[bhonsberger]

I have been a long-time member of this forum but rarely found the time to post in recent years. I felt the need to post an account of my recent experience working with Adorama that has gone horribly wrong. Before starting, let me say that I have used Adorama in the past on several occasions and know that their reputation is typical very well regarded. However, during the past 6 weeks my regard for the company has been completely worn away and I have decided I will no longer conduct business of any kind with them. Specifically, the Used Department at Adorama has repeatedly broken promises, ignored my requests for information or action, and generally treated me, the customer, with disrespect. In order to explain why I've come to this decision it is important to explain the events that have led to this point:

I am currently in the midst of a two-month domestic and international trip in which my camera is being used, in part, for business purposes. I own a recording studio and production company which also extends into client music videos and marketing/packaging. During the course of this trip I am collecting images and footage to be used in an upcoming project. In advance of this trip I spent over $2500 on a new camera system from Adorama in February of this year. After using that equipment for approximately 2 months I decided to trade in some of my beloved Pentax gear and use the proceeds to purchase another lens for that system. I contacted Adorama and their competitors for quote requests in the last week of April. On May 2nd I received an email from Mr. Lior Itzhak at Adorama regarding the trade. After speaking with Mr. Itzhak on the phone I made the decision to work with Adorama primarily because he assured me that he would be able to meet my needs well in advance of my departure on May 20th. Specifically, he assured me on the phone that Adorama would evaluate my traded equipment within two days after receiving it and that we would be able to send out its replacement right away.

I shipped my equipment the day after speaking with Mr. Itzhak and I received an email on 5/12 from Ms. Stephanie Morillo that the equipment was received and that I would be contacted within 5-7 business days with the equipment value. Since this estimate was longer than Mr. Itzhak had originally promised me I attempted to contact both Ms. Morillo and Mr. Itzhak on 3 separate occasions and left detailed voicemail messages for each of them urging them to contact me to resolve the issue before I left town. I never received a response from either party. I left on the domestic portion of my trip on 5/20 with hope that I would be able to reach someone at Adorama to resolve the issue before leaving for Poland on 5/25.

On 5/22 I received another email, this time from Mr. Isaac Moskowitz indicating that values had been assigned for my traded equipment, he provided both his own contact information and that of the Used Department Manager, Mr. Jack Gold. When I was again unable to reach Mr. Moskowitz on the 22nd I immediately called Mr. Gold. Although I found Mr. Gold to be curt, short on detail, and generally uninterested in taking the time necessary to form a good experience for me, the customer, I seemed able to impress on him the urgency with which we needed to complete the transaction in time for my departure. He asked that I call back first thing on the morning of the 23rd so that he could confirm inventory of my desired equipment and that he would overnight it to my temporary address so that I would receive it on the 24th. Despite my better judgement I agreed to this arrangement as my last chance to receive this equipment before leaving the country for 6 weeks.

Upon speaking to Mr. Gold as requested on the morning of 5/23, he confirmed that he had what I was looking for and that it would be sent out the same day as agreed upon. For reasons I am unaware of, the equipment was never sent and thus I did not receive anything on the 24th, last full day I was in the country. I contacted Mr. Gold on the morning of my departure 5/25, quite honestly irate at the situation and with his department's consistent inability to deliver on each and every promise. I informed him at this time that I wanted to have my equipment returned but he apologized and offered to make the situation right by shipping the equipment to my address in Poland "at no additional cost to me." I repeated that I did not want to start an international shipment process if it was going to cost anything extra and he again assured me that there would be nothing extra to pay.

I received the tracking number for the shipment to Poland after my departure, but was not present for UPS's first delivery attempt on 5/30. When I contacted UPS the next day they informed me that they were required to collect import duties totalling nearly $300 before they could deliver the equipment. I informed UPS that I was unaware of such charges and unwilling to pay them and I immediately sent an email to Mr. Gold. In that email I told him I was looking for a solution and suggested that Adorama should either pay the import duties or have the equipment returned to them and return my traded equipment. I did not receive a response from Mr. Gold right away, instead I received an email on 6/1 from Ms Phoebe E. in the Customer Service department. In brief, it stated that they had been contacted by UPS that I had refused the shipment and that I would be financially responsible for Adorama's expenses of having the equipment returned to NY and that those costs would be withheld from my refund.

At this stage I emailed Ms. Phoebe explaining all of the events do date, most importantly the fact that I had not requested an international shipment except at the insistence of Mr. Gold with the promise that there would be no extra fees to be paid. It took until 6/5 for me to receive any correspondence from Adorama, Mr. Gold and Ms. Morillo each emailed me asking me to call them. My reply to each was that I did not have the ability to call them and that I felt all correspondence henceforth needed to be writing anyway for the sake of documentation.

