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Review 10/9/2007
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This is long since it takes place over one and one half years, so far.
To start off, let it be known that I do most of my electronics shopping based on rebates. I have only had one prior rebate issue, when the UPC on the box was not correct for the item in the box. This was for an ATI video card purchased from Best Buy. One phone call is all it took. They were very understanding. The check was in my hand a week later. I have never had any other rebate problems until I decided to purchase a Soyo product.
I purchased a Soyo bare bones computer from Tiger Direct. It came with three rebates. One was a $20 online rebate, one was a $20 mail in rebate and the other was a $50 mail in rebate. I processed all three of them promptly and included all of the correct information. About a month later, I received the $20 online rebate. I waited another month for the other two and still heard nothing. I emailed the rebate address and received no response. I continued to email them for about a month before they finally responded. The response they gave me, later turned out to be a cut and paste of the same thing they send everyone. Basically, it said they have not received anything from me, and to resubmit my information.
I mailed everything again, and waited. Still, nothing. I emailed them. No response. I continued to email them for a few weeks. Finally, they responded, with the exact same cut and paste response. I called them on the phone. They told me that their ‘records' show that they received the information from the first time I sent it and they mailed the checks out three months ago. They told me that they would make sure the checks were not cashed, then they would mail them again. After another month, I finally received a $20 check. I emailed them and asked what happened to the $50 check. I received no response. I continued to email them every day for almost two months with no response. Finally, when they did respond, it was their usual cut and paste. “we have n no record of receiving anything etc..
I called them on the phone again. They told me they have no record of me sending them anything and no record of them sending me a check. After arguing with them, they asked me to fax them a copy of the check. I did this and heard nothing from them. I called them again. They asked me to fax them everything and wait a month for them to process it. I did this and heard nothing. I called them again. This time the woman on the phone said, and this is a direct quote “We never offered a $50 rebate, and you can't prove it!" I told her I am holding the rebate form in my hand. She continued to be snotty and told me to fax her the rebate. Once again, I faxed everything in and waited. I emailed a few times and received no response. I faxed everything again (each time I fax, I include a letter explaining everything) and waited. I emailed again and again with no response. I faxed everything a third time and still have heard nothing.
I try to avoid the phone because the number is long distance. I have probably racked up $20 in cost so far, trying to get the $50 that is owed to me. This really pisses me off.
I decided to see if Tiger Direct would help me. After all, they are using the Soyo rebates as sales tools. They should share some of the responsibility to help the customer with rebate issues. I emailed Tiger direct three times with no response, then I noticed their “Rebate Guarantee". I wish I would have known about that a lot sooner. I called them on the phone and gave them a brief rundown of my situation and told them I have all my information except the UPC code because I had to send the original to Soyo and I can't find my copy. (It has been a year and a half) They told me that would be OK since I have the original receipt. I mailed everything to Tiger Direct and waited. About a month later, I emailed and asked about my status. Two days later they responded with ‘We have no record of receiving anything from you. Please resubmit the information'.
Can you imagine how pissed off I am at this point? They are acting just like Soyo! A few hours later I check my mail (not email) and I find that they had returned my information and denied it because of the missing UPC that they said I did not need! I emailed them and explained to them that we had already discussed the UPC issue. Their response was ‘Our records indicate that you claim was denied' Really?!? No SH$T! I emailed them a few more times and then, after I threatened to report them on Rip Off Report and every message board I am a member of, they asked me to fax them the information. I waited a week without hearing anything, so I emailed them to make sure they received everything. They said yes allow 10 weeks to process the claim. 10 Weeks!
It only took 4 weeks from the time I dropped the information in the mailbox the first time, for them to deny it and send it back to me. They could not have had it for more than three weeks.
I faxed it to them this time, and a week later they tell me to wait ten more weeks? I emailed them and asked why it would take so long. Once again I received no response. I also found an email address on a reseller ratings web site for Danny at Tiger direct. He had responded to a LOT of other people who complained on that site. I emailed him 4 separate times over a couple of week with no response.
I started thinking, maybe they are not ignoring me. Since I have had the same problem with Soyo, maybe there is something wrong with my email account. I really did not believe there was but I wanted to make sure they received my question, so I sent 5 emails to them. I was pretty irate in the emails because I am so fed up with being jerked around, but that is no excuse for what they did next. Here is the response from Michael
'Dear Valued Customer:
Due to your spamming of our mailboxes, your email address has been blocked and future emails from you will be discarded.
Please do not contact us via email again.'
I don't care what anyone says. Sending a few copies of a question is NOT spamming. It does not hurt anything. They should have responded the FIRST time. The reason they blocked me is obvious. I pissed them off. If they had decent customer support, I would not have been pissed off, therefore I would not have pissed them off.
Xavier and Michael have both been smart a$$es to me. Diana has been very professional (even when I got a little pissy) as someone in customer service should be. Xavier and Michael need to find a new job.
I plan to meet with a lawyer next week to see what I have to do to sue Soyo and/or Tiger Direct. I should never have let this go on so long.
Note – the time frames are guesses and exact sequence is the best I can remember. I show that I only mailed the information two times but I know I actually had to mail it three times. I just can't remember when the third time was. I just know it was before I got the $20 check. Also, I emailed every email address on Soyo's web site multiple times, asking for help, with no response from any of them.
It looks like Tiger Direct no longer carries Soyo products, most likely due to all the rebate problems.
If you think I am full of crap just go to ripoffreport.com and search for Soyo or Tiger Direct, or just use you favorite search engine and type in Soyo rebate or Tiger Direct rebate. This will give you plenty to read. I wish I would have known to do this before I made my purchase.
David
Seguin, Texas
U.S.A.
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