Edmund, that all makes a lot of sense. I would also recommend Tim Grey's book "Color Confidence". It isn't as technically detailed and comprehensive as Andrew's book, but really very good for people who just need the fundamentals to get them going properly.
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Again, I know how to use the profiles and have a basic understanding of what printer profiles do. Costco employees have little or no understanding of what their machines do. The Noritsu machines are made for that very reason--to produce quality prints with little operator expertise. From what I've read, and remember, the only options on the Noritsu machine for basic operations, such as Costco, are some basic color and contrast adjustments, which are switched off at the customer's request. These OFF adjustments are back printed as NNNN for all off and no adjustments. Any "N" that has a number in its pace represents an adjustment to one of the color channels or contrast, that being RGB and C for contrast, I believe, or something very similar. The other maintenance that employees do is change emulsions and wipe rollers and scanner parts off to reduce dusk streaks in printing. That's about it. Everything else is called out for an authorized Noritsu technician.
However, Friday I had some what I thought, and my brother said he saw, were light streaks in the prints going from top to bottom when viewed as landscape. I had the prints reprinted and they seemed to still be there. I talked to the manager of the lab and she said she could see them but maybe it was the print, since I agreed they were not visible or less visible in other prints. She did point out that there were very small and light dust streaks in the top of the print, which she said was due to the roller needing to be cleaned. She said she would clean it and to reprint on Saturday. I did reprint on Saturday to find they were still there, and this was verified by another lab employee. He said he was aware of the problem and that he saw them in my prints too. He also advised reprinting on Sunday. So I sent the file off through the website again for pick up on Sunday. I also created an Adobe RGB file at 12 x 18 inches at 320 ppi. It was a solid, light pastel color so as to better see any problems with streaking.
Well, the dust streaks were much better, almost invisible on the print where they were showing the most, but the test file of solid color showed more visibly the small white streaks, which the employees are calling dust streaks, and what was more obvious were the vertical light streaks every 1 1/2 inches down the entire length of the paper. There was no mistaking these light lines.
One of the employees, who is if not rude, very curt with me, asked if I wanted those photos, and I explained to her that I was looking for streaking, and that there was a problem with it on Friday. To that she replied that they had no problems with streaking in the last several days. So I explained that the lab manager had told me there was a problem and that I should reprint on Sat. and that the other lab employee said there was still a visible problem (after looking at my prints). She then told me, and this is a quote, "Don't tell me my job."
Needless to say, I called the manager and explained to him the printer problems plus the employee problem, and I called her over so she could make sure my representation of her remarks were accurate. As I was explaining that there were streaking problems, she again said there was no problem, even though she heard me say the lab manager had told me two days earlier that there was a problem, and then she said, and I quote again, "He brings everything back." I then explained that there is obviously a problem with some of the employees and myself, and that I was sick and tired of being persecuted for asking questions and trying to solve my perceived problems, and that I assumed that Costco was trying to appeal to professional photographers, to which the manager nodded in agreement. She then said to the manager, "We're not a professional lab!" The manger then said that he agreed that I had legitimate concerns, and that he would talk to the employee. She then said, and this is a quote, "You need to talk to the other lab technicians to see what they think of this guy too." All of this after the manager saw the problems and the other lab techs verified the dust problem.
I asked for the managers personal store number and asked when I could expect a response and at least a tentative solution to both the mechanical problems and the employee problem. He also took my information and said, one or two days maximum.
