If an item is received damaged or defective, or a defect is apparent within the first 30 days, then yes.
We frequently offer free shipping as a way of passing on manufacturer discounts to our customers, eg on overstocks etc. We would like to offer free shipping on more of our items and hopefully at some point in the future we will be able to do so.
A recent customer survey revealed that Adorama customers feel our current shipping policies are generally popular, and the majority are happy that we do not, as many of our competitors do, artificially increase the prices of items, in order to be able to subsidize the shipping still further. Overwhelmingly, the response was that our customers prefer to know that Adorama prices are some of the most competitive around; that we will only subsidize the shipping provided it doesn't have to impact on the prices paid by the customer....Show more →
alexdi wroteYou're in a much better position to bear the risk of defective product than any individual customer. It would surprise me if the number of returns, fraudulent or otherwise, was so high as to make the more lenient policy untenable.
And we WILL cover the cost of the return of a defective product. What we can't do, is cover the cost of inbound or outbound shipping because a customer has changed his or her mind.
Customer feedback tells us that this would not be a popular policy.
I have bought from about every seller there is from Adorama, B&H, Samy's, Canoga, Allens, Abes the list goes on and on but there is good reason I keep going back to Adorama, great service, great return policy, great products it's one of my favs.
I love how a defective product, or misrouted equipment, as in a previous post, equates to great buyer testimonials, especially when those problems are fixed via the scrutiny of a influential photography forum. Getting it right is the least a company can do. It's just good business practice. IMO, "awesome" hardly applies here.
tanglefoot47 wrote:
I have bought from about every seller there is from Adorama, B&H, Samy's, Canoga, Allens, Abes the list goes on and on but there is good reason I keep going back to Adorama, great service, great return policy, great products it's one of my favs.
alexdi wrote:
Helen, if it's standard practice to refund return shipping on exchanges, that policy should be listed on your support page.....
Actually, in some ways I agree with you, and I have raised it in the past. I was told that this was on the web info page in the past. During some web info updating, several points were omitted unintentionally - this was one - and the rate of returns plummeted........
The cost of returns has to be built in to the overall price of goods, and it was felt that this unplanned 'pilot' suggested that although the majority of returns weren't actually faulty or damaged goods, Adorama was needing to accommodate the financial losses because the manufacturers and distributors won't give us full credit on such returns - or we sell them as O/B or demo and again make a loss; or many retailers resell returns as new, which simply isn't fair to customers.
A customer with a genuine reason to be upset will,we believe, contact us and tell us how he is feeling and then we will certainly send out a label.
