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Techreport reported the Asus Transformer Book T100 was $229 for the 32 GB version.

http://techreport.com/news/27685/deal-o ... 0-and-more

Thinking it was a good deal, I sent the link to a number of friends. It almost instantly went out of stock, although they were still selling the 64 GB version. No big deal I think, things go OOS all the time.

Next day, they email me they have the 32 GB in stock for $279.

Then this morning they email me they have the 32 GB in stock for $249.

Do you think it was ever OOS, or did Tigerdirect just pull it when it proved popular at $229, bringing it back at higher prices to see if those originally attracted at $229 would still bite?

I feel like Tigerdirect is a vendor in a central American market. "You want that T100 for $229? No that's too cheap. We don't have any in stock at that price. How about this nice 64 GB version?"

Then, as I walk away: "wait, wait I just found a 32 GB version I'll sell you for $279."

As I keep walking: "OK, OK, how about I sell it to you for $249?"

I've lived 30 minutes from a Tigerdirect warehouse for about 10 years, and I've bought maybe 3 items total during that time. Their pricing isn't competitive, and they've always come off as a bit shady to me. I would just buy from somewhere else.

I have never had a good Tiger Direct experience. As much as I am prone to whine about something weird Amazon or Newegg has done, I'd pick both of them and if my third option is TD I'll just wait until the other two get it back in stock.

I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest given their past history. I did find it ironic they had literally probably a dozen pallets of WD 4TB external drives for $80 when paypal was footing most of the discount cost, people were buying those like Willy Wonka bars for something around a week before they eventually ran out of stock.

My dad ran into multiple problems with TigerDirect clear back when they were issuing paper catalogs in the late 1990s, and ultimately decided not to order from them Ever Again.

Here's how you can run a sale like that: Create a special SKU for the sale, and allocate a fixed number of units to that SKU. Temporarily suspend the SKU under which those items are normally sold. When the sale SKU sells out at the sale price, it is technically "out of stock," and of course you have no intentions of ever restocking it, so the SKU is available for the duration of the sale but never restocked, and then discontinued from your inventory. The original SKU is then re-instated. Et voila.

In practice, that's how Black Friday specials are run at retail chains, although in many cases the items are not actually identical to anything else, they are manufactured as one-off lots using cheaper quality materials and reduced packaging/accessory bundling to reduce the wholesale costs.

They were my "vendor of convenience" for a number of years, since they were on my way home from work. Their prices aren't the greatest, but IMO Newegg has gotten more expensive in the past few years, making the delta between them and TigerDirect smaller (TigerDirect even undercuts Newegg occasionally). Over the years their level of customer service has waffled back and forth between "mind-bogglingly atrocious" and "more or less adequate" multiple times (last few times I was there it was leaning towards the latter).

One of the few upsides to the godawful commute I have with my new job is that I pass a Frys, and also have the option of taking an alternate (and only slightly longer/slower) route home to go past a Microcenter. So I'll probably not be going back to TigerDirect any more unless I have a "geek emergency" on a weekend.

just brew it! wrote:

One of the few upsides to the godawful commute I have with my new job is that I pass a Frys, and also have the option of taking an alternate (and only slightly longer/slower) route home to go past a Microcenter. So I'll probably not be going back to TigerDirect any more unless I have a "geek emergency" on a weekend.

The nearest Frys is an hour (one way) away, and the nearest MC is maybe five hours. 7th largest US city and the only computer tech stores available are, BB, Pawn shops, and Altex... If MC did franchises and I had the means I would totally want to open and manage a Microcenter here, the market potential is huge.

The Egg wrote:

I've lived 30 minutes from a Tigerdirect warehouse for about 10 years, and I've bought maybe 3 items total during that time. Their pricing isn't competitive, and they've always come off as a bit shady to me. I would just buy from somewhere else.

Hey now, just because the founders embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars and Wikipedia's list of probably-illegal stuff the company has done is longer than the rest of the article doesn't mean they're all bad. I heard from a friend of a friend that they're totally swell dudes!

But seriously folks, for what it's worth I never had problems with them but I also haven't used them much in recent years. Back In The Day before Newegg and all that they were the only show in town, and I stuck with them through college because shipping to downsate IL was usually overnight. They're not terribly competitive anymore though, and their website isn't nearly as user-friendly as Newegg or even Amazon so I have little reason to go there.

TD isn't the only online retailer to pull something like this though--it's common when running a time limited sale to earmark X units for the sale and restock the rest of them once the sale period runs out.

I have bought things from TD, but usually I go in already knowing what I want and what the price is going to be, plus sales tax in my county. I never get the credit card and I never buy the extended warranty, even though there's a good chance my product failing will cause me to get hives or die from gassy food. I know, I'm a rebel!

