Horrible experience with Adorama camera

[SPL]

I have used Adorama for 8-9 years,.....never had an issue,...never. They have always been very good to me.

 

[Tabor Warren Photography]

Man that stinks, and I can understand your frustrations. Like so many others on here though, I have had no issues with Adorama, or B&H for that matter. I just tend to go with the better buy, which often falls on Adorama. Good luck in the future though.

Cheers,
-Tabor

 

[dlleno]

first preference for me is always use a card, and I've had to negotiate higher limits on a card just to keep things simple. To be fair, one would have to ask what other retailers would do in similar circumstances. rude treatment is never acceptable but you have to recognize that the OP purchase details would stress any retail purchase relationship. That said, it is a fair expectation that the retailer handle the situation gracefully.

Thanks Hellen for your contriibutions here.

 

[Northstar]

Helen...I've read some of your replies and I must say I'm impressed, it begs the question "who is this Wonder Woman?" ;D

Adorama is lucky to have you.

Thank you!

I can tell you exactly who I am........

30 years ago, when you had a problem with a company eg with a product, policy or member of the CS staff team, you would sit yourself down and write a letter of complaint.

You could expect a nice written response within 28 days. If you weren't happy with the response, you'd probably find within that letter the details of a senior manager or another department you could write to to set out your grievance; you'd fire off another letter, and hopefully, receive a satisfactory answer - maybe compensation of some kind - 28 days later.

A decent company with a well-structured management team would employ someone able to take on board your complaint; assess where the problem lay, ensure you were compensated and completely satisfied. He or she would then make recommendations for organizational (or personnel) change, training, or whatever might be needed to ensure that didn't happen again. And that is who I am! Except that I try and turn around complaints within 24 hours....... though it can take longer of I need to listen to recordings of 'phone calls, read through lots of notes etc.

Making changes and improvements is going to be harder if problems don't get reported any further than the person who caused them, or on photography forums.

Helen...I think you should put a face with your name.....I bet you have a camera laying around sometwhere

 

[natureshots]

So a week after the money transfer the money is still not back in my account. This is surreal. The negligence shown by Adorama Camera is now pretty staggering. I have wasted hours of my life on this. I keep on speaking to Customer Service who is incapable of contacting the account team to find out where my money is. I am about to call my bank and place a trace on the funds. I cannot believe this. Adorama is beyond negligent.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

So a week after the money transfer the money is still not back in my account. This is surreal. The negligence shown by Adorama Camera is now pretty staggering. I have wasted hours of my life on this. I keep on speaking to Customer Service who is incapable of contacting the account team to find out where my money is. I am about to call my bank and place a trace on the funds. I cannot believe this. Adorama is beyond negligent.

You definitely should call your bank, Adorama is not a bank, and does not have any visibility into the banking system.

You should e-mail Helen with the details, and she will help, that's something she is able to do.

 

[tpatana]

So a week after the money transfer the money is still not back in my account. This is surreal. The negligence shown by Adorama Camera is now pretty staggering. I have wasted hours of my life on this. I keep on speaking to Customer Service who is incapable of contacting the account team to find out where my money is. I am about to call my bank and place a trace on the funds. I cannot believe this. Adorama is beyond negligent.

You definitely should call your bank, Adorama is not a bank, and does not have any visibility into the banking system.

You should e-mail Helen with the details, and she will help, that's something she is able to do.

Exactly. The money is not at Adorama, it's somewhere in the banking system.

When I moved to this country, I had several bad experiences (and money loss) because I didn't know the system. At the time I blamed BoA for the losses, and switched my accounts to different bank. They did handle the matters quite poorly, but the real reason for my troubles were that I didn't know how the system works. But they didn't do anything to help either, so I'm never going back BoA. A small local bank seems to care about me, or at least they make me feel like that.

 

[unfocused]

Pardon me, but what is this "wire transfer" you speak of?

