Maximum PC

Dear Fellow MaximumPC readers,

I wanted to bring something to your attention so hopefully the same thing doesn't happen to you.

Now I've had ups and downs with TigerDirect before but usually they are pretty good. What just happened to me this week though, was the final straw on my poor camel's back. I'll try to be brief:

I placed an order with TD for StarCraft2 on August 3rd because I was on vacation until the 5th and I wanted the game to arrive approximately when I returned (monday was fine). The site listed the product as In Stock. On Friday I was notified that the item was back-ordered, fine, understandable the game just came out. On Monday I checked to see the status of my order: Still back-ordered BUT TD had SC2 listed on their site as Order Today, Ships Today, so I called to see what was up. The Rep. said that the order had just come in today and that my order would definitely be shipping out that day (Monday the 9th). Fine.

Tuesday I receive another email from TD expecting it to be the shipping confirmation. It is another back-ordered message. So I called again to find out what was wrong, since I had been promised the order would ship Monday. This Rep said that the shipment had just come in today (Tuesday) and that the order would be going out tomorrow (Today, Wednesday the 11th). First, I told him that I was told yesterday that the new shipment had come in yesterday and that I was assured it would ship that day. Next, I told him that your website still says "Order Today, Ships Today" and then questioned if my order from last week did not qualify as a "Ships Today" order. Apparently not.

I was told my options were to wait or cancel the order. Since the package wasn't going to be shipped until Wednesday I said I'd cancel. (Newegg gets things to me next day even with free shipping so I figured I'd take my business elsewhere like I should have done from the start)

After being placed on hold for what should have been seconds so the supervisor could verify the cancellation, I was informed a number of minutes later that I couldn't cancel the order because it was already packaged to ship and that my only option was to wait until I received the game and then return it when the shipping label arrived. Since the shipping is ground I probably won't get it until Monday anyway so waiting another week is pointless especially since my credit card won't be refunded at least til the end of the month with the return time and statement posting times.

Then to add insult to injury, I sent an email to TD explaining the situation and that I was offended by the fact that I was forced into the order after being lied to twice about when my item would ship and explicitly asked for a genuine response not one of the vague pre-generated apologies everyone always sends which means nothing.

Of course that's exactly what I got:

Dear Valued Customer:

Thank you for your email.

We appreciate doing business with you. we would like to apologize for the delay. The item that you purchased was shipped 08/10. Please let us know if you need more assistance.

Moral of the story: when a sales rep says the shipment just came in, they are probably just trying to keep you from canceling just long enough until you can't.

they could have had 500 orders on back order, and only 200 came in the shipment. leaves 300 on the back order list, and so on.

shows why many people go to brick and morter for something they want now. its a good idea to support your local business people, might keep their doors open.

True and agreed but I don't really have a good brick and mortar store by me unfortunately short of Bestbuy. The thing that bothers me though is then check on my order and say yes we just got a shipment in but there are a lot of back-orders so yours might not ship right away, don't assure me my item is going out on a day it's not; also, take down the banner saying Order Today Ships Today. Clearly they didn't mean it.

Yep, you were lied to and I'd have been peeved in that situation as well.

For future reference, when they say 'the order has been packed and is ready to ship', you say 'either you cancel my order now or I reverse the charges on my credit card .. your call.'

I guarantee that they'd have 'unpacked' your order immediately. They would sell that game the same day, so the only loss is getting off their ass and doing it.

Newegg or NCIX are the only two online retailers I trust ... years of doing business with both and I've been 100% satisfied every time.

I went through Amazon.com, because they had free release-day shipping for preorders. I was able to receive my copy on the release date of Starcraft 2, around 3 in the afternoon.

Sorry that you had a bad experience, though my only transaction through them for a video card was a happy one. Was TigerDirect your only option to place your order at? Just thinking that places like Newegg and Amazon had similar preorder prices at the time.

Hope you do get your copy soon, though. Sucks that they had put you through the unfortunate hoops.

I have never bought anything from Tigredirect. I've always found better pricing on NewEgg.

Heck, in all honesty, you likely could've gone to any Target, Best buy, Walmart, Kmart, etc. and bought it on launch day, or the day after, or the next day, etc., You can look them up online and see what stores have copies. Methinks the only reason one should order software online is to avoid taxes, as long as the software's offered in retail stores in the local area. There are tons of places that you could have just walked into and purchased a copy, or if you wanted to, you could have purchased a download version from Blizzard directly through your battle.net account.