Hi Stuart
As I have said I get very few printed. My better shots get used as desktops or folk on Birdforum or here get inflicted with them.
The only batch of bird shots I had done was by the local Jessops. I was keen to see the colour was acurate. Along one edge of the images I added some calibration boxes. Solid White, 25% Grey, 50% Grey, 75% Grey, Solid Black, 100% Red, 50% Red, 100% Green, 50% Green, 100% Blue, 50% Blue, Plus some Colours from the Gretag Colour test chart.
The object of the boxes was two fold. Firstly was to prevent the Labs Auto Calibration software playing with the colour balance and secondly I could measure the results on a spectrocam at work.
I don't know if I was lucky as you hear so many bad reports but I was very pleased with the results. The Grey boxes were very slightly warm in colour which the spectrocam confirmed as being about 0.5% too red.
I am sure the regular Lab users on here can recommend good on-line labs.
As an aside this sort of issue opens the debate ( I think your find threads on here or Birdforum ) on the merits of owning a home printer. From my POV the only possible merit is the instant gratification factor. Again from my POV the hassle and expense of keeping a home printer running for the odd printout it is not worth it. If I am really that interested I run a printout from the Colour LaserJet at work.