That sounds like something from the 20th century. Don't most people nowadays just use PayPal? I know it can take two-three days for the transaction to be completed, but it seems to work pretty well. It even works across countries.

 

[natureshots]

So a week after the money transfer the money is still not back in my account. This is surreal. The negligence shown by Adorama Camera is now pretty staggering. I have wasted hours of my life on this. I keep on speaking to Customer Service who is incapable of contacting the account team to find out where my money is. I am about to call my bank and place a trace on the funds. I cannot believe this. Adorama is beyond negligent.

You definitely should call your bank, Adorama is not a bank, and does not have any visibility into the banking system.

You should e-mail Helen with the details, and she will help, that's something she is able to do.

Exactly. The money is not at Adorama, it's somewhere in the banking system.

When I moved to this country, I had several bad experiences (and money loss) because I didn't know the system. At the time I blamed BoA for the losses, and switched my accounts to different bank. They did handle the matters quite poorly, but the real reason for my troubles were that I didn't know how the system works. But they didn't do anything to help either, so I'm never going back BoA. A small local bank seems to care about me, or at least they make me feel like that.

Helen is out of the office and their outsourced customer service does not return my phone calls. Customer service has called the account team multiple times and emailed them over and over with no avail. The sales team team seemed able to get through to the account team very promptly when it was determining whether the transfer had happened. Now they are incapable of assisting me to contact the account team. If it is out in "banking land" I want to know that is indeed the case. They owe me at least that. If it was refused it should be back in the account already and it is not.

 

[mistabernie]

Helen is out of the office and their outsourced customer service does not return my phone calls. Customer service has called the account team multiple times and emailed them over and over with no avail. The sales team team seemed able to get through to the account team very promptly when it was determining whether the transfer had happened. Now they are incapable of assisting me to contact the account team. If it is out in "banking land" I want to know that is indeed the case. They owe me at least that. If it was refused it should be back in the account already and it is not.

Sorry, haven't had a chance to read everything yet, but basically, if your bank put a hold on the money (i.e. treated it as if the money was expected to come out) and for some reason or another the transaction wasn't completed by Adorama, then the 'hold' on your money is almost 100% on the banking / financial side of things.

If it's a debit card, call the bank. If it's a credit card, then call the credit card company or bank that issued. Sometimes the holds take a while to expire - this is almost always because of an issue on the bank/card side.

 

[neuroanatomist]

Sorry, haven't had a chance to read everything yet...If it's a debit card, call the bank. If it's a credit card, then call the credit card company or bank that issued. Sometimes the holds take a while to expire - this is almost always because of an issue on the bank/card side.

Perhaps you should have taken the time. The issue under discussion involves a wire transfer...

 

[natureshots]

UPDATE: It is going into the weekend and despite 20 (not an exaggeration) angry phone calls they finally decided to "escalate" my call. I definitely will not hear back from them til Monday. One full week after they received my money. This is absurd. I understand Helen is a "legend" but why is no one available to cover for her while she's gone? Is my 27K not important to them? Why will no one give me a confirmation receipt that the money was sent back? No one in the company has been able to get a response from the account team to confirm what has happened to my money. This may be an isolated incident but it is so severely mishandled at this point that I would start asking myself if this company deserves my business. It has been days and tons of angry phone calls and I have yet to receive an email from accounting or customer service. The only recourse I have no is to continue to complain on this forum. It is the only way that I have gotten anywhere with this company.

 

[Northstar]

UPDATE: It is going into the weekend and despite 20 (not an exaggeration) angry phone calls they finally decided to "escalate" my call. I definitely will not hear back from them til Monday. One full week after they received my money. This is absurd. I understand Helen is a "legend" but why is no one available to cover for her while she's gone? Is my 27K not important to them? Why will no one give me a confirmation receipt that the money was sent back? No one in the company has been able to get a response from the account team to confirm what has happened to my money. This may be an isolated incident but it is so severely mishandled at this point that I would start asking myself if this company deserves my business. It has been days and tons of angry phone calls and I have yet to receive an email from accounting or customer service. The only recourse I have no is to continue to complain on this forum. It is the only way that I have gotten anywhere with this company.

it's a good lesson for everyone....use your credit card when making large purchases. if you don't have enough buying power, call the cc company and get more, or break up the transaction into separate purchases on multiple cards.