My biggest complaint every time I go into a TD retail store is that they never have "enthusiast" equipment. I tell every sales person this when they start hawking over me and I can't find something cool to buy; you know, like a dual Xeon motherboard or a dual GPU graphic card, or a unique case that is both functional and nonexistent anywhere else!

And sometime in the 2nd half of last year they just started some annoying new habit. They try to put the product in your hand and start to fill out a sheet with the salesperson's name on it. Even before you've really decided to buy the damned thing. That's not too bad, except then they start grilling you like they're a cop or that nosy neighbor lady on your street: Full name, phone, address, email, etcetera.

One time I said to the sales guy, "do we really have to do ALL THIS just for me to buy a tube of heatsink goop (or maybe it was a Displayport cable)?" He looked stunned, like he was going to get in trouble, and so I didn't let him answer. I just said, 'The correct answer is "no sir, your privacy is important to us here at TigerDirect!"'

Of course, I haven't seen him again. Oops. That's too bad, I was gonna train him to be a great customer service-centric sales guy!

BIF wrote:

I have bought things from TD, but usually I go in already knowing what I want and what the price is going to be, plus sales tax in my county. I never get the credit card and I never buy the extended warranty, even though there's a good chance my product failing will cause me to get hives or die from gassy food. I know, I'm a rebel!

To be fair, Microcenter pushes the extended warranty crap too. But if you just tell them (the first time they ask), "no I don't want the extended warranty on any of the stuff I'm purchasing today" they back off and just ring the rest of your order up no questions asked.

BIF wrote:

My biggest complaint every time I go into a TD retail store is that they never have "enthusiast" equipment. I tell every sales person this when they start hawking over me and I can't find something cool to buy; you know, like a dual Xeon motherboard or a dual GPU graphic card, or a unique case that is both functional and nonexistent anywhere else!

They push the mediocre and/or overpriced stuff hard, at least half of the items on the display floor fall into that category. The one by me is also a distribution center, so you can ask them to pull stuff out of the warehouse that you saw on their web site (well, at least you used to be able to do that, I haven't done it in a year or more so I'm not sure if that's still true), but then you're in for a 30 minute wait (best case).

BIF wrote:

And sometime in the 2nd half of last year they just started some annoying new habit. They try to put the product in your hand and start to fill out a sheet with the salesperson's name on it. Even before you've really decided to buy the damned thing. That's not too bad, except then they start grilling you like they're a cop or that nosy neighbor lady on your street: Full name, phone, address, email, etcetera.

I have not encountered that particular issue. At least, not yet. They do insist on shoving the "I want my commission" sheet of paper into your hand if you start to walk towards the checkout with an item they've "helped" you choose though. Microcenter essentially does something similar (they put a sticker with their salesperson ID on the product), but at least their staff seems to have a clue so I don't have an issue with it.

just brew it! wrote:

I have not encountered that particular issue. At least, not yet. They do insist on shoving the "I want my commission" sheet of paper into your hand if you start to walk towards the checkout with an item they've "helped" you choose though. Microcenter essentially does something similar (they put a sticker with their salesperson ID on the product), but at least their staff seems to have a clue so I don't have an issue with it.

Yeah, Fry's Electronics has done that for years. Even if it's just something you've grabbed off the shelf yourself in many cases.

Kougar wrote:

Yeah, Fry's Electronics has done that for years. Even if it's just something you've grabbed off the shelf yourself in many cases.

Does it change the price you pay??

Captain Ned wrote:

Kougar wrote:

Yeah, Fry's Electronics has done that for years. Even if it's just something you've grabbed off the shelf yourself in many cases.

Does it change the price you pay??

I imagine it results in slightly higher prices overall, since they're covering the cost of the commissions from somewhere. I don't have a problem with it if the person actually *helped* me pick out the item in question. (And just telling me what aisle the memory card readers are in doesn't count...)

Bif... +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 man!! What you said.... exactly my problem with them. Well, one of many.

First of all, I live in Raleigh, NC and where there used to be 3 TD stores only one remains, on good ole Capital Blvd. I know there was one in Durham and another was Greensboro I think but they both closed down a few years ago. Gee, I wonder why? Anyway, in addition to not taking no for an answer when it comes to selling those POS warranties (unfortunately all the retailers are doing it now), like Bif said they bombard you with questions. And who thought it was a good idea to interrogate your customers asking for all their personal information? Just annoying.

