Silverprint UK

Solarize · Nov 2, 2008

And now a new website.... you guys are spoiling us!
There are some nice new additions to the inventory - I'm looking forward to trying some of the Adox papers. It's nice to have some options which aren't quite so damaging to the wallet.

alan doyle · Jul 1, 2009

fed up with silverprint any other london suppliers?

hello...
just had my 5th bad experience with silverprint customer service is very british
(crap).
times are tough especially so in a declining market,yet i never feel i get good service from these people.
the latest experience was they sold me developer that was old out of date,and charged me more than the old list price.i just wanted was some rodinal.
they said they did not have any as the company making it were having problems,which sounds complete rubbish to me.
when i complained about the dodgy chemicals and being over charged they made out they were doing me a favour.
i thought the point of a local real store,was great advice friendly human interaction and a little bit of honesty.
a processing supplies store with no rodinal,monty pythons cheese shop sketch comes to mind.
has london got any other stores or is it the internet,for me.

Akki14 · Jul 1, 2009

The Rodinal situtation has been a bit unusual for a few months now. Speaking to Roy at RK, they don't think they'll get any more in. Speaking to Martin Reed directly via email has resulted in clarification that the company now producing Rodinal see themselves as minilab distro only so Maco in Germany are having to repackage it from the large quantities the new company sells, into bottles for domestic use. I assume this might be something down on Maco's end.
Also... How can Rodinal be out of date, it has a shelf life of forever...

Maybe you could do yourself a favour and cut these people a little slack as it's not actually their fault.

Ian Grant · Jul 1, 2009

Heather's right Rodinal doesn't go off.

The company making Agfa's old chemistry don't have the sufficient products outside the Mini-lab market to warrant distributing Rodinal etc it's not cost effective for them, Mirko at Fotoimpex has posted that the (there was a url link here which no longer exists). But obviously A&O's decision caused a disruption in the supply chain.

Many of us have used Silverprint for years, they are a graet company, extremely helpful and if things go wrong with orders they put them right.

Ian

xtolsniffer · Jul 1, 2009

I went into Silverprint a few weeks ago for Rodinal plus some other things. They said that it was no longer being made, but sold me some 'Fomadon R09 new' which is basically the same (identical even?). It was my first visit to Silverprint and I was a bit excited to see a proper 'camera' shop. I have to say that I was a bit disappointed by the customer service too, a lot of what I wanted was out of stock, and they weren't very forthcoming about when they might get it in, or about alternatives. Perhaps it was a bad day for them, but in a niche market where it is important to build up a loyal and regular customer base, I think it is a case of 'could do better'. Mind you, it was good to see so many wonderful things on the shelves.

Ian Grant · Jul 1, 2009

No Fomadon is RO9 a an older pre-WWII formula of Rodina RO9 doesn't keep as well, Agfa themselves improved Rodinal after the war. I think the new is because it's now being sold in the same concentration as the Agfa version, I think Mirko said Calbe were doing the same with their RO9.

The issue of stock levels is difficult for many companies, it doesn't take many customers buying say 100 rolls of Delta 100/400 to clear Martin out and with online sales you can't predict demand like people used to. When I used to buy from Leeds Photovisual in B'ham they always had Rodinal, 2 boxes of Record Rapid Gd 2 & 3, plus around 30 rolls of 120 APX100 & a couple of boxes 5x4 APX because they knew my buying patters, companies don't do that any-more, Kevin told me a few years later I was the only person that bought those products.

Ian

David A. Goldfarb · Jul 1, 2009

We seem to have quite a few of these threads about Silverprint, positive and negative, so I've merged four of them here to collect all of these impressions in one place in the UK forum.

Martin Reed · Jul 1, 2009

David A. Goldfarb said:
We seem to have quite a few of these threads about Silverprint, positive and negative, so I've merged four of them here to collect all of these impressions in one place in the UK forum.

Dredging up 4 year old threads and serving them up cold doesn't seem to me to be a very fair way to treat sponsors. It certainly doesn't accommodate the influence of the e-commerce system we went live with last November. It's working well (or so the 10 of us working there believe), and has had considerable takeup. But then whipping up a kangaroo court is always good entertainment isn't it? :rolleyes:

Pete H · Jul 1, 2009

Well Martin, you get a resounding Not Guilty from this member of the jury - I've always been happy with service from Silverprint, both mail order and in the shop.

