Matt bought a camera from TigerDirect. He monitored the status of the order online, and saw that it was marked “shipped” a few days after he placed the order, so he returned the other, more expensive, camera he’d bought at Best Buy. Unfortunately, the TigerDirect camera never arrived. Matt logged in again to see what the problem was and saw that it was now marked both “shipped” and “canceled.” That’s when the problems with TigerDirect’s customer service started.

So the first thing I did was call in to Tiger Direct and ask what was up with my order – since I had not received it and it showed both SHIPPED and CANCELLED.

I was told that they ran out of stock and the best thing they could do was give me free shipping on a comparable model (40-50$ more expensive). I explained my entire scenario and asked why it stated shipped and then later cancelled and he admitted it made no sense. I also asked him why I was never notified if my order was cancelled and after stuttering he said, “It shows up here that you were notified – by mail.” I explained that I checked my email regularly and never received anything and he said it was by REGULAR MAIL. Are you kidding me? They send out order cancellations by REGULAR MAIL when someone orders online? I’m calling lies on that one. By the way, I never received an order cancellation in the mail either to this day. He said I’d have to speak to a manager to escalate the issue – told me to call back at 9:30am.

I called back at 9:30am and waited on hold for 3 minutes and no PERSON even picked up (never mind a manager) so I resorted to email to follow up.

I asked for a comparable model at the same price in email and explained the inconvenience that was caused because I spent time returning a different model at Best Buy once the order was shown as shipped.

The response I received 6 days later:

“We apologize for any inconvenience. The reason this order was canceled was because we longer had this item in stock. Unfortunately we can not go below our cost for the replacement camera that you want.

TigerDirect.com and TigerDirect.ca are part of the same parent corporation but they operate individually and as separate companies. TigerDirect.com is U.S. based with U.S. offices, employees and warehouse facilities. TigerDirect.ca is a Canadian company with Canadian offices, Canadian employees and a warehouse which accepts returns from customers in Canada. As separate companies each has its own unique and specific costs of doing business. In many cases similar or even identical products are procured from different distributors, suppliers or vendors under different terms and costs. Delivery costs, duties, taxes, returns costs and provisions for warranty coverage all play a part in determining sales price as do operational costs ranging from employees salaries to facilities leases and overhead. Each of these costs varies by market and these variances may result in different sales prices for similar or even identical products. Sales prices may differ but Tigerdirect.com and TigerDirect.ca both exist to bring value to all our customers in each of the markets in which we operate.”

Nowhere did they acknowledge the fact that they messed up with the shipped/cancelled and explain why that happened. Nor did the tell me why I was never notified that my order had been cancelled – had they done this, I would have kept the camera from best buy.

We’re surprised to read that TigerDirect sends cancellation notices by snail mail. Oh, wait, not “surprised”—we mean “in disbelief.” Has anyone else ever received a letter in the mail notifying you of an out-of-stock item? Or was a TigerDirect CSR improvising in panic?

Matt wrote back and explained again how he felt they should honor the original price, since they told him it was in stock when he placed the order, then told him it had shipped, and without those two pieces of information he would have never returned the other camera (which was no longer on sale) to Best Buy.

The is the brief reply I received from them where they quote me:

“I spent my time and money returning another camera to bestbuy which is no longer available on sale.”

thisd was a choice issued by you as we have no involvement in the transaction between you and Best Buy

Maybe TigerDirect’s slogan should be, “It’s not our problem you never received our imaginary snail mail letters and thought that ‘shipped’ meant your item had been packaged and sent to you.” Nah, that’s too long for the website. Maybe “TigerDirect: Customer satisfaction? [shrug]”

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