TigerDirect Review

Tiger Direct is a great place to shop for value-consious computer builders. There are 2 stores (1 1/2 hr drive and 2 hr drive) within easy driving distance, plus shopping on the website, TigerDirect.com, is easy and convienient. It is a great place to buy parts for your build and save a couple hundred dollars or more over buying a computer retail. I built a system 2 years ago that was better than anything available at retailers at the time, either because of better performance or much better pricing.

I spent about $1,000 on components, half ordered from the website, and half purchased directly from one of the retail outlets. For a comperable system (with a much less cool looking case) I would have had to spend another $400, so it was well worth it to build my own. In addition, I bought components that will allow for upgrades, something you won't get from Dell and some others, so I can upgrade from my dual core to a quad core, add memory to my 4GB in the empty memory slot (the system can go up to 8GB), add another video card, linking them together, and I can run up to 4 monitors when fully upgraded. BTW, to get a system with the specs I built from Dell would have cost $2,000+, and did not include a monitor! My system price INCLUDED my 21 inch wide-screen monitor. I did include a couple minor parts from other websites, such as the fan guards and the drawer.

The only bad thing that I can say about Tiger Direct is that their rebate department is worse than those scam extended warranty companies. Just TRY to get them to send you a rebate! It won't work 9 times out of 10!!!  They are very hard to get in touch with, and Tiger Direct does not take complaints saying that they are a seperate company (even though Tiger owns it). My system had $80 worth of rebates. I sent ALL the paperwork they asked for (some forms have to be downloaded from the Tiger website and printed) and they denied both rebates!

Their reason for denial was that they did not receive proof of purchase. On their website, they stored PDF images of what they received, and sent me a link to view it. Guess what, EVERYTHING they asked for was in a PDF image in their own website! I tried to explain this to them via return email, but never got responses...and Tiger would not take the complaint about them ignoring my emails! Finally, I just gave up and said goodbye to that $80 with the solumn vow that I WILL NEVER AGAIN BUY ANYTHING THAT HAS A REBATE FROM TIGER DIRECT!!!!!

One other note, if you DO buy something that offers a rebate and you have to exchange the item because of defect or whatever, they will likely tell you that the rebate company will have the information about the exchange, so it will not cause a problem for you to get your rebate. DON'T YOU BELIEVE IT! It is straight BULL. Just avoid rebates to save the headaches, shop NewEgg.com or some other competitor to get a lower price than the "before-rebate" price.