Adorama Service

tac · Jun 3, 2010

I purchased a piece of used equipment online from Adorama, a Yashica-Mat in E condition; it arrived a little while ago. Upon unwrapping it, there was a hand-written note, "shutter jammed" which indeed it is. I was not informed of this prior to purchase, and would not have bought the danged thing had I known. I feel deceived and angry. I sent an email to Adorama, but they have not responded as yet. Maybe an angry letter to the State AG will get a response!

guyjr · Jun 3, 2010

call them.

David A. Goldfarb · Jun 3, 2010

Call them, and you might also e-mail helen.oster@adoramacamera.com and she'll help you sort it out. She monitors APUG, so she might reply here as well. Bear in mind that around the Memorial Day weekend, it's not unusual for people to take an extra day or two off, so I wouldn't make it a public matter until I'd made several attempts to contact them directly by different means.

tac · Jun 3, 2010

Thank you, I'll try Helen. I make it a public matter because of what I see as an outright deception on the part of Adorama. I have been dealing with B&H and Adorama since 1984, to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars,and have never been treated so shabbily; I will call when I calm down.

spolly74 · Jun 3, 2010

I'll second the email to Helen. It appears that Adorama is suffering from a bunch of first-line employees that just don't care or don't know any better. While this is certainly frustrating, at least when you get a level or two up the chain, you get good service.

Anscojohn · Jun 3, 2010

[. I have been dealing with... Adorama since 1984, to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars,and have never been treated so shabbily...
*********
Then it probably is a mistake or an oversight, methinks.

tac · Jun 3, 2010

@Anscojohn
I'm sure you are right; I'm just really pissed and disappointed at the moment- I'll calm down in a while. I was really looking forward to playing with a new tlr, dagnabbit!

BradS · Jun 3, 2010

I can certainly empathize with your situation. KEH has done this to me...several times. Adorama only once. The only consolation is that if you call them and explain the situation they will certainly ask you to return the goods (bads?) and give you a refund. Sometimes, they even arrange and pay for return shipping.

(EDIT): Once, Adorama added an beat up RB-67 kit to my order of film....I had not ordered the camera. only the film. They had charged for all of it...kinda funny. I returned the camera.

Tim Gray · Jun 3, 2010

Call them. It's not deception or a rip-off if it was a mistake and they are willing to fix it with little hassle. It's just a mistake then.

tkamiya · Jun 3, 2010

I also suggest contacting Helen ASAP. She is a great person to deal with when having problems. Please don't do anything rash - likely it's someone at some location not caring enough and a proper person (Helen) can rectify it.

lxdude · Jun 3, 2010

Helen is the go-to person. She has come across as very sincerely wanting to straighten out problems and improve service.

zumbido · Jun 3, 2010

Helen is the fixer, who peruses message boards looking to publicly smooth over people who make their shabby treatment public. I avoid Adorama on principle because this procedure makes it quite clear they're only interested in keeping the money flowing, not actually doing the right thing. The web has hundreds of horror stories of people getting not-what-they-paid-for from Adorama and then when they call, they get insulted for their trouble... until the account hits the Internet, and then Helen appears to wax sincerely about "one or two bad apples" that caused so much trouble in the warehouse.

Yeah, right.

Mahler_one · Jun 3, 2010

zumbido said:
Helen is the fixer, who peruses message boards looking to publicly smooth over people who make their shabby treatment public. I avoid Adorama on principle because this procedure makes it quite clear they're only interested in keeping the money flowing, not actually doing the right thing. The web has hundreds of horror stories of people getting not-what-they-paid-for from Adorama and then when they call, they get insulted for their trouble... until the account hits the Internet, and then Helen appears to wax sincerely about "one or two bad apples" that caused so much trouble in the warehouse.

Yeah, right.

Literally hundreds of problems? Really? Can you reference...let's see...you pick a number greater than...let's see...ten? How were those problems resolved?

For the record, I have had not problems with various purchases from Adorama. Indeed, I recently ordered some Gallerie paper which arrived with a defective box. Adorama paid for the return shipping, and sent the replacement within a few days.

David seems to have a very good handle on many of the vendors who cater to APUG users. Take his advice.

Ed

c6h6o3 · Jun 3, 2010

zumbido said:
Helen is the fixer, who peruses message boards looking to publicly smooth over people who make their shabby treatment public. I avoid Adorama on principle because this procedure makes it quite clear they're only interested in keeping the money flowing, not actually doing the right thing. The web has hundreds of horror stories of people getting not-what-they-paid-for from Adorama and then when they call, they get insulted for their trouble... until the account hits the Internet, and then Helen appears to wax sincerely about "one or two bad apples" that caused so much trouble in the warehouse.

Yeah, right.

I dealt with Adorama once, 15 years ago, for a camera purchase. They will never get a second chance at me.

Anscojohn · Jun 3, 2010

tac said:
@Anscojohn
I'm sure you are right; I'm just really... disappointed at the moment.... I was really looking forward to playing with a new tlr, dagnabbit!

**********
I understand that, completely, Take two Hasselblads and call me in the morning........

zumbido · Jun 3, 2010

Mahler_one said:
Literally hundreds of problems? Really? Can you reference...let's see...you pick a number greater than...let's see...ten? How were those problems resolved?

