For the OP question, I am not sure what happened. Its happened with my manual cameras and to be safe I stick more through the slot on the take up reel.
I am always open to new locations to develop and scan film cheap. Darkroom.com is fast and efficient and do great scans. I am close to getting a film scanner though. What I have done for the past couple years is develop with a cheap scan (real cheap) locally, then pic the photos I like the best and mail the negatives to Bluemooncamera.com and get pictures developed. Hands down the best with their optical printing. I've done a few large prints (11x14) from Bluemoon and The Darkroom with a high res scan and the shadows and dark regions come out totally different. (Although some foots that look is actually better!). Here is an el-cheapo scan from Ektar 100 and I had a very large print made from Blue Moon just recently:
I guess it depends on the finally destination of your photos. Since I have had who-knows-how-many computers and hard drives crash, I always make prints of the digital and film photos I like and keep them in large art folio folders.