should be able to remote you to the screen to set your passwords. Typically at my store we have two different passwords. One for a print password/order management to resend and one for for settings/diagnostics. I periodically every few months go in and change the print password so that when the gstls/gsas give it to the guests they just cant walk away with hundreds of prints without paying for them. My lab is a dry lab now for a year and we have one hour as well as instant prints.

I'll try to call them when I work Wednesday morning, since GS/photo will be pretty dead. Why are your GSTLs and GSAs giving passwords out to guests?