Adorama Camera

Alas history repeats itself. I used the gift card and gave them another chance. I ordered some tripod legs from them along with some other items and paid for 1-3 day shipping. Their Website does not state they don't have them in stock. Mind you B&H will let you know if an item is coming from a manufacturer etc. It tells you there is a delay when you order. Adorama does not. When I saw the manufacturer was shipping I called to verify it would be on time. They promised it would.

Fast forward a day or two and my item will not be here on time. It will arrive by the time I am on a shoot in the middle of the desert 100's of miles away. A call to Adorama only led me to be told the first agent I talked to should have changed my shipping to 1 day in order to guarantee delivery and that they could not do anything for me but cancel my order or refund me 20 something dollars for shipping. Second time I'll be having to go out of my way and spend extra money because of very poor customer service.

I was told I needed a UPS pickup to return these, and would need a full refund, INCLUDING the $800 shipping I paid, as they arrived DAMAGED. No fault of mine, but Adorama for not packing them correctly for shipping. So I was told, OK no problem. I finally get a UPS pickup notification a day later (now on day 4-5) and wait for UPS. Eventually UPS picks up and they are on their way to Adorama. They shipped them back GROUND so it took 6 days to get back, I could only imagine the further damage they took on. Anyway 3 days go by and no email, no refund, nothing. But I tracked the packages and they were received by Adorama.

So once again I email customer service who then told me to wait 3 days. So I explain that I need the refund in full as my credit card payment is just about due, and I am not paying it as these are being refunded. They are the only thing on my credit card as I never use it. So I will not pay a few hundred when these are being refunded. I do not want a late payment ding on my credit card because Adorama is taking so so long to put in a refund. So I email again, and again. Every time I email, I did get a reply but 20-24 hours later each time.

Finally! Day 4 after they receive the speakers back I get a refund notice. But it was the wrong amount. It was $2999 instead of the $6,800+ it was supposed to be. What?!?! So again, I email them and am waiting for a reply as I write this. This has been probably the worst buying experience of my life, anywhere online, and awful customer service. I have shopped at B&H Photo for 20 years and never ever had one issue. My first big purchase from Adorama and it's a disaster. They seem to want to take your money quick but when it comes to refunds, when it is their fault for not shipping an item correctly, they stall in all areas.

So what my next step will be if I do not get the full refund of $6800+ to my credit card by end of week is to file a chargeback with my card, and write a big review of Adorama on my 10 year running camera review website, showing the experience with emails, photos, and all. My voice is well known publicly. If anyone at Adorama reads this, my order # **. The two damaged speakers were delivered back to you so please submit my full refund ASAP. Not a partial half refund. A full refund, with shipping charges of over $800 that you charged me for damaged speakers. It should be easy...

Once I got home I inspected the package carefully and noticed no break in the tape or packaging. I opened the box to find a Hifiman box within the shipping box. Instead of an he-560 the box was for re800 earphones but was lined out in felt marker and written in the same marker he-560. Opening up the inner box I found a he-560 headband only. No drivers, nothing else. It looks as if it were a replacement headband. I have a YouTube video available if needed for proof. Perusing the internet it appears as if I am not the only one Adorama has scammed with this same problem. Selling a headphone and sending just the strap with no drivers attached.

I was told on three occasions that they would call me back after further investigation, only to no avail and I was never contacted or my phone calls returned. Even my invoice had all the correct information - I just did not have the correct laptop. Which again led me to ask "if you didn't have it, why didn't you call me to inform me and ask what I wanted to do?" Instead they took it upon themselves to send me a completely different machine at my expense for shipping. This is what I call a bait and switch and is illegal business practice in most states. I am still waiting for my refund 3 days later. This company professes to be customer service friendly. Take it from me, they are not. I recommend avoiding this place like the plague as my experience has proven to me they are all liars and don't give a damn about the customer at all.

Fair enough, if they think USD48 is too little. Proceeded to order another time through Amazon. Also mentioned this item SHIP TO MALAYSIA. This time I paid USD 112 for shipping, almost triple! The same cut & paste generic response from Jade ** again, 6 hours later! After charging and order confirmation! Not even sure if this Jade ** exist! Adorama is discriminating and profiling me for being a Malaysian, twice cheated! If you don't ship, you shall not put it as you do ship, that's false advertising and cheating!

