Yesterday, TigerDirect announced that it is expanding its Bitcoin payment acceptance to Canadian customers of its TigerDirect.ca unit. Similar to its US store, bitcoin Payments are being processed using services from BitPay.
TigerDirect is proud to announce that we're officially accepting #bitcoin in Canada.
— TigerDirect (@TigerDirect) June 17, 2014Simultaneously, representatives from TigerDirect’s web development team held a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) on r/Bitcoin answering questions about their experiences accepting bitcoin since January of this year.
Among some of the answers being provided:
Reductions is fees for bitcoin payments – No commitments to a standard reduction, similar to what Coinbase made available for its merchants to apply, but TigerDirect does run bitcoin only related promotions
Popular Sold Items – “Graphic cards and other mining equipment. Since bitcoin has dipped it's now more luxury items such as TVs, Tablets, PCs, and More!”
Brick and Mortar Bitcoin Payments – Answered that it is on the roadmap but no official word
Refunds – At this time, they are only dealing with one side bitcoin payments, so refunds are only in form of a TigerDirect gift card with no option of receiving bitcoins or cash. (Editors note: Two sided bitcoin transactions is currently limited to only a few merchants processors)
Integration – Interestingly, they mentioned this wasn’t much of an issue since most of their web developers are bitcoin miners, and after a few meetings with BitPay they rolled it out.
Why the Launched Bitcoin Payments – TigerDirect prides itself in being a leader in technology; accepting Bitcoin is just another way to exemplify this.
Not being answered, was whether they were holding onto any of their bitcoins or converting them into fiat, with a response to the questions as follows:
Well... The ones we do hold were spending on trips to space, buying Teslas, floor seats to Kings games, and buying all the 50 Cent albums we can get our hands on!
However, another answer appeared to tip that they were converting them all, as the representative answered that one of the hardest issues about receiving bitcoins is dealing with accounts before payment as they contrast to credit cards where TigerDirect receives cash upfront. As there is a delay between the order, processing by BitPay, and receiving fiat, the answer appears to indicate that they are in fact converting all of their bitcoins.
