Q: I’ve not been able to find a store that can fulfill its one-hour photo promise. Can I negotiate a lower price if they’re late?Amber Harvey, Westminster
A: One-hour photo developing was created long ago as a marketing tool to draw customers into stores.
But the advent of affordable digital photography has diminished the draw because most anyone now has instant production facilities at home — printer, paper and a computer.
Nevertheless, stores such as Walgreens, Costco and CVS Pharmacy are still among the first thought-of locales for getting photos processed in one hour.
The folks at Walgreens in Deerfield, Ill., say their one-hour promise is based on workload, not speed-through technology that made one-hour processing a marketing coup at its inception.
The detail is in the contract. If the store is promising delivery within an hour — and your receipt gives the hour of promised delivery — then you’ve got a pretty good reason to argue for a reduced price. But One-Hour photo is also a business name and may not be an implied promise.
Walgreens says it will notify customers when one hour simply isn’t practical given the workload, though they’ll work with you if you’re in a legitimate rush.
If the photos are delivered late, then the store should provide a refund, Walgreens says.
Q: The state says 97.5 percent of Colorado residents have access to high-speed Internet. Not me. Why not?Larry Dyslin, Wheat Ridge
A: The folks at Qwest say they reach 90 percent of their customers, but a number of things — location, access to remote terminals or pockets not yet with fiber optics because of easement issues — can cause folks not to get it. The key is to keep inquiring to see whether that’s changed.