I moved to Philadelphia, so I have to call before coming into the store to try and get the information I need before I make any new purchases. Once again today I called a few times and put on hold twice, while the salesperson vanished and eventually (after 20 minutes) called again. I requested to speak to the manager to assure proper service in trying to locate and purchase two more cameras for my studios. The gentlemen would not transfer me to a manager because I did not know what my (FC or FK) number was. All the years going there (I HAVE NEVER RECEIVED AN FC OR FK NUMBER).

I ask if my phone number was good enough or the same thing and he said no. This is the third/fourth time this year I have tried calling with once again no results. I will no longer be doing business with Adorama - When someone is spending thousands of dollars, you kind of what to speak to someone that can give you the answers you need. I wanted to purchase 4K cameras with touch screen and touch focus assist and they could not even answer that. A company is only as good as its weakest link. So when the video salesperson you are transferred to is your weakest link and can't even answer a simple question, or you're put on hold for 20 minutes - it's time to look at other video stores. Switching over to B & H.

Today I went online and looked to see what it was going for on Adorama. They’re asking $899 for it! And I know it’s the same one because they've only had 1 in the past 3 months. Not only was my time wasted but I was flat out lied to about the resale value of my item when all I wanted to do was trade it in for a $700 DSLR gimbal that I ended up not getting anyways.

Was on the phone and spoke to 5 different people at Adorama for at least an hour. Two of the 5 people disconnected, one person sent me a recorded message saying that they are now closed. I called again and asked to speak to a Supervisor, I was put on hold then disconnected. Called again and ordered a new Rotolight AEOS. I can't believe how Adorama Customer Service operates. Nothing but aggravation and a runaround from this company. I will not be purchasing anything more from this company again. So Buyer beware...

After spending almost an hour with your Philippine service people who could not be understood except for the ("I'm so sorry Ron" ) my total frustration caused me to finally hang up. I have spent thousands of US dollars over the past 20 years with Adorama and never had a problem. Now with your total lack of US Customer Service, long holidays and short US hours, I'm sad to say I'm done with Adorama. I'm giving up on the overcharge to my account, the lack of properly equipped accessories and poor customer service, My money will now be spent with businesses that respect their customers and are US reachable for service.

Adorama ultimately did nothing to make any of this up to me. They offered me a coupon code for a future purchase but without giving me a reason to make a future purchase. They had an opportunity to impress me and earn a loyal customer but they failed miserably. Also they shouldn't be allowed to have "prime" on their items because they're unable to deliver anything in the promised two days. My shipment will take five days...

With restored credit, reordered another used lens listed online Tuesday afternoon. By Thursday, with neither shipping information nor confirmation, found that the lens was listed as back ordered. Huh? A used lens... When I called, the rep claimed that the lens really was available, simply that the SKU has changed. (It was more expensive than others similarly graded, for unspecified reasons.)

Naively agreed to proceed with assurance that this was the SAME lens as before. Hours later, under the order number, found the old SKU lens marked cancelled, and the new lens (that I was assured was the old lens) marked back ordered. Two unneeded 82mm filters ordered with the lens were in the warehouse for shipping, and the order could not be cancelled. I would be responsible for any return postage, or a penalty if I refused delivery. The lens was not prepared to ship, since it was back ordered. This is after 48 hours for the online order of a lens listed as in stock. That was it. Cancelled the lens again. Will keep the B+W filters. And never again any NYC seller. Even any with the interest-free financing.

So camera lens no longer on sale, I can reorder but for hundreds of dollars more than the first order, and never mind the hours of my time trying to fix this. There are plenty of retailers who sell all the same things that Adorama does but with a functioning customer service department. I will repurchase this lens, just elsewhere. Time to cut my losses. I do place a value on my time especially when that time runs into many hours on the phone engaging in exercises of futility.

Coincidentally, I also received a message at about this same time, saying that the item was now out of stock, and had been back ordered - and that I'd receive an email when and if it ever came back in - ALL WHILE THEY'VE STILL GOT MY MONEY. Now, I need to call back again, to see if their CSRs in India (which are ALL of them - they have no customer service in the US) will even grant this reversal for a refund. If not, we'll simply be disputing the charge with our credit card company. This falls into one of the top worst, most frustrating and borderline felonious purchasing experiences I've ever had, in my 50 years on this planet. Absolutely horrible. ONLY SHOP WITH ADORAMA IF YOU HATE YOURSELF.

