Overstock.com: Good Deals...Some of the Time
Written: Oct 24 '03 (Updated Oct 24 '03)
| Ease of Ordering: |
 |
|
| Selection: |
|
|
| On-Time Delivery: |
 |
|
|
| Full Review |
Shopping on-line has become one of my favorite past times in the last several years. Ever since I first logged into the internet and made my first on- line purchase (through Amazon.com), I have been intrigued with shopping via the internet. It’s so easy to just roll out of bed, enter a few bits on information into a screen, and then wait patiently for your merchandise to arrive in the mail.
I’ve experienced both the good and the bad of on- line shopping. And one of the fairly decent experiences has been the web site Overstock.com, an on- line store with a wide variety of merchandise just waiting to be purchased.
What Does This Site Have to Offer?:
Overstock.com is a general merchandise store with items available in the following categories:
Apparel- This area of the site includes items like clothing, shoes, sunglasses, scarves, belts, gloves, etc.
Books, Movies, CD’s, Games- This is the media part of the site, with literature, VHS films, DVD’s, music, video game systems, pc software games, and more.
Electronics- Here you will find merchandise for sale like computers, cameras, camcorders, printers, scanners, keyboards, even inkjet cartridges and toner.
Home and Garden- The home and garden section includes indoor and outdoor home furnishings and tools, like bedding, lamps, vacuums, cookware, heaters, power tools, etc. You can also buy decorative items, like area rugs, bird feeders, landscape lights, chimes, and others.
Jewelry, Gifts, Watches- Fine jewelry, gift baskets, wine, watches, flowers, and other luxury/surprise items can be found in this section.
Sporting Goods- In this section, you will find things for sale like golf clubs, athletic apparel, goggles, camping gear, ice skates, skateboards, fishing gear, and so on.
Handmade- A unique part of Overstock.com, this section includes hand made items assembled by people from different countries like India, Mexico, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, and other places.
Travel- Here, you can purchase airline tickets, hotels, and car rentals for U.S destinations and around the world. The search function is quick and simple.
Shipping:
Overstock.com keeps things simple when it comes to shipping. If you place an order and you live in the 48 contiguous states, you will be charged a flat rate of only $2.95 (on media purchases, the rate is lower if you buy only one or two items). This rate applies regardless of the dollar size of your order or the physical size. Whether you’re ordering a few CD’s or a big screen television, you will still pay this flat, low rate.
Overstock.com will ship to Alaska or Hawaii, and to many foreign countries as well. But if you live in one of these places, you will have to pay a little bit more for your shipping. It will also cost you more if you order something from the travel department and request to receive hard copies of your travel confirmation. If you do this, it will cost you an additional $20.
Payment Methods:
Overstock.com allows payment by credit card and they accept American Express, Master Card, Visa, and Discover. You can also use Paypal. But you cannot pay by check, cash, money order, or any other traditional means of payment.
Final Thoughts:
Overstock.com is a nice, easy to use web service that does include an occasional bargain price on popular merchandise. I make on- line purchases all the time, and this is one of the places I make sure to check, to see if the price offered is the best one offered on the internet.
With Overstock.com, I have found that on many items, this site does offer a cost that’s lower than average. The items I purchase most frequently on the internet would include books, CD’s, and travel- related services. Comparing the prices of popular book titles to say, Amazon.com, I find that the majority of them are, indeed, a little bit less expensive if purchased through Overstock.com. The same is true of CD’s. But with travel, I am usually able to find better prices elsewhere. The same can be said for electronics. It’s a mixed bag with Overstock.com, which is why you need to check carefully as you surf each web site and compare not just the quoted price, but the overall, bottom- line price (with shipping and other charges factored in) to make sure you’re getting the best deal.
One thing than can make Overstock.com less expensive than the competition is the low shipping costs. This is especially true with big- ticket items. Some web sites charge you based on how much money you spend and/or the weight of the item purchased. Overstock.com charges just a flat fee of $2.95 but before you get excited, I need to stress that you still need to make sure to check the bottom- line price. For instance, if you’re considering making a purchase of a new television through another web site that carries a shipping charge of $20, Overstock.com could offer a base price that’s up to $17.05 higher and still be a better deal overall. But if Overstock.com’s price is $17.06 greater or more, then the bottom- line total cost would be higher with Overstock.com. Oh, and keep in mind that you can make your shipping faster, but only if you select the option to expedite. If you do this, it will cost you extra money. Unless this is absolutely necessary, I think it’s best to wait the few extra days and get the low, $2.95 shipping price. The additional shipping charges could easily negate any advantages of using Overstock.com.
This web site doesn’t have the massive selection that you get in many other web services. It also doesn’t have the best searching mechanism I’ve ever seen. Let’s say for example that I’m looking for a magazine on home decorating. Magazines are lumped together in the same section as books. This means that my search is going to include both books and magazines relating to home decorating. This would be ok, except for one thing: there is no easy way to distinguish between the two. Thus, I have to keep clicking through pages and pages of search results until I find the magazine I’m looking for. One would think that entering a more specific title would help matters, but I’m afraid this isn’t the case. For instance, if I try to search for the magazine “Caribbean Travel and Life” which is a specific, word- for- word title, I am presented with more than 25,000 search results! And there is no way to narrow the list down- I just have to click “next” until I find my magazine. You actually have better luck searching in this site if you use fewer words rather than more. If I conduct the same search and ask only for “Caribbean”, I am presented with a more manageable list of 87 matches.
Overstock.com offers members the opportunity to post reviews of different items and to read reviews and comments left by other members. The reviews aren’t like Epinions- they are very short and simple and often don’t say very much at all. Another service offered by Overstock.com is an indicator that tells you what the chances are that your merchandise will be sold out quickly. This is shown on some but not all items in the site. I don’t know how seriously I would take this. It could just be a gimmick to increase sales. Besides, no matter how popular an item might be, you can always find it someplace else on the web.
To buy something through this site, you need to setup an account first, but this is simple and it only involves entering your e-mail address, first & last name, zip code, and a password. Once you sign up, you will receive a weekly newsletter from Overstock.com (if you don’t want this, you have to remember to click the appropriate box) informing you about weekly specials. The newsletters are ok, but they often contain bargains on items that will only interest a few people. If your e-mail account is already cluttered, you might be wise to skip this option and forego receiving the newsletter.
Another thing you need to be careful about it is Overstock.com’s return policy. Many items, like CD’s, DVD’s, software, swimwear, and others are excluded from the return policy completely. What’s worse is that you have only 20 days from the shipping date to submit a return. If your order takes longer than normal to arrive, you will have even fewer days left to return it. It matters not that your order was a little late. Overstock.com bases its return policy on the date it was shipped- not the date you received your merchandise in the mail.
Overall, Overstock.com is an average on- line store. I’m satisfied with the merchandise I ordered through this service. My price was lower than with other sites and I received it at my doorstep in 4 working days, which was actually faster than promised. But I can also see how some shoppers could become very impatient with this site. The weak search function and the lack of a huge database of items to choose from make this a marginally- recommended web site. It’s a hit or miss game and you need to make sure you compare the total cost between this and another on- line store before you make a purchase.
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Books
|
|
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.