Adorama saga

[EOSThree]

I don't know what to think. I guess it's a thumbs sideways right now. I was directed to Adorama because they had the 5D factory refurbished for around $1650. I have been considering the 5D for about 3 years now and finally I found one at a price I could afford albeit refurbished. Adorama has a pretty good reputation here, although I have had a bad experience with them in the past.

I hemmed and hawed for a day and then decided to pull the trigger on Tuesday. I am going on a trip on Saturday and thought it would be a good place to put the new camera through the paces, so I ordered it 2 day air Tuesday at noon MST(14:00 EST). I got an immediate confirmation that my order had been received and the funds were placed on hold at the bank.

I expected to get a shipping confirmation either Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning. By Wednesday night I still hadn't received any news on my order. I emailed customer service to find out what the status of my order was. This morning(Thursday)I hadn't received any answer to my query on the status of my order, but at lunch I had an email from a customer service rep saying that my order had been back ordered.

At this point I decided to cancel the whole thing and wait. I called customer service at Adorama and asked about my order. Customer service said they had my order right there. I said I had received an email that my order was back ordered. Customer service said "No I have it right here", I said I had ordered it blue label so I would get it before my trip, She said " we'll ship it tonight and upgrade it to red label so you can get it tomorrow". I said OK.

Well, I just got a shipping confirmation and my bank sent the money. I guess I am happy. Kind of a weird journey to get here though. If the camera indeed does show up tomorrow, I think Adorama, although confused, did right, and put things back on schedule for my trip. Very weird pathway to get back to where it should have been 2 days ago, I guess it's hard to keep track of everything at such a large company.

[Xia_Ke]

That is odd. Hopefully you end up getting the camera in tomorrow. I think a lot of it is the rep you get. I got one guy in the used department one time that gave me a big time run around. I was ready to swear them off after dealing with him but, got someone else after that was very friendly and helpful. I've had a few orders from there since and have been very happy. Keep us updated on how it turns out for you and enjoy your trip :thumbsup:

Aaron

[EOSThree]

Yeah I thought the whole thing was pretty weird.

My first order with Adorama was great. My salesman was great and I ordered about $300 worth of stuff with him. He gave me his extension and told me to call anytime. It was all great until I wanted to return something.

I was dissatisfied with the Benbo tripod I had ordered. I called my salesman and he basically refused to talk to me when he found out I wasn't buying anything new, instead he pushed me off on customer service. I got an RMA with customer service and sent the tripod back. It took me 3 months and several phone calls to get my credit card credited for the tripod.

That was about 10 years ago, and I finally decided to give them another chance, now this weirdness. That's why I am not sure about them still. I have to agree it depends on the individual, but you'd think eventually the bad ones would be weeded out by their attitudes, if Adorama really cared about customer service.

I have had very positive experiences with KEH, B&H, and BuyDig.

[Xia_Ke]

That sucks. Sorry about your bad experiences. I've had good luck with B&H and right now I'm thinking of swapping my business over to Freestyle Photo. Now that I'm starting to gear up for darkroom work, Freestyle has stuff I can't get at B&H or Adorama and I've never seen a single bad thing about them.

[another view]

Let us know when you get it, I'm curious. I think if they did ship when they said they would (after you talked to them) and upgrade it to next day air (assuming they don't charge you for that) then they did pretty good. Problems happen, and it sounds like a good attempt to fix it.

I haven't ordered from Adorama in a few years, but always noticed that it took 3-4 days for the order to ship. B&H usually ships at least by the next day so I usually buy from them. In these cases I'm talking about standard ground shipment, not priority which should be handled first by them.

[photophorous]

I had a somewhat bad experience with Adorama lately too. I ordered a used Minolta MD 24mm f2.8 lens from them, at a high but reasonable price, and what I got was an older MC version of the lens. The order confirmation email said MD, but the packing slip said MC, so someone changed it at some point. I emailed them to ask about returning it and they never responded. In the mean time I did some research and found out that it is the same optically, so I tested it out and decided to keep it. I think if I pressed the issue they would comply, but I can't believe they switched it in the first place and then ignored my email. I've ordered lots of film and other small things from them over the past few years and never had a problem, but that experience made me weary of future orders from the used dept.

[EOSThree]

:thumbsup:
After nearly driving me crazy by not shipping for a couple of days, then telling me that my order was back ordered(after I made the initial inquiry), then offering to ship it next day air, Adorama did right by me. A like new factory refurbished 5D showed up at work today. I just got home and put a BP-511 in it put my 17-40 f/4L on it and turned it on. Works as advertised. It's going with me on vacation tomorrow and I will put it and the new Panasonic TZ-3 through the paces.

The pathway was far from straight, I don't think Adorama was completely honest with me but in the end everything worked out OK. I got my new camera in time to leave on vacation. I am happy.

[Xia_Ke]

VERY happy to hear it all worked out in the end. Don't forget to post a boatload of pics from it when you get back. Enjoy your vaca! :thumbsup:

Aaron

[mikeb380]

I find that in doing business with someone long distance ( phone, internet) it is always good to get a name, phone number, and email for the person with whom you are dealing. I order lots of items from Adorama and have never had a problem with them. I have a contact and when I order on line, I always put his name on the slip as my contact. I had a problem with a "sales item" and emailed him to ask as I don't get paid but once a month. I explained and he checked and wrote back that I could get the same deal on my payday. I ordered it and received it "toot sweet", as they say in Carnasie. I always get my orders quickly, but I don't wait till I absolutely have to have something in a limited time, so I don't know how long it takes to ship. I just know I get it in good shape and rapidly enough for me, and that includes both new and used equipment, as well as both high ticket and low ticket items.

