Stay Away From Overstock.com
For Christmas, we do this thing in my family where we each pick names out of a hat and you buy that person a gift for Christmas. As I have a fair number of people in my family, this helps keep budgets constrained, and it really has become fun. This year I got my sister-in-law. Since I'm too lazy to actually go to a store, I decided to go online and get her gift. My brother told me about something that she would love (I'm not naming it yet in case she reads this). Sure enough, I found it on Overstock.com (I refuse to link to them). At the time, they had this promotion where if you bought the item by the 12/21, it would be guaranteed to be delivered by Christmas.
Well, today is 12/30 and the gift has yet to arrive. I had two live chats with one of their reps before Christmas, as I was worried about this "guarantee" due to holiday shipping volume. Nonetheless, they said a guarantee was a guarantee and that there'd be no issue. So fast-forward to today and I have one last chat to see if they would re-ship the item. I'm pasting the transcript of my conversation with "Emily" here:
Welcome to Overstock.com Customer Service, you are now chatting with Emily.
Emily: Welcome to Overstock.com! This is Emily, How may I help you today?
you: Emily, I'm not a happy camper. I bought a Christmas gift almost two weeks ago to take advantage of your "guaranteed" delivery by Christmas, and the package *still* hasn't arrived.
Emily: I'd be glad to help you with that.
Emily: To help you better, may I have your order number?
you: And this is after two previous live chats where they assured me the gift would certainly arrive by last Sunday. The order number is XXXXX.
Emily: Thank you.
Emily: For security purposes, could you please verify your full name and billing address?
you: My name and billing address is [rest removed for security]
Emily: Thank you for verifying.
Emily: May I place you on hold for a minute or two while I review the shipping status of your order?
you: yes
Emily: Thank you for staying online.
Emily: I see that your item is shipped on 12/19/05.
Emily: Most of our items are shipped within 1 to 4 business days after order completion. It takes up to 5-10 business days to deliver it to your address.
you: OK, but not with your guaranteed delivery by Christmas promotion that you were running
you: I was repeatedly assured by other LivePerson reps that the gift would indeed arrive without issue
Emily: I can certainly understand the way you feel.
Emily: I know how dissapointed you must be for not receiving your item.
you: I was disappointed. Now I'm just angry. Overstock doesn't really seem to have any interest in resolving the issue. Just issuing more assurance that it will get there at some point.
Emily: However, I suggest you to wait upto 01/03/2006 for the item to be delivered.
Emily: I apologize for the trouble you are facing with your item.
you: Is it possible to re-ship the item? At this point, the person I was sending it too isn't even at that location! She was just there visiting her family and has since left.
Emily: I suggest you to wait upto the item is delivered.
Emily: However, if it is still not delivered you can get back to us.
Emily: Once you receive your item if you wish to keep it you can keep it.
Emily: If you wish to return it back,you can return it and we will issue full refund.
you: But I'm not receiving it. It was a Christmas gift! If I were receiving it, I'd have cancelled it a while ago.
you: So effectively, Overstock isn't willing to do anything to correct the situation, in spite of previous guarantees.
Emily: I suggest you to wait upto 01/03/2005.
Emily: I can certainly understand the inconvenience caused to you.
you: Yeah, I got that part. There are thousands of internet shopping sites, and I just can't believe that Overstock wouldn't move to differentiate itself as a reputable company by doing more than saying "just wait." I will be taking my business elsewhere. Thank you for your time.
Two things came out of this chat:
1) I will never do business with Overstock.com again
2) They are clearly using canned responses for the most part. Notice the "I suggest you to wait upto 01/03/2005." It's spelled wrong (the "upto") multiple times. While I don't have the previous chats transcripts, many of the answers were exactly the same ("I'd be glad to help you with that.")
I'm a pretty laid back person when it comes to this sort of stuff. I understand that no system is perfect and that problems do arise. But, to me, it's just terrible customer service to not offer to do any more than just "sit and wait". That's entirely unacceptable and a fast-track to shutting your doors. Looks like it's back to Amazon.
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I feel bad for you, but I did read a funny story about them this morning. Read this and you'll understand why they have problems.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/29/overstock_...
Good Luck,
Brad
i shall avoid them like the bird flu!
Critter, I was so tempted to call, but it would have just been a maze of phone system options and being placed on hold that I decided to just do the online approach instead. I try and be careful because I know it's not that specific rep's fault for my issues. If I stay behind an online chat, then I'm more likely to think before I type!
i unleash hell upon them.. and /then/ apologize to the reps..
I can't even imagine how incensed you must be to get this kind of run-around. Christmas only comes once -- how can they possibly make up for their total failure to fulfil this promise? Apparently, they don't even care to make up for it at all.
You've certainly done everyone a favor by bringing this problem to light.
Thanx for the heads-up. While I have never purchased anything from Overstock, I have perused their site looking for stuff.
Jeff: I'm sorry that even though you got an assurance from our representative that the item will be shipped, it was cancelled.
Jeff: I absolutely understand how you are feeling right now and I would have felt the same.
you: I want the product that I ordered, paid for, and received confirmation about.
Jeff: However, we have found that when customers bring their concern to our notice, we are able to resolve it to their satisfaction. I certainly understand the inconvenience caused to you.
you: Alexa spent the entire IM conversation apologizing. That's why I asked to speak to you.
you: My satisfaction = the product I purchased. Not a refund.
Jeff: I understand that you don't want the refund and want the item. However, let me tell you that currently we don't have this item in stock.