I have stopped working with MIVA Photo Lab in Piata Romana after being a good customer (bills in the range of 100-200EUROs). It took them some hard work but they finally managed to convince me not to use their services again.

I swear to you they really worked on that!

Here is why I left never to return:

1. Trying to convince me that 45×30 is impossible they told me that that never did 45×30 prints, and I have 50 of those at home, with an invoice from MIVA. Liars.
2. After one week I took my CD back with no prints because of several problems:
   1. they had no glossy paper – no biggy, it was solved the next day (Monday after Friday)
   2. the machine would print everything azulejos. They said it would be repaired the next day.
   3. asked me to come oversee the process to be satisfied with the colors, but seemed very surprised when I said that entering the shop.
   4. told me that I should waste some other 2-3 work hours driving through Bucharest to come back because they could not print a test when I came.
   5. previously told me ‘there is no profile we can give you – this machine does not know about profiles’ which shows complete incompetence. Profiles are ‘color drivers’ – tell the computer how the printer/colors/paper combination will affect colors in your photos. ALL computers with a printer attached have at least 1 ICC profile installed!

I had previously tried other labs with very bad results – color inconsistencies so I was a bit depressed about this. For example: I tried the ‘Photo Lab of the Arts Students’ but their largest print size is puny. I have also tried the ubiquitous TURBO Photo Shop with HORRIBLE results – color inconsistencies, bading, blown colors, etc.

I have also tried using the large plotters we have at work, but we do not have the right paper (and I suspect neither do we have the right inks).

So now I need to find another printing shop. I’ll tell you more about why I insist on printing my photos in a future article. Until then, here is a picture that the guys at Turbo have absolutely killed in print: