Complain about a product or service

Tiger Direct

Tiger Direct • Defective • Damaged • Extended warranty • Incomplete shipments • Rebates • Customer service --- • Rebate advice from Tiger Direct

Tiger Direct is a mainstay for many computer hobbyists and professionals. It offers a wide variety of parts, components, cases and so forth that are often difficult or impossible to find in local retail stores. Unfortunately, its customers seem to have more than their share of problems, as the complaints in these pages show.

To its credit, the company has corrected many of the complaints we've brought to its attention.

Problems with your rebate? Read Tiger Direct's suggestions.

Other problems? Here's what the company recommends:

TigerDirect is committed to providing every customer with best in industry service. If you have a concern related to an order placed with TigerDirect please give me the opportunity to prove our commitment by resolving your concern. I can be reached at Elizabeth.Hernandez@tigerdirect.com.

When contacting me please include as much information about you concern as possible, including any order or tracking numbers, so I can efficiently and expeditiously resolve the concern. I apologize in advance if we let you down and I pledge to make it right.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Hernandez
Customer Service

Rajiv of Clarksville , MD October 26, 2009

I purchased a Pioneer plasma TV from TigerDirect on July 24, 2008 along with 2 year extended warranty (to start after expiration of Manufacturer's warranty). In May 2009, HDMI ports on the TV malfunctioned. I contacted Pioneer for service under warranty, but they refused to provide service saying that TigerDirect was not an authorized dealer. I contacted Jonathan B., the sales agent with whom I had originally purchased the TV. He promised to contact the Pioneer to resolve the issue and call me back that afternoon. Since I received no phone call from him, I called him back 3 days later and left message to find out if there was any resolution.

Over the next 8 weeks, I left a number of messages, talked to different customer service personnel, all of whom escalated the problem to their supervisors and promised to call me back, but NOT A SINGLE ONE ever called back. I asked them to speak directly to the supervisor, but they insisted that the company policy was not to allow the customers to do so. They would not even give me the e-mail address of any of the supervisors. Two of them talked to their supervisors and advised me to wait until the Manufacturer's warranty expired and then contact the extended warranty provider. I pointed out that this was fraudulent and I would like them to give that advice in writing; they did not.

Finally, on 17th July, I came across customer service representative, Karen M.. She also promised to escalate the issue to her supervisor and advised me, "DO NOT contact the extended warranty provider as they would look up the records from Pioneer and recognize that the problem had already been reported!"

After another 3 weeks of phone calls with no response on most of the occasions, she finally asked me to provide an estimate of cost so that "TigerDirect and Pioneer can work out cost allocation." I faxed the estimate from a Pioneer service center to them but received no response for another 2.5 weeks. By this time, it was mid-August. The Pioneer warranty had expired even though the HDMI board problem had been reported earlier and I still had no resolution.

In mid-August, after 2 ½ months of persistence, I was finally put through to Geraldo (Gerry) S., a supervisor. He was very sympathetic and promised me that he would be the last person I would speak to and that he gave me his direct extension. He also advised me to contact the extended warranty provider while he and the product manager would try to resolve the impasse with Pioneer! I pointed out that this was fraudulent. His response was that since Pioneer refused service, the HDMI problem will not be in their database and therefore, it would be safe to obtain service from the extended warranty! For the next 3 weeks, I left a number of messages for Gerry but received NO response from him.

Finally, I complained to the Better Business Bureau of Florida. It prodded Jonathan B. to call me. I pleaded with him to either pay for the repairs to the TV or refund the cost of it. He refused to do either saying his supervisor did not approve it. I again asked to speak to the supervisor (Gerry S.) directly.

Three weeks after my last conversation - and 5 months after my initial complaint to Jonathan - I have been unable to talk with the supervisor to resolve the issue. I have paid 2919.97 for this product which now has a non-functioning HDMI port and so, the TV has become unusable.

Steven of bakersfield, CA October 17, 2009

While sitting waiting for dinner at a local restaurant, I whipped out my iPhone to read my latest emails. I am a frequent online consumer and satisfied my boredom by skimming the latest Tiger Electronics ad emailed to me. I was curious to see their weekend special on computers as I have just bought two for my home from this e-merchant. One arrived yesterday and the other two weeks ago. The sale on the computer was the exact same model, just not "refurbished" and included a monitor of matching color and brand yet the warranty was for a full year versus my 3 months I had with each of the two I had just bought.

Now, shipping was free just a few days later, and the price was essentially the same - a 16.00 difference! Thinking their "30-Day Ironclad" warranty would be sufficient reasoning for me to call and request a match in terms to extend the warranty; I was told I would need to buy both new computers (which surprisingly happen to be the same models as confirmed by the rep) and ship these two back, along with the monitors, speakers, and accessories. I was further advised shipping would be at my own expense and it would be more cost-effective to just keep them and let this go to rest. Feeling somewhat taken back from by this extraordinary to essentially "hit the highway and beat it", I calmly let him know I wouldn't be leaving a good review and would explain this circumstance accordingly on a consumer site. The rep was quick to accuse me of attempting to "blackmail" the company and would transfer me to his supervisor.

