Adorama Doesn’t Want To Give an Interview
That’s too bad, I wanted to have a sit down, on-the-record talk to them about their policies and how they handle various issues.
I’m unhappy they didn’t want to do that, but respect their position to handle each item one by one. I also compliment them on their having a specific person on staff to combat all the problems that seem to arise on the various forums.
But there’s only one store I trust with my thousands of dollars of business…(next post)
July 9th, 2008 at 03:24
Dear Matt
I’m not sure that I fully understood exactly what you were looking for from Adorama? Any photographer who visits the main photo sharing websites on a regular basis knows that he, or she, can contact me directly: helen.oster@adoramacamera.com, to deal with all and any of their queries or problems with an order from Adorama.
That way, we offer each and every Adorama customer a direct, personalized link into the company.
Each situation is different. While Adorama has policies and procedures for dealing with all major areas across the business, (and in the main, these can be found on our website), there are always exceptions, where we at Adorama will go the extra mile to help a customer wherever we can.
Adorama isn’t a baked bean factory, where all our customers’ needs are identical! We certainly aren’t into the business of canned responses or providing a one-size-fits-all service. At Adorama, we try to acknowledge and respect the differences in our customers’ needs, and respond to each of them as individuals. Hence the creation of my post.
Many photographers, quite rightly, mourn the loss of the small Mom & Pop shops, (where they could get that individual level of service) that have lost out to bigger operations such as Adorama. We are trying to do something different, special and unique. To continue to strive to offer competitive pricing that our customers want, speedy shipping – and alongside that, individual responses from a named employee
You will no doubt have seen this:
http://journals.aol.com/dpoem/TheWisdomofaDistractedMind/entries/2008/07/07/the-wisdom-of-a-distracted-mind-quick-light-the-oster-signal/1719
If not, it is worth a read.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you need clarification of anything above
Sincerely
Helen Oster
Adorama Camera Customer Service Ambassador
July 9th, 2008 at 06:01
Dear Matt
I am responding to your posting regarding your concern that “Adorama Doesn’t Want To Give an Interview”.
I am not sure that I fully understand what you were asking for in relation to the interview that you proposed.
As you are no doubt aware, most Adorama standard policies are posted on the Adorama Camera website (www.adorama.com)
However, Adorama takes the view that serving the photographic community is not like running a baked bean factory; there is no ‘one-size-fits-all- approach, nor do we believe that is what Adorama customers require.
Photographers at different stages of their careers or with differing levels of expertise, have disparate needs. At Adorama we aim to meet those needs by providing a unique service; any Adorama customers or prospective customers are able to contact me directly: helen.oster@adoramacamera.com for individual attention to their query or problem.
Many photographers mourn the gradual depletion of the old ‘Mom & Pop’ camera store, where individual service and customer care went hand in hand. Of course, this came at a price. At Adorama we aim to provide the competitive pricing that our customers require, alongside old-fashioned customer care from a named Adorama employee.
As you are aware, I am the “specific person on staff” employed to address issues on an individual basis”. I personally take responsibility for recording the queries and concerns that I either receive directly or pick up on the forums, and take these to the Adorama strategic development team. Numerous changes to our procedures, formal as well as informal, have been shaped and will continue to be driven by these direct contacts.
My contact details can be found on almost every photographic website, so if it was an “on-the-record talk” that you wanted, I’m not sure why you have never contacted me, yourself. If you had done so, I would have told you that my job, first and foremost is to listen to our customers. It isn’t my job to make a judgement about whether they have a valid complaint; it is my job to ensure that where we have made a mistake we do our best to correct it as quickly as possible and that my colleagues have the information they need in order to be able to look at how such a mistake may have occurred in order that we can try to ensure nothing similar happens in the future.
If you have any doubts about the effectiveness of this approach, you might care to visit: http://journals.aol.com/dpoem/TheWisdomofaDistractedMind/entries/2008/07/07/the-wisdom-of-a-distracted-mind-quick-light-the-oster-signal/1719
As you said, “there’s only one store [you] trust”, and if it isn’t Adorama, then everything I have noted above is unlikely to be of any interest or relevance to you.
Nevertheless, I do thank you for enabling me to clarify my role at Adorama, for the benefit of those customers who enjoy having the opportunity to make their photography related purchases at more than just one store.