Pete

keeds · Jul 1, 2009

I concur with Pete. Silverprint have been fantastic in all my dealings with them. They've even gone up in my esteem by stocking Moersch chemicals.

delphine · Jul 1, 2009

Some people should hang out at Dixon's more often to have an appreciation of what bad service is.
Silverprint is a rare one stop shop to the analog photographer, whoever cannot see that and respect that, should wake up and smoke a coffee.

tim_walls · Jul 1, 2009

Martin Reed said:
Dredging up 4 year old threads and serving them up cold doesn't seem to me to be a very fair way to treat sponsors. It certainly doesn't accommodate the influence of the e-commerce system we went live with last November. It's working well (or so the 10 of us working there believe), and has had considerable takeup. But then whipping up a kangaroo court is always good entertainment isn't it? :rolleyes:

I've got to agree with this...

paul_c5x4 · Jul 1, 2009

Been to Silverprint's premises once - The young lad serving, whilst admitting a lack of knowledge of some of the finer points of film developers, endeavoured to answer as many of my questions as he could. The two subsequent mail orders were sent in a timely fashion and had a follow up call when a couple of lines were found to be out of stock.

The £25 minimum order isn't very difficult to achieve, and I'm reasonably happy with the service I've received. Would like to be able to purchase TEA from Silverprint, but I accept it is not possible to stock every chemical that we might want.

As for bad service, I can get that in almost any branch of Jessops

Andy K · Jul 1, 2009

Martin Reed said:
Dredging up 4 year old threads and serving them up cold doesn't seem to me to be a very fair way to treat sponsors. It certainly doesn't accommodate the influence of the e-commerce system we went live with last November. It's working well (or so the 10 of us working there believe), and has had considerable takeup. But then whipping up a kangaroo court is always good entertainment isn't it? :rolleyes:

Martin, I would like to say that every time I have purchased from Silverprint the service has been courteous, knowledgable and fast. You are the first place I look whenever I need materials.

To others posting here I would say that if a supplier went out of their way to find me a bottle of Rodinal, even out of date, when none was available, I would have been happy with that. Obviously most of us know that Rodinal doesn't go out of date.

Bob F. · Jul 1, 2009

Sorry, but I'm not taking my purchasing tips from someone who can't even be bothered to use his shift key and has presumably not read the acres of posts on here about the difficulties of obtaining Rodinal since Agfa's sad demise and hence prefers to call a Silverprint staff member a liar.

I was in Silverprint a week or so ago and only one item was out of stock and I was able to get a similar item instead. The only mail-order purchase that had a problem was when an expensive bottle of gold toner went missing in a shipment but one 'phone call later and it was on its way, no questions asked (apart from "are you sure it isn't hiding under all the foam chippings")...

And yes, it's not the fastest place to shop in London, but hey, it's one of, if not the, last you will find with anything like the range of traditional film and darkroom materials and equipment.

Ian Grant · Jul 1, 2009

paul_c5x4 said:
The £25 minimum order isn't very difficult to achieve,

I decided some time ago to avoid the postage charges entirely (or cost of petrol/postage going elsewhere) and now never place an order under a £100. Silverprint have the best UK/Channel Islands price for Ilford film etc.

If your shooting film & darkroom printing £100 isn't that much in material costs.

Ian

Rob Archer · Jul 1, 2009

I too give Silverprint my vote. I only purchase from them occasionall, but on the odd occasion they didn't have what I wanted the suggested alternatives, and also rang me when they had got what I needed. No retailer employing people is ever going to be perfect, but Silverprint try to provide real customer service in a rapidly-changing market.

Like several people have said here, try some of our once-great camera shops like Jessops or Dixons these days!

Rob

pentaxuser · Jul 1, 2009

I have only needed to use Silverprint once but the service and delivery was excellent. The female assistant had a limited knowledge of photographic materials but had the good sense to relay my question to another meember of staff - probably Martin - as soon as she realised she'd be assuming or guessing. This is getting to be a rare gift. Most these days aren't even aware that they are in fact guessing but can l mislead customers withot realising they have done it.

Why did I use Silverprint? Well it was the only shop in the U.K. that I could find that stocked a low volume powder C41 kit. So yes it was my experience that it does cater for a wide range of materials for the benefit of customers. Keeping small kits of Speedibrew C41 can't be a money spinner and the demand must be low.

