Experiences with Adorama

[alharding]

I'm not sure if this is in the right forum or not, but I wanted to warn fellow photographers to be very wary of dealing with Adorama in terms of buying/selling used equipment. I just spent the last week trying to track down equipment i sent them 15 days ago for a price quote. They made it sound like the quote would be fast and they would give me fair value, but of course that was bogus. After waiting a week of waiting, they made a very low offer and. I was told it would be immediately returned to me after I rejected the quote. It didn't show up for a week.Every time I called they gave me a runaround. As it turned out it was lost in the warehouse. They were unsympathetic, rude and didn't return any messages I left. As of right now, I still don't have my equipment and I'm honestly not sure if I'll see it any time soon. I'm not sure if this is typical, but either way I'd stay away.

Be wary,

Al Harding

[GabrielSeri]

I'm glad you told us about this and sorry for the inconvenience. I was going to sell them my phase one digital back but the guy on the phone seemed sketchy, rude and in a hurry for me to send them the item. My spidey sense told me not to do the deal and I see I wasn't wrong. However, I'm sure it will be sent to you soon.

Gabriel

[mikebarger]

Very, very different than the excellent service I've had with Adorama.

If you visit over to APUG, Helen is a customer advocate for Adorama, might talk with her.

Mike

[rguinter]

I have never had a problem with Adorama directly and have bought a lot of equipment and supplies through them over the years.

But unfortunately none recently.

They are using a credit checking service called "Verified by VISA" which is not affiliated with my Chase issued VISA card.

And I refuse to use these types of services because they require me to re-enter credit info to a third party... something which I find objectionable.

So unfortunately they have lost my recent business to B&H and Freestyle.

Bob G.

[Heywood]

I'm from nyc and have been in the store a few times. If you were to see how chaotic it can get in the store at times you'd have second thoughts about sending stuff away blindly

[Ash]

Bob, Verified By Visa is popular in the UK, but it's an odd system since people often forget the secret passwords they set. As far as I'm aware it's not a third party as such, more of a tool integrated with the banks to avoid fraud. I may be wrong.

[Bob Kerner]

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. I'd have to say that my experiences there, both buying and selling used gear have been wonderful.

I bought a Crown there on a Wed and returned it on the same Sunday when I realized it wasn't quite what I wanted. I expected a thorough PITA trying to return a used item, but they dealt with me pleasantly. Full refund no questions asked. More recently I sold a Leica to them and got a fair price and walked out with a check in my hands. I actually find their salespeople easier to deal with than the other big store in NYC.

I'd suggest that you contact them directly to voice your displeasure rather than steering everyone away from a shop with an otherwise fine reputation.

[Rory_5244]

I had a similar experience in selling them a mint Rollei 6008i. They gave me a low price quote which didn't include the price of the 80mm lens. They gave me a run-around about sending it back to me. When I did capitulate and sold it they didn't credit my account until 5 calls and weeks later. Don't sell to them.

[Brian Ellis]

I've never dealt with Adorama as a seller of gear but as a customer they've been great, several times going above and beyond to do something for me that they didn't have to do, e.g. accepting a return after I had filled out the registration cards and accepting a return of defective equipment after the return period had expired (something B&H wouldn't do).

I don't know if there are any retail outfits that are very good as buyers of used equipment. KEH gets mostly raves from people buying from them but they were a disaster for me when I sold them some things. And today, with the availability of on-line sources such as this forum, photo.net, Fred Miranda, and others, not to mention ebay, I don't why anyone would sell to a retail store and take a wholesale price which is what they're going to give you.

[Kirk Gittings]

I can't speak for their turn around times (that seems inexcusable), but any dealer is going to offer you HALF (wholesale price) of what they think they can sell it for. If anyone is expecting to sell an item at near retail price to a dealer they are bound to think the dealers offer it is way low.