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-   -   fotospeed fd10 filmdeveloper (http://www.film-and-darkroom-user.org.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=3199)

Mike O'Pray 19th October 2010 02:01 PM

When I re-read my reply I realise it sounds perverse to say "hopefully you have a bad batch" but of course I meant that such an admittance by Fotospeed solves the issue and presumably ensures you get a fresh batch.

All of this assume that Fotospeed values its customer relations and this looks to be in doubt as things stand.

I must admit if I were contemplating buying its products right now, I might be re-considering.

It's not rocket scence to work out that when customers have problems you need to respond fairly quickly.

Here's hoping it does

Mike

Richard Gould 19th October 2010 02:56 PM

Mike, I am wondering myself about Fotospeed,I phoned then this morning and was told that there was no one avaivable at that time to help but they took my number and would phone back within an hour, 2 hours later nothing so I phoned again and there was no one available but I was promised a reply to my emails today,so far nothing,I will certainly think twice about Fotospeed products in future, they don't seem to care about customer relations at all,Richard

Miha 19th October 2010 04:17 PM

I sympathise with you Richard as I'm experiencing the same attitude from Fotoimpex. I have sent an email to them regarding problems with their Adox Vario Classic paper in May. They have responded in September, asking for a .jpg pix of the problem. Pix sent the same day. No answer so far despite two additional emails sent to them.:confused:

Richard Gould 19th October 2010 04:46 PM

I finally got hold of someone who can help late this afternoon,I spoke to John Herlinger, the boss himself,who admits that there must be a problem with the developerand has promised to look into it and Email me back tomorrow, with apoligies for not getting in touch sooner, I await developments will keep you informed as towhat happens, but next time I will try a different developer,Aculux perhaps,Patterson have always replied to inquiries promptly, I would also like to say a public thanks to Mat at AG,where I got the 2 bottles, and who I phoned this afternoon to see if he maybe had any idea as to what was happening,and who was happy to both chat about the problem and offered to phone Fotospeed on my behalf, A refreshing attitude after waiting on Fotospeed,Richard

Richard Gould 19th October 2010 05:01 PM

Keith, if they had said to me on the phone that the tecchnician was on leave or away I would have said OK, but they said that John, who could help,was there and would call back within the hour, but after 2 hours nothing, I was then told that an email would be sent bythe end of the day, by 4.40pm still nothing, I had to phone them a third time to finaly speak to John, who turned out to be the John Herlinger, and I am now promised an anwser tomorrow, I now wait and see,But simple courtesy would have said an email to say we are investigating would have been nice,He did say he had both of my Emails Richard

Mike O'Pray 19th October 2010 06:10 PM

I have had e-mail correspondence with John Herlinger in the past and the response was good. Now I know what position he occupies I am surprised looking back on our e-mail correspondence that for someone in his position he seems to have had to answer almost everything that isn't very basic "counter staff" inquiries.

Sounds as if they could do with training a couple of others to have the skills required. I imagine Fotospeed operates on a shoestring but maybe it's just a little too lean to support its customer base properly.

When a company gets too lean then its customer base has a nasty habit of shrinking to match the size of the customer support. The good news becomes that remaining customers then get better service but the bad news is that by then its base has shrunk considerably.

Mike

Richard Gould 19th October 2010 06:19 PM

It's a great shame as in general fotospeed stuff is very good, I have used a lot of their chemistry and paper over the years,toners, paper developers etc, and I believe their warm tone paper developer is one of the best I have ever used, certainly better than the Harman,but if their customer service is not up to standard it lets everything else down, John was very apoligetic and did say He had'nt quite realized the seriouness of the situation, and had been preparing for a lecture he had to give tonight, but A simple sorry we are looking into the situation would have been enough, Lets see what tomorrow brings,Richard

Larry 19th October 2010 10:35 PM

Hi Richard

Sorry, I'm somewhat late in replying to you initial post for some assistance. I've been very busy actively job hunting recent job-loss! (Feel free to PM me if you like)!

