Interesting thread.
I was reading the reviews for Adorama on resellersratings.com and although their rating is 9.27 out of 10, very many of the good reviews are fake. One or two sentences with nothing specific, like "Great products and shipping".
I only write reviews if the product or service is bad or if it is exceptional. If it is exceptional I am going to say why and not just some generic stuff like "Great customer service".
The negative reviews say they purposely oversell and then cancel the backorders with no notice and they say Adorama has admitted they oversell. Also reports of being sent used stuff as new and only being offered a partial refund.
I am thinking they must offer customers a chance at a sweepstakes for writing a review because it is obvious so many are fake.
a) Reselleratings feedback process does not allow for fake reviews as each one must link to an Adorama order number.
b) Short reviews are NOT unusual; post-purchase, all Adorama customers are sent - at random - a feedback form. Currently this may be from Reselleratings, BizRate, Shopper Approved, Deal Crunch, PriceGrabber or Shopping.com. It isn't therefore at all surprising that a satisfied customer will write just a half dozen words.
c) Adorama does NOT purposely oversell. What on earth would be the point of that? It only causes bad feeling from our customers, plus a whole load of additinal work for the Customer Support Teams.
d)It is certainly against our policy to ship out used items as new. We ship back returned items to the manufacturer for refurbishment, or sell them as open box or use as in-store demo models
The manufacturers and distributors, who supply to Adorama, and of course, other retailers, do allow the return of equipment as new, because of over-stocks, exchanges etc. This can be a particular issue after the Christmas holiday when we all need to balance out our inventories. Even if we at Adorama are completely thorough when packaging up these items for return, there is no doubt that less scrupulous retailers could well be receiving returns, trusting the customer's explanation that they never opened the box - packaging them up for return to the manufacturer or distributor. These items then form part of the inventory for sending out to other retailers.
We can't inspect the contents of every package received into the warehouse. If the manufacturer doesn't check the equipment before sending it back out, from the customer's perspective it is us who looks bad, even though it may well have not been our fault.
At Adorama we do have liberal return policies and there is no doubt that on occasion this is taken advantage of - although this does not exempt us from more closely checking any and all returns, some retailers don't.
The problem is that we are all relying upon humans to carry out the required procedures at every point in the transaction, which can, and does, result in mistakes at any place along the line.
If a customer receives an item that has cosmetic damage - whatever the supposed cause eg shipping damage - then yes, we will offer a decent discount for the customer to keep it. Many customers like this option. But if they prefer to return it, we will send an ERL, without question.