We emailed customer service immediately for more information. An email response from a rep on November 29 stated that only one item, the filters, was on back order. The email stated: "If you would like to modify the order to a different in-stock item, email us back with the item you would like to replace it with..." I emailed back a request to have the filters replaced with an extra Sony battery. On Nov 30th, I received an email response stating: "We regret to inform you that since this is a bundle we can only check for a comparable filter kit and we are unable to replace the backordered item to a Sony battery.". On December 1, I emailed back the same rep and requested that she simply swap out the filters then for a comparable set of filters. That customer service rep never responded.

Two days later, on December 3, I received an email from a different rep stating: "the Sony A6000 is currently on back order but we were able to allocate the item on your order. This means we can fulfill this item in your order." At that point, we were pretty confused. We had thought only the filters were on back order. According to this new email, the A6000 had been on back order but was not any longer? Adorama had been able to "allocate the item"? Apparently not, because despite many more emails to a total of three reps over two weeks, the A6000 camera and filters were still on back order when we checked the status of our order online today, December 11. We canceled the entire order today.

At this point, we no longer have any confidence in Adorama, its business practices, or their customer service. Their response time via email was repeatedly prompt, but we received contradictory information from their reps, and none failed to answer our questions or resolve the issue and get our order shipped out in a timely manner. The company should absolutely NOT be selling kits or items and advertising them as "in stock" when they're not actually available. We regret that we ever placed our confidence in this company. Had we ordered from B&H or Amazon, we'd have our order before Christmas. This was the first and last time we'll ever purchase anything from them.

When I got off the phone, my co-workers informed me that no signature was requested. I then called UPS. After being on hold for more than 15 minutes, I spoke with someone. Their records showed that the shipment was not requested to require signature. I called Adorama for a second time. The young lady I spoke with said they had not received the e-mail with the details and pictures, so I re-sent them to her direct e-mail address. I requested to speak to a supervisor. I explained to the supervisor about the issue and the contradicting information from UPS and Adorama. I asked to get UPS on the phone so all three parties could discuss and resolve. She said they would just send labels to have the packages returned. It took nearly 15 minutes of back and forth before she agreed to get UPS on the line. I was on hold nearly 25 minutes before she came back and said she was still on hold. I told her that was fine.

20 minutes later, she said they had referred her to damage claims, and she had been put back on hold. She said they would just generate the labels and have the packages returned. I asked if they would re-send my order once UPS had possession of these boxes, and she said no; she said they would not re-process the order until they received the original order back. She said it would be two weeks or more before I received the replacement order. I told her that was unacceptable. I said I had a direct number from speaking with UPS previously and would call them. It took three times mentioning that before she agreed. I got UPS on the phone in less than two minutes. They pulled up the tracking information, and I explained that I was getting conflicting information. She said their system clearly showed that the box for requiring a signature had not been marked.

We were more than 90 minutes into this phone call. I asked the Adorama representative how they were going to handle this since they had not requested signature to be required. She said she would "elevate" the issue to their shipping warehouse. I told her I was going to take a chance and open the box, and I would be back in touch if anything was missing or damaged. I asked for her supervisor's name and e-mail address so I could send a written complaint about the misinformation and the error.

Later Monday evening, I received an e-mail from someone else at Adorama. They said they had received my request to return items, and labels were being generated for UPS to pick the boxes up. I responded that I never requested any such return. I sent a separate e-mail to the customer service supervisor. Tuesday morning, I received a response from the customer service manager. In summary, it said that the package should not have been signed for if it was damaged (I had already explained in the original e-mail that UPS requested no signature). She also stated, "We do generally ship with signature required but we allow UPS to use their discretion to leave it with or without signature." That statement indicates that they do not require a signature - as all three individuals I spoke with Monday afternoon had indicated.

In the exchange back and forth, I soon received an edit of my picture where the supervisor had drawn a red arrow pointing to the "STOP" logo on their packing tape. The package tape says if the seal is damaged, the recipient should check contents before signing for the package. She again said that the person in the office should not have signed for the package (and, again, no signature was required by UPS). She offered a $50.00 gift card after apologizing multiple times for what UPS did. At no time was there ever an apology for what Adorama had done or their misinformation.

