After giving CVS years of business, the newly opened CVS, previously Longs, has given our negatives away to a client after VERY SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS NOT TO! But THAT is not even my complaint. THIS IS...

After stopping by several times to see whether or not our client had picked up their photos so that we could then re-collect the original negatives that they had opted NOT TO BUY, I stopped by again and yes, indeed they had picked up their photos, and ALSO! THEIR NEGATIVES THAT HAD BEEN SET ASIDE IN A SEPERATE ENVELOPE FOR US TO COLLECT AFTERWARDS. The ACTUAL PERSON WHO HAD ASSURED US THAT THEY WOULD NOT BE GIVEN AWAY, TRI, THE "MANAGER" not only could not find them, but gestured in rap-style manner with flinging arms that he could do nothing more, he had looked and that NO, I could not look through the envelopes myself to double check. He did not offer to investigate, ask other photo employees that might have set them aside somewhere or remember giving them to the customer, look around the photot kiosk, NOTHING! He just acted rude and uninterested and COMPLETELY UNACCOUNTABLE and kept arguing the same point that "You saw me put them back in the bin, that's where I left them and haven't touched them since", regardless of how many times I kept trying to ask him if maybe he could ask other employees, look in the safe or ask if they have a special set aside place they may have put them. It was as if he was a machine just repeating and not listening or caring. FINALLY I had had enough! After not being allowed to make my point or even be heard when I did speak I slammed my hand down on the counter and said "I WILL FINISH MY SENTENCE! STOP INTERRUPTING ME SO I CAN SPEAK!" I guess this gave him carte blanche as a paid employee of CVS to act even more rudely and unprofessionally... He said that he "can't help me anymore because he looked and the negatives aren't in the bin" and walked away. I told him that I absolutely DID NOT want him to help me further and that I would like to speak to the manager. He then let me know that he IS the manager and that I should just check with my client to see if they collected the negatives along with their photos. I asked to use his phone to leave a message with the photographer I work with to contact the client directly. I left a message and then tried again with this "manager". I asked him, "OK, do you remember having the conversation that day when we seperated the negatives and asked YOU to please put them under the PHOTOGRAPHER'S NAME and the photos under the CLIENT'S NAME to be picked up... do you remember us talking with you about possibly having your children photographed in the near future?" "Yes" he replied. So then I asked "Well then if you remember that why are you acting like you have no knowledge of us separating the negatives to understand WHY I cannot understand how it came to be that the client could know to ask for an envelope under a different name than hers? Did she collect OTHER PEOPLE'S negatives???!!!" He then admitted that he did remember but offered no further information. He began looking for them again and asked a photo employee who just happened to walk up if he remembers anything about our negatives, speaking extremely vaguely. (This employee is one that is notoriously sloppy and once lost negatives exactly 2 seconds after holding them in his hands once, argued that they were never there, and then turned around 10 minutes later and found them on the counter next to the register where he had absent mindedly put them.) Of course he just mumbled and walked off. I then noticed that the ONE photo employee that we usually try to deal with who is at least somewhat competent was checking people out at the checkstand so I asked the "manager" to ask him if maybe he remembers the lady coming in. THIS COMPETENT EMPLOYEE then turned after having been 5 feet away during this whole escapade and told me that "yes, she came in and I gave her everything. There was no note on it so I didn't know not to give her the negatives." Tri, the "Manager" looked at him and said, "Well there you go, we could have avoided this whole thing if he would have told me sooner." After leaving the store, I saw Tri outside having a cigarette about 15 feet from the front entrance of the building and he apologized for the mishap. But when I tried to point out that giving away our negatives, or losing them is bad enough, you should try to behave professionally and at least ACT like you care, listen to the customer allowing them to finish their sentences and at least investigate or let the customer know you will follow up and call them, he began with the chip on the shoulder all over again and said that the customer was supposed to act professionally and that he is not paid to put up with abuse. I tried to point out that any problem in a store can go either way, depending on how MANAGEMENT handles the situation. I also pointed out that as a customer, I am NOT on the payroll, HE IS, THE "MANAGER", and if I was allowed to speak, was listened to and not argued with, that maybe I wouldn't have to get upset to make a point in the first place. I tried to explain that basic customer service skills 101 are common knowledge in all companies, that this is nothing new and that someone who is appointed a MANAGER status, should be familiar with this and not act like a teenage rap artist showing no respect for the customer's point of view. At this point he had put out his cigarette and shooed me off with his hand as he walked back into his secure little job. CHARMING!!!

POSTNOTE: After asking one of the other employees outside if he was the store manager, he is not, he is the Assistant Manager.