There was a bit of a flutter last week on the Intertubes when Tiger Direct started listing Gears of War for the Xbox 360 as in-stock and shipping.

People were speculating like crazy about the chance to grab the game almost two months early. I quickly hopped onto the site and ordered it.

Today, I hit up the site to see if the game was shipping yet, as promised. I was not too surprised to find that the order said that the order had been sent to another company for "fulfillment." Suspecting that was double speak for "We screwed up and this was really a pre-order." I hit Tiger Direct's live chat to try and squeeze the truth out of a rep.

My not so friendly rep took forty-five minutes to first feign confusion about my direct question, then, then lie to me about the reason for the delay and then finally admit that the order, which minutes before he was saying was delaying because of heavy orders, was in fact always a pre-order.

Way to go Tigers Direct. Love the lies. Keep it up. Brian Crecente

Hit the jump if you'd like to read the full transcript.
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Brian Crecente: Hi there, I just wanted to confirm my order is going to be shipping in three to four days as the site said, not next month.
Brian Crecente: I5951584
Sasha T: GIVE ME ONE MINUTE SIR AND I WILL HELP YOU WITH THIS
Brian Crecente: thanks
Sasha T: ok what seems to be the problem with the order
Brian Crecente: ?
Brian Crecente: when am i receiving it
Brian Crecente: will it ship this week as the page stated or not?
Sasha T: let me look into it
Brian Crecente: is that what you were doing for the last ten minutes?
Sasha T: yes sir but I don't see when it will be sent out. it does tell me that it will take from 7-21 business days to reach you.
Brian Crecente: well, is this a preorder, or is it an order for an item you have in stock, as you said on the site?
Sasha T: the reason the item is taking long to send out to you is because the item was on heavy back order and we ran out of stock
Brian Crecente: it was listed as in stock when i ordered it and now it says that it's been sent to another company for fulfillment. What does that mean?
Sasha T: that means that at the time we had it, but the product had more of a high demand then when had in stock so we had to order more to fulfil all the orders placed for it
Brian Crecente: and you have no idea when it will become available?
Sasha T: it should be out by 11/07/06
Brian Crecente: thats in a month and a half, your site said this was availabe. It sounds like you guys just lied about the game, saying it's available when in fact your just doing pre-orders.
Sasha T: I apologize for the misunderstanding this is a preorder item and please advise if you want to cancel
Brian Crecente: i want to cancel
Sasha T: ok sir give I will do that for you
Brian Crecente: please send me confirmation of the cancellation and I am very displeased with the misrepresentations made on the website
Sasha T: our system doesn't provide us with conformation emails. we internally cancel the orders
Brian Crecente: Is there a way for me to confirm the order is canceled?
Sasha T: yes if you check the order status on tigerdirect.com it would show cancelled with in 3-4 business days
Brian Crecente: thanks
Sasha T: you welcome
Sasha T: We'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for your business, and for this opportunity to assist you.

Have a great day, and thanks for shopping with TigerDirect.com!
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