Don’t let them loose your stuff!

During the Association of Video Professionals (www.aovpros.com) conference call today, the topic of wholesale warehouse, discount chains and drug stores offering video transfer services came up. Specifically, our discussion revolved around the fact that they are now offering these services (as well as selling prescription drugs, dogfood, pizza, and toilet paper) and the fact that they actually don’t do this work themselves (they outsource this work to a company that has “factories” in California and Mexico).

Each of the members of AVP has a story of a customer who has had a bad experience using services provided by America’s largest warehouse store’s new provider/partner. One of the stories that surfaced was of an elderly woman who had her 8mm film transferred to DVD, only to have another customer’s film returned to her. Another story was of a gentleman who also had film transferred but had the wrong DVD returned. And, as you can imagine, there were numerous stories of customers who had entire orders lost. One of our members told of a discount store clerk who was discouraging their customers from using the services that they were selling because the loss and error rates were too high.

In fact, the track record of some of these companies is quite scary. We heard today that their “LIF” (loss in factory) rate is somewhere just above 4% and their percent of orders with errors was much higher. While this doesn’t sound like a significant number, imagine being one of the 4% that experiences a complete loss of their precious memories and then tell me that this number is not meaningless.

Needless to say, each of the members of the Association of Video Professionals is very proud to say that our track record is much better. While I can’t speak for anyone else, McKenna Video Services has a ZERO loss rate. We have a 100% return rate of all materials (some in even better condition than when we received them)! We have never lost an order, nor have we ever completed a job with errors. That is something we are proud of and that is something that warehouse and discount stores cannot claim.

I, personally, take the time to talk with each of our customers and to work on their project, whether it is an 8mm or 16mm film transfer, a single videotape to DVD transfer, a photo montage, or something else entirely. Can a minimum wage employee working in an obscure factory in California say that they personally talk with each customer? Can a minimum wage employee working in obscure factory in California say that they value the project they receive as if it were their own?

As always, we appreciate your trust in handling your precious memories and we value those tapes, film and photographs as if they were my own!

Thank you for your trust!

God's blessings,

Chris.