Overstock.com

Full review
Overstock.com is an amazing site. I first came across it because I use mypoints.com, a rewards site. They feature Overstock.com and when I enter Overstock.com from the mypoints.com website, I earn 10 points per dollar spent. All other things being even, this proves an incentive to choose Overstock.com over other sites at times.

Overstock.com has tremendous deals, low shipping rates, and an incredible inventory. I have purchased from them on many occasions successfully. The best successes have been with books, music, movies and kitchenwares. I have never had an issue with any of these items. They have always been in stock as advertised, and delivered in a matter of a few days. None of these have ever required my getting in touch with customer service.

Furniture of any kind, and any item from their world market that has to be imported has invariably required at least one contact with customer service. Delays in shipping, problems with items clearing customs, issues with the shipping company that had to be addressed by Overstock have all been issues. I don't mind having to make contact with customer service if the problem is efficiently resolved.

My primary contact with customer service has been through their "live chat" application. Click on a button near your order's history, and you will get a dialogue box. Within moments, a customer service rep will be typing back and forth with you. These folks are invariably respectful and polite. They have a rather set script with which to operate. If all you need is information, they are superb. At times where one needs action, it appears that they do not have the authority to make things happen. I feel for them.

My latest contact with these folks came with a pair of items I purchased which were to come in from Indonesia. These are to be a gift for a friend, so timing was important. I had ordered these about four weeks before the birthday to guarantee they would arrive on time. After eight days when they still had not shipped, I contacted customer service and was told that these items could take up to 10 days to ship as per notes on them on the website. Sure enough, when I looked at the item, it did indicate that. If these had still not shipped in a couple more days, I should let them know and they would look into it. When I awoke the next morning, things had indeed shipped.

When these items arrived from Indonesia six days later, they got hung up in Memphis Tennessee with Fedex with a note at Fedex that said merely "Clearance Delay." I called Fedex to ask about that. Apparently they needed some sort of paperwork or something from Overstock.com. I got in touch with Overstock.com via live chat to ask about this. I was told that from the time it arrived in the country it would take 5 to 10 days to get to me. I shouldn't worry. I was worried, but kept an eye. The weekend and a day passed. Another live chat told me that I shouldn't worry. The person on the other end was certain things would arrive in that 5-10 day period so I shouldn't worry until after 11 days had passed.

At this point, I got impatient. I wasn't looking for reassurance. I was looking for a response that said, my concerns would be addressed by someone who was in touch with Fedex and could resolve the delay. I can't get to Memphis, Tennessee to sign things. I got instead, "I understand your concern, but I am certain this will be resovled and you will have it in our ten day window. If not, please contact us again. Is there anything else I can do to help you?" I explained then that I am not a large customer, but a regular customer, that I was very unhappy with the canned responses they were permitted to give and that I wrote for a consumer review site - Epinions and was among their top 100 reviewers.

This a.m., the Clearance Delay has been resolved and my items are on their way to my local Fedex facility. That works for me. Once they are local, I can resolve any issues that might come up myself. Did commenting that I write reviews make any difference? I don't know. It feels like it did.

If all you need from Overstock.com's customer service is information, they're great. If you need action, they have not been given the authority to act. Repeated contact confirms that they are heavily scripted and the responses are standard canned responses. Am I dealing with humans or Turling machines? I just don't know. I don't care. I'm fed up with them.

I will not be buying large ticket items or anything from outside the country with Overstock.com again. I will still use them for books, movies and music. If they didn't have awards points with mypoints.com, I would be unlikely to use them even for that as there are other sites with equally good deals on those items.