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Problems with Adorama - feedback?

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Ben Herrmann

Ben Herrmann

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Please excuse my mundane rant here. You know, I often purchase camera accessories through various online NYC outlets. My favorites have always been either B&H, 17th Street Photo, and more recently BuyDig.com (which is part of Beach Camera). Of course for Cameras or major components, I would personally check always check with Arlington camera first - but for smaller items, oftentimes the larger online vendors can do much better because they purchase large numbers of these items.

Having said that, I've purchased from Adorama off and on for the past 5 years, but lately - over the past year actually - I've been totally turned off by these folks. For example (and this is par for the course for Adorama anymore or so it seems), I ordered a simple Delkin flipup LCD protector this past Monday - the 9th of January. To this date (Thursday evening), Adorama has not even shipped the item. Quite to the contrary, when you order from the likes of B&H, or 17St Photo, or BuyDig.com, your order goes out the next day and you have an email showing your tracking number, etc. At least this way you can plan for the arrival of the gear ordered.

But with Adorama, they take their sweet time - or so it seems - just preparing your order. Both yesterday and today I called their customer service department and received the same line..."oh it's shipping today," and then it doesn't happen. When you check your account information on line, it continuously shows your order as "processing."

So for those of you Adorama shoppers, what gives? Are you experiencing the same scenarios. This same situation has now happened several times over the past six moths, and quite frankly I am finished purchasing anything from Adorama - Nada! My online puchases will now be limited to either Arlington, B&H, 17St. Photo or Buy Dig.

Any input from you folks?

--
Good shooting...

Ben

 
I ordered a 14-54 on the 5th, it took them until the 10th to ship! The good news is, it will be arriving tomorrow! :)
--
Theresa Kelly
http://theresak.smugmug.com/
Oly E-3OO + some other stuff

Constructive criticism always welcome!

 
it was from J&R, not Adorama. But I couldn't help but keep thinking I would have had it promptly from B&H, although for more money.
--
Theresa Kelly
http://theresak.smugmug.com/
Oly E-3OO + some other stuff

Constructive criticism always welcome!

 
but I'm getting older.

20-25 years ago it was B&H or Adorama from NYC. They were competetive and responsive.

I gave up on the latter about 10 years ago. I was still shooting film, of course, but the customer "service" seemed to make a rapid decline at some point in the mid 90s.

Most of my gear is from B&H, some from e-Bay and lots from my friends here on this Forum.

--
Regards,
(afka Wile E. Coyote)
Bill
PSAA
Equipment in profile.

If you can visualize it, then create it in the camera, finish it off with the print that matches your mind's eye then you are, most likely, a master...

 
B&H rubs me the wrong way. I've ordered numerous times from them. When you pick UPS for shipping (which I hate because they will leave a thousand dollar box in the middle of my driveway) B&H will ship the same day, but if you pick FedEx or USPS they will wait 2 or 3 days until they ship it. I called and asked why, and they said that their UPS orders take priority. I've never had any problems at all with Adorama since I switched.
--
E-300
 
I have been cheated big time. They tried to sell me used film scanner as brand new. Of course, it wasn't a mistake, they did it on purpose. They are not like other stores such as Smile Photo(are they still in business?), doing it consistent basis, but once in a while sneak it in.

Once they do it to you, you'll learn quickly. I have never sent them any order since.
 
Adorama did not ship my daughter's Christmas present (EV500 two lens kit& FL50). It was ordered Dec. 19, they told me it shipped on the 20th. After finally reaching customer service on the 29th I cancelled the order. I think Adorama is fundamentally dishonest.

You may get what you ordered at a good price or you may not - in the meantime they have your credit card and you won't be able to reach them.
 
I gave up on Adorama back in the late '80's when I ordered a pair of 11 X 80 binoculars from them and received not only very poor service, but poor attitude as well.

When the binoculars hadn't arrived in two weeks I called them and inquired. I said, "Since your ad plainly stated 'Immediate Shipping' I thought surely the product would have arrived by now". The Adorama reply was a simple, "Two to three weeks IS immediate shipping".

Actually, at that point, the only thing truly immediate was my cancelling the order.

Sahagan
 
tfinch2 said:
B&H rubs me the wrong way. I've ordered numerous times from them.
When you pick UPS for shipping (which I hate because they will
leave a thousand dollar box in the middle of my driveway) B&H will
ship the same day, but if you pick FedEx or USPS they will wait 2
or 3 days until they ship it. I called and asked why, and they said
that their UPS orders take priority. I've never had any problems at
all with Adorama since I switched.
Click to expand...
For me, the problem with B&H is their refusal to ship to places like the UPS store where I have an account. I originally got the UPS store account when I was a work at home programmer to have an address the company could ship gear, and have keep it since then, since I no longer have to worry about what puddle the UPS/FedEx driver will put my package in this time. I've not had any problems with Adorama. I still order occasionally from B&H when Adorama doesn't have the part, having it shipped to my office address (now that I have an office address).
 
