TigerDirect Has New Owner, Won’t Accept Returns

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For those of you that haven't heard, TigerDirect has a new owner. According to the company website, as of December 24th, there are no returns or exchanges - all sales are final. :eek:

You may remember TigerDirect, a consumer electronics seller that has a website and once had stores across the country. They’re probably best known for acquiring the brands and assets of CompUSA and Circuit City when both chains filed for bankruptcy and went out of business. Now competitor PCM has purchased the TigerDirect brand, and appears to be winding down its consumer-facing business… including abruptly doing away with returns. Any returns.
 
That kind of sucks.

Then again, I haven't bought anything from TigerDirect since the '90s when they had the best prices on some software we needed. There's a lot of competition with consumer computer parts ... tough to stay ahead.
 
Is that even legal? I thought companies in the US have to offer at least some form of returns
 
Yeah haven't bought from them in awhile due to prices and a previous customer service issue. This kind of seals the deal, their dead to me. Is the new owner the same guy going around jacking pharm companys and hiking drug prices?
 
chenw said:
Is that even legal? I thought companies in the US have to offer at least some form of returns
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It probably is legal if the original TD, as a legal entity, is out of business. The same thing happened when TD purchased CompUSA and Circuit City. It was under no obligations to honor those stores' warranties or accept returns made from those companies while they were in business.

The lack of warning about the purchase and change in returns policy is pretty bad business behavior though.
 
why would a business even do this? I mean, that doesn't even make sense....

not that I ever shopped at TD, their prices have always sucked
 
oh..So they are winding down the business on the consumer level.

I don't see the problem here then.
 
pxc said:
It probably is legal if the original TD, as a legal entity, is out of business. The same thing happened when TD purchased CompUSA and Circuit City. It was under no obligations to honor those stores' warranties or accept returns made from those companies while they were in business.

The lack of warning about the purchase and change in returns policy is pretty bad business behavior though.
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Pretty typical behavior you mean.

Bigbacon said:
why would a business even do this? I mean, that doesn't even make sense....

not that I ever shopped at TD, their prices have always sucked
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Tiger Direct is wanting to go bury themselves out back like Circuit City.
 
Last time I bought anything from them was 10+ years ago. I never really liked them or their interface.
 
Hope they are gone once and for all. The only site in existence that still has rebates. What the hell kind of bullshit is this to have rebates in 2015. Its no wonder Amazon prospers and has my business.
 
Maybe a Thumb drive or a pack of batteries in the last 5 years but nothing else. Hell I hardly ever buy from New Egg either. It's usually Amazon or Ebay when some company like Dell of MS are trying to get rid of their stock.

The days of doing it yourself PC's is closing to an end. You'll probably still be able to do it for the next 5 years or so but by then it probably wouldn't be worth it. I still have SB Desktops and laptops and really haven't seen the need to replace them. Back at the turn of the century and before I'd upgrade every chance I got by the novelty has long worn off. Use to get a big kick out of doing it, now, it just doesn't seem worth the while, not even some kind of feeling of accomplishment.

I kind of expect New Egg to fold up within 5 years.
 
pxc said:
No, this just seems to happen every couple of years. It's not usual behavior, which is why this thread was created.
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I meant in terms of no warning of massive policy changes that effect the company's consumers.

Telecoms, specifically cellphone companies are so bad about pulling massive contractual changes that bone customers on long-term contracts that the FCC finally stepped in and started enforcing "material change" law...which in short means that when your telecom overnight alters your contractin a way that impacts you, you have a right to jump ship gratis and aren't hostage for the next 23 months of your new contract you didn't agree to, that you signed in blood 32 days ago....and most importantly don't owe the ETF or the remaining balance due on your 24-month contract to get out. You can just walk away because the cellphone company felt like changing your contract without your consent.

For a while I was getting Material Change get-out-of-my-contract-free notices on my Sprint service every other month. For perspective.
 
I think this is because Tiger Direct is being shut down. They are clearing inventory.
 
I don't think I ever bought anything from them, but I remember back in the 90s when they were considered a way to save money when buying a computer, compared to Dell.
 
They have a golden opportunity to revamp the website and product search function to make TD easy to use and competitive with Newegg and Amazon, but they're going to squander away that potential instead.
 
I never had problems with them. I bought all my pc parts for my main and htpc from them 2 years ago plus a few other random pc parts. It was cheaper for me than other places because they didn't charge me sales tax.
 
Is there any other online electronic retailer that doesn't accept returns or exchanges?
 
StryderxX said:
Is there any other online electronic retailer that doesn't accept returns or exchanges?
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Look at it this way...they, Tigerdirect shell corp, aren't going to be an electronic retailer for very long.
 
They've had nothing of interest for me since they closed their storefronts. Their stores were actually really good, at least in my area. Online they're hit or miss, and mostly miss at that. Nothing that differentiates them from the competition.
 
Crappy Web interface, non-competitive prices, no free shipping, no returns, sounds to me like they're trying as hard as they can to go out of business as soon as possibe.
 
Doesn't appear to apply to TigerDirect.ca, although they are also having a "site wide blowout"
 
To be fair, returns are a HUGE burden on retailers and cost them a lot of money. Sure as consumers we've come to expect it, but have to look at it from their point of view too, they still have to pay for that item, so every time someone returns something they basically lost the item and that sale. Items that arn't working can't just be resold. Last I heard Tigerdirect was actually CLOSING completely, but guess they decided to sell instead. By not accepting returns they might be able to stay afloat for longer.

