Adorama and Customer support from hell
After weighing in all my options for many months, I finally decided on upgrading my lens. I decided to buy an expensive telephoto lens. (One of the top end Nikon lens which costs about $5000)
My friend Sanath agreed to carry the lens for me from the US back to Bangalore. He gave me his relative’s address in San Diago where I was suppose to ship the lens. Since I live in India and my Credit card has a $2000 limit, I asked Bharath to buy it for me and I said I’ll wire transfer the money once the delivery happens.
B & H did not have my lens in stock, so I asked bharath to buy it from Adorama. He placed the order last week and I had kept my fingers crossed as sanath was coming back on the 2nd of July. Bharath got a mail earlier this week saying that they wanted some address verification because the purchase was huge.
Bharath called up Adorama and this customer support person there was in no mood to help. He spoke rudely and I guess when he realised bharath was originally from India, he asked him “How long have you been in this country ?”. Bharath asked the person why that was needed and how that was relevant to this purchase. Then he lost it.. He said my friend bharath’s attitude was bad and he does not want to ship the lens. Then he says “I think I am wasting my time. I can transfer you to customer service and you can talk to them the whole day”. Then he complains that the delivery address was not clear and he cannot deliver. Bharath contacts me and I check with sanath and get the delivery address sorted out. Now I had 3 days left before sanath left the US. Bharath called up yesterday and no one picks up the phone for most of the day.
When they finally do, this same person comes on the line and says “I don’t want to take your order”. That’s it. WTF ??
Adorama lost a really huge Customer for life and they will lose lot more coz I’m going to ensure everyone I know will not get stuff from there. Btw the person’s name from Adorama is Tobias. If anyone knows anyone at Adorama, I suggest they let them know about this rogue support staff.
Update : Looks like Tobias is a well known nasty guy
I decided to buy an expensive telephoto lens. (One of the top end Nikon lens which costs about $5000)
I almost fell off my chair reading that!
what crapola is this?!?
Do go to the Adorama website and shoot off fiery emails to everyone. My guess is, you should be hearing from them soon. In which city was this helpful salesperson? I can’t believe that ANYONE can say, “I don’t want to take your order.” especially in North America.
Live and learn…I do hope you are getting your lens from somewhere else…because a LOT of us are waiting for the new lens too!
Some people have too much money. 😉
What an Ass hole – this is one of the reasons I prefer to pay more and buy stuff locally – unfortunately that also means I have to wait long but heck it is worth it.
Yes I am waiting for your lens as well
Your lucky, there was a post recently on lightstalkers.org with a lot of people complaining abt adorama saying that they shipped them broken (!) stuff and refused to replace it! imagine getting into that situation!
natasha
Haha…more like different priorities!
why don’t you mail customer care and tell what happend?
Do go to the Adorama website and shoot off fiery emails to everyone.
Here’s some help: Adorama’s Contact Us Page
Sorry to use two comments, but I also found their Customer Feedback page.
and thats why I’m still on that rusty.. old 800 😉
No use.. they all normall die out. This chap is a well known abuser. Check this out : http://www.google.com/search?q=Tobias+adorama
I’m trying to reach people higher up at Adorama so they can take some action regarding this.
After googling a bit.. getting to know about lot of scary stories from Adorama. Maybe I should be glad, they never delivered 😉
This guy *is* the customer care. Trying to reach people higher up in the food chain 😉
been there
Hi Kalyan,
It was the same bugger (milder form of expletive – you could replace it with anything else you wish), Tobias from Adorama, that troubled quite a few friends of mine too and they were US citizens. Something’s (or everything’s) wrong with that guy….
btw, if you need anything (lens, etc) – do not hesitate to shoot me an email – I will be in bangalore on 12/13 august. all i am carrying with me are my laptop, and camera (in a backpack) so it wouldn’t be a big issue to carry some more equipment…
-gowtham
http://sgowtham.net/
Wow, best of luck. Sounds like a cold stone wall to me…
Not strange to me
I had similar experience; but that was when I started neglecting their offer to buy extended warranty, leather bag, and craps of that sort. I was in a relieved mood after placing my order and had been monotonously answering NO NO to every offers they played. Suddenly the guy at the other end said “I can’t take this order right now, and thanks for your time” and disconnected immediately. Yes i wrote to the customer support, nothing happend. I can’t remember what his name was though?
~rpa (www.sunran.com)
Re: been there
Looks like this chap has been really nasty overall.
I’l surely let you know about the lens. Will you be able to smooth talk through the customs ? (seeing such a big lens, they will surely try to hassle you 🙂
That has to be the worst CS experience ever – and not just passively rude by omission etc., but actively rude!! Thanks for sharing your experience – such places deserve to be blacklisted.
If I were you though, I wouldn’t buy such an expensive piece of equipement from a John-Doe type store. Ritz has the 500mm telephoto lens, but perhaps you are looking for the 600mm one.
