Topic: "Why I suck" or "Why Overstock.com won't exist in ten years."

[UncleBob]

Geesh.

So who remembers that NES-edition GameCube that I went all crazy over about a month ago?

Anywhoo, here's the short version of the story:

I went to order the GameCube with a 10% off Coupon Code.  Then, I saw that I could get $30 in credit for signing up for an Overstock.com Visa Credit Card - so I signed up and was approved (and I have no plans to use this card) and got $30 off.  However, when I placed the order for the Cube, somehow there was an issue trying to stack the coupons and I only got the 10% off.  Yet my account said I had about $20 left in gift credit on my account.  Apparently, what happened was, somehow, the computer calculated the 10% off, discounted the order that much, but deducted that from the $30 in Gift Credit.

So, after some dealings, I got the additional $30 applied to my order, as was the initial order.  But, when the Overstock.com rep credited my order the $30, the $20+ was still on my account.  Fine, dandy, whatever.

So, I get the GCN, it's crappy, so I send it back in (after much hoopla) and they credit my card for the price of the GameCube (after discounts).  But I still wanted my full $30 for signing up for the Overstock.com Visa Card.

After some hoopla with that, they put a $30 coupon on my account.  Great!  So I planned to use this coupon on a DVD set my wife wanted.  So I placed the order and the coupon didn't apply itself at checkout like I was told it would.  So, back dealing with Overstock.com reps.  Apparently, coupons won't apply to "Media" items, including DVDs.  Well, that was bull crap because the $30 gift card that I got for the Overstock.com Visa Card would have applied to this item - so, after dealing with them *more*, they credited the DVD order $30... but left the $30 coupon on my account.

So, as of an hour or so ago, I had a $37 DVD gift set for $7 coming in the mail, about $20 in Gift Credit and a $30 coupon.

Now, I really want a DSLite, but I cannot justify spending $130 on it since I have a regular DS that works just fine and Wii is coming out in a bit.  But, an $80 DSLite... yummy.

Unfortunatly, I couldn't do it.  So I went in and spoke with a live rep and had them take both the Gift Credit and the Coupon off my account so that I wouldn't be tempted to use them.  Despite the fact that, after all the hell I went through with them, I deserved them...  I just couldn't do it.

Anywhoo, I suck for not going for a brand new black DSLite for $80 and Overstock.com won't be in business in ten years if they keep handing money out for free and making their customers jump through so many hoops to deal with them.

[decoyman]

Wow, that's quite the show of willpower...  I don't know if I could give up $50 that easily.

But isn't there something you could have bought that didn't require you to shell out an extra $80? I mean, you kind of earned that money through all the hassle you went through. My wife worked at a restaurant, and if someone wasn't happy, they would give them a free meal voucher to make up for it. They were happy to pay for someone's meal and get a chance at redeeming themselves and their establishment, rather than losing a customer for life. To me, it wouldn't hurt to let them make good for all the crap you went through.

[Arbok]

Quote
Originally posted by: decoyman
They were happy to pay for someone's meal and get a chance at redeeming themselves and their establishment, rather than losing a customer for life.

It's more than just a customer. If someone leaves your establishment angry you can be assured that they will spread negative word of mouth about the business, which can cost the firm far more than just the repeat sales of one individual over time (case in point, UncleBob's ordeal with Overstock.com and the reaction of those who read it).

As for the situation at hand... I would have utilized that $50 worth of "store credit" without even a second thought to the matter ;-)

[UncleBob]

Oh, I totally agree with the idea of giving away stuff to make an upset customer happy.  And if they had legitimately given me the $50 worth of credit for my troubles, I'd be more than thrilled (or, perhaps, if they had told me to keep it when I contacted them about taking it off my account)...  But $50 is a lot of money and I just didn't feel right, basically, stealing that much from them - even if it was due to their own errors.

And, yeah, I *could* have gotten something with the credit on my account and not had to pay $80 more... but I want a DSLite and I could have had one for $80!

[decoyman]

In that case, you did the right thing. I mean, you're not out any of your own money anyways, so you haven't really lost anything.

I totally understand, though: I'm suffering from DSL envy myself, and one for $80, well... I don't know if I could have resisted

[UncleBob]

Guess what? My wife's DVD set came in a few days ago.  She finally got around to start watching it yesterday and when she pulled out the second disk, she noticed that the spot where the third disk was supposed to be, the sixth disk was there - and the sixth disk was also where the sixth disk was supposed to be.. there were two disk sixes in there and no disk three.

She didn't find it as funny as I did.