Racquet Film Processing Studio

Have held my film, for over 2 months. Want answer my emails, or instant messages. Have disconnected their phone, and shut down the website. The studio is closed during notified operating hours, so it appears I cannot get in contact with any staff, and have resigned to the fact that my film is lost.

Probably a good thing their film lab is now closed.

Really long delays. Shouldn't have opened if everything wasn't fully ready. Sadly not a good level of organisation and communication here.

Brought two films to process 4 months ago. Only one was processed. The other wasn’t. Didn’t get any refund. Emails were ignored and no film was returned. Staff was referring to some internal issues. Won’t use this service again.

Experience price and low quality of photos. I would rather get scanned and processed In fotofast, better price, service and quality of photo there

I dropped off my film at the Parliament skate shop in the city early October because I live nearby. My friend had her film processed this was a couple of times before with no issues & she highly recommended Racquet to me. After drop off I didn’t hear from Racquet for three weeks so I emailed them to ask the status of my film.

They replied immediately, apologizing & saying they didn’t know Parliament was still doing drop offs for them, and they would send someone to pick it up immediately and process the film free of charge.

I thought it was kind of funny (because the guys at Parliament definitely thought they’re still working together) but I appreciated the gesture and waited. I sent them a few follow up emails the following week but I never heard back again. Last week I called Racquet - the person on the phone said they had my name on file but have no idea where my film is. The next day I called Parliament and they said it’s still in store as no one had come to pick it up.

Today (almost two months after I dropped off my film) I decided that this was taking up unnecessary brain real estate so I picked up my film at Parliament. They said they haven’t heard from Racquet forever and have no idea what’s going on.

What annoyed me was that Racquet made me wait around for them to pick it up and process it. If they weren’t able to do that they should have just said so. I wish they communicated more clearly.

From the way they respond to negative reviews and their general lack of organisation demonstrated by the poor communication regarding operational hours, I think it's clear they have no idea whatsoever what they are doing. A shame as I'm a local to the area and would have loved to have recommended them.

I understand that a staff member was gravely ill and was in intensive care recently. This is horrible and employee health is certainly a major priority, especially in such a small team as Racquet.
However, the major issue is the staff communication during this time.

In a previous response to negative feedback that another customer left, I noticed that the staff made a plea to essentially say 'well employee health is more important than posting on instagram'. 100% this is absolutely true, especially considering how ill the staff member was. Though I see in response to previous negative feedback RE: opening hours, the staff used the excuse of 'well you could check our instagram where we post regularly to give updates. '
And during this time, Racquet did indeed post on instagram. Multiple times. They made one instagram story apologising for their poor communication around their closing hours, as initially all they did was stick an A4 piece of paper to their door which advised they would be 'back next week', with no date to tell you when next week was. This instagram story was after about a week of being closed. They then made another post 2 weeks later saying they would be open again 'this coming Tuesday'. I tried to go to the studio that 'coming Tuesday' and to my surprise, they were still not open. I checked the instagram post again to see that it had been edited to say 'the Tuesday after next'.

Then my last attempt, I tried to go to the studio on the following Tuesday which they said was the 'official reopening'. Only to find yet again that they were indeed not open, and another customer had even commented on their instagram post to say "you're not open: (" as obviously they were in the same boat as I.

Now why am I so upset by this? Because all of this frustration, clearly experienced by multiple customers, could have been so easily avoided. 2 instagram posts was all it would take.
Post 1: Staff member is gravely ill, we will be closing the doors of Racquet during this time and will update everyone once we're back.
Post 2: Hi everyone, we're back in business and processing film again.

Simple!

Please stop defending yourself with 'oh but I was worried about saving a person's life'. I have had family in intensive care, and I guarantee you there isn't a single thing you can do for someone who is in intensive care if you aren't a doctor/surgeon/nurse. Please stop deleting negative feedback and acting like you're the victim in this situation. This feedback here is intended to help you learn from these experiences and find ways to do things right in the future - right by your staff AND your customers.

I honestly wish Racquet the best as they are the only genuine film processing studio in Brisbane, and I hope that they do learn from this experience and are able to have more success in the future.