Each subsequent email from Ms. Morillo has been limited to a maximum of 2-3 sentences that do not adequately explain what solution Adorama is offering. I have repeatedly requested to end this transaction and have my equipment returned but this requested has been wholly ignored until today. Instead they offered to reimburse me for the import duties which I rejected because it places my own funds at risk while hoping that they will keep this promise despite breaking so many others. The last offer was to credit me the cost of the import duties before I pay them. Had this offer been made on 5/31 when I initially contact them about the issue I likely would have accepted it. However, after so much time has past and after experiencing the curtness and general lack of an apology on the part of Adorama's Used Department I am no longer interested in conducting business with them.

Today, I have once again requested the return of my traded equipment and received a response from Ms. Morillo that I would have to wait until Monday to work that out over the phone with Mr. Gold. I reminded her once again that I cannot be reached by phone while on this trip and that Mr. Gold can easily reply via email since he has been CC'd on every email (along with Phoebe E. and other Customer Service staff).

After years of experience with Adorama and thousands of dollars in business I am incredibly shocked to find myself in this position. They have my traded equipment for which I have received no value, I have paid several hundred dollars for equipment I have not received, and I have spent over a week trying to reach a conclusion for a problem of their own making while they repeatedly ignore my requests.

I am taking what options I have left to recover my equipment and my funds and I wanted to share my experience with you, the reader, as a warning against doing business with Adorama, especially the Used Department and those individuals named here. I regret that my first post on this forum in so long is to share this story, but I feel I have been asked to endure more than any customer should be subject to in good faith. I have also never experienced so many promises broken by a single company in a single transaction.

[photolady95]

If you contact Helen Oster, a member here, she handles problems for Adorama.

[Adam]

Helen's username is Helen Oster here on the forum. She's usually great at sorting any customer issues- best of luck!

[photolady95]

I finally found her profile. I was not putting the right info in to find her. As you see, I left a link to her profile.

[Miguel]

I have been a long-time member of this forum but rarely found the time to post in recent years. I felt the need to post an account of my recent experience working with Adorama that has gone horribly wrong. Before starting, let me say that I have used Adorama in the past on several occasions and know that their reputation is typical very well regarded. However, during the past 6 weeks my regard for the company has been completely worn away and I have decided I will no longer conduct business of any kind with them. Specifically, the Used Department at Adorama has repeatedly broken promises, ignored my requests for information or action, and generally treated me, the customer, with disrespect. In order to explain why I've come to this decision it is important to explain the events that have led to this point:

I am currently in the midst of a two-month domestic and international trip in which my camera is being used, in part, for business purposes. I own a recording studio and production company which also extends into client music videos and marketing/packaging. During the course of this trip I am collecting images and footage to be used in an upcoming project. In advance of this trip I spent over $2500 on a new camera system from Adorama in February of this year. After using that equipment for approximately 2 months I decided to trade in some of my beloved Pentax gear and use the proceeds to purchase another lens for that system. I contacted Adorama and their competitors for quote requests in the last week of April. On May 2nd I received an email from Mr. Lior Itzhak at Adorama regarding the trade. After speaking with Mr. Itzhak on the phone I made the decision to work with Adorama primarily because he assured me that he would be able to meet my needs well in advance of my departure on May 20th. Specifically, he assured me on the phone that Adorama would evaluate my traded equipment within two days after receiving it and that we would be able to send out its replacement right away.

I shipped my equipment the day after speaking with Mr. Itzhak and I received an email on 5/12 from Ms. Stephanie Morillo that the equipment was received and that I would be contacted within 5-7 business days with the equipment value. Since this estimate was longer than Mr. Itzhak had originally promised me I attempted to contact both Ms. Morillo and Mr. Itzhak on 3 separate occasions and left detailed voicemail messages for each of them urging them to contact me to resolve the issue before I left town. I never received a response from either party. I left on the domestic portion of my trip on 5/20 with hope that I would be able to reach someone at Adorama to resolve the issue before leaving for Poland on 5/25.

On 5/22 I received another email, this time from Mr. Isaac Moskowitz indicating that values had been assigned for my traded equipment, he provided both his own contact information and that of the Used Department Manager, Mr. Jack Gold. When I was again unable to reach Mr. Moskowitz on the 22nd I immediately called Mr. Gold. Although I found Mr. Gold to be curt, short on detail, and generally uninterested in taking the time necessary to form a good experience for me, the customer, I seemed able to impress on him the urgency with which we needed to complete the transaction in time for my departure. He asked that I call back first thing on the morning of the 23rd so that he could confirm inventory of my desired equipment and that he would overnight it to my temporary address so that I would receive it on the 24th. Despite my better judgement I agreed to this arrangement as my last chance to receive this equipment before leaving the country for 6 weeks.

