TigerDirect rebate scam

W

WooHoo2You

Nil said:
I bought a whole system's-worth of components about a year and a half
ago, and most of the parts had rebates. Everything came through just
fine, in time. I appreciated that some of the rebates had webs sites or
phone numbers you could call to find out the status. You have to keep
dated copies of everything you send and be very patient.

I find the websites rarely work for checking the status of a rebate however
a phone call always does the trick.
 
E

ed jurewicz

I'd have to say that my experience with TD are on both sides of this story.
Earlier on I had some horror stories with them on advertised
rebates--particularly the infamous soyo motherboard rebate where the item
was to cost nothing after the rebate. That is of course before you take into
account soyo's policy on not fulfilling rebates. --And to top it off the
motherboard was a dud which was replaced by soyo with another dud.

Lately though I have had some good experiences with TD and have found their
staff to be especially helpful when making an inquiry or needing assistance
concerning rebates. They actually speak English which is a refreshing change
of pace.

On the whole the rebate situation is a crap shoot with any retailer or
manufacturer. I also find that just as you become complacent is when they
hit you. I have had fairly good success with antec products and have gotten
some really good bargains on advertised rebates. Recently when I purchased
an Antec case at CompUSA which came with a rebate that was filled promptly,
I also noticed an antec case fan on sale. The fan was advertised for $18
with an $18 dollar rebate. You guessed it after filling out all the paper
work and submitting it. I received a postcard stating that the upc had not
been attached. Of course the day I sent out the rebate, I was building my
new computer and did not copy all the essential rebate forms which included
the rebate ap with the upc attached.

Still the day I purchased the fan, I also purchased the antec case, a cpu
cooling fan, a hard drive and a upc-- all with rebates. Even with the case
fan fiasco, I wound up saving over $150. Unfortunately in some cases its
just a matter of luck--good or otherwise.
 
D

DevilsPGD

In message <[email protected]> John Doe
Rebates are likely an attempt to prevent returns. You cannot return a
product if you've removed the UPC code, and that's what it takes to
apply for the rebate.

Naa, they're usually just a marketing trick to get your information out
of you. You can still return the product if you want, just do it before
you cut out the UPC.
 
P

petgray

I haven't got anything much to add to what's already been said but I
thought I would say it anyway, on the basis that the more people who
complain in public, the better. On 11 June I bought 2x1024MB memory
from TigerDirect which came with a $40 mail-in rebate. The stuff
arrived promptly and in working order, as was the case with previous
orders from TigerDirect, and generally I have been happy to deal with
them.

When I tried to claim the rebate today, though, I found I was dealing
with OnRebate.com, aka OnRebate.biz, which is clearly a scam company.
I spent half an hour trying to navigate through the rebate claim
procedure on their website, which was slow to respond and several
times returned blank pages forcing me to go back and start again. I
finally got to the page which said "Confirmation message has been sent
to your email address with unique rebate Tracking Number. You should
receive this email within 1 hour." Er, actually no, it hasn't and I
didn't, because that was 6 hours ago and nothing has arrived in my
inbox.

My leisure time is valuable to me and I don't want to spend it chasing
a bunch of scam artists for $40 which I may never get. I've spent too
much time on it already. So if they really want their (my?) $40 they
can keep it. But I thought the least I could do was post a message
here and send them copies.

All the best, Peter.
 
P

Phisherman

I haven't got anything much to add to what's already been said but I
here and send them copies.

All the best, Peter.

Let us know if you ever got your rebate. Sometimes it's a hassle,
sometimes not. I prefer an up-front discount, there are many rebate
scams and some take several months before you get the rebate check.
 
B

Brian K

How many of you have bought products from TigerDirect
and never received your rebates? I get the feeling that
their rebate center is running a scam on these payments
and never delivering without major hassle and repeated
phone calls. If they are doing this to a lot of people,
they need to be reported to the Attorny General of
the State of Minnesota for fraud. I know their Rebate
Center is listed in Miami, Florida, but that is not its
real location. They are in Minnesota. This is the same
stunt that Dell Computers was reported as doing.
Dell offers greatly reduced prices, and then does not
deliver without being confronted equally. I believe they
are in legal trouble over it now, with pending lawsuits.
TigerDirect appears to be doing the same thing, and
it is time to make these companies stop this kind
of false advertising.

johns
I dealt with TD rebates through sister company Global Computer. No
Problems with any of my rebates. I got them all. Some took a few months
to get, but I got all of them.

