Anyone ever sell gear to Adorama?

[ksbryan0]

You keep waiting. After my experience I will have NOTHING further to do with Adorama again.

I will make sure that everyone I know hears of my experience and also never deals with your company again.

Well, if you're as descriptive with "everyone" as you've been here, no one will listen to you anyhow. Perhaps you don't understand that Helen is one of the good people that actually advocates for customers. She does an excellent job and really does want to help, even jokers like you who throw around accusations without anything to back them up.

[HelenOster]

You keep waiting. After my experience I will have NOTHING further to do with Adorama again.

I will make sure that everyone I know hears of my experience and also never deals with your company again.

You noted above that nothing changes - unless I'm in possession of all the facts there is nothing I can actually do to effect change. So I'd welcome you sharing your experience - if not to me directly, then please do feel free to write about it here.

If you are unwilling to share the details, I can only conclude that you don't actually want any assistance to resolve the issue - you only really want to take every opportunity to tell everyone that you had a bad experience - but you don't want to elaborate on what exactly it was that was so dreadful.

I wonder, before the Internet, whether you would have rejected a helping hand from a company representative so harshly?

Please bear in mind that I am not an Adorama employee - I'm an Independent Consultant retained by Adorama to support customers.

Whether or not you purchase from Adorama again in the future would not actually affect me personally, however, I feel I wouldn't be doing my job to the best of my abilities if I didn't give you every opportunity to contact me directly, (although you did say earlier, "While I have no complaints about buying from Adorama....")

Well, if you change your mind, you know where I am: Helen@adorama.com

[dcpotter22]

Okay just spoke to Jack, he is sending another $100 to bring my total up to the $600 as I was told by the first person I spoke with before sending in the equipment. Jack was very friendly and much easier to speak with than the first interaction. He also included a $50 credit if I ever purchase something from the department.

Also this morning, I checked out B&H and KEH, and they both have the online function to look up how much of a payment to expect to receive before sending in the equipment, and turns out their prices were $417 to $444. I hope Adorama is working on developing this tool as well as it would prevent any confusion, and save everyone a ton of time as being told a much higher amount and percentage before sending in the equipment leaves too many chances for miscommunication to occur, leaving a feeling of bait and switch tactics as seems to be the most recurring issue. If I had seen that amount before sending the lens in, I would have seen upfront that its far too low and could easily get 40% more, and up to 100% more through private selling.

[JJfilms]

Great Work Potter! I am so happy you got it. Sorry you had to fight so hard to get what was already yours. Your experience was very similar to mine. Jack was the worst I have ever had to deal with... lie after lie. They paid me $150 and then they posted it for $850, then he kept changing the reason why.
Anyway congrats! I was following your story and I am glad they didn't win.
If it's ok with you I will use your story as well whenever my colleagues ask me about selling to or buying from adorama?

Okay just spoke to Jack, he is sending another $100 to bring my total up to the $600 as I was told by the first person I spoke with before sending in the equipment. Jack was very friendly and much easier to speak with than the first interaction. He also included a $50 credit if I ever purchase something from the department.

Also this morning, I checked out B&H and KEH, and they both have the online function to look up how much of a payment to expect to receive before sending in the equipment, and turns out their prices were $417 to $444. I hope Adorama is working on developing this tool as well as it would prevent any confusion, and save everyone a ton of time as being told a much higher amount and percentage before sending in the equipment leaves too many chances for miscommunication to occur, leaving a feeling of bait and switch tactics as seems to be the most recurring issue. If I had seen that amount before sending the lens in, I would have seen upfront that its far too low and could easily get 40% more, and up to 100% more through private selling.

[dcpotter22]

Sure JJFilms, I mean I think they mean good and are not malicious, but their system is clearly outdated and needs to be updated to avoid the frustration and miscommunications that pop up from time to time, I'm sure thats part of what makes Jack come across as a boiler room type as he was much much better on the final call and I'm sure thats how he usually conducts business as this thread being 2 years old and only 3 pages long is pretty good for the first google result when searching 'adorama used department complaints'.

What they need to do is follow their competition. Their 2 biggest competitors give the actual price ONLINE without even having to send equipment in. I never even knew KEH existed until yesterday when I was looking up how other sites handle used gear. It was a shock to see the competition utilizing a far more convenient and straight forward online quote system, you can't argue with a price put right there in front of you. No percentages of resale values to be confused...just one, unmistakable price.

If Adorama had that tool I'd have known immediately that it'd be the wrong path to take in selling the lens, and would have just put it on craigslist and if I didn't get at least $600 within a couple weeks of posting, I'd have just kept the lens as I only wanted the money for extra spending cash on a trip. The initial $420 from adorama didn't even arrive in time since it was sent to the wrong address which set me off on this whole tirade, with coincidences making it seem like a bait and switch.

It wasn't till I discovered KEH yesterday and their more detailed listings made me realize that some of my accusations were in fact just coincidental. Adorama has had no identical lenses for less than $800 as far as I've seen, making me think that was the selling price of my lens and that I was not getting 70% of it as the first price I saw was $859 which is $600, the amount I was told I'd recieve, just a coincidence, but theres no mention of them being refurbished/from the manufacturer so in my mind, I was not getting 70% of the resale value. KEH had identical lenses clearly listed as refurbished at $800, and then cheaper ones as low as $665, that made me realize that the lenses from people are indeed sold far cheaper. So for that I'm apologetic, but at the same time, this entire ordeal would have been avoided if adorama never said $600 in the first call and just had a simple and straight forward online quote tool like B&H and KEH do.

