On May 15th, I placed an order for the equipment needed to attached my Nikon D200 to the Galileoscope I ordered the same day. I received an email two days later that the parts were backordered, but should be available in a couple of weeks. I wasn’t too worried about it, as the Galileoscope hadn’t even started shipping yet and I doubted I would receive it until sometime in July.
Yesterday, the Galileoscope arrived. I had not received the parts from Adorama yet, so I logged into my account to check the status. All it said was that it’s backordered as of May 17th. There was no projected ship date.
I then emailed customer support. This morning, an Online Customer Service Rep responded that the order should ship by the end of August. In other words, it would be another four or five weeks, assuming the estimate is now accurate.
That is unacceptable, but not necessarily Adorama’s fault. Products get backordered from the manufacturer all the time. The parts I need, however, are fairly standard, and are available from any number of manufacturers. It should be a fairly simple matter to swap out what I ordered for an equivalent product at a similar price.
Unfortuantely, Adorama Customer Service is unable to do this. A knowledge issue was claimed, but instead of forwarding me to someone who could help, the rep told me to call the Sales Department.
I’m on and off calls all day, so sitting on hold is not an easy thing. Besides, I ordered the product online; I should be able to change the order online.
Nope.
Once the order is placed, it seems I can’t do anything with it online. I can’t even cancel it.
It’s not like Adorama is a new company. I’ve been buying from them for years (and have always been happy until now), and I believe they’ve been selling online for more than a decade (although I could not confirm this on either their website or Wikipedia). This is basic functionality that their online store should offer.
So, I guess this time I’ll buy from someone else. Probably B&H. I’ve sent Adorama Customers Service an email asking to cancel my order.
We’ll see how well that works.
Dear Brian
I was concerned to read your posting. If you would like to contact me directly, with your order number, I will see what I can do to help.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely
Helen Oster
Adorama Camera Customer Service Ambassador
[Admin Edit: Not sure Helen wants her email in clear text]
http://www.adorama.com
A quick update…
A few minutes ago I was contacted by someone at Adorama via Twitter. We’ll see if she can resolve things.
At the very least, I’m extremely impressed that they’re monitoring the social nets so closely. That’s one of the first steps towards providing good customer support via social media.
The next step is to resolve the problem. I’ll update when I know more.
A further update…
Just got a call from Mike Peoples at Adorama. He is the rep for telescope and sports equipment. It took him about ninety seconds to clear up my problem.
I’m not yet sure which of my actions generated this response, but it would have been much better if the customer service rep had just forwarded me to Mike to begin with.
In any case, thank you Mike for your help. And thank you to Helen in the social media response team for your part as well.
Sorry, Helen. You’re comment somehow ended up in my spam filter for WordPress. I actually hadn’t seen it until after my previous two comments.
I contacted adorama to cancel my order… But I haven’t receive any reply..
Le
Please email me directly: Helen@adorama.com
Helen Oster
Adorama Camera Customer Service Ambassador
I try cancel my order at B&H, unsuccessful either. they all suck big time.
That is pretty cool that they contacted you on here!
It’s good to see some sort of blog site every single from time to time that isn’t exactly the same expired rehashed materials. Amazing read!