Here's a tip: Whenever I do any kind of rebate application I make photo
copies of all the documents I send in. That way if there is any
question of a UPC missing or some such, I have a copy and the date sent.

--
________
To email me, Edit "blog" from my email address.
Brian M. Kochera
"Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once!"
View My Web Page: http://home.earthlink.net/~brian1951
 
J

John Doe

Brian K <brianBLOG1951 earthlink.net> wrote:

....
I dealt with TD rebates through sister company Global Computer. No
Problems with any of my rebates. I got them all. Some took a few
months to get, but I got all of them.

Here's a tip: Whenever I do any kind of rebate application I make
photo copies of all the documents I send in. That way if there is
any question of a UPC missing or some such, I have a copy and the
date sent.

Makes no difference. They explicitly state that the rebate requires
the original UPC. They also explicitly state that they're not
responsible for anything lost in the mail. That means they aren't
responsible for anything.

Whether you eventually get a mail-in rebate or not, isn't all that
matters. Some of us don't think that lending a big company money and
then waiting for that company to give the money back is worth our
time.

Since you have to remove the UPC code, you can no longer return an
item after applying for the rebate. Apparently that's one purpose for
the rebate being offered, to prevent returns. A secondary lesser
purpose is for marketing data.
 
P

petgray

Let us know if you ever got your rebate.

My chances of getting that rebate are slowly flying westward into the
sunset accompanied by a flock of flying pigs. It's now 36 hours since
I tried to stake my claim, I've had no e-mail response (that was the e-
mail which would arrive within an hour, remember?) from either the
website or any of the live people at TigerDirect or OnRebate who I've
e-mailed, and without the e-mail I can't proceed to the next step
which is mailing in my rebate form. Scam city. I'm not going to
start phoning them, waiting in call queues, waiting for phone calls to
be returned etc. because I don't think these scamsters are worth
spending any more time on.

Peter.
 
P

petgray

P.S. here's some interesting information about TigerDirect, OnRebate
and their parent company Systemax:

http://jerryfeil.com/tigerdirect.htm

It looks as though OnRebate and TigerDirect are based in and
registered in Florida, while Systemax is based in New York. So where
does the Minnesota connection (mentioned earlier in this thread) come
in?

Peter.
 
P

petgray

Well, I had nothing better to do so I filed an online complaint with
the Attorney General of Florida. See below.

"This company deals with rebates for goods purchased from
TigerDirect. The mail-in rebates are offered by TigerDirect as an
inducement to buy, because the price appears cheaper. Onrebate and
TigerDirect are (I understand) both wholly owned subsidiaries of
Systemax which is based in New York.

This company has been the subject of hundreds if not thousands of
complaints, many of which can be found by searching Usenet or the
Internet. The subject of all the complaints is the same, namely, that
they make it difficult or impossible for customers to claim their
rebates by failing to reply to e-mails, phone calls or correspondence
by mail. My individual case is similar to all the other cases,
namely, I am trying to claim a $40 rebate but I have been unable to
elicit a response by e-mail, which is the method I am required to use
in order to claim it."
 
J

johns

Well, guess what. I still don't have my $50 rebate from TD.
And now they claim it is the Post Office that is not
delivering my check, and they are not going to issue
another check. I called the Attorney Generals Office
in Minnesota ( that is the actual location of the scam
company ), and they sort of dropped the ball, claiming
that they only want to support "their citizens" in
Minnesota. Same kind of smart ass on the phone.
I'm going to up the ante, and get the Feds involved.
Let you know.
Oh, by the way .. petg ... call the Atty Gen in Minnesota
and register a complaint form with them. Here's 2
phone numbers:

Lori Swanson 800-657-3787 .. she's the AG

some jerk in her office 651-282-5720 who will
make excuses, but is required to follow up, so don't
be bullied by him.

johns
 
P

petgray

Hey guys - guess what? I just got my $40 from TigerDirect/OnRebate.
Honestly. I got an email from a guy called Lonny Paul who said he had
just credited my credit card with the $40 - and that was without me
having to sign or mail anything! (Although I suppose I shouldn't
count my money until I see it). And it's less than 24 hours after my
last post to this NG.

