Tigerdirect Onrebate ripoff-REBATE SCAM Herndon Virginia

I ranted in here about problems with the 3rd $20 Soyo Computer rebate on TigerDirect Canada to be provided by OnRebate.com.

Want everyone to know that we received a confirmation e-mail today from OnRebate.com that confirms our 3rd $20 rebate had been accepted by them. OnRebate have acknowledged that they will pay a Canadian resident the Rebate! Hooray ! The e-mail does not indicate whether it will be paid in US dollars or less valuable Canadian dollars however we are satisfied are willing to wait and see what happens.

Looks like things are fine. Thank you Tiger.

I appreciate the overwhelming support of the community now that all is working well. We thank each of you for your patience during that "launch period" and hope that no more problems are experienced.

If anyone ever has issues, just contact me. You may ask for me personally when calling TigerDirect.

Lonny Paul
Director of eCommerce
TigerDirect.com

I sent an email to tigerdirect.com customer service and asked them what to do since I could not log on to onrebate.com. They replied with a message to try the following IP address: http://199.181.77.77 I did and it worked. I went through the entire rebate procedure without a problem.

The Soyo box does have two UPC codes on it- which would make it possible to send in an original UPC to two different rebate offers.

I also noticed some contradictory wording in the onrebate.com rebate regarding the Canadian guidelines. I don't think the TigerDirect legal dept. read this before it was published.
* "Offer only valid in USA and Canada on purchases made through TigerDirect..."
and then two sentences later it states:
*"Rebate not available for Canadian Residents. "

It does appear shifty when a rebate is placed on a site that is unavailable. I've tried to reach the OnRebate.com site now for two days without success. I can find the cached pages, so I know it was up at some point. And I can find all the "whois" info. One would expect a corporation as large as TigerDirect to be able to resolve any server issues for OnRebate.com, especially given there eCommerece expertise. It really is a job one "man" can manage.

Want to hasten to ad that despite my frustration with "Someone" who is fiddling with the Soyo barebone rebate on TigerDirect.ca...I still buy from Tiger. In fact I ordered some more stuff from my regular salesman after finding out about the "unexplainable problems" with the 3rd Soyo rebate. I can hardly wait to get my package !

On several previous rebate deals purchased through Tiger I got my rebates from the manufacturers as promised and on time. So life is not all bad and I am a sucker for a good deal.
The other option might be someone like DELL and you won't find any deals there. The Systemax desktops and E-machine laptops at Tiger are a way better deal,are ususlly built with name brand stuff and I would buy those first. I like the fact that Tiger sells lots of name brand products and builds with name brands rather than rebadged stuff. You know what you are getting, (they photograph it well) and often at a sale price too.

While I am frustrated by organized planning to clip me out of a rebate...it also has never actually occurred. Tiger is one of my valued suppliers...I don't want to prosecute...just make 'em better...cause I like my stuff cheap!

They also had a smokin good deal on an Athlon E-machine laptop recently...did you see that one..if I had any money I would have bought it.

So quit making me mad.

Want to hasten to ad that despite my frustration with "Someone" who is fiddling with the Soyo barebone rebate on TigerDirect.ca...I still buy from Tiger. In fact I ordered some more stuff from my regular salesman after finding out about the "unexplainable problems" with the 3rd Soyo rebate. I can hardly wait to get my package !

On several previous rebate deals purchased through Tiger I got my rebates from the manufacturers as promised and on time. So life is not all bad and I am a sucker for a good deal.
The other option might be someone like DELL and you won't find any deals there. The Systemax desktops and E-machine laptops at Tiger are a way better deal,are ususlly built with name brand stuff and I would buy those first. I like the fact that Tiger sells lots of name brand products and builds with name brands rather than rebadged stuff. You know what you are getting, (they photograph it well) and often at a sale price too.

While I am frustrated by organized planning to clip me out of a rebate...it also has never actually occurred. Tiger is one of my valued suppliers...I don't want to prosecute...just make 'em better...cause I like my stuff cheap!

They also had a smokin good deal on an Athlon E-machine laptop recently...did you see that one..if I had any money I would have bought it.

So quit making me mad.

Want to hasten to ad that despite my frustration with "Someone" who is fiddling with the Soyo barebone rebate on TigerDirect.ca...I still buy from Tiger. In fact I ordered some more stuff from my regular salesman after finding out about the "unexplainable problems" with the 3rd Soyo rebate. I can hardly wait to get my package !

On several previous rebate deals purchased through Tiger I got my rebates from the manufacturers as promised and on time. So life is not all bad and I am a sucker for a good deal.
The other option might be someone like DELL and you won't find any deals there. The Systemax desktops and E-machine laptops at Tiger are a way better deal,are ususlly built with name brand stuff and I would buy those first. I like the fact that Tiger sells lots of name brand products and builds with name brands rather than rebadged stuff. You know what you are getting, (they photograph it well) and often at a sale price too.

