Let me vent!!

My wife ordered Band of Brothers for me for Xmas on Nov 28 (she had to tell me when I brought it home used from BB). She ordered it there because she never orders anything online and knew that I used them in the past.

Out of curiosity on Monday I checked to see when it shipped but it still showed as "in process".

I called to see if it had shipped so I could cancel it and re-order elsewhere if it hadn't. They said it can take up to 14 days to arrive. No kidding, I just want to know if it shipped.

"Well, we've had problems with this title shipping out of a 3rd party warehouse. The orders show up as "in process" for quite some time. You'll probably receive it soon."

Sorry, not good enuff. It was ordered 11 days ago, I just need to know if it shipped or not. They said they would check with the warehouse and get back to me, but it takes 2 days to hear back from the warehouse to find out if it shipped.

So I wait 3 days and call back this morning. Same story, but this time it takes 2-4 days to hear back from the warehouse.

When I asked if they thought it was appropriate for a customer to have to wait 2 weeks to find out if an order shipped they said no, but they really couldn't tell me anything at this point.

I really don't want to cancel, becuase I wouldn't be surprised if it showed up today. They said they'd call back by end of day but I aint holding my breath.

I miss the old overstock. At least then you could pick up a great deal now and then. This new system they've got of shipping "overstock" from other people's warehouses and selling pre-release items is very curious.

Order from them with care.

They actually ship from Amazon.com....they are 60% owned by them.

Where did you get this information?

I can confirm that information, it's actually 80% now after the new stock swap, since I am the chairman of the board of overstock.


...one of these days anyways

They usually ship from Utah. I've never received anything from anywhere else.

This is the first time I've heard about an Amazon connection. I cannot believe they have any connection given the incredible difference in how they do business.

I'd be interested in hearing more if you have any info.

I think you may have been mistaken:

Overstock briefly partnered with Amazon earlier this year. In August, Overstock was tapped by Amazon to manage part of its electronics category, fulfilling orders on about 700 items that Amazon took through its site.

Weeks later, however, Overstock quit that agreement, citing the failure of a second deal in which Overstock would sell used computers. In published reports at the time, Byrne said Overstock sold only one computer during a three-day period through Amazon.

Interesting story though:

http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/14860.html

Of course it's a year old, things may have changed again.

Actually, I was afforded the opportunity to purchase a large share of overstock.com...The primary shareholder at roughly 60% was amazon.com. Also, overstock has never turned a profit for anyone who is interested, so I am not sure how much longer Amazon is going to float them.

They've been shipping some dvds out of Niles,IL lately. On my last 2 orders with them a couple were listed as in stock but they didn't ship all together. The first time they shipped 10 days apart, the second time they were cancelled with an email saying they were "discontinued". Later that day, those "discontinued" dvd's were available again (MST3K, for those wondering), so I ordered them with another dvd. The other dvd shipped, MST3K didn't-again. So I called them and was told they're not coming from the Utah warehouse so they have no idea if they're in stock or not. (They shipped 2 days after that.)

My most recent order was broken into 2 orders at the checkout, so I'm assuming one of them was coming from IL... so I didn't bother finishing checking out.

So when it comes from Utah, no problems. But If there's a IL item in there-good luck.

I got this off the yahoo message board (it seems to make more sense than 60%):


Amazon: Friend or Foe?

During the past two years, Overstock and Amazon.com have had several run-ins. First, Amazon said it would hand over some of its electronics fulfillment to Overstock, which pulled out of the personal computer part of the deal just days later citing weak sales.

A short time later, Overstock announced it would sell books through its site and used the announcement to take shots at Amazon. "Our competition invested massively in high-tech warehouses with allegedly labor-saving technology," Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne said at the time. "We did not, and now we can pass the savings on to the consumer."

But Overstock's SEC filing noted that Amazon is the company's largest outside shareholder, with about 23 million shares, or about 7 percent of the company.