On November 20th, 2008, I was sitting in the Fort Lauderdale Airport when I received an email from Tiger Direct which included sale information on several large screen LCD televisions. I had been thinking about Christmas and wanted to purchase one for my family for Christmas. You see, on that day I was returning to Honduras where I am a missionary and I thought this would be a big surprise for my family. So I was willing to spend the nearly 600 dollars plus the $180 for import taxes and fees in Honduras, plus with LG being a worldwide company, I thought there would be no problem in getting service if I ever had problems with the unit. So I placed my order and on December 12th my new Television arrived in Honduras.
I went to pick it up, the box was huge, there was no place to hide it until christmas so I said, we will go ahead and open it early. My wife Rosa and I brought it in the house the kids jumped up and down, they screamed, it was totally crazy, with smiles and laughter they could not wait. I proceeded to unpack the unit, put everything together connect all the connections and connected the TV to electricity. Then the big moment, my wife, and kids excited, sitting on the edge of their seats barely able to contain themselves as I hit the power button, sound we have sound, oh I can't wait to see the picture 12,000:1 contrast, that has to be sharp, clear, so much better than our old 19" I thought..... and we waited, and waited, but no picture, the excitement of the kids died away.
I began to think this cannot be happening! I was angry! I was frustrated! I just spent the only money that our family had for Christmas presents this year (proceeds from refinancing a loan in the states) and they have shipped me a dud. So OK there are a few days before Christmas, I am trying to be positive, we have an LG Authorized service Center here in Town this should not be a problem, hopefully they can get it fixed before Christmas, this can't be that big of a deal. So I start looking through the paperwork for the warranty information and I find a paper that gives a 800 number for LG warranty service, and on this paper there is a note which states that outside the USA the warranty is not valid. I thought LG was an international company! Then I thought, oh well Tiger Direct is a good upstanding company, I've never had any problem with them in the past, this will not be a problem either... I call Tiger Direct to tell them they shipped me a dud and I was slightly disturbed by the attitude of the person on the phone but every now and then you get a person who is having a bad day so I was not alarmed, that person said there was nothing they could do, call LG and gave me a number in the USA. When I called LG the person literally laughed at me. I just spent nearly $600 to buy an LG product never one time did the product work and the tech is laughing at me, because I was so stupid as to take it out of the country...I called Tiger Direct again, got a good person this time, she said she didn't know what they could do, she would talk to her supervisors, I suggested that if they would work with me, I could take it to the LG place here, they could diagnose the problems, I could tell them the parts that we would need and Tiger Direct could help me get the parts under warranty, I would still have to pay for service here in Honduras, but that could work. She said she would put that in my file and check with supervisors. I took the unit to the service center, they asked about the unit because it was brand new, I explained that I had just purchased it and it did not work, they said, this should be covered under warranty, I agreed! I was relieved! They asked for my receipt and I gave it to them, Oh no! I committed a huge sin, I purchased this in another country!! But is that not an LG Logo on the front? Anyway, I call Tigerdirect back, the lady I talked to was not there, got another jerk, this one said, there is nothing that Tiger Direct can do. I'm thinking what? I spent my Christmas money with you all and there is nothing that you can do? To give you an update of the situation. Today is April 28th, 2009 I am going to pick the TV up from the shop, they finally told me last week that the TV could not be fixed. Tiger Direct sold me a completely useless chunk of plastic shaped like a TV that never worked even 1 second, and according to LG's authorized service center.
Both LG and Tiger Direct refused to help in any way, I was not informed about the warranty issue before I took it out of the box here in Honduras, but even if I was, no one ever expects to be shipped a TV that is such a problem that it cannot even be repaired by a Company authorized service center. I'm just the little guy! I can't do anything and Tiger Direct knows that, however I have made a pledge, I will continue to tell this story on every website, in every forum, for as long as it takes and I will never buy anything else from Tiger Direct or LG Electronics and I invite any who read this to join me in that pledge. Any company who treats a customer like this deserves to be out of business! I may be nothing to them, It is only a TV you might say, but it was more than that to my family, it was our 2008 Christmas, and Tiger Direct ruined it as far as the gifts were concerned by shipping a TV that would not even work and was completely unrepairable, how could they not at least check it? They ship something that expensive out to a customer and they don't even check it to see if it works? My question to any customer who reads this is why do you think for one minute that they will treat you any differently?
My Reply to Mr. Jones comment which is seen below
Readers... please reply and tell me what you think.
The reply below was received from Tony Jones who says he is vice president of customer experience at Tiger Direct. The true costs Original Cost of Television $592.00 Cost of Introduction into Honduras $180.00 Cost for LG Authorized Service Center to tell me it could not be fixed $26.50
Total cost for the television so far $798.50 and still no TV
So I have exactly $798.50 invested and a dead television which the LG Authorized Service Center says cannot be fixed. So Tiger Direct wants me to send the Television back to them so that they can send me a new one. I checked today on shipping charges from Honduras. Only $210.00 to ship it back to Miami, plus another $200 to ship the new set back to me here in Honduras. So I am going to pay another $410.00 so that I can get the Television replaced.
So now that is $798.50 + 410.00 = $1,208.50 and that my friend is not justice, that is crazy for a $550.00 TV. One question to everyone that reads this does it make sense to spend another $410.00 to get a working TV. Tiger Direct and Mr. Jones already know the answer to this question. There is another issue, LG Electronics does sell products here in Honduras, they do have 32 inch lcd televisions with the model number 32LG30 the same as TV that I purchased. The fact is that LG Electronics does not want to stand behind their product. After much thought on this matter, here is what I think would be a fair deal. I will donate the television that does not work to a USA nonprofit organization who has offices in Honduras in the name of Tiger Direct so that they can take a tax deduction for the unit or however they want me to do it, they send me a 32 inch flat panel television that does work and we will call this whole thing finished. What sense does it make to pay good money to send a useless piece of plastic back to the USA. One other thing in case some of you did not know. I hold an Associates of Applied Science degree in Electronics Technology and just so that you know Mr. Jones, no the television had no damage caused in shipping, it was in perfect physical condition when it arrived, the box was in no way damaged so those ideas just do not hold water. It was not the shipping companies fault.
The bottom line is that Tiger Direct sold me a dead unit that never functioned and LG Electronics refuses to back it's products in anyway whatsoever as stated not only by me but by Mr. Jones above. THIS IS A WARNING TO ALL CONSUMERS IN ANY COUNTRY DO NOT BUY ANYTHING THAT HAS LG ON IT AND I MEAN ANYTHING. If you see a burro with LG branded on its behind, do not buy it!
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