Reid Adair

Review of Adorama

I recently ordered $700-plus worth of equipment fr...

I recently ordered $700-plus worth of equipment from Adorama. The boxes arrived via UPS and were scanned with no signature requested. One box was open.

I called Adorama. I was told by the gentleman with whom I spoke that they require a signature.

My co-workers said no signature was requested. I called UPS. Their records showed that the shipment was not requested to require signature.

I called Adorama again. The lady I spoke with said they require a signature. I asked for a supervisor. I told the supervisor about the contradicting information from UPS and Adorama; she also said signature is required. I asked to get UPS on the phone so all three parties could resolve. She said they would just send labels to have the packages returned. After 15 minutes of back and forth, she agreed to get UPS on the line. I was on hold 25 minutes more when she said she was still on hold. 20 minutes later, she said they had referred her to damage claims, and she had been put back on hold. She said they would just generate the labels and have the packages returned. I asked if they would re-send my order once UPS had possession of these boxes, and she said no; she said they would not re-process the order until they received the original order back. She said it would be two weeks or more before I received the replacement order. I told her that was unacceptable. I said I had a direct number from speaking with UPS previously and would call them. It took three times mentioning that before she agreed. I got UPS on the phone in less than two minutes. The pulled up the tracking information, and I explained that I was getting conflicting information. She said their system clearly showed that the box for requiring a signature had not been marked. We were more than 90 minutes into this phone call. I asked the Adorama representative how they were going to handle this since they had not requested signature to be required. She said she would "elevate" the issue to their shipping warehouse.

Tuesday morning (12/5), I received a response from the customer service manager. She said, "We do generaly ship with signature required but we allow UPS to use their discretion to leave it with or without signature." That statement indicates that they do not require a signature.

In my final e-mail, I said I had not requested any refunds, credits or other compensation. I simply wanted someone to confirm what their policy was and who (even though I knew) was at fault for not requiring a signature. In at least two separate e-mails, I requested the name and contact information for her supervisor. She never provided it.

The final straw came on the next e-mail from her which obviously was intended to be sent within her company rather than to me. It said, "This guy does not stop. He is being unreasonable. I don't believe we should further contact him."

I called again. I explained the e-mail, gave the manager's name, and asked to speak to her supervisor. I was put on hold for more than 40 minutes before the third person I had talked to on Monday (the person whose supervisor I had e-mailed) got on the phone. I explained about the e-mail. She laughed and said, "OK." After putting me on hold again, she came back and gave me a name for a supervisor who would call me by the end of business. She confirmed a phone number. No one called.

The issue has never been about UPS actions. They repeatedly apologized for UPS, but I ve never once said the condition of the package was Adorama s fault. My issue with Adorama s customer service is the misinformation that ultimately wasted entirely too much of my time (as well as their staff). They have admitted that, in reality, they do not require a signature. Allowing UPS to use their own discretion/choice isn t requiring a signature.

If I had been told on the very first call Adorama leaves the decision for signatures up to UPS, that would have been all. That didn t happen. If it s on their website as they have claimed, how do their customer service representatives, and supervisors, not know that?