I saw on this board back in October that Adorama had the Zuiko 35mm for $0.01 so I ordered one and it said it would be $8.01 with shipping. They emailed me two weeks later saying it was a mistake and would be $239 and do I still want the lens. I replied no. Then in December they charged my credit card $239 and according to them shipped the lens, which I never received.
 
...a VERY big notch below 17th St. Photo & B&H when it comes to customer service and support and the gap has only widened in recent years. Because of this and because their prices are typically very similar to or only marginally lower than B&H, Adorama lost my business several years ago. Although 17th St. has somewhat higher prices than B&H, I shop with them when I can because of their generally friendly (or at least sufficiently polite) sales and customer support staff. Furthermore, 17th St. guarantees their products to be "brand new", so you don't have to worry about receiving previously handled, customer returned merchandize from them. Have you ever ordered a "new" lens and found that it arrived with greasy fingerprints on the front element? I have, but with 17th St., at least from my experience, you need not worry that this will happen. The downside to 17th St. Photo is that their product selection is far more limited than B&H.

My 2¢.

Steve
Ben Herrmann said:
Please excuse my mundane rant here. You know, I often purchase
camera accessories through various online NYC outlets. My
favorites have always been either B&H, 17th Street Photo, and more
recently BuyDig.com (which is part of Beach Camera). Of course for
Cameras or major components, I would personally check always check
with Arlington camera first - but for smaller items, oftentimes the
larger online vendors can do much better because they purchase
large numbers of these items.

Having said that, I've purchased from Adorama off and on for the
past 5 years, but lately - over the past year actually - I've been
totally turned off by these folks. For example (and this is par
for the course for Adorama anymore or so it seems), I ordered a
simple Delkin flipup LCD protector this past Monday - the 9th of
January. To this date (Thursday evening), Adorama has not even
shipped the item. Quite to the contrary, when you order from the
likes of B&H, or 17St Photo, or BuyDig.com, your order goes out the
next day and you have an email showing your tracking number, etc.
At least this way you can plan for the arrival of the gear ordered.

But with Adorama, they take their sweet time - or so it seems -
just preparing your order. Both yesterday and today I called their
customer service department and received the same line..."oh it's
shipping today," and then it doesn't happen. When you check your
account information on line, it continuously shows your order as
"processing."

So for those of you Adorama shoppers, what gives? Are you
experiencing the same scenarios. This same situation has now
happened several times over the past six moths, and quite frankly I
am finished purchasing anything from Adorama - Nada! My online
puchases will now be limited to either Arlington, B&H, 17St. Photo
or Buy Dig.

Any input from you folks?

--
Good shooting...

Ben

Click to expand...
 
I ordered the 14-54 from Adorama a couple of months ago. They held my order several days and then sent me an email advising that I needed to call to deal with an "issue" regarding my order. I called the number, left a voicemail and someone called me back about 5 minutes later. They tried to sell me several different types of filters. That was the issue. They weren't pushy, but I had expected more from them. They will have to be pretty cheap in the future before I consider ordering from them again.

I've ordered from B&H frequently and always had great service.
 
To each their own, I guess. I like Arlington & B&H. I will never again do business with Buy Dig, after a bad experience.
--
Rob Davies
Searun
http://www.pbase.com/searun

equipment in profile
 
I have ordered and received approx. $1500 - $2000 dollars worth of goods every year for the past 6 years and have never had a problem with delivery, accounting or returns at Adorama. I think most customers don't have a problem with most vendors. Most vendors probably screw up at times, some more than others. I remember awhile back that Canoga Camera out in LA was the 'place' to buy stuff. Just was the camera shop of all camera stores to deal with. So I ordered a bunch of stuff from them and it promptly got shipped to an address that was nowhere near what I gave them and my correct address was confirmed before shipping. Finally got my stuff about 3 weeks later. They didn't even apologize. I blew it off and have order from them since w/o a problem. Life is short don't burn out your circuit before its' time.
--
-RW
 
I just got my E-1 system for Christmas, and ordered from several vendors

Beach Camera gets an honorable mention because I ordered everything 12/20, chose standard (free) shipping and got it on Saturday 12/24, despite the fact that Beach is in NY and I'm in California.

Tri-State, B&H Photo, 17th Street Photo, & Filter Connection all shipped promptly, just not quite as fast as Beach.

Adorama was the 2nd slowest of the bunch and took their sweet time packing up the items. it was more than a week before they got the items out the door.

The worst by far was Video Direct. They advertise Olympus items as "in stock" on their web site. That stock status is hard coded in the web page and hasn't been updated since September at least. As a result, my RG-1 cable and 50mm macro lens are backordered, and I can't try out my fancy new FP-1 flash grip yet. The items that were in stock arrived about the same time as the slowpoke Adorama order. They also have a policy of not providing tracking numbers.
 
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