Asda destroyed wedding photos - What to claim??

[natmc]

Hi,

I was hoping someone may be able to give me some advice or views and also help with any legal or important information we should quoted on our letter to Asda.

We choose to use disposable cameras for our wedding meal/evening do hoping that the guests would snap away to get us some great shots for this part of the day and also saving us £100's for a professional all day!!
We took the films to Asda to be developed, when we returned to pick them up we were told that they had been put through the devvelopment process incorrectly by an inexperienced staff member and that they had destroyed 8 out of 11 films. Obviously we were absolutely gutted and followed this up with a conversation with the manager whom accepted it was Asda's negligience and advised us to write a letter of complaint requesting compensation.

We wrote to them detailing how upsetting this was and requesting compensation as these are wedding photos that can not be replaced.
They have since reponded offering us £500, but the general view from friends and family is that we should not accept their first offer and should respond stating we are not happy with this offer, but I just dont where to begin. Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Natalie

[stevesj]

unless you want lawyers to get involved (expensive) - you may want to consider ASDA's offer. some cases have had labs offering up to £70 per roll, and some less, so an offer of around £70 is reasonable.

usually film is accepted by ASDA, TESCO's etc on the basis it has no commercial value, and their insurance is limited to negligence claims for holiday snaps etc., and the value extends to replacement film and processing. This is implied on the receipt they give you (mostly) when you take your films in, this would probably constitute and form your contract and acceptance.

It's not good when you have gone through such a happy day - and it's really not good to have your photos co**ed up.

a proper professional will (should) have indemnity to provide compensatory reshooting, i.e: building the day up again so you can at least have some memories - it has happened and photographers have had to claim for the (un) happy couple.

sorry the answer isn't too positive, I'm really not sure what you can do - perhaps get your entitlement to a free half hour of legal advice and see.

Good Luck

Steve

[chezt]

Just a suggestion but you could use the £500 to pay for a few professional shots of some of the wedding party all dressed up again - Then you will have a few wonderful piccies of your day