Adorama

[Ebbz]

I just received my new Op/Tech Pro Strap which I ordered for my 10D. While the strap is very nice and it is comfortable; what I didn't like was the fact that the name "Adorama" was pasted on it. I really don't appreciate a company forcing me to advertise for them. Next thing you know B&H will be selling Canons with their name stenciled on it; or your lenses will have the retailers name on it like cars do. Is nothing sacred anymore?

What are your thoughts?

Ebbz

[defordphoto]

Yeah, I don't care for that kind of forced advertising either. The first thing I always do with a new car is to come home and remove their license plate frames. I would never accept a car with their chrome logo stuck on the back either. Not many dealers on the West Coast do that.

I bought my Op/Tech from a local store and it says Op/Tech on it.

[drisley]

:arrow:

[drisley]

Was the Adorama name removable?
I ordered a Tamrac Velocity 9 from Adorama, and they better not do the same.

[kevinteh]

Yeah, I had a lousy experience ordering from Adorama, I placed an order for a few items from them and after finalising my order and receiving a confirmation reply from them. They then sent me another email saying my order was canceled because they do not ship to my country. My gripe is that if they do not ship to a certain countries, they should bar-off these countries name from the list so that people don't waste their time with Adorama.

[Bruce Hamilton]

I bought my Op/Tech from a local store and it says Op/Tech on it.

That's because your strap is the one Op/Tech makes for general distribution. The one Ebbz got was made by Op/Tech under an agreement with Adorama to replace the Op/Tech name with Adorama. Not an uncommon practice.

[montyl]

My experiance with them was less the satisfactory, they refused to ship an item to an address other then my billing address. Being active duty in the US Navy, I am not always at my billing address. B&H has been outstanding for the last year and a half, not only with pricing, but also shipping to an FPO address without blinking an eye. My recommendation is always B&H.

[drisley]

Yup, same bad experience here with Adorama.

[Cordell]

My experiance with them was less the satisfactory, they refused to ship an item to an address other then my billing address. Being active duty in the US Navy, I am not always at my billing address. B&H has been outstanding for the last year and a half, not only with pricing, but also shipping to an FPO address without blinking an eye. My recommendation is always B&H.

You have to consider the fact that credit card info is actually stolen sometimes. If you were a victim of this you would probably have a different thought process. There are many, many, many companies that will not ship to different addresses. Sure B&H will do it today, but if they get enough fraudulent purchases they will stop it too.

[Jim_T]

I hope Canon doesn't do the same and start putting their name on camera straps :wink:

But seriously.... I can see not wanting any printing on a camera strap.. Adorama should have mentioned something about it.....

[Belmondo]

My experience is that Adorama is a good company to deal with. That having been said, plastering their name on things like straps, etc., is just wrong. Maybe if they were giving those things away-----

[robekert]

I guess I am swimming against the tide also. I have had a few experiences with Adorama........all good.

Bought a lens (EF2?-85) Did not like. Returned with no problems.

Pre-Ordered 1D MkII. Received 2 days after US release date.

Other smaller miscellaneous purchases......no problems.

Rob

P.S. I guess, I would have liked to have known, that I am buying a camera strap emblazoned with the Adorama logo.......but hey if it does not look chinzy, I sure it will do the job.

[johneo]

I'll agree with a few of the others but I think we are swimming with the tide ... have ordered from Adorama a number of times and ALWAYS an easy way to place an order, great selection and have recieved every order I've placed with very fast delivery times (1st order was my 10D, 28-135 IS lens and other accessories and it was on my doorstep before I had time to check if it had even been shipped)

As for the Adorama logo ... did they not have a photo of it on the website? Even if they didn't, could you have not sent it back? I've talked to them a couple times and while I never returned anything they have been MORE than pleasent to deal with. (ordered a grey market item. They emailed me and asked to call. I called and they were very apologetic that they did not have the item with grey market warrenty and asked if I would take the USA warrenty item for the same price. Very nice of them and that will get more of my business for sure!)