While I am frustrated by organized planning to clip me out of a rebate...it also has never actually occurred. Tiger is one of my valued suppliers...I don't want to prosecute...just make 'em better...cause I like my stuff cheap!

They also had a smokin good deal on an Athlon E-machine laptop recently...did you see that one..if I had any money I would have bought it.

So quit making me mad.

Want to hasten to ad that despite my frustration with "Someone" who is fiddling with the Soyo barebone rebate on TigerDirect.ca...I still buy from Tiger. In fact I ordered some more stuff from my regular salesman after finding out about the "unexplainable problems" with the 3rd Soyo rebate. I can hardly wait to get my package !

On several previous rebate deals purchased through Tiger I got my rebates from the manufacturers as promised and on time. So life is not all bad and I am a sucker for a good deal.
The other option might be someone like DELL and you won't find any deals there. The Systemax desktops and E-machine laptops at Tiger are a way better deal,are ususlly built with name brand stuff and I would buy those first. I like the fact that Tiger sells lots of name brand products and builds with name brands rather than rebadged stuff. You know what you are getting, (they photograph it well) and often at a sale price too.

While I am frustrated by organized planning to clip me out of a rebate...it also has never actually occurred. Tiger is one of my valued suppliers...I don't want to prosecute...just make 'em better...cause I like my stuff cheap!

They also had a smokin good deal on an Athlon E-machine laptop recently...did you see that one..if I had any money I would have bought it.

So quit making me mad.

First, I wish to state that at this time I have never been ripped off by TigerDirect on a rebate. In addition I appreciate a lot of very good deals that Tiger offers that you will find few other places. For certain rebating is a time consuming tough game requiring huge attention to detail and an advanced understanding of the tricks employed in internet commerce...

However, I absolutely endorse and corroborate Gene's (from Illinois) comments above 100%. My findings and comment is the same as Gene's except Gene did not go far enough. I have clear evidence that "a very bad problem" existed at the time a friend and myself who are Canadian innocently purchased two Soyo Barebone deals expecting to be able to apply normally for 3 rebates. When we eventually printed off the Onrebate.com application form for the 3rd rebate it stated in fine print that it was not available to Candians despite being advertised as a $20 US rebate on the TigerDirect.ca (Canadian) website at time of purchase (and for a very lengthy period of time). But there were other problem too which I will relate later.

Here's the Soyo Computer deal we bought for $66.99 Cdn after rebates (if Tiger does not remove it from their website).
[L=myurl]http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=713514&Tab=5[/L]

Problem two. Immediately after we purchased the computers by telephone order we started downloading the required rebate forms and noticed that a second page indicated further conditions stating that "this coupon" must be attached to your rebate and that the rebate was (only) payable as $20 Canadian!!!... not $20 US as we had been led to believe at time of purchase. Now follow here that $20 USD is worth $27 Canadian. Our rebate had potentially been reduced by $7 Canadian!! Now this "Coupon" was not a coupon at all...just an easiy missed webpage with some "additional" conditions on it and if you did not include it you might not get paid at all! Normally you only provide a copy of a UPC code and a copy of a receipt for a rebate. Why the sudden requirement for a "Coupon". They had a reason. "Someone" changed the terms on this coupon at least once during the promotion if not more times...also additional and different documents were required at different times during the run of the promotion in addition to the UPC code, original receipt and "coupon" just mentioned.

When one looks at all of this it is apparent that this is a deliberate skillful manipulation of the 3rd rebate by "someone" with a least the potential intention of not paying the third rebate or paying less than the indicated amount at time of purchase with the hope that purchasers will forget or won't have time to fight. This is not a good way to do business. Lonny in Tiger Communications is absolutely not right. Nothing can justify these sorts of practices. In fact they may be very serious.

The final problem is why Onrebate.com is involved at all in the third rebate which also by co-incidence has so very many unexplainable problems. The first 2 rebates while a somewhat difficult to follow because of their fine print and potentially incompatible requests are being handled by Soyo directly. We can live with those. Despite Lonny's (Tiger Communications) protests printed in this forum above it became very apparent to us as purchasers that there was absolutely no reason to involve Onrebate.com in the third rebate at all except to further confuse the rebate and provide the excuse of a "third party" to blame if "someone" catches some heat for a manipulation.

Now everything I have said is here is "maybe" because I am waiting for my rebates which are not due for 2 months. We will see if they are paid without incident despite "the problems". I have all the screen shots to back up my commentary because I am very careful. I have contacted Tiger about this and a sales rep. has advised that if there is a problem with the rebate Tiger will make it happen or make it good. I am prepared to go with that and filed my rebate even though the application form stated "rebate not available for Canadian residents".

