Adorama Customer Service

Decided to buy Induro (Benro) tripod and short column last Wednesday...went to

B&H first and saw the popup window about them being closed. Went to Adorama,

didn't see anything about being closed, ordered (upgraded shipping to 2-day

Air) and it said that it should ship out the next day. Saw status of "Pending"

on Thursday (late) and called to see why. Message said "Closed for Holidays".

I finally get in touch with them today (Sunday) and they e-mailed me saying it

should ship tomorrow (Monday). Is this normal for Adorama?

GaryM

They have same scheduale as B&H. Probably you didn't see. Just call them - maybe they will recalculate shipping cost.

Adorama and B&H are run by Hasidics. They close for all Jewish High holidays. Adorama's schedule is pretty much the same as B&H's. I'm surprised they didn't have a pop-up window with that info. So yes to your question.

In my experience, yes. The one time I needed for them to ship on time, they failed to do so.

 

I had placed an order by phone for in-stock merchandise (two L lenses) for next-day delivery, in plenty of time to meet their daily cutoff. They didn't ship as promised, and when the merchandise didn't arrive by noon the next day, and I called them to inquire why, they didn't have an answer.

 

I haven't given them another chance. I only order stuff from them that I can't get elsewhere (which isn't much) and when I'm not in a hurry to receive it.

I've had the same experience that Jon has with Adorama. They seem to be very slow when it

comes to shipping out products, IMO. I would only order from them if there was no other

places that have the items I'm looking for and not expect it to show up on time.

Jewish High Holidays are the time to give KEH a chance, who are open on those days. B&H and Adorama are great - I have used both of them repeatedly to my fullest satisfaction - but KEH is just as good.

My 2 experiences with Adorama weren't very good. I placed the orders online, paid for 2nd

day air and they called me 3 or 4 days later to "confirm" my order ask if I wanted to buy

anything else. Their phone etiquette is rather poor by West Coast standards, bordering on

rude. So my 2nd day shipping took over a week. My experiences with both B&H and Amazon

have been consistently excellent. I wouldn't order from Adorama unless there wasn't any

other source.

Rude? Adorama? I suspect that they train them that way to keep the customers in place. But after buying there for 25 years, I have discovered that there are some very nice people there. Just not too many. Why do I buy there? They are closer than B&H and you only have to wait on two lines instead of the three at B&H.

The problem with Adorama is that you never know what you're in for - they don't have real time inventories on their webpage - so you never know if the item is really available or not and they do not tell you when they close for major holidays. That's why I prefer B&H or KEH. At B&H they will close for all jewish holdiays, but they at least let you know when to get your order in and when they will re-open again. Service at B&H is excellent and they ship immediately.

For what it's worth, I ordered an item from Adorama last Wednesday, needing it for the weekend. They shipped it out that day, and though I paid for 2nd day (gambling on a Friday delivery), it showed up Thursday - a day early. Granted, I'm in the DC area, so that was helpful. But they were quick. Likewise on my previous several orders, whether directly with them, or through their partnership/fulfillment presence on Amazon.

I have never received ANYTHING from Adorama in a timely manner -no matter what shipping I have chosen! No communication either ! I just don't order anything from them anymore! Thang God for B and H.

Having been to their store a few times I will say this. I have seen more customers go storming out of there, than at almost any other shop in NYC (Cambridge Camera). The Adorama salesman try to wait on 2-3 people at once. And this angers all but the most patient.

 

I haven't been back there since their salesman refused to remove the shrink wrap seal from a used camera. "After you buy it, you can unwrap it". Also several times they have tried to sell very short dated pro color stock, to me as fresh. I'm talking expired in under 30 days!

 

In fairness though my only online deal with them was the same as the typical B&H online experience. I ordered, they billed me correctly to my CC, and 4 days later the flash was on my porch.

I paid for 2 day shipping, they said it was in stock, and it took 19 days. I called customer service and politely suggested that they credit me the difference between 2 day and regular shipping, and they hung up on me. I spend over $10k a year on photo gear; there are plenty of places that actually want my business.

I have been dealing with B+H for 20 years. Their service is excellent! The few problems I had were quickly resolved with 1 phone call. I can't believe how fast they ship to PA. Adorama on the hand I have had significant problems. I bought a new Nikkor years ago that had an obvious defect and they told me to send it to Nikon. WELL, I got into my car, drove to NYC and entered Adorama and complained in such a loud voice, letting all customers in the store know about the problem, that they finally replaced the defective lens.

My experience with Adorama was atrocious. I won't even get started. I'll just say that if I need something really bad and Adorama is the only outlet on earth that has it, I'll try to make one instead.

 

B & H and KEH are tip tops in my experience with them.

 

If you go to the auction site, Shutterblade are great folks to deal with. I think they're out of VA but I could be mistaken on that.

Interestingly, B&H was the first "Hasidic" owned camera store that decided to treat customers like human beings. In the pre-B&H days, all of the NYC camera stores were nearly impossible to deal with.

 

 

Apparently Adorama still operates as it were still the 1970's. Or as NY photographers will call them: "the bad old days".

 

 

If Adorama still likes to play games with people's money, they can do so without any of mine.

"that decided to treat customers like human beings."

 

Everyone say hi to B&H! In an ongoing billing dispute with them they used something that I had posted here to prove that I was "lying", as they stated it in a public record to the debit card company! They did not quote the message here where I went into detail about the botched delivery attempt on their part. Big Brother is watching, and it is B&H!

Check out Vann's

 

http://www.vanns.com/shop/index.jsp