BTW ... what difference is there if it says "Adorama" or "Opt/Tech" on it? I bought a slinger camera bag with the Adorama logo on it. No big deal! Haven't seen anyone snickering as I carry the bag around. :roll: Then again, I'm not really into designer named stuff :lol:

[drisley]

I placed an order (see sig) from Adorama 2 weeks ago.
I sent a copy of my CC bill as they requested. 5 days passed, not a peep from them. So, finally I called, and was told I had to talk to the verification dept. They passed me thru, I got an answering machine.
I called again, the tech could not tell me the hold up, passed me thru to the verification dept. I got an ansering machine. This happened 2 more times. It wasnt until I said I would just cancel my order that they said they need more CC verification and didnt pass me thru to the verification dept. Well, all this was 4 days after I sent them the initial CC bill.
They didnt bother to call me (or email) to tell me further verification was needed. I think if I hadn't called them when I did, it may have been weeks! Well, like i said, it's now been 2 weeks, and they still havent shipped.

[defordphoto]

I bought my Op/Tech from a local store and it says Op/Tech on it.

That's because your strap is the one Op/Tech makes for general distribution. The one Ebbz got was made by Op/Tech under an agreement with Adorama to replace the Op/Tech name with Adorama. Not an uncommon practice.

I am very well aware of that. Thanks so much.

[Ebbz]

As for the Adorama logo ... did they not have a photo of it on the website? Even if they didn't, could you have not sent it back?

BTW ... what difference is there if it says "Adorama" or "Opt/Tech" on it? I bought a slinger camera bag with the Adorama logo on it. No big deal! Haven't seen anyone snickering as I carry the bag around. :roll: Then again, I'm not really into designer named stuff :lol:

There was no photo of this particular item; however, the other Op/Tech items for which there were photos had Op/Tech on them and not Adorama.

Sending it back would probably be a hassle. I'm not saying that Adorama wouldn't exchange it; but why should I have to go through the trouble when all they had to do was send me what I ordered? I ordered a black strap; what I got was a black strap with a green pad with Adorama spelled out in 1.5" letters. It's not a matter of fashion either.

[defordphoto]

Well, to be honest with you (all) I was even hesitant about buying it either way (local OR from B&H) as it has a large OP/TECH logo on it and that's advertising too. :?

But, the strap is so damn comfortable, at this point I could care less.

How many use the Canon straps? Talk about advertising... :wink:

[Tom W]

I hope Canon doesn't do the same and start putting their name on camera straps :wink:

But seriously.... I can see not wanting any printing on a camera strap.. Adorama should have mentioned something about it.....

Don't worry, so far, Canon hasn't put their name on any really nice straps. :)

and I do agree - I don't want a big name on my camera strap. I bought a Tamrac and it says "Tamrac" in reasonably sized letters, just like the camera body says "Canon". That's all I expect.

[Ebbz]

Well, to be honest with you (all) I was even hesitant about buying it either way (local OR from B&H) as it has a large OP/TECH logo on it and that's advertising too. :?


I wasn't hesitant either...however, I thought I was buying a Op/Tech camera strap. That is how it is sold on Adorama. How would you like it if you bought a car and printed on the side of it was something like, "JOE SMITH AUTO SALES"?

[drisley]

You should call or email them.
I would like to hear what they have to say.
They have some of the most "creative" sales people I've ever come across.

[Murph7355]

Only ever had good experience with Adorama, having bought both my digital EOS from them and a selection of other gear.

Rebranding is commonplace in all sorts of indutsries. Presumably you bought from Adorama because the price was good? Presumably the "Op/Tech" strap (for that's what it still is) is comfortable in use? Would it be more so if the label said Op/Tech?