Anyway, Yes I a really big fan of FD10 and I am somewhat surprised you've had a bad experience with it.

I always buy the 5-litre bottles and then decant to many 100ml brown glass bottles (medicine class + screw lids - don't use child protect lids not air tight) and this keeps for about 18months! in perfect condition - it's never let me down

Every bottle of Fotospeed chemistry should be a date sticker best before on the back of each plastic bottle. In the past some supplies do remove the sicker if they've got old stock. You may have been unlucky here.

HP5 rated at iso 400 needs at least 10mins at 68/70F at 1+9 with 30 secs initial constant agitation then 2 inversions every full minute including the 10th min before pouring out the developer before stop bath.

The 7min time quoted to far to short, maybe OK for scanning negs but not for optical printing.

I always use the timing for higher contract setting and seems to suit both condenser and diffusion colour heads to the same degree.

It's really an exceptional film developer and it never stops amazing me of it's quality. I buy mine from Matt at AG Photographic and the date sticker is always present.

On many occassions I've spoken to John Herlinger who once told me the product is still useable many months past expiry date. It's just a arbitary figure for internal warehousing rotation purposes.

I would certainly try developing again. Willing to process a role for you if your interested?

As regard to Fotospeeds customer service I have noticed over the past 6 months or so, apart from John no one else provides tech support for traditional chemisrty or papers. I think Kevin the other tech guy is digital aware only and always passes my enquires onto John. Alas John also the managing director he's not available 24/7 for replies and is often out of the office. Maybe it's this your experiencing right now. The lack of urgent feedback.

I believe there are very short staffed for analog support but on the whole I've never encounted any poor or bad product from them. Personally I think they need better internal product support for darkroom users.

Your more than welcome to ask me for any help using the fine developer. I think it's brilliant and it's transformed the way I develop my films - every confidence in it.

Just before I sign off this evening, it's works best for me at 1+9 with a constant temp between 20.6-21.8 degrees for any film I've ever used.

Happy to assist you if I can.

Cheers for now with regards

Larry

Richard Gould 20th October 2010 08:19 AM

fd10 developer
 
Larry, thanks for your reply,and from what I have seen it has the potential to be a very good developer indeed, I got mine from Matt at AG so I don't think it is anything to do with the dealer, and the date sticker is on the bottle, My developing is much the same as yours, temp 20 to 21, constant agitation for first 30 seconds and then 4 inversions every minute, at 10 minutes I get an very thin negative,all detail there but pale edge marking, tried 12 with slight improvement, so tried 15 minutes which gave a negative that needed paper grade 4 to 5 to print, so then tried the controlled test which resulted in 17 minutes which gave a good negative,dark edge marking etc, the promicrol film gave good negative at standard time, did that to make sure I was'nt doing anything wrong,and got the same result with a fresly opened bottle as with a bottle opened a month ago, and 10 minutes longer seems a lot to me.

As to Fotospeeds customer service, a simple reply to my original Email would have been good, I finally got hold of John late yesterday afternoon, and he was helpfull, and has promised me he will investigate and Email me today, I like the Developer but need to be sure it is going to work ok, if the problems can be ironed out I would by the 5 litre container and decant it, .Richard

Richard Gould 20th October 2010 03:36 PM

fd10 developer
 
Thanks to some help and advice from Larry the fd10 seems to be working fine, changed a couple of things and got great negatives at 13 minutes earlier today, don't quite understand why it should work but I agitated the tank continuasly for the the first 30 seconds, then twice every minute,including just before I poured the developer out, and ignore the 7 minutes, it just does not work, use the time of 10 minutes, as for the high contrast, and for me I nearly always need to increase the time by 2 or three minutes, and it works, as I said, the only difference is in the agitation, 2 instead of 4 or 5 per minute, and it works well Thanks Larry,and thanks everyone else who replied :):D:D,as for Fotospeed, I was promised either a phone call or an email about the problem today, this was from John, to whom I spoke late yesterday, still waiting,:mob: Richard


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