– M.
My eyes are on this baby. Somehow this lens is $500 more in Ritz and they do not have it in stock either.
I just wrote to the sales manager ar adorama.. lets see what happens.
As someone else mentioned why on earth are you placing such a large order with shady Internet site outfits?
There is a reason why these guys advertise and sell equipment cheap – there was an article in ZDNet or CNN or some site where they explored many internet websites and how they can afford to sell stuff cheap. Some notes:
1. Equipment can be returns (and not brand new). But they have all the nice equipment to repack everything so that it looks brand new.
2. Exploiting loopwhole in how equipment is priced in different areas of the world – Shipment which was destined to “secondary pricing countries”. i.e. lens A can sell in US for $100. But due to various fluctuations they *price* the same lens at say China or Korea for $80 (just an example – pricing for African countries can be lower). And these guys divert these shipments to US (which legally is supposed to be sold ONLY in Korea). Cons with this arrangement is warranty may not be honored. Manuals may be in foreign language (many get Russian manual).
3. Other things these guys do is push all sort of accesories with your order. Whenever you place an order you will get a call from their customer service saying “Do you want to add this and that”. And oddly – even if you say NO to everything, there are instances of them shipping the accesories which you had declined and charging them as well. Google has tons of stories on the fun involved in getting that charge back.
So I will be very careful beyond $200-$300 stuff from these internet outfits.
BTW I see that it is available in Ritz now.
GPK
kallu check this link…
http://www.normancamera.com/shop/SearchResults.asp?ProdStock=2146
i can call and check for availability if you want..
Thats awful…
Dont understand what they gain from recruiting and continuing with such people.
Adorama isn’t what I’d call a “John-Doe” store. They and B&H are considered the Big Two of camera equipment sales among most serious photographers I know.
Ah! That’s good to know – thanks! I confess I leapt to the conclusion after hearing about their shoddy service and the fact that when one looks for such equipment on the web one sees a whole bunch of dealers and one can’t really say which of those have a long & successful history in the business till one does more research. Personally, having a store to go to does inspire more confidence.
– M.
That’s 10% more; definitely worth trying out other places!!
I hope the sales manager has a better customer service philosophy and you get a hold of that lens soon.
– M.
Kalyan,
I strongly suggest against buying from such stores.. they could be corner-shops & cannot be trusted. Their address says midtown NYC & for all you know, they might ship you an item that was on their window or returned by a customer…. There are a lot of such shops in New York city….good you did not get the lens or else it would be more pain to return/exchange it. Also, these shops are one-man-show kind of shops wherein the owner himself is the customer service guy and the sales guy.. I would not spend my time on these guys.. post your comment & forget it..dont even expect an answer back !
~Prashant
pputhran at yahoo dot com
really sad
really sad to read this. hope they loose all their business coz of all the bad deeds they are doing
Harsh
Ah that is one killer lens man. It is not available at ebay.com. Not that I will suggest buying such a expensive lens there. But I bought my 70-300 nikkor there couple of years back.
idiot
Such idiots are One of the reasons I shall never stay in US a day longer than I have to.
B & H and Adorama are prob the best known camera dealers in the world. I know many photographers who spend thousands of dollars online on these sites to buy equipment. That was I was not buying in any shady internet site 🙂
Its too late this time.. will keep you posted anyway.
check out http://www.resellerratings.com before buying anything from any website online. But i know B&H, i myself have spent close to 1000$ there.
but anyway good luck to u and congrats on the new lens.
Kiran
http://www.vagabondthoughts.com
That behavior’s rude and completely unacceptable. Try lodging a complaint with Better Business Bureau, I located the New York specific BBB contacts as:
The Better Business Bureaus serving NY (New York) are:
Better Business Bureau
WWW: http://www.upstateny.bbb.org
Email: info@upstatenybbb.org
Phone: (716)881-5222
Fax: (716)883-5349
741 Delaware Ave., Ste. 100
Buffalo, NY 14209 -2201
BBB of Metropolitan New York
WWW: http://www.newyork.bbb.org
Email: inquiry@newyork.bbb.org
Phone: (212)533-6200
Fax: (212)477-4912
257 Park Avenue South
New York, NY 10010 -7384
Or you might as well try contacting:
http://www.oag.state.ny.us/home.html (Office of NYS Attorney General Eliot Spitzer)
Re: idiot
Well said. I clearly see where you are coming from. Its really a pain at times dealing with some really dumb ass holes here.
Sounds like utter ‘RACISM’ and ‘Underestimating’ people
V!nod
Ways to report this kind of behavior
This page follows a similar case with PriceRitePhoto Camera Shop :
http://thomashawk.com/2005/11/priceritephoto-abusive-bait-and-switch.html
The victim took action and got some effective results out of it. He also suggests actions to take in such cases.
Also, I had heard that there are quite a few bogus/unfair Online Camera shops around.
Hth..
I hope this helps.
