What is Overstock.com?
Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 10:17 am
Post subject: What is Overstock?
Honored Client,
Hello. My name is Patrick Byrne and I work at Overstock.com.
Overstock is best explained through a story. I went to high school near Washington, DC. There I had a friend named, “Charlie” (a.k.a. “Chalooka”). Whatever I or other friends were considering buying, be it electronics, car parts, a jacket, etc., Charlie would always say, “I have a friend in the business,” or, “I know a guy at the warehouse, I’ll get you a special deal on it.”
We had our suspicions about Charlie, but learned in time that he really did have friends in the business. Whatever business. Looking for a new car stereo? Charlie had a cousin who installed them and had a special deal on a cancelled order of high-end Bose. An affordable trip down to Florida for Spring Break? Charlie had a friend who was a travel agent and knew of a recent cancellation in a good Miami hotel. Needed a last minute gift? Charlie had an uncle with a jewelry shop who’d make a deal on a gold necklace.
In short, Charlie knew people. And he knew people who knew people. He used his connections to look after his friends.
We know that not everyone knows someone like my old friend Charlie. But that is OK, because you need only know Overstock.com. Behind our website and computers and advertising there is a core group of people a lot like Charlie, women and men who “know people,” experts in their fields who scour the world looking for special opportunities to bring to website. Whatever you are looking for, we’re your friend in the business, and we’re looking out for you.
Respectfully submitted,
Patrick M. Byrne
Overstock.com
PS: I hope I am not being intrusive, but from time to time I think I will tack a note like this onto the bottom of an email. These will appear on our message board so you can reply. Maybe it will be possible to start a new kind of conversation: one-to-many-to-many-to-one. In any case, if in the future you find this intrusive please feel free to ignore this, and accept my humble apologies.
Posted in Take 5 With Patrick - Essays on Unrelated Subjects |
February 15th, 2008 at 8:03 am
Patrick, You really need to work on your customer service! I recently bought an item that allegedly shipped, it never arrived, I got an email saying I’d returned it, and that my credit card had been credited. In short, you ruined a Wedding Present, you didn’t have the item in stock. Had I been told this immediately, instead of being told it had shipped I could have gotten something else. Your customer service reps STILL won’t admit that you guys blew it! I’ll never shop Overstock again and won’t recommend it to anyone.
March 19th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
What good is all of your ranting about the hedge funds, promoting WorldStock.com and $2.95 shipping if your customer service sucks?
I’m another dissatisfied customer but I have several websites with thousands of visitors each month. I will make sure to copy the Bonney Koski message as proof that your company doesn’t really give a crap about people and that your rantings and promotions are only to promote your company, that you could care less about the people.
Fortunately everybody knows at least 25 people and with several thousand visitors to my site each month, I will be able to get the real truth out about this company and its phony founder!
March 20th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
I am not a customer, merely a prospective customer. However, I have phoned several times to ask questions about products for sale. Each time, I have spoken w/a rep whose first language was English and, I am assuming this, was based in the US. I am vehemently opposed to outsourcing (yes, I know people never protested it when production workers’ jobs, i.e., garment workers’ were sent to China; I was negligent) and consider outsourcing nothing less than economic terrorism. So many Internet-based companies outsource their cs (eBay/paypal, earthlink, etc.), but I am guessing that O does not. (Again, my conclusion is based upon my experiences w/various cs reps as stated above.)
I would like to know Mr. Byrne’s views on outsourcing, why (if he has indeed) chosen not to outsource and what benefits he sees as accruing to the company and the US, in general, from that decision, and how consumers might take constructive action to STOP outsourcing, etc.
Unfortunately, outsourcing promotes racism. While I know it is wrong for me to vent my hostilities on dirt-poor people in Third World countries, they are the only humans w/whom I get to interact. I couldn’t get a message to Meg Whitman if my life depended on it.
Thank you for your time. I most likely will NOT read this blog, so a personal reply would be appreciated.
smart ‘mo
March 23rd, 2008 at 4:02 am
this is Greasy
March 23rd, 2008 at 6:35 am
Greasy, indeed. This type of self-promotion nonsense isn’t interesting at all and only serves to plug Overstock.com.
I got linked to this blog thru an article about Patrick’s ranting and raving about how Wikipedia is mind control. Interestingly enough, Wikipedia has banned Overstock IP’s from submitting contributions/edits because of all the self-promoting nonsense that was contributed by Overstock.com’s staff. I couldn’t understand why Wikipedia would take such drastic action — until I came and read this blog!
Patrick — maybe you should stick to traditional advertising instead of abusing the web for publicity. It’ll be just fine by me if Wikipedia continues to ban your company from editing it’s index for life. Now if only those smart guys at Wikipedia could get rid of the spammers, too.
March 24th, 2008 at 7:35 am
Big words about the social right and wrong from a company that sells consumer’s email addresses.
May 8th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
I’m curious, and in a non-accusational tone, how do you find out these things? I wouldn’t know where to begin about who or what company had sold my e-mail address. I do get a lot of spam, but I also do a lot of online shopping. I wouldn’t know how to trace an add to which company had sold my e-mail address for that add.