So anyway, the last time I went I needed a power supply to use as a tester unit. As I was trying to diagnose a friends PC issue and I figure I could use it for another build down the line possibly. So I picked up an Ultra LSP500 for 44.99 and was asked by the sales guy 4 times about the warranty. Now mind you, these Ultra PSU's have a Limited Lifetime warranty so even if it failed tomorrow I could get another free of charge. So why would I pay for a 1yr warranty when this product has a lifetime warranty for free? I found that to be amusing. So I finally make my way to the checkout and get asked two more times by the cashier about it. He says "It's a good idea to get the warranty, you know power supplies tend to go out on ya." Sigh. And though I knew it was futile I told them "look, it's not going in a full time desktop. I'm simply using it as a tester." But that didn't help, they continued to prattle on about the warranty.

I could go on and on about my bad experiences there. Like a few of you it was the only option and in a decent location for emergency builds / repairs. But from then on I just told everyone they'd just have to wait because I'm not putting up with TD anymore! I just won't do it.

Never had a problem with TD, they aren't my first place to check for stuff online but I will check their prices and have bought some decent deals from them.

As for the OP's specific 'issue' - they can sell however many of an item at whatever price they want, I suppose. Although it does suck when you see a fresh 'deal' email and the item is instantly out of stock, if you check and it's available for purchase, then not available later, it just means you missed the deal. If they restock it later at a slightly higher price and that prevents one from buying it, although I understand the psychology of not wanting to 'overpay', it probably wasn't something one should have purchased anyway.

@DarkMikaru -

The abundance of TD retail outlets near you a few years back was probably the aftermath of their purchase of CompUSA. The TD near me (which had been there since before the CompUSA buyout) even changed their name to CompUSA for a few months, then changed back to TD. (Talk about lack of cohesive corporate strategy... WTF!)

The comment about the PSU needing an extended warranty because "they tend to go out" is especially funny when you consider Ultra is their house brand, essentially their equivalent of Newegg's Rosewill-branded stuff. That statement is akin to saying "we sell crap products and don't honor the manufacturer's warranty"! Now, to be fair I've had OK luck with Ultra PSUs; from a reliability standpoint they seem to be no worse than most other mid-tier rebrands (and are definitely better than some, e.g. Thermaltake), so given that they tend to be competitively priced they're not a bad deal. Ultra also has some pretty nice aluminum external USB/eSATA drive enclosures; Ultra and Vantec have been my go-to brands for those for several years now.

Something else odd I noticed about the TD near me a few months ago is that they started selling small appliances. Blenders, coffee makers, that sort of thing. (There's that lack of a cohesive product strategy again...)

just brew it! wrote:

Something else odd I noticed about the TD near me a few months ago is that they started selling small appliances. Blenders, coffee makers, that sort of thing. (There's that lack of a cohesive product strategy again...)

When you take your product strategy from Circuit City ...

I will say that one thing soured me a bit on Ultra PSUs a couple of years back though, and it had nothing to do with their build quality: they tried to hold the rest of the PSU industry hostage, by patenting modular PSU cabling. Fortunately the patent was rejected.

It's a freaking connector... and an industry standard one at that. No, you're not entitled to collect royalties every time someone else puts a connector on a cable and calls it "modular".

Just Brew It -

You know what? I had totally forgotten about that merger so long ago. Matter of fact, the Capital Blvd. store did the exact same thing. I remember the logo on the front changing to CompUSA then maybe 6months to a year later noticing the store was TigerDirect again. That's probably after they realized that buying the name and slapping it on the front of the stores didn't improve sales much if at all. I remember reading about this back in the day and it was two fold.... 1) CompUSA was losing money hand over fist (so they needed to be bought) 2) TigerDirect wanted the name recognition. Match made in heaven right? lol

And yes, walking into our local store makes you think your walking into an HHGreg's lol Capaccino machines, "house wares", etc. If I want that kinda thing I'd just go to, you know, a place that actually specializes in home appliances. No a PC parts store. Like you said, there goes that lack of vision. The sad thing is too is that now that I don't shop at Tiger anymore I've no choice but to shop online. Newegg, Amazon, OutletPC, etc.... are getting my business. Like I stated a few days ago regarding that FX-8310 CPU @ Tiger for 89.99, that's not the real price I'd end up paying. Add $7 for Taxes, another $9 for shipping and that $25 off is a rebate so i'd have to pony up the 114.99 first and hope that I'd get it back. So, at 130.99 it's just not worth it A shame, because I might have picked one up if they carried it in store and no rebate was involved. Anyway....

With regards to there PSU's, they are very good I'd agree. I've built numerous systems with the LS350 series and have yet to have one die in the field. Well, without help. 2 died after being hit by lightning so that doesn't count. But I have noticed that there external enclosures aren't as happy with AMD chipsets as they used to be. I guess, their products aren't so bad, its just dealing with going in the store...ugh.