[HelenOster]

...........this entire ordeal would have been avoided if adorama ....just had a simple and straight forward online quote tool like B&H and KEH do.

Adorama DOES in fact have that tool: https://www.adorama.com/pages/usedQuote

However, as I am sure you will appreciate, that can ONLY result in an estimate of resale value until the item(s) have been examined.

[HelenOster]

.....They paid me $150 and then they posted it for $850......

I'm sorry, but there are currently around 28,000 used items in the warehouse. There can be 20 or 30 identical models, the only differences being cosmetic and/or mechanical condition; there really is no basis to assert that a unit you see onn the website is the exact same one you sent in.

If it's ok with you I will use your story as well whenever my colleagues ask me about selling to or buying from adorama?

If you really want to help your colleagues, it would be far more beneficial to them if you were to pass on my direct contact details: Helen@adorama.com

[Sednavs]

@Helen

I sent you an email earlier regarding my photo equipment (for sale) re: Nikon D7100, Nikon AFS 300f4 , Nikon AFS 60f2.8 & Nikon MB-D15. They're on its way for evaluation. These are all in excellent condition, LNIB. All in original packaging with complete accessories when bought new. Hope you can help me out with Adorama's buying price. I'll update everyone on the outcome of this.

[HelenOster]

@Helen

I sent you an email earlier regarding my photo equipment (for sale) re: Nikon D7100, Nikon AFS 300f4 , Nikon AFS 60f2.8 & Nikon MB-D15. They're on its way for evaluation. These are all in excellent condition, LNIB. All in original packaging with complete accessories when bought new. Hope you can help me out with Adorama's buying price. I'll update everyone on the outcome of this.

I can't see any emails - what is your actual name?

[Sednavs]

I can't see any emails - what is your actual name?

Hi Helen,

Pardon me, I forgot to include my name in my post here. I'm Sedwin Navarro. Please take note that Al Lafko gave me the quote# but without the price yet. If you want, I can send you again the email I sent you this a.m from my yahoo mail.

[HelenOster]

Got it now - but can you also email me the quote number plus the tracking # of your package

[Sednavs]

Got it now - but can you also email me the quote number plus the tracking # of your package

Thanks Helen. I just sent you an email that I've decided to call off my plan to sell it. Thanks again. You're an asset to Adorama and this site is fantastic.

Regards,
Sedwin Navarro

[lizaray]

my friend did but not much.

[Grandpaw]

Thanks Helen for getting involved and caring about your customers. Jeff

[HelenOster]

Thanks Helen for getting involved and caring about your customers. Jeff

Always a pleasure!

[One more frame]

Hi all,
I writing this for anyone who googles for more info about selling to adorama.
It wasn't clear to me that when they offer a price over the phone for your camera that the price they say is what they want to sell it for, NOT a ballpark idea of what they will offer YOU. During my initial phone call I was offered an amount that was 70% of what other similar cameras go for on their secondhand store. Now I wasn't expecting to get exactly that 70%, maybe 65 or 60% would be fine but instead I hear back that the initial price they gave me (this wasn't mentioned in the first call that lead me to sending the camera to adorama) was what they would sell it for and I was to be offered 60% of that initial offer. Now we are talking about $1000 difference here, a difference that makes me feel like it should have been made very obvious over the phone in that first call. I have emailed adorama about this and hope to hear back soon, but I just want to warn others so they don't fall into the same situation. I know they send things back but I feel like I've been baited here.
I don't understand why they need to tell you the prices in this cryptic way, surely if this is how it is done then I can't be the first to have been misinformed (again, on the phone I was not told that the offer was what they wanted to sell the camera for, which happened to be 70% of the price of the other similar cameras, and that I would be offered only 60% of that initial offer). Be careful, I'm sure they are great to deal with in most cases, I myself have bought from them before and been very happy, but in this case I feel the process was very misleading.

[HelenOster]

Hi all,
I writing this for anyone who googles for more info about selling to adorama.................... I'm sure they are great to deal with in most cases, I myself have bought from them before and been very happy, but in this case I feel the process was very misleading.

From the description of your experience it certainly does sound as though the rep you spoke to wasn't as clear as could have been expected.
Can you please email me: Helen@adorama.com with your order number, so I can take a look at this?
thank you.

[One more frame]

Ok, an update. Jack at Adorama took the time to chat with me further about this and explained how it all works. It seems on the first call I miss understood the initial offer, as stated above. Anyway, they were really nice about it all and we have made a deal somewhere in the middle. So to anyone reading this, be sure to clarify the numbers on the first call before you send in your camera, but also know that The Adorama dept will take the time to help out. I'm happy with it all now and would recommend the service.

[HelenOster]

Ok, an update. Jack at Adorama took the time to chat with me further about this and explained how it all works. It seems on the first call I miss understood the initial offer, as stated above. Anyway, they were really nice about it all and we have made a deal somewhere in the middle. So to anyone reading this, be sure to clarify the numbers on the first call before you send in your camera, but also know that The Adorama dept will take the time to help out. I'm happy with it all now and would recommend the service.

Thanks so much for updating the thread

Happy Holidays everybody