If B&H branded Canons work exactly the same as Canon Canons, and cost less, I'll buy one :)

[Tom W]

You should call or email them.
I would like to hear what they have to say.
They have some of the most "creative" sales people I've ever come across.

You can say that again. They are reputable, but they aren't among the top 5 retailers that I'd visit for camera gear.

[DocFrankenstein]

I hate it when they put logos and "digital" on the externals. My neck strap says: "canon" and "digital EOS" in white letters.

It just screams "steal me". A black marker took care of that.

And why do the put "digital" on the camera bags? I want my bag to be as discreet as possible.

[Mike H]

Don't worry, so far, Canon hasn't put their name on any really nice straps. :)

Now Tom, you obviously haven't seen the strap that Canon packaged with the Elan II! I liked mine so much that when I sold the camera to a friend I insisted on keeping the strap. Really! And if I ever put a strap on a camera again, it'll be that one ... unless I switch to NIKON! :D

I find straps just get in the way.

Mike H

[Mike H]

Okay, I'm gonna hop aboard the Bash Adorama Train here. My only purchase from them (several years ago) was a Novatron monolight. They sold it to me as new, and it was very obviously used. It was actually pretty worn. :roll:

Yes, they took it back ... and I never dealt with them again.

Mike H

[robertwgross]

If you want to make certain that your camera is never stolen, then get a blank Op/Tech strap and neatly letter on it "Holga".

Any self-respecting camera thief will take one look at it, feel sorry for you, and leave behind a five dollar bill.

---Bob Gross---

[Mike H]

If you want to make certain that your camera is never stolen, then get a blank Op/Tech strap and neatly letter on it "Holga".

Any self-respecting camera thief will take one look at it, feel sorry for you, and leave behind a five dollar bill.

---Bob Gross---

Not if they are both a thief and a starving artist (you know the kind--they have liberal arts degrees). The artsy crowd adores Holgas. :D

Mike H

[roanjohn]

They should pay for for advertising thier store.

I would call and raise hell if I were you. :twisted:

Ro1

[Murph7355]

A potential alternate view...

Let's say that you paid 10USD less for the product buying it from them rather than elsewhere.

Then they've paid you 10USD for advertising space...

On some of the other issues that people have had, I guess "mistakes" can happen. The important thing is that they are satisfactorily sorted out if they happen. That's one difference between reputable and not...

I also think that there's often a disconnect between buying over the web and buying in person...

[Tom W]

Don't worry, so far, Canon hasn't put their name on any really nice straps. :)

Now Tom, you obviously haven't seen the strap that Canon packaged with the Elan II! I liked mine so much that when I sold the camera to a friend I insisted on keeping the strap. Really! And if I ever put a strap on a camera again, it'll be that one ... unless I switch to NIKON! :D

I find straps just get in the way.

Mike H

I knew I got robbed - I got my Elan II used and there was no strap!! Too bad that they didn't have the wherewithall to include a really nice strap with a $1500 digital SLR, especially considering it outweighs the Elan II by a fair amount.

[Tom W]

A potential alternate view...

Let's say that you paid 10USD less for the product buying it from them rather than elsewhere.

Then they've paid you 10USD for advertising space...

On some of the other issues that people have had, I guess "mistakes" can happen. The important thing is that they are satisfactorily sorted out if they happen. That's one difference between reputable and not...

I also think that there's often a disconnect between buying over the web and buying in person...

Of course, if the price is the same and the retailer doesn't disclose the additional 'branding', then people might have an issue with it.

Personally, I might consider buying the strap even with "Adorama" printed on it - doesn't bother me too much - but I want to know that that is what I'm getting before hand.

You're right - there is a bit of a disconnect between in-person and on-line (or catalog) shopping, but since there are no camera stores locally that sell anything beyond "Quantaray", I'm pretty-much destined to on-line shopping. I really haven't had any major problems with any reputable on-line dealer - even my troubles with Adorama weren't huge. They're just slow and a little pushy in the sales area.