I work at a financial services firm and I'm here to tell you, banks don't just move $27k because someone tells them to move it....they need things in writing, from the correct people, and the correct info on the receiving end....and oh yes, banks make mistakes too...all the time and it takes days to fix it....in this situation you potentially have a salesman error, an adorama back office person error, multiple people at EACH bank could've made an error.

good luck to you.

 

[dlleno]

yea -- I have to say I think in that sitaution I think I would work things out with the retailer and banks well in advance of such a purchase, to work out all the critical timing elements etc. And, while I would certainly expect courtesy from the retailer (as they should of me) I would not expect them to move or commit to move any merchandise without confirmation of funds and I wouldn't hold the retailer responsible for a banking process hicup. In that sort of situation the buyer is the only one that owns the "end to end" and rather has to manage this like a project with dependancies. all the various players live in their worlds and are not expected to own anythign outside of it.

 

[Rienzphotoz]

Having gone through pretty much every single post on this topic and having ordered camera gear from Adorama (3 times in 2013 for a total of US$ 3981.02), this is my feedback:

1. Adorama is not as prompt or as professional as other online stores I use (i.e. B&H, Amazon, DigitalRev etc) ... when I order anything from B&H, Amazon, DigitalRevv, Yongnuostore etc, I get an email immediately after I place the order (it takes maybe 20 or 30 seconds to get an email from all the other online stores I shop from) ... but with Adorama it takes almost a day to send the email ... for my first order this year, Adorama did not even bother to send me an email with my order details till date (I had to send them 2 emails reminding them of it and finally they send an email saying "Hi, Thank you for contacting Adorama. Your package shipped via UPS International. Your package shipped out on: 2/27/13 Your tracking number is: 1xxxxxxxxxxx7859" ... for proof, see the attached pdf titled "Attachment 1" ... as you can see there wasn't even an apology for their tardiness ... I know an apology is not going to change what has already happened but for me a lack of apology from a seller, especially for their tardiness, reflects an "I don't care" attitude).

2. Adorama does not display their items being out of stock until you add it to the cart ... B&H, Amazon and pretty much every single online store clearly state, "out of stock" info even before you add the item to the cart.

I think both of the above issues are easily fixable by Adorama but for some reason they do not and I don't understand why.

On one occasion (earlier this year) Adorama website did not even mention that the item was out of stock even after I added the item to the cart ... after paying for the item it took Adorama a day to send me an email stating that one of the items I ordered is out of stock and they gave me the option to cancel the order (... for proof, see the attached pdf titled "Attachment 2"). This may seem like a small issue but for people like me, who are ordering from another country (in my case Qatar), banks hold the full purchase order price as soon as we order the items and if I cancel the order (even it is on account of the seller's fault) it takes a long time to get the money credited back to my credit card (in Qatar it takes minimum 45 days to max 90 days), meanwhile we have to pay interest for the money we did not even spend ... if we don't want to pay interest we have pay up the full ordered amount to the bank i.e. make double payment for an item we did not even get.

Having said that it is heartening to see Helen (from Adorama Customer Service) is actively participating in this forum and addressing customer complaints ... I hope she will be successful in fixing the above two issues, i.e.:
a. send an email (with the order details) to the customer as soon as a purchase has been made.
b. display out of stock items clearly even before it is added to the cart (but for God's sake definitely before the purchase is made).

PS. In my case I do not consider my experience with Adorama "horrible" but definitely not up to the mark as other online stores I use, not even those that are much smaller than Adorama ... so I now only use Adorama for Nikon or any other gear that is not available (or not shipped to my country) from my preferred stores such as B&H (USA), DigitalRev (HKG), Amazon (US, UK & Japan), Yongnuostore (China) etc.

