My name is Jeremy Kuehnau, at 10AM I got an e-mail from Tiger Direct about their black friday sales, relabeled as "pink friday" sales.
When I went to the website they had a listing for a "Intel 2nd Gen Core i3 2100 CPU kit" for $49.99, which included a 24X DVD writer, 120GB SSD Drive, 450 Watt ATX Mid PSU, 4GB DDR3 Ram and an Intel 6 series mobo.
When I attempted to place an order for that product, I was transfered to a completely different product. I called Tiger Direct about this problem to see if I could still get the advertised item.
The first employee I talked with told me they didn't see it on the website and if I could e-mail them a picture of the ad, I did. When he got it, he said he'd transfer me to another department to see about having the advertisement honored. While he was transfering me, I was "disconnected" and I had to call again. The e-mail for this employee was Nathan.Barthelmy@syx.com, his number is (800) 955-1888
So I called again, the next employee I talked to told me it wasn't a misprint, but they were all sold out and that they were currently processing orders and that's why it was re-directing to a different product. I told him that all of the other sold out products were simply being listed as sold out and asked him why this one wasn't.
He informed me that it "takes awhile" to update the website and I again asked him why everything else was being listed as sold out when this single product was not. Instead he decided to re-direct me to yet another person.
This next person completely refused to acknowledge the ad ever existed, then she told me she was seeing a completely different advertisement on their web page, she then asked me if I could e-mail her a picture of the advertisement I was seeing. When I told her I could she put me on hold.
When I finally spoke with her again she said it was a misprint and that it wasn't being honored. I then asked her why the advertisement wasn't fixed and she told me they were "working on it". I told her it had been several hours since I seen the advertisement and asked her why they haven't removed it yet. She simply told me "they were working on it". I am a hobbyist website designer myself and I know it dosen't take hours to simply change a single advertisement or link and I told her that.
She then told me that as per Tiger Direct's TOS on the advertisement they wouldn't be held responsible for any misprints in their advertisements. I informed her that I was well aware of their TOS for holiday sales, but also reminded her there are consumer laws in place to protect customers from unfair buisness practices.
It is almost 5:00PM and the advertisement is still up on the web site. Not attempt has been made to try and remove the advertisement. I know retailers are required to change or fix an advertisement as soon as possible, considering it is a internet based advertisement, I feel nearly 8 hours is more then enough time for Tiger Direct to change their online advertisement. Not only that, but simply redirecting to a completely different product feels like a bait and switch.
Further, the spastic and random behavior and knowledge of the employees about the advertisement and the product in question makes me feel geniunelly misled. It would have been one thing for a employee to simply say it was a misprint, it's a completely different thing for employees to lie and change their stories as I speak with them. When I asked for a number or address to contact Tiger Direct's corporate office the employee I spoke with refused to give me any information.
I feel the entire situation was handled completely unprofessionally. I managed to find a address for their cooperate headquaters and will be writing them a lengthy letter.
