An open letter to Helen Oster and Adorama

In spite of the many and exacerbating tirades about Adorama's practices
and policies, most of which are either unfounded or premature,
I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank Ms. Helen Oster
and the rest of the Adorama team for making my own shopping and
purchasing experiences with them nothing but positive.

I have not had a negative experience in my dealings with purchasing from
Adorama, from a $500 purchase of a Canon-refurbished camera, to a measly
$11 purchase of a Manfrotto quick-release plate, and a few other items
well between the above costs.

While my purchases have not been high in numbers from Adorama, it's safe
to say that I have been completely satisfied with each and every transaction,
with the goods arriving at my door even before the tracking information
tells me it should even be in my general area.

Aside from the cheating Adorama fell victim to with email campaigns and
supposedly "legitimate" email 'marketing' strategies a year or so ago,
I will have no compunctions about giving them my business again, now,
or in the foreseeable future.

My thanks again go to the Adorama team; Helen and all others.
Thank you all for the great jobs you all do for our satisfaction!

SkedAddled wrote in post #10728751
In spite of the many and exacerbating tirades about Adorama's practices
and policies, most of which are either unfounded or premature,
I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank Ms. Helen Oster
and the rest of the Adorama team for making my own shopping and
purchasing experiences with them nothing but positive.

I have not had a negative experience in my dealings with purchasing from
Adorama, from a $500 purchase of a Canon-refurbished camera, to a measly
$11 purchase of a Manfrotto quick-release plate, and a few other items
well between the above costs.

While my purchases have not been high in numbers from Adorama, it's safe
to say that I have been completely satisfied with each and every transaction,
with the goods arriving at my door even before the tracking information
tells me it should even be in my general area.

Aside from the cheating Adorama fell victim to with email campaigns and
supposedly "legitimate" email 'marketing' strategies a year or so ago,
I will have no compunctions about giving them my business again, now,
or in the foreseeable future.

My thanks again go to the Adorama team; Helen and all others.
Thank you all for the great jobs you all do for our satisfaction!

Wow!!

Thank you so much.

Now off to see about that pay rise.........

Right. Because you had no issues with the vendor, those who have must have been high on something.

Here's a napkin. Don't forget to wipe your chin.

I said nothing of the sort, nor did I imply any such thing. I'll thank you to exercise enough maturity so as not to twist my comments into something they are not.

I just think there are some relatively minor issues which have been blown way out of proportion regarding Adorama, issues which are also encountered when shopping with any number of other trusted and well-known vendors. It seems that people are quick to make a knee-jerk reaction against Adorama when each excruciating detail doesn't go their way, when I read about similar situations with other vendors which are approached with far more calm and maturity from the get-go.

nicksan wrote:
Here's a napkin. Don't forget to wipe your chin.

Thanks to your lack of maturity, maybe you could use the napkin I didn't use to wipe the snot off your own immature upper lip.

HelenOster wrote in post #10728824
Wow!!

Thank you so much.

Now off to see about that pay rise.........

LOL! See how that works?

BTW .. one of the Metz 60CT-4 flashes that I own was purchased from Adorama about 12 years ago .. still going strong .. I never mess with anything that ain't broken.

Helen and staff have always had my vote ..always will too ..

Keep up the great work ..!

SkedAddled wrote in post #10734705
I said nothing of the sort, nor did I imply any such thing. I'll thank you to exercise enough maturity so as not to twist my comments into something they are not.

I just think there are some relatively minor issues which have been blown way out of proportion regarding Adorama, issues which are also encountered when shopping with any number of other trusted and well-known vendors. It seems that people are quick to make a knee-jerk reaction against Adorama when each excruciating detail doesn't go their way, when I read about similar situations with other vendors which are approached with far more calm and maturity from the get-go.

Thanks to your lack of maturity, maybe you could use the napkin I didn't use to wipe the snot off your own immature upper lip.

Right. Again, who are you to determine that they are minor issues? Now I've seen posts where the poster did indeed have a knee jerk reaction but I've also seen cases where the problem was very real.

I reread your post. You mentioned "tirades" and that most of them are "premature" or "unfounded".I'm sure those who've had negative experiences with this vendor might have a thing or two to say about that.

I've always maintained that while it's nice to have a rep from the vendor in here, perhaps they should look into trying to improve things so that this forum isn't used as part of their CS.

As for the napkin. You keep it. I prefer to use Charmin.

Try not to get caught out by Mr. Whiffle for squeezing his s**t.

I will also say i have had nothing but good things come from me ordering from adorama off amazon. When i order things off amazon sometime i pay that extra dollar just to order from them, atleast then i know ill will be getting the product with in a week and not 3 weeks later.

