Ambassador of Kwan

It seems like its been at-least 10 years since I’ve ordered anything from Tiger Direct. I had such a tremendously painful experience with them before that I cringe every time I hear about them. So, just the other day I had to place an order for a pretty odd part for one of my business computers. Because my experiences with Newegg.com have been for the most part spectacular, I never even visit other sites — not even pricewatch.com or various other price engines. Why?

• I’ve price shopped in the past, Newegg is usually damn competitive. They’re never the lowest, but they’re pretty darn close most of the time. I’m not going to spend half an hour of my time finding the part for $5 cheaper from some store out in Oklahoma. (Done that before, never again.)
• PC parts often fail or arrive DOA, or get damaged during shipping — it happens, ALOT. So, how a company handles returns is so crucial to me. Newegg’s been fantastic for me when it comes to handling returns.
• The two reasons above have led me to trust them for both my personal purchases as well as my business purposes. It has also led me to recommend them to friends, family, and other businesses. (Where’s my referral fee damnit? :))

So, reluctantly, I visit the site and check it’s availability, it’s “In Stock”. Next, I order the part pay a little extra for 2-day shipping. A couple days pass.. no shipment. Hmmm. Check online, it took 2 full days to package/ship out. What the hell… if a product is in-stock and ordered in the very early morning, you’d think you can get it out by the end of that day at-least. Hell, I put in an order for 3 DELL 30″ monitors that same day as well and used the FREE 3-7 day ground UPS shipping. They got here before the fuckin’ product I ordered from Tiger Direct.

I finally get the product. Give it to the guy who needs it — turns out it’s DOE. I have the ship it back…

So, I go to the company’s website and fill out the needed information to do an RMA. It gives me the RMA # and a 1-800 customer service number to call. I call — give the guy my RMA # — he can’t find it. Nice. He sets me up with a new RMA # and charges me for the 2-day shipping. Also, it turns out I have to pay for the ground shipping of the dead item back to Tiger Direct.