Hello all,

Recently (in the last 9 months or so), I've began to print photos at CVS. Last week, I got an email for a free 8x10 print. The fine print said that I had to order by 11:59PM EDT on Thursday and that orders placed after 7PM local time were subject to charge at the discretion of the cashier. I ordered by about 9AM that day. Two days later, on Saturday, I went to go pick up my print since it was the first free time since Thursday.

When I got there, I walked up, told the cashier I had a free 8x10 print, and he got it. He scanned it, and it was asking me for $16.99 - which showed up on the keypad, or whatever the cost of that size print is normally. He was really stern about the fact that I wasn't leaving with my print unless I paid him, and I was solid on the fact that I didn't owe anyone anything in this circumstance. I told him that I had the print for free and showed him the email. He said, "I think that only applies if you come get the print the same day." After some more back and forth of him telling me he couldn't override my free print, he took it off and rescanned it, and it came back free. Which is silly because even the envelope and the 4x6 they print on said "order total $0.00". I didn't want him to throw away a nice print, but I certainly wasn't going to pay almost $20 for something I was promised was free, even after reading the fine print carefully. He did mention that I could call CVS's toll free number if the issue were to arise and they'd likely give me the coupon again, but that wouldn't guarantee that the issue wouldn't have happened again and the print still would've gone to waste.

Is there any truth to the claim that you have to get your photo order the same day it was placed to get the coupons/special offers applied? Also how long does CVS generally hold onto prints?

Thank you in advance!

Edit: Some have been keen to point out that an 8x10 should be about $3.99, and passport photos are $16.99. Thank you again for the clarification and now I'm aware that 90 days is the maximum hold time, if I ever were to need it.

Image is just for attention. He I want to get photos printed off. I have no clue where to go locally or if I should just get them printed online and shipped. I think the largest is going to be 8x10 but most are 5x7, hard to remember all the frames I bought. Anyways thanks in advance.

Hi! There is a likelihood I will have to print something important at 11pm-12am on a weekday, I couldn’t find anything online about specifics of CVS printing, but I saw it looks like a kiosk. Is this available 24/7?? I don’t know anyone who owns a printer, but if there is anywhere else you know of, I would appreciate any suggestions!!

Why does every CVS need a full scale photo production department? Everyone goddamn knows that all CVS stores are so critically understaffed that the one and only cashier on duty has to cover the photo station. So in addition to ringing a register, and monitoring two ACOs, and unlocking high-theft merch, and stocking freight, and facing the store, and answering the phones, that same one and only part-time no-benefits cashier also has to operate an entire photo center that offers literally a hundred different goddamn products.

Which also means that CVS had to buy a thousand goddamn bigass poster/canvas printers, and a thousand mug printers, and 2,000 photo printers, and a thousand print stations, and 2,000 photo kiosks. And every store has to maintain stupidly high overstock of a hundred different photo-making supplies. My store alone sold 36 of the 16x20 canvases last week. This just seems like such a ridiculous waste of time, money, and effort.

Here's what I propose:

Each store should have one photo kiosk that will only print 4x6 and 8x10 photos, and will only print In-Seconds. No One-Hour photo service. Nothing else. If a customer absolutely needs a photo right this very instant, they can print a photo at the self-serve in-seconds kiosk. Everything else should be done at a corporate photo station through online ordering only and shipped directly to the customer.

Just imagine - one big room in Woonsocket with a few dozen photo printers and couple dozen poster/canvas printers, and racks of shelves just stocked full of all the accessories needed to make everything. So we could schedule three shifts of employees, so the center would run 24/7, and since all the employees would specialize in doing just photo projects, it would cut the production time (and the labor costs) way down. So the customers from all over the country place their orders online, pay online, a team of photo specialists produce the orders, slap UPS shipping labels on them, and everything gets shipped directly to the customers.

We would save a ton of money on equipment. We would save a ton of money on labor. We would save a ton of time which store employees could spend on providing better customer service in their stores. And customers wouldn't have to go into a store and get frustrated by our janky-ass half-functioning equipment. It's a Win-Win-Win.

But I know CVS would never do this. Because it makes sense.