I wanted to share a recent experience with Adorama to see if anyone else has dealt with this, and to offer a warning to others.
I recently ordered a soundbar over Black Friday from Adorama. Unfortunately, there was a shipping issue, Adorama showed they shipped it, but UPS had as label created but shipment not received. I reached out to Adorama support, and they agreed to pull the shipment back and resend the item to me.
After they pulled the shipment, they informed me that the item is actually now out of stock and they cannot fulfill the replacement.
Here is where it gets really frustrating, instead of refunding my card, they are telling me:
1) I will only receive Store Credit, not a refund to my payment method.
2) They are deducting shipping costs from that credit.
I never took possession of the item. It was never delivered. They admitted they cannot fulfill the order. Yet they are treating this like a "buyer's remorse" return rather than a failure on their part.
I’ve tried explaining to support that keeping my money for an item they can't provide (and charging me shipping for something I never received) is absurd, but I'm hitting a wall.
Has anyone else experienced this with them? Are there any Adorama reps on FM who might help?
Thanks, should also note I spent 80% via credit card and 20% via a previous credit. So the dispute with credit card will only get me back partial credit (I’ll probably lose the shipping still)
EB-1 wrote:
If they did not deliver and you cannot escalate then just cancel with your CC.
I think that these companies run into problem with unusual transactions like yours — like your use of partial credit card and partial existing credit to pay.
I had a similar situation with REI a couple of years ago where I lost some credit. I won’t go into the details.
But still, you situation doesn’t sound right to me. Have you escalated it as far as possible at Adorama? (I remember the good old days when someone from Adorama — Helen? — used to watch these threads and step in to resolve such issues.)
I had a couple situations like this with Adorama. Pre-ordered some Aputure stuff. Closer to product launch Adorama provided tracking info, but it was many days later until the delivery company ever took possession of the packages. Can't recall if it was UPS or FedEx. While waiting for the packages to be in-transit, I talked to Adorama and they said they were waiting for inventory even though they already created a shipping label. My options were to wait or cancel the orders. I did cancel the pre-order of the F22c, another retailer received inventory before Adorama. The other stuff I waited on.
As an update, they’ve agreed to refund shipping finally. They’re still pushing the store credit…
It feels like they are just trying to avoid a refund at all costs, even though they admit I never received what I ordered. I like to support alternatives to Amazon, but would struggle to order from Adorama after this experience.
