Whilst not common, that problem is far from being unheard of. I've had similar experiences albeit only two instances where 'good' film was developed by commerc

Whilst not common, that problem is far from being unheard of. I've had similar experiences albeit only two instances where 'good' film was developed by commercial operators who put the films through the wrong processes. With much Photoshopping I actually got usable photos but they certainly weren't pretty. That's different to experimenting. Years ago I worked for a television station that had a huge Eastmancolor processing lab attracted (we processed millions of feet of movie stock per month). Running various 'non-standard' test strips though the baths proved very interesting. We produced many strange effects (it was an excellent way of getting to understand how color emulsions work).