Upon speaking to Mr. Gold as requested on the morning of 5/23, he confirmed that he had what I was looking for and that it would be sent out the same day as agreed upon. For reasons I am unaware of, the equipment was never sent and thus I did not receive anything on the 24th, last full day I was in the country. I contacted Mr. Gold on the morning of my departure 5/25, quite honestly irate at the situation and with his department's consistent inability to deliver on each and every promise. I informed him at this time that I wanted to have my equipment returned but he apologized and offered to make the situation right by shipping the equipment to my address in Poland "at no additional cost to me." I repeated that I did not want to start an international shipment process if it was going to cost anything extra and he again assured me that there would be nothing extra to pay.

I received the tracking number for the shipment to Poland after my departure, but was not present for UPS's first delivery attempt on 5/30. When I contacted UPS the next day they informed me that they were required to collect import duties totalling nearly $300 before they could deliver the equipment. I informed UPS that I was unaware of such charges and unwilling to pay them and I immediately sent an email to Mr. Gold. In that email I told him I was looking for a solution and suggested that Adorama should either pay the import duties or have the equipment returned to them and return my traded equipment. I did not receive a response from Mr. Gold right away, instead I received an email on 6/1 from Ms Phoebe E. in the Customer Service department. In brief, it stated that they had been contacted by UPS that I had refused the shipment and that I would be financially responsible for Adorama's expenses of having the equipment returned to NY and that those costs would be withheld from my refund.

At this stage I emailed Ms. Phoebe explaining all of the events do date, most importantly the fact that I had not requested an international shipment except at the insistence of Mr. Gold with the promise that there would be no extra fees to be paid. It took until 6/5 for me to receive any correspondence from Adorama, Mr. Gold and Ms. Morillo each emailed me asking me to call them. My reply to each was that I did not have the ability to call them and that I felt all correspondence henceforth needed to be writing anyway for the sake of documentation.

Each subsequent email from Ms. Morillo has been limited to a maximum of 2-3 sentences that do not adequately explain what solution Adorama is offering. I have repeatedly requested to end this transaction and have my equipment returned but this requested has been wholly ignored until today. Instead they offered to reimburse me for the import duties which I rejected because it places my own funds at risk while hoping that they will keep this promise despite breaking so many others. The last offer was to credit me the cost of the import duties before I pay them. Had this offer been made on 5/31 when I initially contact them about the issue I likely would have accepted it. However, after so much time has past and after experiencing the curtness and general lack of an apology on the part of Adorama's Used Department I am no longer interested in conducting business with them.

Today, I have once again requested the return of my traded equipment and received a response from Ms. Morillo that I would have to wait until Monday to work that out over the phone with Mr. Gold. I reminded her once again that I cannot be reached by phone while on this trip and that Mr. Gold can easily reply via email since he has been CC'd on every email (along with Phoebe E. and other Customer Service staff).

After years of experience with Adorama and thousands of dollars in business I am incredibly shocked to find myself in this position. They have my traded equipment for which I have received no value, I have paid several hundred dollars for equipment I have not received, and I have spent over a week trying to reach a conclusion for a problem of their own making while they repeatedly ignore my requests.

I am taking what options I have left to recover my equipment and my funds and I wanted to share my experience with you, the reader, as a warning against doing business with Adorama, especially the Used Department and those individuals named here. I regret that my first post on this forum in so long is to share this story, but I feel I have been asked to endure more than any customer should be subject to in good faith. I have also never experienced so many promises broken by a single company in a single transaction.

That sounds absolutely horrible--like a kind of horror movie that the lead character cannot escape from. I recently had an excellent experience selling a lens to KEH. They have you estimate the lens' value according to criteria on their website. They then evaluate what you send them and provide an offer. Their evaluation came in a full 20% higher than what I estimated (and I know the markets pretty well) and my check arrived within two days.
Hopefully you'll get this straightened out very soon.

M

[bhonsberger]

Thanks all, I will get in touch with Helen right away!

I considered KEH, of course, but a Adorama seemed to be on top of the schedule and had what I was looking for in their used inventory. It's a classic case of over-promising and under-delivering but at a level I've never experienced before.

[mikeSF]

Helen will take care of you. She is a great face to the company.
good luck!

[skierd]

Sounds like this is more "seller beware" than buyer beware to me.

Why didn't you wait till you got back to sell off the old gear?

[stevebrot]

Sounds like this is more "seller beware" than buyer beware to me.

Why didn't you wait till you got back to sell off the old gear?