Helen Oster
Adorama Camera Customer Service Ambassador
July 9th, 2008 at 08:59
After having some aggravations a while ago with some orders, I thought I would give them another try. What I ran into is something that I have experienced before with them, and I am wondering if others have experienced the same:
You select your items – which are all noted as being “in stock”. You check out. A day or two later, you get an email notifying you that one or more items are backordered or out of stock.
Arrhg.
July 9th, 2008 at 09:33
I 100% believe this to be true, I tried posting this update once, but I guess I had some issues. I thought I would follow up with how Adorama tried to solve my customer service issue.
As a quick review, I tried selling a couple of camera bodies to Adorama, but after 3 different quote prices and previous experience I decided not to use them.
::UPDATE::
The customer service manager from the Used Camera Department contacted me regarding my last experience with Adorama. As much as I appreciate the phone call, and the follow up. He promised me that the employee would go back through training to ensure he follows Adorama procedures. The manager also included that this is not how they wish to run a business, and that they are sorry for my previous troubles.
He went on to start quoting me a price for the used equipment I was thinking of selling to them. That seemed fine in theory, but my email to Helen specifically stated I had sold both cameras already. Again I think this highlights my worries about the company. I spent 30 minutes writing that email, trying to recount as many details as possible, per Helen’s request, to help explain my troubles. But it seems that the Used Camera Manager wasn’t passed my email, or he didn’t read the whole thing. Oddly in the end of our conversation he did feel comfortable enough to try and sell me a D300 that I am interested in buying, by offering me free shipping. Again based on my email, I’m waiting too see if the D700 pans out to be real. If so the D700 seems like my choice.
I would like to say, I’ve never had any issues with the new sales division of Adorama, but again I haven’t needed to use their customer service. But as it stands, I still prefer B&H Photo. Over and over again, they have treated me good with customer service, fast shipping, and extremely competitive pricing.
July 10th, 2008 at 13:18
I will never shop from them again. I ordered a tilt-shift 85mm lens from them and they sent me this thing in a totally trashed box with marker pen writing on the lens. Never again.
July 14th, 2008 at 04:49
@randomreuben
I was extremely concerned to read your review regarding the packaging of your recent order from Adorama, and sorry that you did not receive the quality of service that Adorama usually prides itself on.
Can you tell me – was the item damaged in any way? If so, we will send you a label to return it to us, immediately, and ship you out a replacement – or a full refund, if that is what you would prefer. (I wasn’t quite sure what you meant by the marker pen writing on the lens; all our used items are checked thoroughly in-house before they go out, so if this was a new item, it must have come in from the manufacturer like this – and we certainly need to be taking it up with them)
Please contact me directly: helen.oster@adoramacamera.com with details of your order number and the information on the packing slip inside the box (in order that we can find out who packed your order in this way).
Again, my sincere apologies that you have been inconvenienced in this way.
Sincerely
Helen Oster
Adorama Camera Customer Service Ambassador
July 14th, 2008 at 05:35
@craig 16299
I’m not surprise you feel annoyed and aggravated – I’m sure I would be, too.
The difficulty seems to be that our website is not currently updated in real time. I understand that there are plans for this to happen, but am not currently sure of the time scale.
There are a number of factors that can affect the apparent stock situation: the sheer number of items that are sold, by Internet, phone & in the store, per second, is enormous. What can – & frequently does – happen, is that an item on which we have lower than average stocks, could be ’sold’ to 35 different customers within the same 60 second time frame – when we only have 34 of the item.
Again, an issue which relates to timing; images and text have to be uploaded to the website within a critical time frame, and have to be tied in to the arrival of items into the warehouse and the time it takes to physically re-stock an item.
We do try to be very clear with our customers about what is ready to ship and what is not. Our systems have sophisticated, complex algorithms and logic in place to determine product availability for timely shipping based on the real-time inventory status of the product. If an item is unlikely to ship soon, it should be posted as out-of-stock. Normally, even for products that we believe ought to ship soon, we tell customers that the products are not available for immediate shipping. For some customers – and your situation is an excellent example of this – timing is critical. We know this and we are usually very careful to let customers know if there is any possibility of delay.
We never, ever, knowingly list an item as in-stock if it is not; the fact remains, however, that you did not receive your order when you expected to and this caused you a great deal of inconvenience.
Despite our best efforts we have let you down. Will you let me know how we can make amends? We would like to have another chance to show you how things usually go here. If I can be of any service to you, please e-mail me directly: helen.oster@adoramacamera.com
July 16th, 2008 at 09:04
To HelenOster,
Thank you for your reply. I’ll reply to you via your Adorama email regarding this.
Craig