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Originally Posted by savafan
I'm not surprised. The Tiger Direct systems were built from the cheapest of materials. Sometimes, "new" systems were built from parts of returned systems, or were simply entire returned systems shipped as new. Also, the Tiger Direct sales reps were almost entirely Hispanic who spoke English as a second language. The Tiger sales call center was out of Florida, and Systemax purposely hired those people because they worked cheap. The systems were built here in Ohio though. Tiger Direct is like the bottom end of the Systemax market...not that I didn't have problems with my Midwest Micro system as well...
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Not entirely true. Tiger used other manufacturers for kit pcs well up into 2000/2001. They liked to order mass quantities of cheap stuff and force it through engineering though. The real problems at Systemax came from trying to get into the TV sales market. The margins in that market are extremely low, but the volumes are nice, particularly in the summer when people aren't buying computers. The TV market forced Systemax to cut corners or innovate. They chose cutting corners.
Having said that, any of the peripherals you see in Tiger Direct's catalog are not built in Fletcher. They are relabeled OEM equipment/White box stuff, or products from other companies.