After about 5-7 minutes of what I believe to be a "penalty hold", the same rep came back on the line just to let me know I would be responsible for shipping costs. My reply was that this had been explained by him and probed when he would transfer the call to a supervisor. Certainly, as a consumer of a business in the economy, one does NOT disrespect a customer to the extent of being accused of blackmail. Perhaps another 5-7 minutes of a silent hold later, The supervisor came on the line and I had relayed the events of which had occurred between his employee and I. My request now was to agree to ship everything back, obtain RMA numbers on all items and purchase nothing now or in the future.

In the end, Tiger Direct not only lost my recent business but my future business and has gained one unhappy former client who merely asked for them to back their product equal to that which is being offered less than a week after the sale. They couldn't and I am losing roughly 100 on shipping costs to either FedEx or UPS and they'll need to discount the items as open-box goods for a much greater margin of loss than had they simply backed their product equal to that which they offer only days later. Such a shame...and I had asked for the warranty to only be extended on one computer; the one delivered yesterday.

Jim of Spring Hope, NC September 3, 2009

Tiger Direct Web Reponse. Purchased a Gateway MT 3422 on 12/3/07, and extended warranty. Contacted Tiger Direct and Bankers Warranty about the computer not working on 2/12/09. The warranty expired on 3/3/09. The Customer Service folks said they would send info to me, which I did not receive. I contacted them 3/3/09; and then every month since that time, but still no help from them.

Dale of Centreville, VA July 30, 2009

I purchased 3000 worth of computer products from Tiger Direct for my church's education program. One of the computers was defective and we returned it along with a copy of software we did not need. We were told by the customer service agent to put the software in the same box as the computer. We received a replacement computer but we were never credited for the returned 133 software.

After several calls to the account manager, Carlos Vila, we were told the issue would be investigated. Mr Villa never returned our calls but each time we contacted him we were told they had to talk with the warehouse and that was difficult because "they were not in the same place."

We then asked to speak to Mr. Vila's supervisor. We were directed to Mr. Roy Handscombe. After explaining the issue to Mr. Handscombe we were again told the matter would be invstigated and that he would call me back in a "couple of days." After one week had passed we called Mr. Handscombe again and were told that he needed to contact the warehouse and would call us back. After leaving messages with Mr. Handscombe and getting no response, we contacted Custom Service and were told that the credit would be issued. Ten days later the credit was not issued and the Custom Service department was contacted again. After explaining the issue and asking to be directed to a manager, we were put on hold indefinitely - no one ever came back to the phone. The next day we were told by Customer Service that we needed to speak to our account manager, Carlos Vila, to get the matter resolved. After a brief explanation of why we did not want discuss this issue any further with Mr. Vila we were told that Roy Handscombe would be able to resolve the issue. Again we explained that we had tried several times to resolve the issue with Mr. Handscombe and did not even receive a call back on the status.

We have attempted to get this 133 refund for returned software for 2 months. To date the issue still remains unresolved. Tiger Direct's "customer service" is the worse I have ever encountered. When our church has other orders to place, we will certainly not use Tiger Direct.

Regina of Smyrna, TN July 29, 2009

I could not be more dissatisfied with this company. We placed an online order on Saturday, 7/18/09 in the amount of 822.64. On Wednesday I called to see if the order had shipped out as their website states orders placed before 9pm ET ship same day. The customer service reps Terry and Pablo stated they did not see an order in their systems and were very adamant that we needed to place another order. So we did end up placing an order over the phone on Wednesday in the amount of 805.25.

On Thursday I was balancing our checkbook as I do every day and found that TigerDirect had two charges pending to our account. I called TigerDirect right after I seen the two pending charges after speaking with Denise and was told we had two orders in their system and both orders had already been shipped out. I got on their website and logged in to our account and pulled up in the amount of 805.25 so then I pulled up the invoice for order #P1288632 in the amount of 838.94. At this point I demanded to speak to a Manager; Denise refused to transfer me to a manager stating that she could handle the issue.

I ended the call with her and calling back and talked with Terry after explaining our issued she forwarded me to a supervisor Bridget Williams. Bridget assured me that the issue would be resolved. She was going to fax a release over to Regions (our bank) to have one of the holds lifted from the account. I was fine with that,

Friday upon reviewing our bank account the two holds were still there. I called and tried to speak with Bridget again I was told several times she was either away or busy. I got transferred to her voice mail and left her a message. Mean while I told my husband that we may end up with two orders and he need to refuse one of them, which is exactly what he did when UPS arrived at our house with the shipments. Saturday I again logged on to our bank account and noticed that one of the holds for 805.25 had been lifted from the account and the funds where available to us again. So at this point we assumed that everything had been taken care of and we would not long have to deal with TigerDirect.

Monday came I logged on to our account and balanced as normal everything seemed fine and normal. Then Tuesday I logged on to our bank account and it was negative (-227.15) TigerDirect had proceed a charge for 805.25. So at this point we have been charged 838.94 and 805.25. I called and spoke to Albert, in detail explained what had happened, he told me that he could not handle this type of issue and would have to try and get me over to a supervisor after being on hold for 30 minutes he final transferred me to Mike S.. Mike told me that he did not see two charges to our card and I would need to send him the banking information.

At 2:25pm on 7/28/09 I faxed over our bank statement. I waited a little while to make sure he got the information I had faxed over. I called him back with the bank on the line at 4:45pm he told me that he was processing a credit and sending us a return shipping label. I again told him that I did not need a return label we had already refused the 2nd shipment they sent to us in error. I also informed him that his websites states the items have already been returned. I also inquired about the overdraft charges he said it was an enormous amount and it would have to be considered once we fax over the information.

It is now Wednesday our account is currently overdrawn (-588.78) and we still have two charges for one order that we placed. The account is going to continue to get worse if this is not fixed immediately I called and left Mike a message this morning at 10:14am stating this very thing. I do not want the account to get worse but we still have two daycare checks that have not cleared the account these checks total 431.00 as we have 3 kids in daycare. I have yet to receive call backs from Mike or Bridget. I would like this issue resolved and to NEVER have to deal with this company ever again.

David of Montreal, QC July 15, 2009

made my first purchase on TigerDirect.ca a few days ago to buy a Motorola bluetooth h555 headset. It was broken on arrival. I contacted a customer service representative (apparently a US based one), and was given a return number and I bought an identical device during that same call. He told me this was called cross shipping. The representative also told me that all I needed to do was to ship back the item in it's original packaging using Purolator's service and that it would be free for me. I then did as instructed.

I just received a call from purolator saying that TigerDirect does not accept packages that aren't prepaid. While this may be true, I was told the contrary by the first representative I talked to. I would have chosen a cheaper shipping alternative had I known that. I called customer service again (now apparently a Canada based one) and I was told that nothing could be done, that I would have to pay for the return's shipping cost. When I insisted (quite politely I might add), this representative did the rudest thing possible: he just hung up on me.

Also, when I received the headset I contacted Motorola to confirm it was broken but they told me that since it was bought from TigerDirect which is not an approved Motorola seller, the manufacturer warranty is void. This is actually misrepresentation.

peter of fort lauderdale, FL June 25, 2009

I was contacted by tim from a job posting on web. I told him I was out of town but would be back to interview for a job at tiger direct. I flew back to florida for the interview and called him three times to set up a time like he requested but he would not return my calls. times are hard enough, I spent 500 extra to come back for the interview you would think he would be professional enough return my call. It cost me 500 dollars and had to give up a freelance job. that I would have made at least 1500

Holley of Castle Rock, CO June 13, 2009

I purchased a rebuilt Gateway laptop for my son on 12/16/08 wth a 1 year warranty; Included in the specs was 320GB HDD (Invoice No. PO5308950002; Serial # N3F8441033797; MPN RB-2906040R). The computer, as it turned out didn't contain the memory as stated, instead it has only 20GB - as determoned by an independent computer repair person. When asked about this discrepancy, the TigerDirect representative stated that because they had not been notified within 3 months, there was nothing they could do (remember that I had purchased a 1 year warranty!). Then they suggested I talk with the Service department, and they said there was nothing they could do as "there was nothing wrong with the computer; they just sent you the wrong computer". Now if this isn't a major runaround and offensive customer service, I don't know what is.

Jackie of San Antonio, TX June 5, 2009

I bought a phone from Tiger Direct. I received the phone and the phone was not what I expected. I called them to try to return it, and they told me that it had a limited return policy. I looked at the policy before I bought the phone and there was a blue link stating that this phone had a limited return policy. When I clicked on that link it took me to an area that said that if the phone is damaged in anyway, it can't be returned. If the serial number wasn't the same it wouldn't be excepted. Also is the phone had water damage. I tried to return the phone and they wouldn't except it because they said that the manufacturer won't take it back. They sold me the phone, not the manufacturer, so why can't they take it back. They wouldn't refund my money which was fine with me because I was gonna buy a more expensive phone, but they wouldn't even do that. They wanted to exchange the phone for the same phone. The same day I got the phone, I tried to return it and they wouldn't do it. I am very dissapointed and I will never buy from Tiger Direct again. I hope you think twice before doing so aswell!!!

tom of summerdale, AL June 3, 2009

I purchased a hp. computer in May 05 of this year. Someone or the company itself sold or gave my credit card information to a third party, COMPLETE SAVINGS whereas I was automatically billed for 12 membership fee.This is a scam company. I did not sign into anything or give out my credit card number to any third party.

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