Here’s how legit, safe, and reliable Overstock is:
Overstock is a longstanding website where customers can purchase a huge range of items, sometimes at very competitive price points.
It is definitely a legitimate business, and overall, it is safe and reliable.
You can trust that your transactions are adequately protected, and you can expect orders as advertised.
So if you want to learn all about Overstock and how legit, safe, and reliable it is exactly, then this article is for you.
Let’s jump into it!
Is Overstock Safe? (4 Reasons)
The questions today are whether Overstock is legit, safe, and reliable.
I want to start with safety, because when it comes to using the internet, and especially making purchases, most people care about safety the most.
So, let’s start with a simple answer.
Overstock is safe.
How do I justify saying that?
Overstock uses industry standards to protect users in a number of ways.
The site secures transactions to ensure your financial information won’t be stolen when you make a purchase.
The site is also protected for safe browsing.
Your interactions on the site are not easy for malicious parties to view or intercept.
Lastly, Overstock takes steps to protect information that you store there, such as your contact information or financial information.
It’s one thing for me to say these things.
Let’s take a closer look at each concept and see how Overstock tries to protect users.
#1 Secure Transactions
When it comes to buying things online, and especially things that can be as pricey and valuable as jewelry and other big-ticket items on the site, the biggest safety concern is probably the transaction itself.
Is the transaction secure?
Can your credit card information be stolen from shopping on Overstock?
Let’s start with good news.
Overstock provides secure transactions.
In fact, it’s been in this business for a long time, and it has a great reputation for transactional security.
You don’t have to worry about your financial information being stolen or scammed when you use Overstock.
It’s not that kind of site.
#2 Safe Browsing
In fact, Overstock uses powerful encryption to protect users when they make purchases and even when they browse the site.
It’s built on HTTPS, which is widely used and respected encryption that is intended to protect users of countless sites across the interwebs.
Whenever you’re worried about the safety of a website, HTTPS is a good place to start.
It’s not the full story, but it’s important, and Overstock checks this box.
Hackers or other malicious parties cannot easily intercept your online activity when you use Overstock.
And that goes a long way toward providing you with good safety.
#3 Protected Financial Information
Here’s the third piece of the puzzle.
Overstock might not be scamming you, and hackers can’t easily intercept your purchases.
But doesn’t Overstock have to save your data in order to work?
The short answer is yes.
Overstock, like any other site that handles transactions, will record your financial information when you make a purchase.
So, it’s fair to worry about how they store that information.
I don’t have detailed access to how Overstock secures information.
But, the site has handled financial information for millions of users in its long history, and it hasn’t been giving out credit cards that whole time.
The simple answer is that your information is safe when you use Overstock.
#4 User Data
In this one area, Overstock gets a mediocre score.
When you use a site to make purchases, you’re going to have to input contact and financial information.
The site can also keep track of how you use it.
In these ways, Overstock is very normal.
The site does save data related to you when you use it.
While Overstock takes measures to prevent any theft of that data, they also share some of that data too.
Now, Overstock does not share your financial information in insecure ways.
That’s not something you need to worry about.
But according to the site’s privacy policy, they might share your other data.
That’s honestly pretty normal in the tech industry, but some people are bothered by it, so it’s worth mentioning.
Is Overstock Legitimate? (2 Points)
Ok. That was a thorough look at safety.
That’s nice, but what if Overstock decides to just steal your money?
Or, perhaps more realistically, what if the site goes out of business or otherwise can’t back its own promises?
How is the business legitimate?
To answer that question, I’ll point to two powerful indicators that you can trust this site—at least as much as you can trust any major company.
First, Overstock has been around for a long time.
If it was an illegitimate company, it would be hard to keep up the ruse for multiple decades.
Second, Overstock is a publicly-traded company.
I’ll get into the details in a bit, but generally speaking, publicly traded companies are properly registered and legitimate, at least as far as regulations are concerned.
#1 A Long History
I’ve mentioned the long history a few times, but I should probably take a minute to really expand on that.
Overstock was founded in 1997.
It’s been in business ever since.
That’s roughly 25 years of business so far.
It’s a pretty long and strong track record.
Now, Overstock doesn’t have a perfect record.
The company has seen some scandals over the years, but overall, its longevity is a sign of its legitimacy.
#2 Publicly Traded
Here’s another sign that Overstock is a legitimate business.
It’s publicly traded.
If you’ve ever seen the jumps a company has to go through in order to initiate a public offering with the SEC, you’ll know that it’s incredibly difficult for an illegitimate business to get through it all.
But Overstock isn’t just publicly traded.
It’s listed on the Nasdaq and Russell 2000 indices.
That means it’s a very high-profile company.
Its financial dealings are all public knowledge.
Even if the company has had ups and downs, it’s not some back alley shady website.
It’s the real deal.
Is Overstock Reliable? (2 Reasons)
Lastly, we come to reliability.
A business might be safe and legitimate, but that doesn’t mean it’s good at what it does.
Once again, the long history suggests that Overstock is doing at least something right, but there’s more to consider.
How can we really know how good Overstock is at its job?
The best way to explain Overstock’s reliability is to take you through a bit of the process and history.
In short, Overstock is reliable because customers get their items, and the items are as advertised.
That said, Overstock is not a perfect business.
No online retailer is.
While I would generally say that overstock is in fact reliable, there are some facets of unreliability that I also need to discuss (and I will).
#1 Real Items
Overstock was probably famous for offering cheap jewelry before anything else.
The major draw of the site was that people could get cheap jewelry, but it was real.
The key to the whole thing is in the name.
Overstock only sold surplus and returned items.
The nature of these items enabled Overstock to acquire them for well below typical market value, and it passed those savings on to customers.
So, the items were real, but they were also a lot less expensive than normal.
Today you can find furniture, decor, lighting, and tons more.
Overstock does sell things that aren’t exclusively from the surplus and returned items bins.
Overstock has its own manufacturing sources now and even sells exclusive items.
Because of that, you can get a lot more stuff, and you’ll see a much wider range of items.
Underneath all of that, you’re getting the real deal.
You get what you buy on Overstock, and that, more than anything else, speaks to the reliability of the site.
#2 Various Results
But, there’s a little more to consider.
Overstock is generally reliable, but it’s still not perfect.
Every online retailer has its drawbacks.
With Overstock, you’ll see a couple of things that might negatively impact your experience.
The first is varying quality.
Overstock has updated its model over the years, but the goal is still to get bargain deals for its customers.
Because of that, item quality will vary.
Some items will be genuinely wonderful deals. Others, not so much.
It’s a mixed bag, and honestly, that’s probably what we should all expect from such a wide variety.
Similarly, prices will be all over the place.
Some prices are very low because they are overstock items or they were made for very low costs.
Other items aren’t entirely cheap. After all, Overstock is competing with some pretty big e-retailers out there.
The biggest complaint you’re likely to see when you browse overstock reviews is shipping times.
In order to get access to low-cost items, Overstock sources their products from all over the world.
Sometimes, that nice couch is super cheap because it’s shipping from Timbuktu (maybe even literally).
So, you might run into longer-than-average shipping times. You might even consider the price you pay for getting great deals.
Still, I would rate Overstock as reliable, but you can see that your experience won’t be the same in all aspects.
And if you know that going in, it might be easier to set good expectations.
The bottom line is that if you order something from Overstock, you should expect it to arrive, even if it takes a while.
