The more likely happening is that the processor temps or replenishment
routines are out of spec, or the developer is either very new or very
old, replenished past its end-of-life specs.  Consider the C41
processing requirements, i.e. develop for 3 min 15 sec +/- 5 seconds at
75 degrees F +/- 0.25 degree (that was the specs when I was in the color
dev caper some years ago.  They may have changed since).

Add to that the mechanical (timing and temp control hysteresis) accuracy
of processor, the amount of agitation provided, the quality of the
stop/bleach bath, also subject to replenishment, and you have a
pot-pourri of variables, plus the age of the film, its storage history,
irradiation history, etc.

Its a wonder to me that negatives are as consistent as they appear to
be.

Digital, on the other hand ... {:-)

Colin D.

bit hit and miss.  This is why I scan any photo I want a print of.
Looking at some old prints that the lab did and then what I got from a
scan of the same negative makes it pretty clear that the labs I was
taking my photos too were pretty bad in general.

So get a scanner Alan and take control of your prints, and life will be
good again.

Scott

 Machine prints? Not tweaked at all. They've always been an issue.

  Not the stuff I do-) I bet the negatives are fine and it's the printing.
I've got 20 year old negatives that when I print them are just fine. But the
machine prints are underexposed just a touch. The colour is off just a bit.

Nick

I don't know if its the biggest myth, but certainly up in the top ten, that
camera stores, even professional stores offer 'professional' photofinishing.
True some do act as a drop off point for a pro lab's courier service, (if
any still have such) but the sad fact is that nearly all lab and photo
finishing services are just another consumer lab service.   They are not
lying when they say that many professional photographers use their service,
so called professional photographers used costco too to print their client's
wedding photos.

but pro labs suffered quite a bit too.   gone are the color correctors, the
folks that could look at an image and quickly, faster than I could even
resolve the image while looking over their shoulder, they would adjust the
color balance and density while looking at a possitive image on a monitor
with a 'shirley' image and gray card next to it.    So film services went to
hell in pro labs, for awhile, long enough to make sure everybody that
depended on a quality lab decide to switch to digital even if they didn't
want to.    The worst part is trying to reprint an order for client, you
will not get anything remotely similar, mostly due to the current practice
of scanning and printing from the scan, with auto levels doing more than
analog color and density balance did, (now they adjust contrast too,
something a good photog should have learned, needed to have learned how to
get right on the neg.)

Now its done with auto levels.   So the scanner figured that brightest part
of the image was white and made sure it was.

I was suckered in by thinking that Kodak was a quality service, but they
were the dumbest of consumer services, not recognizing that 'pro' film had a
different film base, and therefore a different basic filter pack.