For the record, I have had not problems with various purchases from Adorama. Indeed, I recently ordered some Gallerie paper which arrived with a defective box. Adorama paid for the return shipping, and sent the replacement within a few days.

David seems to have a very good handle on many of the vendors who cater to APUG users. Take his advice.

Ed

Sure. Plenty of people have a good experience there. They aren't deliberately trying to rip off everyone who comes there. But they're sloppy, occasionally shady, and don't care.

I suggest you try Google. You can find a few tens of thousands of complaints about Adorama in minutes.

chris00nj · Jun 3, 2010

I don't understand why people jumped to claim "rip-off" on a public internet board before they've tried to resolve the issue with the seller. Maybe they sent you the wrong one. If they were really trying to rip you off, would they add a note stating the problem?

Everyone makes mistakes - it's how companies resolve mistakes that determine whether they are good or bad.

I've bought used stuff from Adorama twice and both times, the equipment was in better shape than I had expected.

tac · Jun 3, 2010

I have bought used equipment from Adorama before too, with no problems, but when an item is defective ab initio, and I am not informed of this, when I am led to believe that I am purchasing a fully functional piece, that is deception, an act of omission of a pertinent fact- the danged thing don't work. I'll sell you a car, and "forget" to tell you that there's no engine in it? Waiving that off as an "oversight" doesn't cut it.

mtjade2007 · Jun 3, 2010

I once dealt with Adorama for a Contax RTS-2 body on eBay. They had it listed on eBay as having electronics problem only. When I received it the camera had a shutter clearly broken. It was jammed, partially opened and the mirror locked up in mid way. I thought I could transfer a healthy electronics from another broken RTS-2 to make a working RTS-2 out of the two. I took a snapshot of the broken shutter and send it to Adoroma. They quickly realized that they misrepresented the condition about the camera. They offered to refund about 1/3 of my purchase price. I accepted it. The camera appeared to have good electronics but a broken shutter. I accepted it still because the body otherwise was in excellent shape like new. I continued to look for another RTS-2 with broken electronics. I need two now. I am afraid I will never find one. I will probably send them out for shutter repair eventually.

In my opinion I don't think Adorama was trying to rip off its customers. But they do need to be more accurate in describing the condition of their used equipments.

By the way, where should I send RTS-2 for shutter repair? I am in California.

HelenOster · Jun 3, 2010

tac said:
I purchased a piece of used equipment online from Adorama, a Yashica-Mat in E condition; it arrived a little while ago. Upon unwrapping it, there was a hand-written note, "shutter jammed" which indeed it is. I was not informed of this prior to purchase, and would not have bought the danged thing had I known. I feel deceived and angry. I sent an email to Adorama, but they have not responded as yet. Maybe an angry letter to the State AG will get a response!

Tyler

I have replied to your email; please email me again with your order number so I can get to the bottom of this as quickly as possible.

Sirius Glass · Jun 3, 2010

HelenOster said:
Tyler

I have replied to your email; please email me again with your order number so I can get to the bottom of this as quickly as possible.

As other have said, once Helen get a whiff of a problem, she is all over it.

I am sure she will get something worked out for you.

Steve

HelenOster · Jun 3, 2010

zumbido said:
Helen is the fixer, who peruses message boards looking to publicly smooth over people who make their shabby treatment public. I avoid Adorama on principle because this procedure makes it quite clear they're only interested in keeping the money flowing, not actually doing the right thing. The web has hundreds of horror stories of people getting not-what-they-paid-for from Adorama and then when they call, they get insulted for their trouble... until the account hits the Internet, and then Helen appears to wax sincerely about "one or two bad apples" that caused so much trouble in the warehouse.

Yeah, right.

Actually, I'm not a 'fixer'. I'm actually contracted to act as an Independent Consultant, on behalf of Adorama customers.

If members of staff at Adorama mess up, I waste no time in letting them - and the management team - know about it.

HelenOster · Jun 3, 2010

Sirius Glass said:
As other have said, once Helen get a whiff of a problem, she is all over it.

I am sure she will get something worked out for you.

Steve

Customer's credit card has now been credited in full.

lxdude · Jun 3, 2010

Helen has been very open about past problems with Adorama's used department. She didn't make excuses for the past, and said that those people had been replaced. Because of that, I am willing to once again consider Adorama for used equipment, after writing them off previously after a bad experience.
Maybe there are still problems. She doesn't run the place, so she can only do so much directly, but I think she's sincere. Credibility is the basis of her job. If nothing has changed her credibility will suffer, so she has a personal interest in seeing changes occur.

I once got from KEH a supposed BGN lens which was clearly UG. They took it back, no problem. Mistakes do happen. I wouldn't judge anyone on one experience, unless it were egregious, which my experience with Adorama three years ago was. Helen has put her credibility on the line by saying changes have been made. So I'm willing to give Adorama another chance.

tac · Jun 3, 2010

Helen and Mr Gold have seen to it that my credit charge is fully refunded, including shipping. It will just cost me 5 - 8 dollars to ship it back.

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