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Kodak Announces "Important Changes to Motion Picture Film Distribution and Customer Service"


Karl Lee

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In case you haven't seen it, today Kodak posted an announcement regarding distribution of motion picture film. Essentially, it sounds like they're moving to a direct ship model and will be shipping all orders from their Rochester manufacturing facility. There's mention of an anticipated delivery time of 5 (?!) business days after placing an order, but I don't know if this is actual order fulfillment time or just a worst-case scenario for ground shipping.

 

There are a few other announcements, including discontinuation of ShootSaver and NYC will call.

 

 

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In case you haven't seen it, today Kodak posted an announcement regarding distribution of motion picture film. Essentially, it sounds like they're moving to a direct ship model and will be shipping all orders from their Rochester manufacturing facility. There's mention of an anticipated delivery time of 5 (?!) business days after placing an order, but I don't know if this is actual order fulfillment time or just a worst-case scenario for ground shipping.

 

There are a few other announcements, including discontinuation of ShootSaver and NYC will call.

 

 

 

I love how in one sentence they are basically saying "Here's what we're doing...deal with it," and in the next they say "We look forward to serving you now and in the future."

 

Unbelievable.

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In one sense, it's a good streamlining of affairs. If they made it easier to order (like web checkout) it'd be even better. 5 days is fine (seems like they ship immediately) if you're doing a longer-lead production- can always expedite shipping if budget requires that. The will call wasn't exactly the easiest thing to deal with, anyway.

 

I get fresh stock from Film Emporium next-day in NY.

 

Perhaps saddest is that they're moving out of their facility in Hollywood. I guess no need to have such a huge warehouse these days in such prime real estate.

Edited by Kenny N Suleimanagich
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There's mention of an anticipated delivery time of 5 (?!) business days after placing an order, but I don't know if this is actual order fulfillment time or just a worst-case scenario for ground shipping.

 

I just spoke with a sales rep on the phone. They still offer Next Day shipping via FEDEX/UPS.

 

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I don't think I've ever in my life gotten film anywhere but from a phone call to Kodak, and I don't think this will be as big of a switch for most. Generally speaking, at least my own MO has been to call up (or have the producer call up ) one of the reps with whom I've worked before and put in the order. It ships, comes in, and we store it until used. As we're going if we wind up running low on stock, we order up somemore-- though generally this rarely happens as I always overbudget raw stock a bit.

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I don't think I've ever in my life gotten film anywhere but from a phone call to Kodak, and I don't think this will be as big of a switch for most.

 

Truthfully, ever since they moved out of their office on 31st Street here in NYC, it's been a hassle to get to them for will call service. So much so that I recently set up an account for mail ordering.

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  • 2 months later...

When Kodak consolidated their film ordering and shipping operations to Rochester in November, I was a little concerned about order fulfillment time as there was mention on Kodak's website that "anticipated delivery will be five working days after the date of your order". I ordered a few rolls of 16mm this past week, and I'm happy to report that, at least for my order, fulfillment and delivery were speedy as usual. I placed my order around 3 PM ET last Monday, and as I wasn't in a big hurry, I opted for FedEx ground delivery (which is two days in transit from Rochester to my location). To my surprise, the film was delivered on Wednesday morning, so it must have shipped on Monday afternoon.

 

I'm guessing that the "five working days" might just be a worst case scenario, as ground service from Rochester to the west coast is likely 4 or 5 days. Time in transit aside, it looks like they're still fulfilling film orders in a timely manner, and I'd imagine that if ordered early enough in the day, most orders (especially overnight shipping orders) will probably ship the same day.

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I ordered a few rolls of 16mm this past week, and I'm happy to report that, at least for my order, fulfillment and delivery were speedy as usual. I placed my order around 3 PM ET last Monday, and as I wasn't in a big hurry, I opted for FedEx ground delivery (which is two days in transit from Rochester to my location). To my surprise, the film was delivered on Wednesday morning, so it must have shipped on Monday afternoon.

 

Karl,

 

While I was in the middle of my shoot, I had to order 4 100ft. rolls of 7222 and I had the very same concern. I ordered on Monday and the shoot was on Saturday. The customer rep (very polite gentleman) stated that it shouldn't take more than 2-3 days and sure enough, it was here on Wednesday.

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