Complain about a product or service

Overstock.com

2855 E. Cottonwood Parkway, Suite 500
Salt Lake City, UT 84121

Philip of Portland, OR (11/10/05)
I paid $914 for patio chairs for my restaurant from Overstock.com. I paid for them using PalPal. A week later Overstock.com informed me that they were not it stock. I asked for a refund but they claimed they only issue store credits. I have since found another product and have no use for a store credit for a product they do not have.

I am out $914 but have a store credit - and as suggested by the Overstock.com rep - I can buy some CD's! $914 worth?

Lorraine of Walnut Creek, CA (8/28/05):
On August 11th I placed an order with Overstock.com that was to be billed through Bill Me Later, with the terms of 90-days same as cash. On August 22nd I received a bill from Bill Me Later for immediate payment.

I called Overstock.com and was told this was a BML error; BML said it was an Overstock.com error. After several calls and emails, I realized neither company was going to correct this error. Then I received an email shipping notification from Overstock.com. I replied to Overstock.com explaining the billing problem and requested it be corrected.

Overstock.com's web site stated that in order to get the 90-days same as cash you have to use Bill Me Later as the payment method. Now that the order has gone through, BML knows nothing about it and swears Overstock.com is in error and Overstock.com swears BML has made some kind of error.

I want to be billed as per the agreement of the order I placed on August 11th. If I had wanted to pay interest on the purchase, I could have used my credit card at 15% lower APR than Bill Me Later. Now they want me to pay them a bozo interest rate for several years. I think this is a new twist on the old bait and switch scam. I will not use either company again.

Carrie of Chandler, AZ (8/4/05):
We ordered a bed seven weeks ago from Overstock.com. They say on their website that they ship using DHL. However in our case they sub-contracted the delivery, which meant they did not control the actual delivery.

When the order finally showed up at my house, Overstock sent no headboard but sent two sets of bed railings. I have called Overstock.com and talked to many people, including two supervisors and always get a different story. They don't see to have their act together. After four weeks of trying to get the shipping problem corrected, I was told on 8/1 that they would credit my Visa, send me the headboard, and let me keep the two sets of bed rails.

I was so relieved that I thought some type of customer service was finally being done on Overstock’s end. Unfortunately, that was wishful thinking. Today, 8/3, I was told that the product is out of stock.

I just went to another company’s website and I'll have a headboard delivered in three weeks.

Patricia of Ava MO writes (11/24/01):
I ordered a "refurbished" Canon scanner from this company on October 10 using my Visa debit card. The price I was charged was $102.95. When the scanner arrived, I tried to use it and found that it was defective right out of the box. It made a lot of different loud noises and would not stop making noises no matter how long I left it turned on.

So I contacted overstock.com for RMA information. They told me they would send me an RMA number and a return shipping label to print out. It took almost three weeks and numerous phone calls from me for them to send these items. In the meantime, they promised me several times over the phone and once by email to replace the scanner for the same price I paid for it originally.

On Tuesday, Nov. 20, I received an email from a Wes Alford saying that my Visa had been credited $122.95 because they wanted to "compensate" me for the difficulties I'd had in dealing with them. I wrote back to him and said I didn't want my account credited, I wanted the replacement scanner. I specifically told him, in my email reply, that I was authorizing overstock.com to charge my Visa card in the amount of $102.95. The next day, a credit from overstock.com in the amount of $102.95 appeared on my online banking statement, plus I got an email from overstock.com saying that my new order was confirmed and my card was being charged $119.45, "which includes shipping."

I called the bank to tell them not to honor this charge because I had only authorized $102.95. the bank told me there's nothing they can do about this and I'd have to take it up with overstock.com and/or contact the BBB or some other consumer protection agency or hire a lawyer. I sure won't hire a lawyer over $16.50, and talking to overstock.com gets me nothing.

Overstock.com had the use of my money for over 5 weeks while I had no scanner. I told them that I was not able to just go out and buy another scanner. Mr. Alford wrote to me that they had a lot of other scanners available but only one left of the scanner I originally ordered. Their overcharge on my debit card will result in a fee from my bank because it will take my balance down below their minimum for not having a service charge.

This might not be a big deal for most people, but it is for me. I was cut off of my disability pension in August and have been trying to start a home business. I need a scanner in order to proceed with that business, and I did a lot of research on scanners before deciding on the one I ordered from overstock.com. It is still the scanner I want, and I told them so, and they want to squeeze a little extra out of me because they say, "It's the last one we have" and they think I'll just go ahead and accept the higher price because even at the higher price it is still the lowest price I could find on it.

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