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Florida Sues Systemax Over Rebate Policies

Tigerdirect consumers claim almost impossible to receive rebates

September 7, 2009
Florida has sued a Delaware company, Systemax, and it its subsidiaries, Tigerdirect and Onrebate, over its rebate policies. Attorney General Bill McCollum claims the company made it so hard to collect the rebate, most consumers simply gave up.

Authorities say that advertising a low price that includes a virtually uncollectable rebate amounts to bait and switch marketing.

The complaint says Systemax, through Tigerdirect, offers a variety of electronic merchandise for sale at discounted prices though its retail outlets, catalogs and website. The company allegedly offered and advertised products with rebate incentives, falsely representing to consumers they would receive the rebates in approximately 8-10 weeks.

After receiving numerous complaints from consumers, the Attorney General's Economic Crimes Division began investigating the companies in April 2007. Consumer complaints reported that the rebate program was very difficult to navigate and often led to consumers giving up their rights to rebates.

The Attorney General's lawsuit claims rebate requests received by the company often went unprocessed, allowing the offers to expire. Many requests that did get processed were allegedly processed in a haphazard fashion, causing required supporting documentation to be lost in the process and ultimately resulting in denied rebates.

Consumers calling the company to inquire about their rebates reported they were routinely required to wait on hold for a customer service representative for an hour or more, only to be mislead about the status of their rebate and told nothing could be done for them.

The Attorney General is seeking a permanent injunction against Systemax and its subsidiaries which would prevent them from unreasonably denying or delaying proper rebate payments. Additionally, the Attorney General has asked for full restitution to consumers, reimbursement for attorneys' fees and costs associated with the investigation, and significant civil fines for the company's willful violations of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.

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