Anyone ever sell gear to Adorama?

[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Sure JJFilms, I mean I think they mean good and are not malicious, but their system is clearly outdated and needs to be updated to avoid the frustration and miscommunications that pop up from time to time, I'm sure thats part of what makes Jack come across as a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