I think the future of stores like Tigerdirect and NCIX is grim though, there is sadly not enough of a big market for computer parts, I have a bad feeling it will become harder and harder to build systems as these companies will slowly go away. I really hope Tigerdirect does not actually go away as that leaves basically only one option in Canada, and there wont be competition anymore.
 
Red Dawn said:
The days of doing it yourself PC's is closing to an end. You'll probably still be able to do it for the next 5 years or so but by then it probably wouldn't be worth it.
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Depends on how you build your machine. If you're buying the value parts, than ya, you won't notice much difference between a custom built or a Dell. If you're going with higher quality parts from OEM PC Builders like ibuypower, Origin, Puget, Maingear, or whatever, they nickel and dime you. That or outright rape you.

I don't see DIY PCs going out. I don't think much has changed in that regard, except there's a lot more high end parts and accessories. 5 years ago, you'd be lucky to have an AIO watercooling setup. Now everyone seems to make one. More case choices, more keyboard choices, more mouse choices, etc. Less mobo manufacturers, but with the available ones make a wider variety of mobos.

I still have SB Desktops and laptops and really haven't seen the need to replace them. Back at the turn of the century and before I'd upgrade every chance I got by the novelty has long worn off. Use to get a big kick out of doing it, now, it just doesn't seem worth the while, not even some kind of feeling of accomplishment.
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Now I do feel there's less need to upgrade as often. Before, you'd probably upgrade once a year and you've get a big performance increase. I think if I upgrade now, I would be moving up like 3 processor generations and it'd get a 20% performance increase. Before, you'd get that much performance increase just moving to the next generation or moving to the next higher rated processor. Performance gaps between generations is much smaller.

Nowadays, I definitely don't upgrade as often. I upgraded my video card like a year ago. Sitting on the GTX 670. I was contemplating on the 970, but not enough boost. Decided to keep games at 1080p and see how the next cards are. Mobo, memory, and cpu are 2 years old and feel no need to upgrade them.
 
I've bought stuff from them this year, though mainly because they were free or really cheap after rebate deals. Never had any problems with their any of their rebates.

Really sounds like the business is going under sadly. Less competition = higher prices :-(
 
SSimmons05 said:
Yeah haven't bought from them in awhile due to prices and a previous customer service issue. This kind of seals the deal, their dead to me. Is the new owner the same guy going around jacking pharm companys and hiking drug prices?
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hes in jail or heading to jail SEC caught up with him lol
 
Igroock said:
Hope they are gone once and for all. The only site in existence that still has rebates. What the hell kind of bullshit is this to have rebates in 2015. Its no wonder Amazon prospers and has my business.
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Tons still have rebates...
 
SSimmons05 said:
Yeah haven't bought from them in awhile due to prices and a previous customer service issue. This kind of seals the deal, their dead to me. Is the new owner the same guy going around jacking pharm companys and hiking drug prices?
Click to expand...

When TigerDirect decided to open out former CompUSA locations as storefronts, I checked out the one near MicroCenter. Everything was at least 25% more expensive than MicroCenter except with much worse selection. On top of that, of half the store... half of that was empty and the other half was open box, used device and incomplete box returns with prices as high as 95% of retail. They wanted over $380 for a used Zune HD, bare unit and no cables, earbuds and packaging, when the going rate for those was under $300.
 
Not too surprising I guess. Their brand selection has never been great and they stock strange items with low volume sales and higher profit margins instead.
 
every time i checked price amazon and/or newegg was cheaper anyway.

and newegg was absolute top notch perfect when my two monitors never showed up at my house ( or somebody took them)
 
SSimmons05 said:
Is the new owner the same guy going around jacking pharm companys and hiking drug prices?
Click to expand...

CEO of PCM is Frank Khulusi and I'd have to say the guy should probably retire while he's ahead. I wouldn't buy any stock either as that place may just go the same way as this new acquisition if they keep up with what they're doing. Probably one of the biggest problems going on at PCM last I heard is Frank still has to approve the salaries of ALL new hires and ALL raises. That's right; 2600+ employees and he has to approve of every single raise. I think last year the subsidiary I'm familiar with got 1% at best.

I also heard about the shindig he throws every year for his sales reps in Vegas. All expenses paid with food and alcohol flowing freely. He gets on a stage, tells all of the reps how well they did this year and then announces the top sales reps. The #1 dude gets a new Porsche. I hear the last five years or so the same guy has won three of them. So the same asshole making serious bank gets another six figure sports car while you get another pathetic raise that doesn't account for inflation or market rate, which you were told was coming right after reviews in July but just showed up mid-December and they are only going to back-date one paycheck. It took this fucking long because the CEO just has to individually sign-off the raise for 2600+ people while he takes a shit on his gold-plated toilet in his office (no joke).
 
Every once in a blue moon I'll be reminded of them and check out the site only to be massively disappointed.
 
StryderxX said:
Is there any other online electronic retailer that doesn't accept returns or exchanges?
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Newegg doesn't do refunds on certain items like monitors or video cards. I buy those things from Amazon, even if they're more money. Not worth the risk.
 
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