Have a look at the information Silverprint keep for free download on the subject of analogue photography. Hardly the actions of a "take it or leave it" retailer

pentaxuser

OMU · Jul 1, 2009

I'm ordering from Silverprint for delivery to Norway and have had no problem. I have also recommended them to other "analogers" her in Norway. The only problem by ordering from them are that they will not skip chemicals oversees. In facts, isn't not a small problem, and I would be an even better customer if that problem was solved. (Do you hear that Mr. Silverprint?)

Akki14 · Jul 1, 2009

OMU said:
I'm ordering from Silverprint for delivery to Norway and have had no problem. I have also recommended them to other "analogers" her in Norway. The only problem by ordering from them are that they will not skip chemicals oversees. In facts, isn't not a small problem, and I would be an even better customer if that problem was solved. (Do you hear that Mr. Silverprint?)

Shipping chemicals around isn't something that courier/shipping companies like to do, so again, not really silverprint's fault.

Andy K · Jul 1, 2009

Akki14 said:
Shipping chemicals around isn't something that courier/shipping companies like to do, so again, not really silverprint's fault.

This is true. Even here in the UK they will not ship large quantities of liquid chems. Powdered chems are no problem.

Aurum · Jul 1, 2009

Andy K said:
This is true. Even here in the UK they will not ship large quantities of liquid chems. Powdered chems are no problem.

Its Do-able but the paperwork is a PITA. I've shipped low risk materials across the world quite easily, but stuff like toner or developer will
a) need a full manifest
b) need packing securely in stuff like Vermiculite in a thick plastic bag or a tin.

Believe me vermiculite, although a good idea for shipping chems that might leak is the last thing you would want in a pack containing film as the dust it generates has a huge spatter radius. I hate the stuff.

The only other way would be to use custom moulded styrofoam. Why would they bother.

Oh and as regards Rodinal, on Saturday I recieved 125ml of R09 1Shot, which I'm presuming is the same thing, but made in the german factory

alan doyle · Jul 1, 2009

in a contracting market the customer should be even more important,silverprint have a great range of goods and it is fantastic having a place like this 2 miles from where i live. but they are rude and i have now given up on them.
i understand people get overworked and stressed,but that is good because that probably means you are helping martin make money.
if you are out of stock with something as basic as rodinal,don't come out with a load of bull about dwindling world supplies.
especially when your competition has it in stock.
some of the workers need to go to a charm school.
i would suggest getting some friendly super experienced old geezer up front of store and put the young ones in the stock room.
today i have just been to process supplies near kings cross,they were fantastic super professional and i ended up spending a lot more money than i intended. so i felt good and they got a lot more of my money.

Ian Grant · Jul 1, 2009

give us a break from your whining please.

Rodinal is in transition as the manufacturer HAVE STOPPED selling it, except to 3rd parties, some less busy stores may still have some on their shelves - Old stock.

PhotoNet is better for whining threads. I wouldn't want you as a customer.

Ian

Andy K · Jul 1, 2009

Aurum said:
Its Do-able but the paperwork is a PITA. I've shipped low risk materials across the world quite easily, but stuff like toner or developer will
a) need a full manifest
b) need packing securely in stuff like Vermiculite in a thick plastic bag or a tin.

Believe me vermiculite, although a good idea for shipping chems that might leak is the last thing you would want in a pack containing film as the dust it generates has a huge spatter radius. I hate the stuff.

The only other way would be to use custom moulded styrofoam. Why would they bother.

Oh and as regards Rodinal, on Saturday I recieved 125ml of R09 1Shot, which I'm presuming is the same thing, but made in the german factory

I wasn't complaining, just pointing out that liquid chems are not easy for anyone to ship.

Silverprint UK

Solarize

alan doyle

Akki14

Ian Grant

xtolsniffer

Ian Grant

David A. Goldfarb

Moderator

Martin Reed

Advertiser

Pete H

keeds

delphine

tim_walls

paul_c5x4

Andy K

Bob F.

Ian Grant

Rob Archer

pentaxuser

OMU

Akki14

Andy K

Aurum

alan doyle

Ian Grant

Andy K

Silverprint UK

Moderator

Advertiser

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency