TigerDirect.com

Full review
After a swearing TigerDirect off for nearly eight years, I decided to give them another chance - after all, they had the camcorder I wanted for the same price as everywhere else, fair shipping rates, and a nice 5% cashback through Bing Shopping. My gut feelings said "don't do it", but I figured the savings were worth giving them another chance, and come one, it's been 8 years - I won't do that again.

My experience with TigerDirect started in 2001. I order some rather expensive "high-speed" PNY RAM. The price they had on it was the best I could find. It was still expensive, mind you. From what I can recall, the processing speed was nothing to rave about, but also not worth a complaint.

After receiving my RAM, I gave it a quick visual inspection - upon which I noticed the PNY sticked was peeling in the corner. I peeled it the rest of the way back, to find another manufacturer's logo. I'd never heard of the company, so I researched it. It was a low quality, Chinese off-brand (yes, the manufacturer of the RAM, not just the memory chips). I called TigerDirect to inquire about this, and a possible refund, and was told that I didn't know what I was talking about, and that what had happened wasn't possible. A refund would only be given for a non-working item.

I decided I would never do business with them again.
But now, nearly 8 years later. I thought I might be able to forgive them, and give them another chance, as well as save myself some money in the process.I should have trusted my gut feelings, and just avoided them. Here's the timeline:

Sunday:Having a trip coming up in a week, I was in kind of a hurry to get my new camcorder. I'd already put it off until the last minute...but that's nothing overnight shipping can't handle.
I placed my order on mid-day Sunday, and opted for 2 day shipping, since TigerDirect estimate the camcorder would arrive on Wednesday.

End of Monday:My order still said "In Process", and my PayPal account had the transaction "Pending". Well, okay, I guess it's not going to be here Wednesday like they estimated, but that's fine.
I placed an order for memory cards on Newegg with overnight shipping, at about 21:00. This camcorder cannot be used without SD cards.

Midday Tuesday:Hmmm...my order on TigerDirect is still "In Process". But my Newegg order has already been shipped. I should probably call them.
Me: I'm just calling to see when my order is going to ship. [gives order number]. TigerDirect: Oh, it's in the warehouse right now, it'll probably ship today or tomorrow.
Me: Okay, thank you.


Midday Wednesday:My order still says "In Process". I'm sure glad I paid for expedited shipping, so TigerDirect could take their sweet time with this. At this point, that camcorder needs to ship today, or I won't have it by the time I leave. So I call TigerDirect, again.
Me: Hey, I was told that this order was going to ship yesterday or today...and it's already 4:00PM today. What's the hold up?
TigerDirect: Uh, that item is back ordered. Didn't you look at that before you ordered?
Me: I'm on the website right now, and it says that it's "In Stock".
TigerDirect: Uh, well, I see we're getting more of these...uh...camcorders in tomorrow. And it looks like it going to be, like, uh, a really big shipment. Like, a really big one. It'll take care of all the backorders.
Me: So, if it ships tomorrow, when will it be delivered. Are you guys willing to upgrade me to overnight shipping?
TigerDirect: No, but I can, uh, cancel the order, and you can just place a new one with overnight shipping.
Me: Really? Just cancel the order. I'm not placing another one.


There were no emails, no phone calls letting me know that "Hey, we're sorry, your product is back ordered. But we can tell you're in no hurry to get it, since it's not like you went with $23 2 day shipping or anything.", nothing. Not even an apology for the event, or the misinformation I was given.

Since Newegg was sold out of this camcorder (the whole reason I had to look around in the first place), I proceeded to call B&H photo, and double check that they had the item in stock. I was assured they did. I placed a quick, easy order for the camcorder and overnight shipping, and called them back to see if they could expedite my processing. "That shouldn't be a problem", they responded, "We process nearly all of our orders in 24 hours anyways, but I can make a ticket for you".


That's pretty much where the story ends. By my estimate, the total money wasted by giving TigerDirect a second chance was:

$17.00 extra to overnight the camcorder here by Friday.
$14.00 extra to try to get the SD cards on the same day as the camcorder (but now I've got my SD cards...just no camcorder, yet. Yay.).
$12.50 extra to overnight a set of filters. I didn't really need these, but didn't really want to use the camcorder without at least a UV filter.

Total money I had the privilege to lose by working with TigerDirect: $43.50.Total time I had the privilege to lose by working with TigerDirect: about 3 hours (hold times, call times, and shopping around for a new store).


I really had thought that 8 years was long enough for them to change for the better. I was wrong.