I stumbled across this site and,after reading the posts,thought you might be interested in a place I’ve done business with for many years. Keh camera. Very reputable. No hard sell. They sell both new and used equipment and their grading system is VERY fair. Their prices are equally as fair and you will get equipment in better shape than you expect. They’re in Atlanta,Georgia USA. You will have to check with them on shipping availability to your part of the world. I get all of my used stuff from them,which is almost everything,and I’ve never once regreted my purchase. Please check out their website. I hope this helps you in the future and maybe saves you some money as well.
http://www.keh.com
Did Adorama respond?
Hi Kalyan,
I have been am admirer of your photographs, and like everyone else was outraged about your treatment by Adorama. I wrote to them and got a response from a supervisor named Jerry Greenbaum saying that he has promised you to look into the matter. I just want to confirm that you did indeed hear from them.
Thanks again, and keeps the pictures coming! (Also, I must say you have your priorities right for going after the gear — especially with your talent.)
Regards,
Kaushik
(skaushik (at) hotmail (dot) com)
Re: Did Adorama respond?
Hi Kaushik,
I wrote to couple of people there.. but have not heard from anyone till date. Do you have the mail Id of this Jerry chap ?
Thanks a ton for the help dude.
Re: Did Adorama respond?
Dearest Kalyan,
I guess all of us have to have the experience to learn from. But honestly I’m glad you didn’t get the lens – Not one from Adorama anyway. Your experience could have been worse. So count your good fortune, don’t waste your time trying to deal with them, enough people have had bad expereinces dealing with them, and just wait till you can get it from BH.
Back in email contact now. I’m in Peru.
Ciao,
Sandesh
Re: Did Adorama respond?
they probably didnt like you because they are all Israelis thinking the whole world is out to scam them if they dont scam them first. every single one of the shady NYC camera stores is owned by Israelis. why is this? this is a serious question not a rant…
Definetly Agree!!
I bought a camcorder from the store back in NOV, 2005 which was supposed to be a brand new one. I brought it back to my country. Found out, reading through the user’s manual (items included in the original package), that the remote control was missing! Since then I wrote several e-mails to them and they barerly replied that they would order a remote and sent it to me. Nothing done since! Only words! Worse than that, when I operated the camcorder I found out, through an authorised service center, that the video head was faulty and needed to be replaced! From a brand NEW camcorder, WEIRD! There was no warranty to cover the damage so I paid it myself. No ADORAMA Customer satisfaction what so ever! I will try lodging a complaint with Better Business Bureau. Thanks for the info!
Thanks for the BBB info!
kalyan thanks for letting us know how to defend our rights!
Poor Service
My order for over $4100 worth of camera bodies, lenses, and filters has entered delivery purgatory. Adorama shipment terms and carrier selection makes delivery impossible here in rural Pennsylvania. Customer service is less than helpful especially when declining their persistent hard sell of marginally useful, overpriced warranties as well as other frills. Calls appear to be screened as mine were ignored but my daughter’s (at a different number) were answered. Adorama makes no distinction between customer service and sales: it’s all sales and apparently they work on a 100% commission basis. This is one company to avoid.
Adorama
Go to the Better Busines Bureau website, type in the Adorama name and there you will find the name of someone higher up( I think the owner). Although treated ok in the past I am now having a big problem with them. Never, ever offer to sell or trade used equipment to them! I have encountered nothing but lies and dishonesty in this latest dealing with them.
Re: Did Adorama respond?
the owners adorama are not Israeli so there goes that theory. They are from an ultra-orthodox sect of Jews called Satmyrs which does not recognize the state of Israel and hates Israelis maybe more than you do. This I surmised from your comment about Israelis
remember there are good and bad people in every Nation.
Adorama Lies!!
Same nightmare experiences! Tobias lied and told me a product was in stock. They took my money and I didn’t see the order delivered for several weeks later. I’m about to draft a letter to the owners of Adorama to let them know of their deceptive staff. Also I left their manager Jerry Gee several voice mails asking for a refund and he didn’t return any calls. My recommendation is NOT to order from this company.
Similar Experience
Hey!
I’ve had a similar experience with Adorama, last year. Though it was on instant chat. I was actually wondering if their customer service was based out of the US or Mars.
I realize that there was a delay in responses probably due to technology not being hi-tech at their end (benefit of doubt), but the arsehole at adorama’s end was plain rude.
BTW, reaching out to the owner’s dosen’t make sense as even they never responded (in case I locate their email ID, will post it here for you to try).
The only way to go about this is –
– blacklist Adorama here (as an earlier user suggested)
– blacklist Adorama on photographic circles (their biggest market)
– blacklist Adorama on photo-groups and blogs
essentially, make people aware that Arsehole-rama are being run by a bunch of arrogant morons who don’t know a B of business.
Huh… Realy, WTF? Sometimes I think that some companies do not need in their clients… So, probably, F***’em…
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