Complaint Review: TigerDirect.com Aka OnRebate.com

Don't ever be stupid enough to think the "after rebate" price is all you'll pay at TigerDirect.com. I know; I was just that stupid. Learn from my experience. Here's the story. Just the facts.

I buy three items - a mobo package including processor, a power supply, and a PCI raid card. All are advertised at pretty good prices, but after I click on the "buy" button, turns out they have a higher price, but I'm promised a rebate. I fall for it. How much trouble could that be? They come in a timely manner; I hook them up, they work. Of course, while hunting around trying to find the rebate forms to download, I notice an asterisk that points to some fine print at the bottom of a looong page that says my motherboard is "re-certified". Whatever that means. Probably a refurb.

I download and print out the rebate forms, go through all the hassle of filling them out, make copies of my invoice to send along, and go to cut out the barcodes which OnRebate.com requires.

GOTCHA #1:
The power supply box doesn't have a barcode. I call TigerDirect. Several robot phone menus later, and listening to recorded ads for more products while on hold, I get a person. I explain the situation. Hold some more. Then the guy says we can't send you a bar code for the power supply, so we'll credit the amount of the rebate ($20) to your next order. Well, I hadn't caught on yet what kind of company I was dealing with, so I said OK.

I send off the other two rebates with all the required information filled out, copies of the invoice, the barcodes cut off the packages, all the i's dotted and t's crossed. I kept copies, too.

I go to the OnRebate website and fill out the online forms - they require that, too...probably took 30-45 minutes in all online and offline, filling out forms, zeroxing the invoice, addressing the separate envelopes required to submit each rebate.

I get emails from OnRebate saying that my rebate processes have been started and both are awaiting their receipt of my documentation (copy of the TigerDirect order, rebate forms filled out and signed, barcodes cut from the packages). I've worked for the government; I know how to read forms carefully and fill them out and include all required documentation.

Gotcha #2:

My documentation arrives at OnRebate and they send me an email saying they approved one of them, but as I learned at the OnRebate website while I was filling the forms out there, it will take 6-8 weeks to actually get a check unless you want to pay them $5 to get it credited to paypal right now (well actually, 'right now' when they get all my documentation and you meet all their conditions). The other one they reject because it is supposedly the "wrong bar code" - which it wasn't because I cut it off the box they sold me the pci card in. I email them and tell OnRebate this and to scan it again, and after repeated attempts and more automatic email responses, I call TigerDirect - AGAIN.

Gotcha #3:
Back through the automated yada-yada-yada again until I finally get a person. I tell him what OnRebate says about the barcode on the pci card box they sent me that was supposedly eligible per their website for a rebate. More time on hold. "So sorry that happened, I'll credit the $10 to your credit card for that right now." I think "great - these guys are OK. I just had an unusually bad experience." I wish.

Gotcha #4:
I wait. I check my credit card statement when it comes two and one half weeks later, GUESS WHAT? No credit from TigerDirect as promised. Boy, it sure is a LOT of hassle to get the prices they CLAIM they sell things for on the Internet website!

Gotcha #5:
I call TigerDirect AGAIN. Maybe they should be on my speed dial by now, right? They have a caller ID thing that recognizes who is calling, asks you if it is about the recent order, yada-yada-yada, run you through more "push 1 for this" menus, put me on hold for 25 minutes listening to their sales pitches to buy more products from them, etc. The person I finally get says that, "since it's about an OnRebate issue, you need to call back tommorrow when those guys are in, 9am - 6 pm." I tell him I don't want to call back and get put on hold again, I've had to call 3 times already, and I would like to speak to a supervisor. He says he'll get one and puts me on hold for another 15 minutes. He comes back on and wants to take my number and says the supervisor will call me back as soon as he's free. I ask how long that will be, he says he can't say, I tell him I'll just wait, he puts me on hold for another 15 minutes, and drops the call.

While I'm holding, I do a google search on TigerDirect.com, and find the reports of others here at ripoffreport.com. I read quite a few while I'm waiting. Sound kinda familiar, too. And I dotted EVERY i and crossed EVERY t.

Gotcha #6:

Well, by this point I'm getting the picture. Their rebate system doesn't work no matter whether you follow the directions or not. It seems clear to me their rebate system is not intended to work, except in the sense it allows TigerDirect lure customers to their site by advertising seemingly good prices, and then trick consumers into paying significantly higher prices with promises of rebates they will probably never actually receive.

And I'm getting really annoyed with the runaround. I call back again and waste another 15 minutes going through all the phone diversion stuff and then when I get a person again, he wants to take my number and a supervisor will call me tommorrow. "There isn't a supervisor available now." Funny, there was 20 minutes ago.

Get the picture? They act polite and find one way after another to get you off the phone, promise stuff they don't deliver (like the credit back to my credit card for the rebate amount they promised but didn't send from OnRebate.com), talk to a supervisor, and generally keep you going in circles until you either forget to check to see if they actually send the check or credit your card, or eventually finally realize it's not worth the time and trouble anymore to get them to deliver on their promises.

Gotcha #7:
TigerDirect advertises prices which, after you get far enough into the ordering process, have "*after rebate" tagged on to them, and if you are stupid enough to think this is an honest company trying to treat it's customers right and order the stuff, your total is, of course, BEFORE rebates, and much higher than the advertised price total would be.

Gotcha #8:
From my experience and the other reports I've read here, you will only receive rebates at a tremendous cost of your time and energy, probably more than they are worth if you work at anyplace that pays better than minimum wage, IF you ever get them at all. The only reason I've put this much trouble into it is that the only thing I hate more than getting ripped off is letting somebody get away with it and keep on doing it.

It will be interesting to see if my wasting all this time detailing the complex diversion strategies (package doesn't have a barcode the rebate form says you are supposed to send in, package has the wrong bar code per OnRebate.com, bounce you back and forth between OnRebate and TigerDirect in hopes you'll give up, promise to credit your credit card and then don't, tell you to call back another time, etc.) actually results in my getting the money credited to my credit card - FOR REAL this time - since they may want to at least maintain the appearance of being an ethical firm on sites like this. I won't hold my breath, though.

I certainly don't want a "store credit for my next order" anymore with a firm that does business like this. You won't either.

If you are smart enough to have checked here before buying from TigerDirect, learn from other's misfortune like mine, and avoid this firm. They have lots of frustrating and time-wasting ways to make you sorry you ever dealt with them.

I SURE am sorry I ever ordered from them.

Robert
Burlington, North Carolina
U.S.A.

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Click here to read The *EDitorial: The Marketing Rebate Rip Off ...Manufactures invent reasons why not to pay the consumer