I've been doing business with them for over 4 years with nary a problem.
Michael

[EOSThree]

I find that in doing business with someone long distance ( phone, internet) it is always good to get a name, phone number, and email for the person with whom you are dealing. I order lots of items from Adorama and have never had a problem with them. I have a contact and when I order on line, I always put his name on the slip as my contact. I had a problem with a "sales item" and emailed him to ask as I don't get paid but once a month. I explained and he checked and wrote back that I could get the same deal on my payday. I ordered it and received it "toot sweet", as they say in Carnasie. I always get my orders quickly, but I don't wait till I absolutely have to have something in a limited time, so I don't know how long it takes to ship. I just know I get it in good shape and rapidly enough for me, and that includes both new and used equipment, as well as both high ticket and low ticket items.

I've been doing business with them for over 4 years with nary a problem.
Michael

I have a 10 year relationship with them. On my first order I had a contact, when I had a problem he wanted nothing to do with me. No personal handling, no help, just call customer service, here's their number, bye. Soured my experience with them. It sound like you have a decent salesman with them, in my experience with most internet houses that is usually not the case. That is the very nature of mail order or e-tailing.

I usually don't order "air" either, but second day and next day air is something that Adorama and most other "e" tailers offer at a premium price. I was willing to pay the premium price for an item that was sure to be short lived as you really don't know how many or how often you'll get a refurbished item in stock. I was willing to pay the premium because I knew if I would have waited to order: the item wouldn't be in stock, and I would be on vacation. So to have it in my hand before they ran out of stock, I paid the premium and expected the premium service.

My first order from Adorama didn't go well 10 years ago, I finally gave them another chance, mostly because they had what I wanted at a price I was willing to pay. I paid a premium to have expedited handling, and they held the order for 2 days(against their store policy on shipping expedited items), without ever informing me of the status of my order. E-tailing is here to stay and ordering on the internet is a huge part of that. I ordered and had confirmation within minutes of ordering, after that customer service definitely broke down. For 2 days I didn't hear anything on my order, I finally heard after I initiated contact. That is the essence of bad customer service. I won't change your mind on Adorama, just like my hearing bad stuff on Buydig hasn't stopped me from ordering with them, because I have had nothing but good experiences with them.

[gahspidy]

Since I live here in N.Y, just outside of the city I had always went in to Adorama retail store and always received excellent help and service, even though they always seem to be very busy. When I was looking for tripods recently, they brought up every tripod I asked to see and allowed me to set it up in the side area. Same with bags and everything else I ever bought from them.
not to make any excuses for them, but I know that over the past few months they have been doing a major expansion and the whole store has been pretty much upside down as they try to renovate and expand and do business at the same time. Could be that in all the chaos that must be going on there presently with the expansion and their huge amount of business, especially mail order that things got out of control.
I just saw the pics from your 5D on the Viewfinder, so i take it everything turned out ok I the end?

[mikeb380]

EOSThree;
You're right, why change something which works for you. Or as we say here in tha South, "If it ain't broke don't fix it!"
I just wanted people to know that not everyone has horror tales about Adorama. Perhaps I am just very lucky, I don't know. I look at some of the tales of woe and cannot help but think, how did that person screw it up. I know that isn't fair to the buyer, just a reflection of my experience with Adorama. Never an out of stock issue or failure to ship. Maybe I hold my tongue the right way when I order?

Maybe if you are having problems with a store, any store, you could call the store and ask to speak to the store manager. I have used that with some companies and sometimes it works and other times I just keep climbing the corporate ladder till I find surcease. I know it is a lot of work to do that but I find it satisfying to have my problems resolved and not to just walk away from them.

Michael

[EOSThree]

Yep, they get a thumbs up in the end.

They did me right in the end. I had my new camera in hand before I left for vacation, so they did as I expected in the first place. I just wish I didn't have to take the initiative to get the ball rolling on their end. But after all is said and done I got my new camera when I expected it.

[HelenOster]

Yep, they get a thumbs up in the end.

They did me right in the end. I had my new camera in hand before I left for vacation, so they did as I expected in the first place. I just wish I didn't have to take the initiative to get the ball rolling on their end. But after all is said and done I got my new camera when I expected it.

Dear EOS3

I wish I had come across your initial posting earlier, and I'd have (hopefully) saved you so much aggravation.
Firstly, I want to apologise on behalf of Adorama. We messed you about, didn't communicate effectively, and you were left wondering if we could really deliver.

My name is Helen, & I've been appointed recently as the Customer Service Ambassador for Adorama, as part of a new strategic plan for the company.
My role is to pick up on sales, website & policy issues, and where possible, address them, to ensure complete satisfaction when you purchase from Adorama Camera (whether on-line, in the store or by telephone).

If you have any queries, problems, issues or gripes, please do not hesitate to contact me directly, which we hope will be more effective than posting on the forums, where queries can easily get missed. As I said, had I been aware of the difficulties you were having, I would have resolved it for you.

I can't promise over night resolution, but be assured that each & every customer is important to us at Adorama, and I will always do my best to ensure that you are happy with your purchase.

You can contact me at: helen.oster@adoramacamera.com

Best wishes

Helen Oster
Adorama Camera Customer Service Ambassador