Printing XP2 - weirdness

[Steve Jolly]

Here's a little issue I was hoping some of you fine folks could help me 
clear up.  I recently shot a roll of portraits on XP2 Super, and got 
them developed by a certain UK-based mail-order pro lab.  For various 
reasons (usually I don't bother with prints...) it was the first time 
I've ever had XP2 printed, so I didn't really know what to expect beyond 
what I'd read - the results were much weirder than I'd imagined though.

I've put a couple of sample scans up at 
http://www.elvum.net/gallery/pdml - the left-hand thumbnails are scanned 
in from the prints, and the right-hand ones are the corresponding 
scanned negatives.  The negatives look pretty normal to me (errors in 
technique notwithstanding ;-) ), but the prints look extremely odd. 
I've tried to point out the weirdness in the captions.  Overall, the 
dark areas have come out looking almost solarised - areas that are 
virtually black in the negative have been printed even lighter than some 
of the shadows.

Anyways, my question is: is this "normal", or should I be asking for 
reprints? :-)

TIA

S