Originally posted by: dhoytw
A rating of around 7 doesn't look so bad until you look at Neweggs rating of 9.5. I would have to say I have never had a problem with Tiger, but if you need to deal with there Customer support or return an item....GOOD LUCK.
I've dealt with 40-50 vendors since 1997 and I foolishy USED to let a "good deal" be my guide in choosing a vendor (that was when I HAD discovered the then-much-less-primitive PRICEWATCH.com but BEFORE I had discovered resellerratings.com).
All I can tell you is that I was fortuneate and had only a few bad experiences; a couple were REALLY bad.
Although I have not directly dealt with TigerDirect (no pun intended) I have heard enough "Horror Stories" about them that I do not buy from them.
Resellerratings can be helpful but I have noticed two things about that site over the years:
1) Not enough people are motivated to "post" their experiences so it takes a long time for a vendor to gather a high enough number of ratings to be statistically significant
AND
2) the people who DO have an inclination to post there are often people who have had a BAD experience; I know this is not always the case - Newegg has a tremendous volume of positive responses - but on the whole I have noticed the aforementioned "trend".
TigerDirect is a LARGE computer company !!!
If I were you I would either AVOID TigerDirect or buy from them cautiously and "protect" yourself in any way you can.
It seems that things can go "afoul" when a company's "head" gets too big. Case in point - I USED to buy a LOT of item from a internet company called Techstxxx between 1997-2001. They were FANTASTIC. They had good prices (a little higher than average), huge inventories , a FANTASTIC "Real Time Inventory" feature that REALLY worked, about 7 warehouses pretty evenly scattered around the country, FAST newegg-like shipping and GREAT after-the-sale customer service. I received one order in 18 hours from time of order placement. I am NOT exaggerating, they had a wharehouse adjacent to the state in which I live ! BTW, their rating at resellerratings was one of the highest during this time period.
Anyway, they got too large for their own good and sold out to an even LARGER company. THEN things started to happen for the worse. It got to the point that even one of their phone REPRESENTATIVES suggested I would be taking a chance if I continued to place orders with them as he told me "things have gotten really shaky over since the buyout". Around that same point in time I had discovered NewEgg and started having FANTASTIC experiences like the ones I had become accustomed to dealing with Techsxxxx. I quickly "forgot" about Techsxxxx. A couple of years later I went online to check prices at Techsxxxx and I got an "no website found" message. I thought they might be having server problems but decided to go to resellerratings to view their current rating. I was shocked to see that their great rating had vaporized and there had been NO postings left for the site in over 6 months.
There is a good ending to this LONG story. I have recently checked them out at resellerratings and visited their site and it appears they are "back on track" and beginning to regain their once-solid reputation. Their website is much more primitve now (no great real-time inventory checker for example) but it takes time to re-build.
I only mention this story because years ago (when they were not quite so large) I used to hear more positive things about TigerDirect and that has changed over the years; maybe for the same reasons that Techsxxxx had its problems.
For OUR sakes, lets hope this does NOT happen to NEWEGG; one of the VERY FINEST computer (and other) parts vendors in our Solar System !!!!
Good luck to you !
I talk too much; now you know why my posting number is low for a person who has been with Anandtech for so long, lol.
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I had "gone astray" from computerdome and Anandtech for a long time - that's why my "posts number is low" but I am GLAD to be "back" to one of the finest, if not THE FINEST, computer informational web sites - ANANDTECH.COM !!!!
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