Adorama: Great Prices But Pushy, Aggressive, Rude Employees Have Lost My Business
Written: Aug 22 '05 (Updated Aug 22 '05)
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The Bottom Line: Adorama has good equipment prices and great inventory but I will not shop there again as I did not like being accosted by their pushy salesmen.
My general boycott of B&H Photo/Video after experiencing the worst service ever from a company I used to trust has been relatively painless, up until recently when I started a new round of camera equipment purchases. I've been less than impressed with multiple sites so when I found the lens I was looking for at a good price at Adorama I figured I'd give them a try, since I had heard good things about Adorama in the past.
About Adorama
Adorama is Yet Another New York Camera Store doing business online. Their physical location is on West 18th Street in New York City. Adorama is one of two or three camera outfits that I've heard mentioned repeatedly by professional photographers. I chose to buy from Adorama this time because of their price and because of word of mouth.
Selecting and Ordering Merchandise at Adorama's Site
Adorama's website at www.adorama.com is well organized. You can search or you can browse by category. You can click on featured items, or shop specials. Adorama advertises that they're a part of the BBB Online Reliability Program and they have numerous other buttons on their page designed to make the customer feel safe and secure shopping with them. On the top of the website is an 800 number for calling Adorama.
Item Selection
It's easy to find what you want at Adorama, and I was able to find the lens I was shopping for with ease. This is quite an accomplishment, as they seem to have everything. The item I wanted was in stock so I added it to my cart. A few minutes later I found one last item I was looking for, so I began the checkout process.
Checking out at Adorama is simple, and account creation at the site allows users to check the status of their order. Adorama takes care to validate credit cards, so I made a note that if there were any problems with my credit card, to please contact me at a particular daytime phone number to let me know. I checked out and was excited to receive my merchandise.
After the Sale
Post-sale I received a confirmation e-mail from Adorama, as I expected, which verified all of my information. I placed the order on 8/15in the morning. By noon on 8/16 I received a vague, badly-written e-mail which read, and I quote (all typos belong to the writer of the e-mail):
"your order is in progress,However there is something regarding your order which i would like to dicuss with you,Please be so kind and call me at {800-223-2500}when the recording comes on press 9 followed by ext. ---- please ask for ------,also please have your order n number ready which can be found in the subject line of this email,Looking foward on speaking to you"
Following the instructions I was connected to the fastest talking New Yorker I've ever encountered in my life. I love New York, I even have the t-shirt proclaiming this, but I was somewhat unprepared to be accosted over the phone as I was. The e-mail, as it turned out, was a deliberately vague attempt to get my attention to call the store, which worked.
The reason behind getting me to call the store was to have this excessively pushy salesman just hound me rapid-fire over the phone to buy more related items for the lens I had just purchased. I caved on one item, knowing I would need it eventually, but had to work very hard to stand up and not cave on all of the other things the salesman was screaming at me in a staccato, rapid-fire fashion.
The salesman asked if I had any equipment I wanted to get rid of and I made the mistake of saying I was indeed looking to sell a lens and *BOOM* that set him off again, fast-talking about sending me a box via UPS, having me send them my equipment, and letting them buy it from me. Two seconds later, this slimy speed-demon salesman had a document in my mail Inbox for me to confirm so he could pick up my equipment. But wait... I never wanted to sell them anything. I sent an e-mail in reference to this document questioning a 'billing' charge of $6.95 on it for this "service" I did not want and got only this in response (again, simply cut and pasted, not edited in any way):
"exactly right anyway bill you for what???"
More of the abrasive, pushy sameness I got before, and he didn't answer my question professionally either.
Dealing with this abrasive man left a bad taste in my mouth before my equipment even arrived. I trusted it would arrive even though it took until the afternoon of 8/18 to get a shipment confirmation. I just hated dealing with the company. I don't like abrasive, hard-core, fast-talking, slimy salespeople. In fact I hate them, and I never want to give them my money. Unfortunately, this is the kind of salesperson I found at Adorama.
Tracking the Order Progress
I created my account believing that I would be able to track my order. However, by the evening of 8/17, two and a half days after I had placed my order and one day after the pushy salesman had talked me into changing it, my account information did not reflect the change and the status was still at "Pick ticket printed", whatever that means.
So, I called the 800 number and went to customer service, where another fast-talking, abrasive, borderline mean fellow blurted at me that my shipment would be going out that evening before hanging up. In fact, my order did not ship out until the next afternoon.
As of today, a week after placing my order, the status on my online account at Adorama still sits at "Pick ticket printed". So an order tracking feature, usually enabled with most online stores, is useless at this one.
Actual Items
I was pleased with the items that arrived, although the box with my lens had a tear in it. I would prefer that the actual lens box be in good condition as one day I'll resell this lens and a box marred like this doesn't do as well on eBay. The items I had been coerced into ordering arrived two days later, via a separate shipment. They were supposed to arrive with the lens, but for some reason the UPS facility put this in the tracking remarks and delayed the product:
"THE PACKAGE WAS LEFT IN A UPS FACILITY CAUSING THIS DELAY "
The items were packaged well, each with its own packing slip accurately reflecting what was in the package. Adorama advertises that digital equipment may be returned within 7 days, but the customer will pay for shipping charges. I was relieved the items did not need to be returned for any reason, as I did not welcome the idea of speaking to any more of the rude employees at Adorama.
Summary
More and more, I'm beginning to appreciate what I had with B&H Photo/Video. B&H was wildly incompetent in their handling of the order which caused me to stop shopping there, but never once were they brash, abrasive, rude or pushy. Since leaving B&H, Adorama is the second camera outfit I've purchased from. I also tried IBuyDigital.Com. Both Adorama and IBuyDigital were supremely unprofessional, which I've found disturbing given that Epinions recommends them as outlets for purchasing much of the camera equipment reviewed here at the site.
So far it seems I have found two choices for online digital imaging purchases: 1) Incompetence or 2) Lack of Professionalism. I'm not much liking either choice. I don't recommend Adorama because of their employees attitudes, bringing the total of online camera outfits that I would only suggest to my enemies up to three while the grand total of online camera outfits I'd recommend to friends remains at -ZERO-. Don't get me wrong, I have enemies. Surely some of them want camera equipment, and perhaps I can steer them to these places. But for the rest of us? Do yourself a favor and stay far, far away.
I'll update if the tally ever changes. Hopefully one day it will.
Recommended:
No
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Lens
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mrs-j
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