Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum has sued Systemax, and its subsidiaries, Tigerdirect and Onrebate, over allegations the companies failed to pay advertised rebates to consumers.
Systemax, through Tigerdirect, offers a variety of electronic merchandise for sale at discounted prices though its retail outlets, catalogs and Web site, www.tigerdirect.com, according to McCollum.
In a statement, Systemax said that “the company denies the allegations in the Florida AG complaint and will vigorously defend itself and its subsidiaries.”
According to the AG, the company allegedly offered and advertised products with rebate incentives, falsely representing to consumers they would receive the rebates in approximately eight to 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, according to McCollum.
The 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, according to the AG.
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 AG charged.
The Attorney General said his office 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.