Edit: As you can see from the owner's response - they have completely missed the point. I'm not upset because I desperately wanted my film developed. I'm upset they couldn't communicate something extremely simple RE: opening hours, but were more than happy to post 'check out this cool pic by @photographer' on instagram while someone was on the edge of death in intensive care. The owner's response speaks volumes to their maturity.

I recently got two rolls of film developed here because they are closer to where I live.

The first roll was some black and white, and when I received the scans they were all out of focus. I contacted them about it, and eventually went in to inspect the actual negatives. The negs were fine, so I asked for a rescan which they obliged me with. Second lot of scans came back all good, but pretty annoying I had to catch it.
Second roll was some colour negative 120. After eight days of not receiving the scans, I called them up to see what was going on. And they promptly emailed them to me.

Considering the premium they charge compared to their competitors ($10 for tiff's is pretty on the nose), and how long their service takes, I probably wouldn't have brought my business back and left it at that. But having issues with both rolls requiring me to contact them to resolve it, left a bad enough taste in my mouth to leave this review.

Edit/Update: Racquet contacted me a few days after I posted this review to apologise, and gave me full refund.

Based on some rolls I picked up for someone, their film processing is fine, but I've never had my own film processed there. Because they're never open. I work just up the road, been down three times during their listed business hours and twice they've just been closed with no notice. Nothing on the website. I guess always call ahead to make sure they're actually open when you want to go in. Personally I've given up as it's easier to drive across town on a weekend to a store I know will actually be open.
Edit: Not everyone follows social media, and when you have a big note on the door saying you're not accepting more film until next week, no-one is going to drop off in the box. Sorry to hear about your staff member.

The staff are super friendly and they have great quality and consistency. Its why I keep going back for all my film processing.

I have been a returning customer over the last 3 years and thought it was about damn time I left a review. I'll start by saying, there's a good reason why we've been returning. The customer service is efficient and friendly and make all customers, knowledged in film or new to it all, feel included and welcomed. The photos themselves turn out absolutely amazing and you can tell that every scan has been handled with love and care. If you needed a genuinely good film developer who do everything in-house (and not to mention, used by Robert Irwin) I could not recommend anywhere else higher

Had the experience of dealing with them during a hard period with a broken scanner and ill staff - they still provided an amazing service and i couldn't be happier to call myself a regular here now. Amazing team with 10/10 service

Great place to develop film. It's a shop dedicated solely to film developing and so on, so they know what they're talking about. Friendly staff, good vibes. I've been left disappointed by other places in Brisbane so to have Racquet nearby is fantastic

Everyone has their go-to lab and I like trying various labs. As far as quality and a personal service goes, Racquet are the best film processing lab in Brisbane and are top tier in Australia. Also a good place to buy a film camera! Also like that they do things in house rather than shipping off.

I'm not a super experienced film photographer but I'm also not a noob, and I can appreciate their growth since they started, even staying open during covid. Hope film photography keeps growing so places like this stay open. Only downside is they sell out of film super quick, but it's easy to stock up with their recommendations, or just jump in on their next order.

Gallery is rad too.

Always accommodating and always super friendly. Easy parking and a team who will always take the time with you

Super fast turn around time! Always get the best quality from these guys. Great customer service. An all round awesome experience.

Friendly service, good pricing and a quick and professional turnaround. Would recommend to everyone!

Love working with Racquet Film, they are always super helpful and fast turn around for developing film.

I can't speak highly enough of this team of absolute legends.
I've been getting film developed by them for years, and its always been faultless.
I recently purchased my dream camera, a Nikonos V, through them, and the team at Racquet Image, Sam and Kilian, delivered impeccable service. I was kept abreast of all movements, they showed me the camera being inspected, they furnished me with some additional goodies for a very fair price, and IT WAS SEAMLESS. Which, in this Corona-affected world, is a very VERY good thing.
Thanks again legends.

Brilliant quality service. The person I spoke to had lots of of great advice, tips and tricks and was extremely helpful regarding any questions I had.