But I've never had any problems with any of the items I received from Adorama ... so not complaint there.

 

[dgatwood]

On one occasion (earlier this year) Adorama website did not even mention that the item was out of stock even after I added the item to the cart ... after paying for the item it took Adorama a day to send me an email stating that one of the items I ordered is out of stock and they gave me the option to cancel the order (... for proof, see the attached pdf titled "Attachment 2"). This may seem like a small issue but for people like me, who are ordering from another country (in my case Qatar), banks hold the full purchase order price as soon as we order the items and if I cancel the order (even it is on account of the seller's fault) it takes a long time to get the money credited back to my credit card (in Qatar it takes minimum 45 days to max 90 days), meanwhile we have to pay interest for the money we did not even spend ... if we don't want to pay interest we have pay up the full ordered amount to the bank i.e. make double payment for an item we did not even get.

That should not be an issue anymore. Currently, most credit card companies require merchants to comply with certain rules, one of which is that no company may charge your card until they are about to ship the product. A merchant who charges your card for a product that is not in stock can lose their ability to take credit cards if you complain loudly enough.

 

[serendipidy]

Natureshots,

Sounds like a horrible situation (especially when it involves so much money). However, I'm 100% sure that Adorama is not a sham operation that deliberately steals peoples' monies. It will eventually all be straightened out and hopefully soon. In the mean time, as much as humanly possible under these circumstances, try to relax so you don't have a heart attack or stroke due to high blood pressure. If that happens, they win and you lose.

 

[RGF]

Good luck - please keep us informed how the situation is resolved (not resolved)

 

[Rienzphotoz]

On one occasion (earlier this year) Adorama website did not even mention that the item was out of stock even after I added the item to the cart ... after paying for the item it took Adorama a day to send me an email stating that one of the items I ordered is out of stock and they gave me the option to cancel the order (... for proof, see the attached pdf titled "Attachment 2"). This may seem like a small issue but for people like me, who are ordering from another country (in my case Qatar), banks hold the full purchase order price as soon as we order the items and if I cancel the order (even it is on account of the seller's fault) it takes a long time to get the money credited back to my credit card (in Qatar it takes minimum 45 days to max 90 days), meanwhile we have to pay interest for the money we did not even spend ... if we don't want to pay interest we have pay up the full ordered amount to the bank i.e. make double payment for an item we did not even get.

That should not be an issue anymore. Currently, most credit card companies require merchants to comply with certain rules, one of which is that no company may charge your card until they are about to ship the product. A merchant who charges your card for a product that is not in stock can lose their ability to take credit cards if you complain loudly enough.

What you are saying is correct only if it is domestic orders/payments ... but for international orders/payments, the full purchased amount is authorized as soon as the order is placed, putting a "temporary" hold on the funds, in the credit card, until the time of actual shipment. If you cancel the order, even it is on account of the seller's fault, (depending on the country), it takes minimum 5 days to 90 days (that too from the time of the seller confirming the cancellation to the bank), but in the case of countries such as Qatar it is minimum 45 days to maximum 90 days. While one can "complain loudly" resulting in the sellers ability to take credit cards, we still have to pay interest or pay the full amount on funds that were technically never used.

 

[eml58]

You have to feel for the Op, 27k in the Hole, no ones taking responsibility.

I've been reading this whole thing with interest, still waiting for "Wonder Woman" Helen to pull the Ops cherries out of the Fire, hopefully it'll happen after the Adorama People have had a relaxing weekend, hate to think of the Ops weekend, 27k in the Wind.

You can imagine the reaction after this experience if anyone mentions "Adorama" to the Op, better be wearing a Flak Jacket.

The Op mentioned wether or not his 27k was important to Adorama, clearly the answer is No, this whole experience has certainly hardened my attitude to ever buying from Adorama.