The way I did it - well, good old fashioned consumer direct action
fuelled by boiling over frustration. Armed with the knowledge that
TigerDirect, OnRebate and Systemax are really all the same people, I
collected as many names and e-mail addresses as I could and e-mailed
them all, including the directors and principal officers of Systemax,
which is the parent company based in NY - TigerDirect and OnRebate are
subsidiaries. And complained loudly. The Systemax directors' e-mail
addresses aren't posted anywhere on their websites or on the Net, but
I guessed them (e.g. Richard Leeds = (e-mail address removed)) and sent
test e-mails to see if they bounced.

And it worked! So if anyone else wants to try it, here's my list:
directors first, then assorted anybodies.

Richard Leeds (e-mail address removed), (e-mail address removed)
Robert Leeds (e-mail address removed)
Bruce Leeds (e-mail address removed)
Steven Goldschein (e-mail address removed) (office),
(e-mail address removed) (private)
Michael Speiller (e-mail address removed)
Larry Reinhold (e-mail address removed)

"Alex" <[email protected]>,
"Lonny Paul" <[email protected]>,
"Peter Amato" <[email protected]>,
"Administrative" <[email protected]>,
"Technical" <[email protected]>,
"Support" <[email protected]>,
"April Jackson" <[email protected]>,
"Customer Service" <[email protected]>

Good luck, Peter.
 
P

petgray

BTW, if anyone is reading this via Google Groups, which mungs the e-
mail addresses, here is the list again with all the @ symbols replaced
by "at":

Lonny.Paul at tigerdirect.com>
"Robert Leeds" <rleeds at systemax.com>,
"Robert Leeds" <robertleeds at systemax.com>,
"Richard Leeds" <richardleeds at systemax.com>,
"Bruce Leeds" <bleeds at systemax.com>,
"Steven Goldschein \(business\)" <sgoldschein at systemax.com>,
"Michael Speiller" <mspeiller at systemax.com>,
"Alex" <alex at help.tigerdirect.com>,
"Lonny Paul" <lonny.paul at tigerdirect.com>,
"Peter Amato" <peter.amato at tigerdirect.com>,
"Administrative" <administrative at onrebate.com>,
"Technical" <technical at onrebate.com>,
"Support" <support at help.onrebate.com>,
"April Jackson" <april.jackson at onrebate.com>,
"Steven Goldschein \(private\)" <schein2075 at optonline.com>,
"Customer Service" <CustomerService at help.onrebate.com>,
"Larry Reinhold" <lreinhold at systemax.com>
 
J

johns

That appears to be working. I called TigerDirect
customer service, and the guy just agreed to credit
my VISA with the rebate. Good work, Petg !

johns
 
P

Phisherman

Hey guys - guess what? I just got my $40 from TigerDirect/OnRebate.

Glad to hear you got your rebate. You had to work for it, but this
may help others get their rebate. I had to run around a few times to
get my rejected Samsung rebate submission (they falsely claimed I
bought the product outside the allowable date range), but finally mine
came through after a small threat and persistence. Gosh, I hate
rebates!
 
J

johns

Even more frustrating .. this morning the "kid" from
the Atty Gens office in Minn called me and tried
to tell me that my mail address is not valid. Hmmm,
and I'm sitting here typing on the cpu that TD sent
to that mail address. What a jerk. Then he did the
"We only represent OUR citizens in Minn ... not
you." This guy sounds just like the scammers at
the rebate center. Gee, I wonder why ? Looks like
Lori Swanson needs to supervise her employees
a little better in my opinion. Or Minnesota could
vote in a better Attorney General who would
protect American Citizens. We outsiders have
no rights in Minn according to the "Kid".

johns
 

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