Bad Experience from Adorama Online Order

edhohoho

edhohoho

Established
Local time
12:11 AM
Joined
Mar 2, 2005
Messages
128
Location
Los Angeles, CA
View My Gallery
Hi all,

I've been frequenting this site for a little while and really enjoy reading about all things rangefinder. I am happy to say that I finally purchased a refurbished R-D1 from a fellow member of RFF (btw, thanks to Ampguy for the good communications and quick delivery). I have a long overdue vacation coming up in a few days (after the first six months of a general surgery internship) so I am eagerly awaiting the free time to use my new camera.

However, I was extremely disappointed by my experience with Adorama today after placing an order for a used Leica 35/1.4 Summilux. The day prior, I called the store in hopes of getting a salesperson to find the used lens I was interested in and get a "real-time" description of the condition and what accessories were to be included with the item marked "demo." The salesperson was extremely unhelpful, saying the used department was too large to find the exact lens in question, and he basically just read back to me the description of the lens posted on the website (the very page I was staring at as I made the call). Then he said it was covered by their return policy and if I didn't like it I could always send it back.

This should have tipped me off to Adorama's customer service (or lack thereof), but time was running out and I decided to just buy the lens and some related accessories based on the generally favorable reviews of this store from other members of this forum. I placed my order and a few hours later got a call from a rude salesperson trying to sell me a Mack warranty on the lens, using various tactics to pressure me into spending another $50 on a Leica lens that was supposed to be in virtually mint condition. His tone was that of one trying "to do me a favor," which really ticked me off. Naturally, I refused and he "thanked" me for my order.

A few hours later, I received an e-mail "confirming" my order. The invoice said I would be receiving my UV filter, lens cap, lens cleaning kit, and SD card via next-day FedEx--but no lens. Apparently their online inventory was not up to date. Obviously they had the "courtesy" to call me in order to try to sell me an additional warranty, but the idiocy to not call me when the most important item of my order would not be sent. So they charged me $38 for FedEx of small items I don't really even need (aside from the SD card) without the lens.

Needless to say, I am extremely disappointed and outraged by my experience with Adorama. If anyone cares, I can not recommend them in any way, and will give them negative advertising should anyone ask. I will not deal with them again in the forseeable future.

Now, where can I get a good deal on a mint condition Leica 35/1.4 Summilux Asph?

It is unfortunate my first post is a negative one. Hopefully once I get started with my camera, I'll have more pleasing results to report.

Thanks for reading!
 
I had a similar experience just a few days ago with Adorama and was very very upset about it. I purchased 2 B+W IR cut filters from Adorama, it was not listed as out of stock, so I placed the order... on the order form there is even a box asking if you wish to be called if there are problems with the order, and I said yes. Since I was at it, I figured I'd order some film too... well 2 days later I get charged for only the film and found that odd, so I checked up... only the film got shipped out and their website updated the item to out of stock... not once got a call, not even an email to inform me of this problem... I would not have known had it not been for PayPal (I paid with PayPal) informing me of charges to my account. The one time I shop at Adorama instead of B&H... never again.
 
It's too bad you had such a negative experience. The one area where the Adorama web sites falls down is with used equipment. The availability status of a used item is rarely accurate on the web site, in my experience. So, I am very careful about buying used items I really need from them. In the past, this has been caught via email exchanges and I've had no problem cancelling an item. It's a shame you had a different experience. Do give them another try. In general they are quite helpful.

/Ira
 
Sounds like Adorama doesn't deserve business. There is a certain "photographer" who has a major website and functions as a sort of salesperson for certain items in his/her reviews. Adorama is one of the places they always point the reader to buy things. Sounds like your review of Adorama proves another point about this photographer. Pretty much wraps it up, actually.

I shop at B&H Photo, and they are fantastic. Forget Adorama.

Thanks.
 
The one area where the Adorama web sites falls down is with used equipment.
Click to expand...

They do the same thing with new equipment. I have had this same thing occur to me, all the little stuff arrives and the lens is back ordered. It has happened to me with internet orders, and phone orders when the sales person obviously lied when I directly asked him if the item was in stock.

