Why I will never again order anything from TigerDirect

Two weeks ago did it to me! I have gone the way of the dodo from ordering anything at all from TigerDirect, ALL my recommendations in the future will also never be TD ever again.

I have been using TD for years, about 10 to be exact (maybe a few more). Heck they were one of the first companies on the forefront of web computer purchases, I mean they blazed the trail for everyone else! But alas it all went to their head it seems.

Two weeks ago, maybe 3 now I would have to check, I ordered my new media PC hardware from TD. I ordered a bunch of stuff, totally just under $200. I figured I would build myself and it would save me some cash and I could get a small voltage CPU that barely uses any power. I did, I purchased a brand new ATOM 64-bit CPU board that runs on a 12V power supply that is 150Watt. I mean the thing is fan less and beautiful!

But that's not the point. I made my order, first thing's first. I am currently in Guatemala, so I have everything shipped to my PO Box in Miami, but my Billing is of course in Ohio. So the first thing is they suspend my order for further verification. Crap, I hate that, we live in a global world now a days and companies don't get it that people order and have shipped to different places, come on people get a clue! I had this problem months ago with Autozone.com and I refused to ever use them again also, I now use OReilly because they don't make me double confirm my orders and cancel them without warning to me.

So first they suspend my order, so I tried calling and was on hold for 30 min.! I got mad and hung up, opened a live chat. Was on hold there for 20 min., finally someone answered. I told them my problem they said they couldn't help and I needed to call in, crap. So I closed the window and called back, this time I was on hold for 45 min.! My GOD!

Finally someone answered, then they told me my order was on hold because I was shipping to another address a state away from my billing. Fine, what do I have to do to confirm. Then they proceeded to ask me "Publicly" available information on the web through their upstream security company. Question's like; "What street did you live on when you were 6?", "What color was your house on that street?"

WHAT! First off that's stupid, I can't remember that far back. Secondly how is it that publicly available information that's on the web supposed to protect me?! ha ha

Ok, so I answered his question's, problem is one I didn't even know and I am ME!! So he asked another stupid one that I guess I answered correctly.

Now that is done, he says ok we will process your order now (two hours later). So I waited, and waited, and waited some more. Finally a day later my order shipped, now the fun part. First off one of the items was on backorder, their site never said this till the order was done processing and shipping. Fine, whatever it happens.

Now the fun part, I can't emphasize this enough, so I will try. EVERY SINGLE ITEM ON MY 10 ITEM ORDER SHIPPED IN A SEPARATE ORDER!!! So that means I got 10 separate UPS tracking numbers. And the worse part is when they all got to my PO Box!

Since these are 10 separate shipments I got charged separately by my PO Box company to bring them to Guatemala!! Over $100 in shipping and import duty costs accrued by TD!! Leave that aside, TD charged me $15 shipping ;)

So do you think I can contact a manager in sales or marketing to chew them a new hole to breath out of? Nope, not a chance! One hour on the phone and still on hold. Screw it, I got a review email from them a week after, great! I gave them a review they will be wondering about for months, if anyone ever reads it ;)

In the end of the review I told them I would never ever again order or recommend TD to anyone in my life, they have lost a loyal customer that in 10 years had recommended them to over 20 people worldwide.

That same day I ordered from TD I also ordered a small set of two things from Newegg.com. GREAT!! I have found my new company.

Two things, totalled $10 from NE, they didn't charge me shipping NOR taxes at all, no shipping for two items that cost me $10! EAT YOUR HEART OUT TD!!

Only $5 in PO Box shipping and taxes!! WOOHOO!! (The more expensive an item is the cheaper it is to ship)

NE never suspended my order for using separate shipping and billing, they never made me call in, the order was made, confirmed and processing within 30 min., shipped by the next morning! WOW!

So it's fair to say I have found my brand new company. So I need a new 1.5TB hard drive this week, cable and an external enclosure. GREAT, let's test out NE!

Once again, I make my order, at the end I decide to see if they have any Momentary Pushbutton switches since I need one, they are cheap and if I am ordering I mise well. So I found one $2, added it to the cart and went to checkout. Before I ever went to checkout it told me that the switch was coming from another company, MTD (or something like that) and that it would be a separate shipment from AK. Of course they weren't going to charge me shipping but it was a separate package! WOW!

What can I say, I removed it of course, $2 ain't worth it. But they told me!! I love it!

So after removing the switch I finished checkout. This was this morning at around 3AM California time (I was up early cause I couldn't sleep), at 3AM my order processed in 10 min.! It is now waiting for shipment!

So, they processed my order in 10 min., aren't going to charge me shipping nor taxes and it's a single shipment! WOW!

Needless to say after this great experience I am never again going to use TD and I am never going to recommend them. NewEgg.com is my new computer company!

Great service NewEgg.com and kudos!

My First Post from VIM

Today this is my first post from inside VIM and my Ubu CLI! I have been wanting to for a long, long time to get away from web pages for daily thing (the irony of it since that's what I do for a living ha ha) and all the load time and get to doing more and more thing's inside VIM. Well today I finally did it!

I'm now posting to my blog from inside VIM by using GoogleCLI tools freely downloadable to post with and using a simple little bash script.

So we will see how it work's but I have tested a few times and it's working so it seems.

In case no one has noticed yet I LOVE VIM and the Linux CLI! I try to do everything I can think of from it, Mutt for email, VIM for programming now instead of Geany.

I even went 5 days ago and setup a Plex Media Server to serve my huge 10 year long DVD collection. I'm tired of having a DVD case in my living room and looking ugly. All my TV's for my house and the ministry have Roku's and I am tired of friends in the ministry that are on the same network as me borrowing DVD's and bringing them back scratched ha ha.

So I've gone the next step and setup an Ubu 12 server with Plex as a Media server completely. I currently have 3 computers converting 4 DVD's at all times during every day, I currently have 101 DVD's done. Should be done converting by the end of next week.

This is awesome since it allows me to share everything I have in the way of DVD's with everyone here in the Ministry who has a Roky or Media box. I am also going to sell my entire collection of DVD's and the wood case to store them in, this sale will come out to about $130 in the end which will pretty much pay for the Media server.

Now, no more scratched movies, no more people asking me to borrow them!

I will post again on this in a couple weeks when I get the new hardware that I ordered for this specific purpose, right now I'm just using an old AMD system I had laying around as the server.

But I am loving more and more using CLI and VIM. Makes life so much easier than anything else. Thought I would post just to test out the brand new posting features to see how it works ha ha.