Saturday, April 14, 2012

Why I will no longer patronize Tiger Direct

I know, I know, this is supposed to be a car repair blog.  But I figure since I get so many hits on it for car repair stuff, this post and my last one would do well here to get my message across.

In my last post "Biostar Sucks", I stated that I had put together a new computer for my Wife.  Shortly after doing that, my computer started acting up.  With my computer being nearly five years old and it acting up, I decided it was time to build a new one for me too.

I researched the components I wanted on several different sites.  Tiger Direct came up a bit better than the place I normally use (Newegg).  Tiger Direct's shipping is always slower that Newegg, but the price difference was worth it.

All of the stuff came within the designated shipping time and everything was in good shape.  I don't like Mail in Rebates.  However, Tiger Direct's process while tedious seems to be better than most.  Their rebate center seems to be organized and fair.  To be honest, I already received one of the rebates after only one month of waiting.  The others are still "processing".  I'm fairly confident that eventually I will get back all of the rebates I submitted.  Time will tell.

All of this leads us to why I won't buy stuff from Tiger Direct any longer.  A couple of weeks after getting the new computer together I received an email from them asking me to review all of the different components I purchased from them.  I went on a short trip we had planned, but did the reviews when I returned.  I was honest in my evaluations, so far everything I put in the new build is working well.  The items I bought that had MIR's I commented that the MIR's were a pain in the neck with no guarantee that you would get your money back.  Even though I think I will eventually get my money back, I believe a better way to get people to buy is to just discount the items up front.  I know why they do this though, it's to save money.  Most people won't go through the hassle of collecting all of the required documentation to get their rebates.  They can advertise that this product is less because it has a rebate and entice someone to buy it, knowing full well that most people won't do what needs to be done to receive the money.  Anyway, my comments were edited by Tiger Direct.  All of the references to the MIR's in my comments were removed.

To make a long story short, any company that can't take constructive criticism along with praise has an integrity problem and does not deserve my patronage.  I would recommend using other businesses for your electronics needs.

1 comment:

Justice said...

I feel the same way, but my situation is even worse. I got a defective computer from Tiger Direct for Christmas, so I called them to try to get one that worked. The woman I talked to said TD would replace it AFTER I got a “case number” from the company (US Micro) that actually sent it to TD. That wouldn’t have been a problem, except that USM wouldn’t answer their phone, so I had to leave a lot of voice-mails. And in my first voice-mail, I said that I needed a “case number” for TD. But USM wouldn’t call me back. I even sent them e-mails, and they didn’t respond to any of them.

Since TD and USM did business together, why was I the one who had to get the “case number” from USM? Why didn’t TD just get it? Tiger Direct could have gotten it from USM by email within minutes. Then why did TD set it up that way—especially since TD has a 30-day return policy?

Could it be this simple: When USM sends TD a defective product, and TD then sends that product to a customer, either TD replaces the product, or the customer gets screwed. If TD replaces the product, then TD and USM lose. But if TD requires a nonsense “case number” from the customer, and USM won’t give that “case number” to the customer within the 30-day return period, then the customer loses.

USM never gave me the “case number.” I lost.