I am no longer an Adorama customer, they are NOT a reputable dealer in my eyes. You can read many other negative experiences about this dealer at Photo.net.
 
That has happaned to me twise on adorama, after using popflash and robert white it is imposible to go back to adorama 🙂
 
Only B&H has REAL-TIME stock inventory tracking.

Here are the dealers that I favor :

Popflash (Tony Rose) (Tony is so fast on emails, he practically is real-time tracking)
B&H
Robert White
Kevin Cameras
KEH (mild real-time)

You won't go wrong with the above. Adorama is ok if you are in NY to look at things in person, otherwise it has a reputation as a rather haphazard firm to work with online and by mail order.

Sorry to hear of your troubles.

btw: where are you doing your internship?

Welcome to the forum 🙂
 
Edmund, I'm sorry to hear about your experience with them. I wish I could have warned you about them. I have had some OK experiences with them -- they have told me when they didn't have specific new dslr lenses in stock, but when I tried to order a dslr from them once, the cc verification guy insists I'm not me, so between clarification and telling each other where to shove things, he asks "so do you still want to order it"? I hung up and price matched it elsewhere.

Got emails every day from his "co-worker" asking if I still wanted to place the order.

I've also successfully ordered from them through amazon, but I think the shipping charges were a bit high.

I go B&H, then One Call, for new stuff, they will often match prices, and have never been rude.
 
Last edited:
I purchased a camera online thru Adorama and after three weeks and several unanswered e-mails I finally received a copy of a response the Adorama customer service rep received from their order department. Basically the order dept told Customer Service to tell the customer (me) to shut up, quit whinning and he will get the camera when it's available. Let's just say I cancelled the order immediately and provided the Customer Service rep with some badly needed feedback.

Bob
 
Two things, just to add a bit more info:

1 - I don't shop at Adorama either

2 - in all reality, if you try and call BH, you will get the same gruff customer service. Heck, you get it even if you walk in the store and talk face to face 🙂. Thank goodness for online versions of stores.

allan
 
I have never had any unpleasant experiences with B&H; very courteous, every single time.

On the other hand, with Adorama... one time they were somewhat courteous, but the rest, sheez.
 
The amazing thing about B&H is that the sales people on the floor actually KNOW the cameras they sell. Apparently they have a big hands-on training room for sales people. It shows.

/Ira
 
A few years ago B&H was a bit, shall we say, succinct in manner ... I just figured it was a big city thing ... just kidding 😉

But lately (over the past two years), I've noticed that their CS agents are really quite friendly. So no complaints. They are fast, secure and trustworthy ... that's pretty good in this day and age.
 
I went once to Adorama. They were rude and I never went back. B&H was better. I shop there now. Like Allen said, thank goodness you can shop on-line.
 
In the early 90's (before online shopping and all you had were the monthly ads in the back of Shutterbug and Popular Photography) when B&H was on 17th Street and Adorama was a block away, I used to go to both. Adorama was always a bit less chaotic and there was more to browse, in comparison to B&H's old shop. Has anyone had any experience buying from Adorama on ebay? They seem to sell a lot of used gear there too.
 
Topdog1 said:
The amazing thing about B&H is that the sales people on the floor actually KNOW the cameras they sell. Apparently they have a big hands-on training room for sales people. It shows.

/Ira
Click to expand...

I think this is due to the efforts of Henry Posner, their director of training. He really understands customer service and seems to have the full support of the owners. And he's a nice person as well.

FWIW/ScottGee1
 
For the record, I found with a recent purchase that I'd gone over some sort of internal limit with B&H and they refused to sell to me, aparently because the privacy laws in Australia are too limiting to the amount of snooping they want to do on my banking records. So I bought from Adorama instead. No problem there at all.

I guess I have no problem with B&H making what to them must seem a straightforward commercial decision. I obviously prefer Adorama's decision in this regard, but I guess the marketplace is supposed to sort this stuff out. Since I have no way of knowing what level of fraud they may have experienced (though I imagine its pretty low from Australia, with plenty of legal remedies) I can't judge the soundness or otherwise of a decision like this. I expect, though, that Australia is small enough that we simply get lumped in the "other" category in many peoples' systems, along with Nigeria, Hati and other fun places.

...Mike
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom