Pushy salesperson. Required 4 phone calls to credit returned item.
by tcchou71 - Written: Apr 16 '05 (Updated May 14 '05)
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Adorama is a large New York camera store with what I thought was a good reputation, built up over a long period of time. However, I was surprised when, according to other sites like Resellerratings.com, it had a low rating - (4.4 out of 10). That is easily among the lowest ratings of all the online stores I usually visit. The only lower ratings I've seen tend to be from stores that are blatantly fraudulent, which usually have ratings near zero.
For the last 6 months, I ignored those low ratings, as I had read better opinions in other places (like here, and at Bizrate). Also, I've ordered small items fairly regularly from Adorama throughout that time, and never had a problem. I assumed the resellerratings.com opinions were a fluke, even though the number of total ratings was over 100.
However, a couple of months ago, I ordered two fairly expensive items - lenses worth over $500 each. Previously I'd never ordered anything over $50. I also had to make a return for the first time. This gave me much more direct contact with their sales and service staff. The verdict is not good.
After placing each order, I got an e-mail asking me to call back about a problem with my order. The first time there was indeed a minor problem (caused by inaccurate information on their website). But the second time there was no problem whatsoever. Either way, they used the callback as an excuse to sell accessories. And they pushed HARD. I had already chosen the extended warranty I wanted, and didn't want anything else, but it took several minutes to convince salesman Meyer that I didn't want filters and additional warranties. He clearly knew less about the equipment than I did, but argued with me on every point anyway. I hung up I feeling like I had been punched in the stomach.
I still thought everything was OK until I tried to return one of the lenses. To their credit, the lens was refunded to my credit card promptly. But I also returned an extended warranty, which was not credited back to me. So I called, and got a service lady who tried to argue that I must not have packed the warranty in the box in the first place. Despite the rude accusation, I patiently repeated my case, and she said she would look into this and call me back. After a week, she hadn't done so, and so I called again. I got the same lady, who again tried to argue with me that I must never have sent back the warranty in the first place. I again persisted, and this time she was able to physically track down the Mack warranty using its serial number. (Why couldn't she do that the week before?) I felt vindicated, the lady apologized to me, and said she'd take care of everything.
Three more weeks went by - no refund. I called again. For some reason, the phone connection was flaky - a one-time spurious occurrence. Nonetheless, the person who answered immediately blamed me, barking at me that "there's something wrong with your phone. Please hang up." Undaunted, I immediately called back and FINALLY got someone to credit my item. For the record, this almost two months after I returned the item.
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Of course, New York camera stores are famous for being rude, so is Adorama any different? In my personal experience, B&H is much better - I have bought and returned a lot from them, with never a single problem. Adorama's rating for the last 6-months at resellerrating.com is conspicuously lower than their overall lifetime rating (4.4 versus 6.4). It seems their recent customers are less satisfied than their older customers. And even their older customers don't rate Adorama as highly as B&H or even many new upstarts.
I could tolerate Adorama's rudeness if they were efficient and professional, but my order was plagued by sloppiness from start to finish. I was alarmed that once a problem developed, it became extremely difficult to resolve. In the future, I will be much less likely to order from them, especially expensive items.
Recommended:
No
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Lenses and warranties
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