So you have had a handful of good transactions with Adorama, and therefore most other "tirades" are unfounded (as Nicksan pointed out)? I personally would put it closer to about a 50/50, where there were definite issues folks had to issues that could have been quickly mitigated without a complaint thread.

Here is a thought. There is obviously something wrong inside the Adorama order and customer service department that there are continual issues involving misunderstandings on shipping, strange responses back to the customer, etc and all of it eventually requires Helen to intervene. Quite honestly, there needs to be some sort of process, training, post CS review, etc implemented to help reduce or eliminate these in the very beginning. Other online stores have gotten a handle on this, and the number 1 leading love/hate relationship with an online store seems to center around Adorama here on POTN.

I appreciate Helen being here to help out when these come up, but in all reality, it should be Helen's goal (and her department) to work herself out of the "forum police" position.

TeamSpeed wrote in post #10739743
I appreciate Helen being here to help out when these come up, but in all reality, it should be Helen's goal (and her department) to work herself out of the "forum police" position.

Yep.

TeamSpeed wrote in post #10739743
.....I personally would put it closer to about a 50/50, where there were definite issues folks had to issues that could have been quickly mitigated without a complaint thread.

I'd have put it at 80/20 2 years ago, ie, 80 with definite issues and only 20 where it was customer misunderstanding.

Right now I would say it's swung the other way to 30/70, ie, only 30 where we have messed up.
The problem is that memories run deep. Not surprisingly as some of the issues 4 or 5 years ago were truly awful......

TeamSpeed wrote in post #10739743
.........in all reality, it should be Helen's goal (and her department) to work herself out of the "forum police" position.

Absolutely agree with you 100%.

Well, I'm off on vacation in just a couple of minutes. I'll be back on Monday but won't have any access to Internet while I'm away, so I hope it's a peaceful few days with no mess-ups!

Enjoy, hopefully it is a very quiet and relaxing scenic area! Yes, it is probably closer to the stats you show, and it seems the number of posts has slowed down over the past couple of years too, so there are improvements that have been made.

SkedAddled wrote in post #10734705
I said nothing of the sort, nor did I imply any such thing. I'll thank you to exercise enough maturity so as not to twist my comments into something they are not.

I just think there are some relatively minor issues which have been blown way out of proportion regarding Adorama, issues which are also encountered when shopping with any number of other trusted and well-known vendors. It seems that people are quick to make a knee-jerk reaction against Adorama when each excruciating detail doesn't go their way, when I read about similar situations with other vendors which are approached with far more calm and maturity from the get-go.

Thanks to your lack of maturity, maybe you could use the napkin I didn't use to wipe the snot off your own immature upper lip.

Right. So when a store screws up, admits it, but tries to keep your money anyway, it's a "minor issue" that's just "blown way out of proportion."

You like Adorama. That's great. Obviously you've yet to have issues with them - issues that a great many other people have had. You want to thank them, send them an email. Send Helen some flowers at work.

But don't post a love letter here and expect the folks who have had legitimate issues to take you very seriously.

I will also say that I've never had any issues with Adorama, being it a $1000 or a $100 purchase. I'm sure there will be those who've had negative experience, just like with every other store. However, if I were to buy something from Adorama vs some other store (not named B&H or Amazon), I would 100% trust Adorama in this case.
I know this is not a review forum though......and I had no idea who Helen is up till today

TeamSpeed wrote in post #10739743
Here is a thought. There is obviously something wrong inside the Adorama order and customer service department that there are continual issues involving misunderstandings on shipping, strange responses back to the customer, etc and all of it eventually requires Helen to intervene. Quite honestly, there needs to be some sort of process, training, post CS review, etc implemented to help reduce or eliminate these in the very beginning. Other online stores have gotten a handle on this, and the number 1 leading love/hate relationship with an online store seems to center around Adorama here on POTN.

A few days ago, on the store recommendation thread, someone posted their thought that one of the reasons Adorama's customer service surpassed B&H was because Helen's post count here on the boards far exceeded that of the B&H rep (Henry Posner?)

I have to admit that my own reaction to this was actually to assume that Adorama have more issues that require Helen to sort out!

I'm grateful that both reps are here, especially Helen as she definitely goes the extra mile and it is a comfort when I place an order but a little part of me thinks I'm a sucker for falling for this sort of PR stunt

After all, that's why reps are here - not just to to minimise potential damage to the store's reputation but to present a friendly face so we feel inclined to buy from them rather than their competitors and it looks like it's a strategy that pays off!