Overstock means having to say you're sorry

I think I've discovered the cause of the computer problems at the Overstock website.

To refresh, I ordered a little something there on October 20th, only to have the order cancelled 4 days later because of a computer issue they've had that ignored payments made to them by Paypal. That began the odyssey, which is customer service in the 21st Century.

What I've found out in the meantime is:

• Overstock employs a lot of people who are very good at saying they are sorry. Really, really extraordinary apologists. Outstanding in their field, seriously.

• When Overstock says 24 hours, they must mean 48 hours plus. 4 days is really supposed to be 4 days, but in practice should actually be a week. But it really means 10 days or 2 weeks. I wonder what kind of math they use there. Is it a "new" new math?

• When they say they are escalating an issue, that doesn't necessarily mean they are they are going to resolve the issue in a timely manner. It might mean they are raising the level of frustration. (I'm not sure.)

• This glitch apparently went on for two weeks before being either discovered or resolved, during which time all their orders paid for by Paypal were cancelled, even though the money was deducted from the customer's Paypal accounts.

• There appears to be only one person at Overstock handling the Paypal issue. A supervisor told me that person currently has over 1,500 emails pertaining to issues with payments received via Paypal where the ordered was cancelled.

• Overstock.com apparently believes it is better to frustrate customers with their inability to deal with this problem in a timely manner, rather than . . . oh, maybe hiring temp help to help slough through the backlog.

• That the first level of customer service sole purpose for existence appears to be to apologize, gather information about a customer's issue, redirect that issue to another department, ask if there is anything else they can do for you (even if they haven't done anything) and then thank you for visiting their site and wish you a great day.

So finally today, I broke down and called customer service (which actually was faster than the online chat option) and spoke with a real live person. She apologized eloquently and offered to escalate yet again (Level 4, if this was "Doom" I'd have really cool weaponry by now.) I told her I'd been escalated 3 times already without resolution, and I was tired of the process. She told me I could speak to a supervisor, and I accepted.

When this guy got on the phone, he had obviously read all about what was happening, as he had my whole story down. Yet all he could do for me, he said, was to escalate me yet again.

I freaked.

You know what, I'd had it. I had been promised timely help, and not had it. I had been guaranteed a resolution and not gotten it and I'd been assured a positive outcome and not seen it. I told him what I thought of escalating this for the 5th time.

This is when he narc'd on what kind of problems they had with the Paypal stuff, and how long it really would be before I saw the end of it all. I told him I didn’t care about their problems, because that was their issue. I told him that if they knew what the issue was, they could have just shipped the twenty-dollar item and I'd have received it a week and a half ago and everyone would have been happy. Instead they did this, and they had lost me as a customer forever, and I was out in the world telling my story.

He asked if I could hold on while he called up two levels.

When he got back on, he promised that I'd have my credit by the end of the day.

So I got off the phone sometime after 11 AM, and at 11:35, I got a message from Paypal stating:

Overstock.com (paypal@overstock.com) has issued you a full or partial refund for your payment.
Please do not reply to this email. Email sent to this address cannot be answered.

Message From Seller:
Refund $21.95 in reference of invoice #21640412 that cancelled due to system error. Thanks


Now the truth is that I've spent more time and energy than it was worth to get this refund, but on the same token I couldn't let them have my money. So now they have me as a pissed off ex-customer. They didn't sell me anything, and they never will. Don't they realize that?

If I had been Overstock, here's what I would have done.

I'd have emailed all those people whose orders were cancelled and ask that they reply with their Paypal confirmation number. Then I'd have shipped those orders. I'd have made the sale, and wouldn't have created the nightmare. I'd also have had the chance to tell all those people that I'd ticked off by canceling their order that I'd made a mistake, but was going to follow through in a method that was the least inconvenient to them. Then my apology might not have sounded so hollow. And then I'd have felt that I could really ask if there was anything else I could do for them without feeling like such a smacked ass.