In my final e-mail, I said I had not requested any refunds, credits or other compensation. I simply wanted someone to confirm what their policy was and who (even though I knew) was at fault for not requiring a signature. In at least two separate e-mails, I requested the name and contact information for her supervisor. She never provided it. Early afternoon Tuesday, a UPS delivery person showed up with two return labels to pick up the packages. Despite my immediate response that I had not requested the packages to be returned, they had not canceled the return order.

The final straw came on the next e-mail from her which obviously was intended to be sent within her company rather than to me. It said, "This guy does not stop. He is being unreasonable. I don't believe we should further contact him." I called again. I explained what had occurred, gave the manager's name, and asked to speak to her supervisor. I was put on hold and was on hold for more than 40 minutes before the third person I had talked to on Monday (the person whose supervisor I had e-mailed) got on the phone. I explained about the e-mail and how unprofessional it was. She laughed and said, "OK." After putting me on hold again, she came back and gave me a name for a supervisor who would call me by the end of business. She confirmed a phone number.

Five hours later, by the time they had closed, no one called. Among speaking with three of their representatives via phone and one via e-mail, I received four different statements about their shipping policies and signatures being required. I had co-workers blamed more than once for signing for the package (and once again, no signature was required) without checking it. And then I was sent an incredibly unprofessional e-mail.

So let me make this as clear as possible. The issue with Adorama has never been about UPS’ actions. They repeatedly “apologized” for UPS, but I’ve never once said the condition of the package upon arrival was Adorama’s fault. My issue with Adorama’s customer service is the misinformation that ultimately wasted entirely too much of time (as well as their staff). They have admitted that, in reality, they do not require a signature. Allowing UPS to use their own discretion/choice isn’t requiring a signature.

On my first call Monday, their representative said they require a signature. When I called a second time on Monday, a different representative said they require a signature. The supervisor I spoke with also said they require a signature. When this specific call ended after more than 90 minutes, UPS had confirmed the order was not marked for signature required. The supervisor said she was “escalating” a report with their shipping warehouse to find out why it was not marked for signature required. So, at that point, I had spent nearly two hours on the phone with Adorama representatives, and three different people had told me that they required a signature. The third, a supervisor, went so far as to say she was following up with their shipping warehouse and “escalating” a report.

Then there’s the product return. I never requested such or asked for such. I told all three people I spoke with on Monday that was not an option, even though they suggested it repeatedly. These were gifts, and I couldn’t wait for their required process of getting the items back in their possession (minimum of 2-3 days just for that, per the supervisor) and then 10-14 more days to re-process and deliver to me. It was December 4; I could not risk 17-21 days to get the items back as they were gifts. Yet, Monday evening, I received an e-mail from them saying I requested to return the boxes, and they were generating labels. Again, I never requested this. I immediately responded to that e-mail that I had never made such a request and, yet, UPS still showed up Tuesday afternoon with labels in hand.

Finally, we have the “customer service manager” who I exchanged e-mails with on Tuesday. She repeatedly suggested it was somehow my fault or the fault of my co-workers; she repeatedly misstated that someone had signed for the package. UPS has confirmed they got no signature upon delivery; the delivery driver merely entered a name of an occupant of the office (there is a sign on the door showing the occupants of the space). The UPS tracking information online does not say that is a signature; it simply says that is who received the package. I explained that more than once, on Monday and Tuesday, yet she continued to bring that up as some sort of “defense” for their actions.

If I had been told on the very first call on Monday that Adorama leaves the decision for signatures up to UPS, that would have been all I needed. That didn’t happen. If it’s on their website as they have claimed, how do their customer service representatives, and supervisors, not know that? I filed a Better Business Bureau complaint. They responded with more claims about the package being signed for, presented a quote of mine out of context and submitted an anonymous semblance of an apology for the rude e-mail.

My only request with the BBB complaint was to be contacted by whomever is in charge of their customer service to discuss the misinformation and the unprofessional responses from the manager referenced above; it’s clear that they refuse to do that as well. Hopefully, future customers don’t encounter this type of misinformation and runaround from Adorama going forward.