Adorama - good prices on photography equipment - some glitches
Written: Mar 04 '06
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The only thing my son requested for his 13th birthday was a tripod. Now, that may sound strange, but he is taking video production, and he is really thrilled with the class. He wanted a tripod to use with our home video camera. I majored in radio/TV, so I’d used tripods. But, it had been a while. Plus, I didn’t have to buy those.
In a small town, finding something like a good tripod for a video camera is a challenge. I ended up emailing that video teacher. He said that the models here in town were cheap and would not hold up. He had tried a couple in class. They didn’t hold up. He said that I’d really need to go online and gave me a couple of brands that he considered good.
After researching and deciding on the Tiffen Magnum XT3 which is a tripod that has good extension (and my 13-year-old is already 5ּ”), I price checked. That’s what brought me around to Adorama. Normally, I’d buy photography materials at Wolf Camera in town, but they didn’t have good video camera tripods. So, I had not checked out online companies specializing in photography supplies. I did check the ratings for the store. Those were kind of mixed. But, most of the complaints were older. Newer reviewers seemed to be having good luck with Adorama, so I decided to go with them.
The ordering process was easy. I knew what I wanted, so that narrowed it down. I did look around at other items just out of curiosity. The set up is nice. I could click around and window shop just fine. They have a nice selection of items—much better than here in town. There were a number of items that I’d enjoy, but this was birthday time and Eli’s turn to get something special.
The tripod was $99.95 which may sound high, but that’s lower than usual for a good tripod. Shipping was reasonable at $15.67.
When the tripod came in, I hid that under my bed. Now, I’ll bet my boys have figured out that, but I still put presents under there. In any case, I didn’t open the box. I just wrapped it. So, it was three weeks later before it was opened. My bad on that.
On Eli’s birthday, he was so excited to get the tripod. He went right to work getting it out and set up. Unfortunately, the turn knob to adjust the height had cracked and fallen off. Also the slide off head where you attach the camera had been slightly bent but enough that the camera would not slide on the head piece. That is NOT the way you want your kid’s birthday to go.
I emailed Adorama. It was several days before I got an email back, but it was right at the Thanksgiving holidays. The email was very nice. The lady said she was sorry she didn’t get back sooner and also sorry about the problems. She said they could send UPS to get the tripod and send a new one or I could mail it back and they would pay shipping.
I emailed back and said that I had that next week off from school, so it would be fine to send UPS back. I never heard back on that. Strange. So, I boxed and mailed the tripod to Adorama.
Just a few days later, a new tripod came in. It was in perfect condition (I do think the USPS was too rough on that first one). Eli was thrilled—even if it took a while to sort things out and get him a workable tripod. He used it at home videoing all his pets, took it to camp and made footage from the top of the mountain and also took his tripod to school for the ball game he was taping for class. His teacher liked the one he got so much, he is planning to get the same one when he gets the new budget. So, all that worked out and nicely.
I’m a little on the fence with Adorama. They need to follow up better. I understood the slow response at Thanksgiving, but I don’t know why they didn’t set up UPS or email back about that. The only time I heard from them was that one nice email. Then nothing. When I did mail the broken tripod back with a note, the new one came right out. So, I don’t have a major beef with Adorama. I just think they need to pay more attention and let folks know what they’re doing. I didn’t hear that they got the broken tripod or that the new one was coming. It was a very odd experience. It worked out. I’d just feel better knowing what’s going on. I’m not sure I’d order again. I might. The prices are good. They did send the new tripod. If they just took the time to email or call with details, then I’d definitely have them on my buy from list.
Also, I would note that I never saw any credit for the shipping that I paid for to send the tripod back. They really ought to cover that.
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? tripod for video camera
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Epinions.com ID:
CyndiA
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Member: Cyndi
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Get some sleep and dream of rock 'n roll - Bread.
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