Tiger does a lot of things really well. Its too bad about things like this. It is also obvious that small time larceny done on a large scale can be very profitable. What about all the other people who never complain? Do they get stung?

First, I wish to state that at this time I have never been ripped off by TigerDirect on a rebate. In addition I appreciate a lot of very good deals that Tiger offers that you will find few other places. For certain rebating is a time consuming tough game requiring huge attention to detail and an advanced understanding of the tricks employed in internet commerce...

However, I absolutely endorse and corroborate Gene's (from Illinois) comments above 100%. My findings and comment is the same as Gene's except Gene did not go far enough. I have clear evidence that "a very bad problem" existed at the time a friend and myself who are Canadian innocently purchased two Soyo Barebone deals expecting to be able to apply normally for 3 rebates. When we eventually printed off the Onrebate.com application form for the 3rd rebate it stated in fine print that it was not available to Candians despite being advertised as a $20 US rebate on the TigerDirect.ca (Canadian) website at time of purchase (and for a very lengthy period of time). But there were other problem too which I will relate later.

Here's the Soyo Computer deal we bought for $66.99 Cdn after rebates (if Tiger does not remove it from their website).
[L=myurl]http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=713514&Tab=5[/L]

Problem two. Immediately after we purchased the computers by telephone order we started downloading the required rebate forms and noticed that a second page indicated further conditions stating that "this coupon" must be attached to your rebate and that the rebate was (only) payable as $20 Canadian!!!... not $20 US as we had been led to believe at time of purchase. Now follow here that $20 USD is worth $27 Canadian. Our rebate had potentially been reduced by $7 Canadian!! Now this "Coupon" was not a coupon at all...just an easiy missed webpage with some "additional" conditions on it and if you did not include it you might not get paid at all! Normally you only provide a copy of a UPC code and a copy of a receipt for a rebate. Why the sudden requirement for a "Coupon". They had a reason. "Someone" changed the terms on this coupon at least once during the promotion if not more times...also additional and different documents were required at different times during the run of the promotion in addition to the UPC code, original receipt and "coupon" just mentioned.

When one looks at all of this it is apparent that this is a deliberate skillful manipulation of the 3rd rebate by "someone" with a least the potential intention of not paying the third rebate or paying less than indicated amount at time of purchase with the hope that purchasers will forget or won't have time to fight. This is not a good way to do business. Lonny in Tiger Communications is absolutely not right. Nothing can justify these sorts of practices. In fact they may be very serious.

The final problem is why Onrebate.com is involved at all in the third rebate which also by co-incidence has so very many unexplainable problems. The first 2 rebates while a somewhat difficult to follow because of their fine print and potentially incompatible requests are being handled by Soyo directly. We can live with those. Despite Lonny's (Tiger Communications) protests printed in this forum above it became very apparent to us as purchasers that there was absolutely no reason to involve Onrebate.com in the third rebate at all except to further confuse the rebate and provide the excuse of a "third party" to blame if "someone" catches some heat for a manipulation.

Now everything I have said is here is "maybe" because I am waiting for my rebates which are not due for 2 months. We will see if they are paid without incident despite "the problems". I have all the screen shots to back up my commentary because I am very careful. I have contacted Tiger about this and a sales rep. has advised that if there is a problem with the rebate Tiger will make it happen or make it good. I am prepared to go with that and filed my rebate even though the application form stated "rebate not available for Canadian residents". Tiger does a lot of things really well. Its too bad about things like this. It is also obvious that small time larceny done on a large scale can be very profitable. What about all the other people who never complain?

If you print out the rebate forms, 2 of them accept a copy of the UPC. It is not true you have to submit all 3 original UPC's. The rebate forms explain that. Also, 2 UPC's come on the box. I had a problem going to onrebate.com, but I called them and they sent me a link and I had no problem going there.

You are correct, the two Soyo rebates did request the original UPC, which was a typo by Soyo. The OnRebate form and terms have said "copy or original" since it was implemented.

As to your theory of how products should be discounted and not rebated - rebates are a widely-used "sales tool" in retail. This is the manufacturer's decision.

You see, a reseller, such as TigerDirect, pays x for a product. When a manufacturer puts a rebate on a product, the cost to the reseller, stays the same. There is no "option" for a discount. Most rebates are good for a product from any retailer and some are exclusive. But, 97% of them are from the manufacturer directly.

Besides the website having functionality issues,
There are still unusual problems that lead to a NO rebate scenario.The Item in question has 3 rebates,ALL of which want the ONLY original upc
code on the box.

Form 1-Onrebate requires the original bar code to get rebate of $20.