There are several similar questions, particularly the bit about the customs duty (ALWAYS the responsibility of the importer). Bottom line, however, is that this episode has been bad for both parties. Adorama ended up footing the bill for international UPS ($$$) with associated expense probably far exceeding their margin on the transaction. They also are reaping the online wrath of the customer who has posted identical messages both here and and at ephotozine (LINK) and perhaps other forums. The customer has endured uncertainty regarding the transaction, delayed delivery, inconvenience while traveling abroad, and unexpected financial loss in the form of customs duty.

Bottom line is that a critical maximum of <14 business days to ship, assess the goods, accomplish the trade, and ship the goods with customer receipt is something that Adorama should never have consented to. Whether it was reasonable for the customer to ask such or to start their travel without sourcing the gear elsewhere is its own pregnant question.


Steve

[pathdoc]

Something funny about this whole situation which makes me hold off from damning Adorama out of hand.

[rawr]

Best of luck resolving this.

But you may have been overly optimistic about such a complex mail-order transaction working to a precise schedule.

[Gray]

Thanks for the heads up. I think what you were attempting to do was NOT unreasonable in light of the assurance you received from Adorama employee, Mr. Lior Itzhak.
Adorama appears to have gotten tripped up by their own weak business processses.

I think the lessons are -

• Adorama isn't set up well to deal with deadlines or promises made by their employees;
• Specifically, Adorama's processes appear unable assign a specific employee, like Mr. Itzhak, to shepherd or oversee a case from beginning to successful conclusion;
• Specifically too, Adorama's employees like Mr. Itzhak, who make the promises don't appear to be able to control Adorama's business process to ensure their promises made on behalf of the company are sucessfully met by the company.

I really hope you get your gear back without further fuss and stress.

[leekil]

After years of experience with Adorama and thousands of dollars in business I am incredibly shocked to find myself in this position. They have my traded equipment for which I have received no value, I have paid several hundred dollars for equipment I have not received, and I have spent over a week trying to reach a conclusion for a problem of their own making while they repeatedly ignore my requests.

I am taking what options I have left to recover my equipment and my funds and I wanted to share my experience with you, the reader, as a warning against doing business with Adorama, especially the Used Department and those individuals named here. I regret that my first post on this forum in so long is to share this story, but I feel I have been asked to endure more than any customer should be subject to in good faith. I have also never experienced so many promises broken by a single company in a single transaction.

I understand your displeasure at this whole situation, but if you had so many good experiences with Adorama, it seems like overall they have been a good company for you to do business with. I certainly can see where this experience has soured you, personally, on them, but I'm not sure that it is a real indication that others should stay away. Hopefully, you can also get the situation resolved to a reasonable degree of satisfaction once you return from Poland.

[mee]

There are several similar questions, particularly the bit about the customs duty (ALWAYS the responsibility of the importer). Bottom line, however, is that this episode has been bad for both parties. Adorama ended up footing the bill for international UPS ($$$) with associated expense probably far exceeding their margin on the transaction. They also are reaping the online wrath of the customer who has posted identical messages both here and and at ephotozine (LINK) and perhaps other forums. The customer has endured uncertainty regarding the transaction, delayed delivery, inconvenience while traveling abroad, and unexpected financial loss in the form of customs duty.

Bottom line is that a critical maximum of <14 business days to ship, assess the goods, accomplish the trade, and ship the goods with customer receipt is something that Adorama should never have consented to. Whether it was reasonable for the customer to ask such or to start their travel without sourcing the gear elsewhere is its own pregnant question.

But they apparently did. So the onus is on Adorama to meet the obligations to which they have agreed. The notion of 'reasonable for the customer to ask' is not up to you, me, or anyone else alive if they did it. Such a thought is attempting to make the customer the 'bad' guy with such statements.

Once you agree to something, you are from then on obligated to meet your end of the agreement. Period/Full Stop.

[mee]

I understand your displeasure at this whole situation, but if you had so many good experiences with Adorama, it seems like overall they have been a good company for you to do business with. I certainly can see where this experience has soured you, personally, on them, but I'm not sure that it is a real indication that others should stay away. Hopefully, you can also get the situation resolved to a reasonable degree of satisfaction once you return from Poland.

One side of a business might be handled by a different set of individuals and largely autonomous.. thus experiencing different levels of satisfaction within the same company. Yet all parts seem, for most people, to weigh on their view of the company as a whole. One bad apple can spoil the bunch.

With such a debacle as the OP has detailed, I can understand their frustration and desire to 'sound the alarm' over his experience. Especially when it seems he has interacted with several people in the company.. at least on the used item section... and they've all been equally unhelpful.