Speaking of buying companies solely for the brand recognition, I wonder how their acquisition of Circuit City worked out for them. IIRC they maintained the facade of a separate electronics e-tailing business at circuitcity.com for a couple of years, but now it is just a redirect to tigerdirect.com.

They don't seem to have done the compusa.com domain the courtesy of even a lingering URL redirect. It currently leads to a "parked domain" page littered with random vaguely IT-related links. I wonder what they paid for the CompUSA brand originally; apparently the web presence isn't even worth the yearly domain registration fee to them now, as it appears to have been taken over by cyber-squatters.

DarkMikaru wrote:

But I have noticed that there external enclosures aren't as happy with AMD chipsets as they used to be.

I still run mostly AMD systems at home (all of the desktops... some of the laptops are Intel), and haven't noticed any issues. Are you having problems with USB, eSATA, or both?

just brew it! wrote:

Speaking of buying companies solely for the brand recognition, I wonder how their acquisition of Circuit City worked out for them. IIRC they maintained the facade of a separate electronics e-tailing business at circuitcity.com for a couple of years, but now it is just a redirect to tigerdirect.com.

They don't seem to have done the compusa.com domain the courtesy of even a lingering URL redirect. It currently leads to a "parked domain" page littered with random vaguely IT-related links. I wonder what they paid for the CompUSA brand originally; apparently the web presence isn't even worth the yearly domain registration fee to them now, as it appears to have been taken over by cyber-squatters.

Hard to say as I heard they kept a handful of physical CC stores and turned them into TD locations.

I seem to recall it being a year, no more than two tops. They did away with the old CompUSA site at the same time they finally decided it wasn't worth the costs (or hassle) of running multiple sites and folded everything back into the TD site.

@ Just Brew It

First, sharp eyes there man. I just now noticed the "Circuit City is now TigerDirect" logo at the top of the page! Again, I had totally forgotten about CC. But what always amused me was even when CC was around, after the acquisition CC's layout was pretty much a carbon copy of TD's site... just with Circuit City slapped on the top! Same search box, page layout, product showcase, etc... used to crack me up. I always remembered thinking, SERIOUSLY! Lame.

With regards to there external enclosures, I think the quality has gone down significantly. They used to be my defacto back in the day. It was always nice to just walk into the store and get a new one should I need it, and pricing wasn't bad either. But the last 3 or 4 I've purchased have all given me problems. About 2yrs ago or so when I completed the rebuild / upgrade of my home server I used 2 of the Ultra Aluminus USB 3.0 enclosures to hold my left over WD Green 500GB drives. As I had replaced them with 2x 3TB drives as part of the upgrade.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2300579&CatId=2778

I remembered seeing these and thinking, damn, these will compliment my Lian Li PC-q08b Mini-ITX case perfectly. The brushed aluminum not only would keep temps down on my hard drives but looked great next to it. After a month of light use I noticed that one of the lights on the enclosure didn't power on anymore. Tested on several other machines and with other drives inside and came to the conclusion that it was dead. It was just inside the 30 days so I ran back over to tiger and got a replacement. The replacement lasted maybe another 3 or 4 months before it died. The other original Aluminus kept right on chugging along. Still working till this day.

Next up, was the Ultra ULT40243 Aluminum which I used to store a Kingston SSDNow 120GB ssd with the intention of using as a large flash / steam games drive while on the road. Died after the 3rd business trip. Now, to its credit it did work for a few months before I started hitting the road but even then I noticed random disconnects. So that was my warning sign, but I never had anything on it that I'd cry should it be lost. So i never really investigated.

It was this one: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3743049&CatId=2781

Finally, most recently I picked up the U12-43128. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=8681086&CatId=2781

Now the strange thing about this one, it seems to absolutely despise the native USB 2.0 chipset on my Biostar TA970 board when plugged into a USB 2.0 port. Random disconnects right away.
Plug it into the Asmedia USB 3.0 on the back, same thing. However, I do also own a HooToo PC002 USB 3.0 PCIx adapter card and it works flawlessly! Never a problem. So when I use it I just have to remember to not use the USB 2.0 on the front, but the 3.0 ports that connect to the PC002 adapter. Oddly enough though, my HP G7 which has an A8-4500M and my work PC which rocks a FM1 quad core APU work just fine. Never a problem on either port - usb 2 or 3.

So, there you have it. Quirky experiences over the last few years when it comes to Ultra enclosures.

Heh. Guess I'll go back to using Vantec enclosures. They've been trouble-free going back more than a decade (my first Vantec enclosure was actually a PATA to USB 2.0 unit, so that gives you some idea of how long I've been using them).

I have a couple of the USB 2.0 + eSATA version of the second one you linked. Hopefully I have better luck than you did; so far they've been working OK.