Soyo requires the original bar code to get rebate of $20.

Form 3-Soyo requires the original bar code to get rebate of $50.

The BOX the item comes in has 1 bar code,Once removed, WHO has rights to it?
Item listed here:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=713514&sku=S450-3200

Seems to me,Trying to collect all three rebates is a circle jerk, The advertisment should read LOOSE $90.00 Not Save $140.00. Clearly this was designed to not be paid.

Rebutal to Mr Tigerdirect Above: You know as well as anyone,NOT paying out the rebate money is the PRIMARY goal here,Bait them In, Pray they dont submit for rebates,Look for reasons to reject them,Add more hoops than a 3 ring circus to jump through, Then blame the post office.

Heres a simple solution:
Try putting items ON-SALE,
((REDACTED)) as an example,They Have ACTUAL sales, No Bogus rebate scams, REAL DISCOUNTS,
And a consumer rateing that makes tigerdirect look like a 3rd world nigerian scammer!

sorry, allowing you to give a competitors name would instigate others to just file against their competition, to only come back later to suggest their company your comments on this policy are welcome! CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.

Hi,

I am just replying to the report written by the guy who said he was ripped off for $20 from TigerDirect.com with the rebate from OnRebate.com. The second item that I purchased from TigerDirect.com came with an OnRebate rebate of $20. The instructions said you had to have an email address and a printer in order to avail of the rebate(as the writer mentioned). When I searched for Onrebate.com the site didn't seem to exist but I tried it the other day and it did exist and I have now registered online for my $20 rebate. So the reason I am writing is to let the gentleman know that he can probably get his rebate now if he tries to go to OnRebate.com. It looks like you could still be valid judging by the date on your complaint.

Good Luck!

George,



I appreciate your thorough rant regarding your experience with submitting a rebate, not getting an email confirmation then taking the time to notice that the domain is owned by TigerDirect, Inc.



Well, there you are correct, the domain is owned by TigerDirect, Inc.



TigerDirect purchased this URL several months ago when we saw it was available and it was a 'GOOD' domain. Rebates are often difficult for customers to find the form, find out what is going on with it, try to locate ALL the details in one place. We wanted to find a company who could provide a new, innovative approach to rebates. We shared our ideas with several people, searching the globe for the right service. Several months later onRebate.com was born.



Currently providing service to TigerDirect, Dartek, Global Computer Supply and several manufacturer partners, onRebate provides the customer with the ability to be in control of the process.



You no longer wait to a) find the form then send it in with no idea of where it is or what is going on or b) never get a response at all. We feel that their option to pay via PayPal is also very unique, allowing you to not have to wait for a check to come in the mail. TigerDirect was the first large-scale merchant to accept PayPal on their site. It was only natural when offered that service to accept!



We like the overall functionality of onRebate.com and anticipate utilizing their services for some time.



As to the technical issues you brought up. There have been reports of several ISPs who are not resolving properly to the site. This can be rectified by emailing them at status@onrebate.com and telling them you cannot connect. They will provide you with an alternative URL.



If you did not receive your confirmation email, it may be the same issues, with a select few ISPs filtering the onRebate.com emails. The problem has been identified and the solution has been put place. The overall effect will take about 24 - 48 hours.



Customers should first request the confirmation number be resent. If you then do not receive it - send them an email. onRebate is receiving all customer service emails and responding to them. If you do not get your email, you can email them and they will provide you with the confirmation code. You must be requesting this information from the email address submitted to them.



The phone number on a few pages was incorrect (switched with fax number) and has been updated.



As to the references to the privay policy, these are standard terms and conditions. "Web Beacons" are images which site activity tracking identifies what page you are on and what individual element is being tracked. It could be to see how many times a banner is clicked on. It could be to see how often a banner is displayed. They identify data collection points. They do not tie data to an individual customer and are used in aggregate. However, onRebate has not implemented any such "beacons" or activity tracking at this time.



The cookies issue is standard for any site. That's how your computer can "remember" you when logging into sites. Store your password.



This is not a great scam my friend.

You are not ripped off $20. The first email you sent to onRebate.com was sent by you on June 30, 2004 and 8:50AM. Less than 36 hours ago - from my posting.



I have told them to ensure your email is dealt with promptly.



TigerDirect does business with tens of thousands of customers a week. We can't be all so bad. Recently, TigerDirect was named the #22 eCommerce site; the #3 Computer Hardware site; the #1 Computer Component Hardware site.



We love to take care of our customers.

You are not excemption from that rule. You may contact TigerDirect at [DELETED] and ask to be transferred to me personally.



I look forward to speaking with you. If anyone else has any direct questions, I welcome you to do the same.



Lonny Paul

Director of eCommerce

TigerDirect.com