Tuesday, December 16, 2008

CVS passport photo scam

CVS has a nice little scam going in their photo printing department. I needed to get some passport photos for an international drivers license for an upcoming trip. I already had an appropriate photo - I just needed to print it out on glossy photo paper. I figured I'd try the photo printing kiosk at CSV since it's right down the street.

At first glance, the photo kiosk only offered standard sized pictures, 8x10, 4x6, 5x7, wallet sized, etc. There was no option to choose 2" x 2" which is required for passport-sized photos. Wallet sized photos didn't have an exact measurement size listed, so I wasn't going to take a chance with that.

I eventually asked the person in the photo department if there was an option for printing passport sized photos. It turns out there is, but is in a totally different section of the kiosk menu under something like "special features". Along with the "special feature" comes a "special" price - $7.99!! Holy smokes! This is a ridiculous price when a single 4x6 costs $0.19. To illustrate the crazy price even more, for $7.99, they give you one 4x6 picture with six 2" x 2" pictures in it! You have to cut them out yourself!

So, if you ever need passport photos, do yourself a favor and make your own composite 4x6 image using photo editing software and then just print out that 4x6 for $0.19 rather than getting scammed for $7.99.