Beware shopping at Adorama

Addicted2EOS wrote in post #11881257
I am not sure who is getting free returns with Amazon. I ordered a case (having nothing to do with Photography) that was listed as a glass top. When it arrived it was a cheap plexiglass top. I returned it and was charged shipping. More than one email and phone call later- I still paid for return shipping.

+1; I had a return that was my issue and I was refunded price minus shipping, and I paid for return shipping.

Maybe if you've paid annual fee for Prime shipping they don't deduct the charges of a return?

Addicted2EOS wrote in post #11881257
I am not sure who is getting free returns with Amazon. I ordered a case (having nothing to do with Photography) that was listed as a glass top. When it arrived it was a cheap plexiglass top. I returned it and was charged shipping. More than one email and phone call later- I still paid for return shipping.

Was it from Amazon, or a retailer under Amazon?

The OP had an issue with Adorama. It turned out that it may have been his mistake, and maybe Adorama needs to have an easier to find return policy ( as another poster suggested to Helen) Some of us don't like Amazon for various reasons and there are people that don't like B&H or other retailers.

With the thousands of customers that each company deals with in a day,week or month, eventually every company is going to have someone that isn't going to be happy.

What we need is a thread to post comments about customer service that went above and beyond the expected.

TeamSpeed wrote in post #11881309
That was a pre-release sale ad, not something that had been out for a while, then rebates offered, etc.? That always happens with new items that are just announced, and yes, the prices were actually that high back then. $1700 was the price for body alone on the 7D, fortunately I was able to pay $1460 using all kinds of tricks back in Oct 09.

I paid less for mine also but have no problem with the price they were selling it for, I only took exception to the savings they claimed.

We should stop this thread it

Maybe I'm mistaken about the free return shipping to Amazon. The last thing I sent back was a Sigma 120-400 lens, and that was ~ a year ago. I didn't think I paid for shipping, but I could be wrong.

+1 - !

I've been extremely happy with Adorama, even though there have been a couple of setbacks with my experiences with them.

The first was a spammer which had gone ahead and blasted their spam around, before Adorama actually agreed to the deal, causing me to sound an alarm. Turns out that the spammer had misled Adorama, Adorama hadn't yet given their approval of the email campaign, and I had been receiving the spammer's turdlets for several months before. I'd been reporting the spammer's turdlets for months prior, discovered they mentioned Adorama as a 'partner' in email advertizing campaigns shortly after I received the illicit solicitation, sounded the alarm(prematurely, and without due dilligence in my research),
Ms. Oster contacted me about it, and it was revealed that the spammer had bogusly led Adorama to believe that they(the spammer) were some sort of "double opt-in" mailing-list service. There is no such service, and the NY AG has actually been looking into prosecuting the bunch of scumbags for their all-out criminal activities.
The spammers were flooding an email address of mine which was NEVER given to Adorama.
This was some measureable time ago now, and I do hope the NY AG has been able to successfully prosecute iKitchen and all their other namesakes and 'storefronts' for the illegal scambait bait-and-switch tactics they were perpetrating.

The second issue is simply benign: I placed an order for a Manfrotto 055XBPRO legset with a Manfrotto 488RC2 ballhead. The legset was in stock, but the head was not in stock the day the order was processed. I had to simply wait for both items to be in stock before my order was shipped. Adorama kept sending me emails about their expected time of receiving the ballhead, and it took a bit longer than I would have expected, but not knowing how a huge retail operation does it's thing, I was okay with it.
I received the legset and ballhead no more than five days later, when an email message told me that the items were in stock and had been shipped 2 days prior.

Okay, now there's a place for people (like me) who have been happy with Adorama to post their opinion. I think most people have a pretty good idea what happened here, and beating the dead horse isn't helping.


https://photography-on-the.net …p?p=11882330#po​st11882330

JakAHearts wrote in post #11862375
Posting complaints like this on the internet with the sole intent of darkening a company's image should be illegal and punishable with large fines and jail time.

HAHAHA, so funny ! (sorry OP )

bps wrote in post #11869790
Adorama's great! I've placed at least 25-30 orders with them and they've always been very accommodating when something was wrong.

They've given me nothing but first-class service!

Bryan

my camera equipments:

- 45% from Adorama. i love Adorama
- 35% from B&H. i also love B&H
- 20% from elsewhere.

Mike R wrote in post #11880546
There is no excuse for a retailer over inflating the MSRP so their price looks like a bargain. They should just state their price. I look at it as total disrespect for their customers.

That's how the real world works though Check any number of other sites--they ALL do it to some degree. If it comes down to them just putting a blank price, or putting an MSRP price and the actual price, I'll take the extra information every time.

Any competent buyer will compare costs anyhow. It's not like the original price fools anyone to begin with. You're getting upset over nothing, and I'll stand by that.

mpix345 wrote in post #11879104
The only thing I'd like to see from a consumer standpoint is the "free shipping return" policy a bit more accessible. Like when an item shows "free shipping" have a nearby link saying "click here for details of free shipping". It appears that quite a few people are honestly surprised to have shipping charges deducted when they return something that is non-defective. Maybe that would save a few of these threads.

Wow, that's a really great suggestion. I love it when people look for solutions instead of just bringing up issues. Props to you

The moral of the story is that when ordering something that's available for a bunch of different cameras, look at that item a bunch of times before finalizing the order. I've had similar issues when I've ordered Sigma lenses, i.e. inadvertently clicked the wrong one into the cart, but with a little careful inspection I caught my mistake before I placed the order.

At both Adorama and B&H, when I search for a Sigma lens I'll make sure I have the type of mount in the search, i.e. "Sigma 50 canon." That way there's only one item to choose from.

While it might state this in T&C’s, I’ve never had to pay for original shipping when returning something to an online retailer. I do expect to pay for return shipping, but not be deducted for “free shipping”.

I think a simple answer to the problem is to rename “free shipping” to “subsidized shipping*” with it linked to explain why shipping is subsidized and what is expected when returning an item. This would clear up any confusion. My assumption buying online is “free shipping” equates to the overhead that would otherwise be required to support a physical store in my area.

I also agree with the other person who stated the full item description should be on the invoice, this potentially could have cleared up the issue before the item was sent and shouldn’t be that difficult to implement.

There is a lot of gray in this case, but I understand the OP’s point.

My one and only experience with Adorama was bad. I bought a lens on their website as it was supposedly in stock. I got an email saying it was on back order. WTF? They didn't know this before? They said it would be at least 10 days before it would ship, I would not be charged until it shipped and I could cancel if I wished.
Three statements, three lies.
After ten days I called to cancel and they said it was too late, my card was charged, even though they hadn't shipped it. After two more emails and one week later I finally got my money back.
You all can say all the nice things you want and I hope you have great service with them for many years, but they will not get any of my money.