The Consumer Complaints Blog

To say that Patrick Byrne is a complex corporate executive would be an understatement.

On one hand, the founder, chairman and CEO of Overstock.com is a well-known vocal proponent of free markets, smaller government and school choice. But at the same time, he’s called for greater SEC oversight, has written a CEO Owner’s Guide to ensure stronger ethics in business leadership, and is adamant about a crackdown on naked short selling of stock, a stance that has provoked the wrath of Wall Street.

Patrick Michael Byrne is chairman and CEO of Overstock.com, Inc., a Utah-based internet retailer that has been publicly traded since 2002. Under Patrick’s leadership the company’s annual revenue has grown from $1.8 million in 1999 to over $800 million in 2009.

Patrick received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and Asian studies from Dartmouth College, a master’s in philosophy from Cambridge University as a Marshall Scholar,and a doctorate in philosophy from Stanford University. He has taught at the university level and frequently guest-lectures on business, the Internet, leadership and ethics.

Before founding Overstock.com, Patrick served as chairman, president and CEO of Centricut, LLC, a manufacturer of industrial torch consumables, then held the same three positions at Fechheimer Brothers, Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway company that manufactures police, firefighter and military uniforms.

In 2001, Patrick began Worldstock.com, Overstock.com’s socially responsible store for products handcrafted by artisans from developing nations and rural areas of the USA. To date, more than $50 million has been returned to Worldstock’s artisan suppliers.

A self-described “classical liberal,” Patrick believes that our nation’s future depends primarily on a sound educational system and a healthy capital market. Towards those ends, Patrick serves as chairman of the Milton & Rose Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, supporting legislative reform to bring educational choice to parents. Patrick has also founded 19 schools internationally that currently educate more than 6,000 combined students.

In 2005, Patrick began a vigorous campaign against corruption in our capital markets through securities manipulation. His stance on naked short selling – an illegal form of market manipulation  experts believe has damaged thousands of promising public companies -quickly caught the attention of Wall Street analysts and reporters and remains a point of high controversy today, as the country recovers from the worst financial disaster since the Great Depression. “Our capital markets mean your savings,” Byrne says about his campaign. “Rogue hedge funds are killing businesses for profit. That doesn’t mean I’m against capitalism. It just means there needs to be more controls in place.”
Byrne says he is consistent in his thinking. He cites his belief in economic freedom, that he wants people to stop exploiting the system’s loopholes for personal gain and rallies around a common cry that education is at the root of empowering today’s employees as well as our youth.

Patrick also holds many interests outside of e-commerce. He holds a black belt in tae kwon do and at one time even pursued a career in boxing. Being a cancer survivor, it was important for Patrick to prove that nothing can stand in his way. Hoping to raise awareness and funds for cancer research at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Patrick has cycled across the country four times. In 2000, while on his last ride, he raised record-breaking funds for the institute from across the nation.

This type of outspokenness has made Byrne a polarizing figure over the past few years and has drawn quite a few critics — as well as champions.
All that has done is crystallize Byrne’s resolve. It hasn’t distracted him from his passions, including his belief that fighting poverty and educating young people must be priorities. Byrne has personally founded 19 schools internationally, and in 2001, he founded Worldstock.com, an Overstock.com micro site that sells handcrafted products from artisans in developing nations and from underprivileged artisans in the United States. Overstock keeps a low profit margin on these items and ensures that the artisans receive, on average, 60 percent of the total revenue.

With all of this, there’s one thing just about everybody can agree on about Byrne — he’s extremely passionate. But he has also shown a knack for growing a business that’s hard to dispute. In just over 10 years, Byrne has taken Overstock.com from a $1.8 million start-up and transformed it into a public company that generates more than $800 million in annual revenue and receives top-notch customer service rankings.

Byrne has said the key to his ethical values is the “Hindu term ‘Dharma,’ that is usually translated to ‘duty,’ but it means ‘the way you’re wired.’ I don’t think of myself as some super-ethical guy; it’s just the way I’m wired. But when you see certain things that are bad, you’re supposed to stop them, and when you see some chance to do some good in the world, you do that.

It’s a lot easier if you start off ethically, and it comes from having the right heroes. If you have the right heroes as a kid, you end up modeling yourself after them. Then it becomes easy. It’s not what courses you take in college.”

Byrne has been a vocal supporter of small businesses, believing that their success is directly related with the recovery of the American economy. His “Main Street Revolution Initiative” is an effort intended to increase the visibility of small, local businesses by giving them an avenue for exposure to national markets.
?“The point of this program is to sell products we’ve sourced from entrepreneurs around the country,” Byrne said. “By joining our network, small-business owners can reduce their supply chain costs and expand the awareness of their products among a much bigger audience.”

Overstock.com is working with local chambers of commerce to find small-business owners to participate in the program. In addition to helping “homegrown” businesses reach a national audience, the program helps consumers support small businesses they otherwise might never have heard of.

Overstock.com hopes the Main Street Revolution initiative will be as successful as the Worldstock program, which it launched in 2001. As of April, the Worldstock program-which gives global artisans from places like Bali, Columbia, Ghana, Nepal and Thailand the chance to sell their products on Overstock.com-had surpassed $50 million in total payments. It’s also a top tab on the Overstock.com home page.

Even after all the hard-work he’s put in to building the Overstock.com, surviving testicular cancer and campaigning against harmful financial practices like naked short selling, Patrick Byrne still has to hold his own against harsh critics and lobbyists.

He regularly defends his progressive views on television and online with the hopes of making a difference on millions of lives. Whether as a panelist on Fox News, or debating financial regulations on CNBC, Byrne is considered a credible source on the economy and was noted as one of the few people to have forecasted an oncoming crisis. Byrne saw fault in the global banking industries use of credit and sub-prime mortgages and warned online and on screen about the possible dangers that would eventually come to hit the worlds economy. Although, as the recovery continues and Americans try to climb their way out of debt and fiscal trouble, Byrne has yet to be given the full credit he deserves.

Yet, Patrick carries on because he knows that his work and its value to the people he helps and serves is what is most important. Overstock.com continues to excel in providing excellent customer service satisfaction by offering quality goods at a low price. Byrne may never be recognized for the work he has done, but as long as he helped a struggling student or middle class families carry on one more day, then he can feel proud about his many accomplishments.

ROBBED by Enterprise rental cars! Buyer Beware! I know this is long but please read it if you ever plan to rent from enterprise. It could save you hundreds of dollars.

My name is Ray Barton, I live in Suffolk County NY. I have recently had awful and frightening experience with Enterprise rental cars in bohemia, NY, that is unbelievable. I went to the Company website on Thursday July 22 and made an online reservation for a midsized car for weekly rental at $332. Unable to make it down there, I made a new reservation on Friday the 23rd at around 1pm. The website took all my information and I printed the reservation out, which says nothing on it about rental requirements except restrictions for people under 25 (or 23, whichever it was).

I arrived at Enterprise about 5:30 PM on Friday July 23rd all ready to rent my car. The gentlemen behind the counter hammered away at the computer and set up the rental asking for a driver’s license and Major credit card. I handed him my license and my company Visa Debit card. The gentleman (I believe named MATT) tossed the card at the counter and says, “I can’t take this”. “What?” I reply. He said policy states that it has to be a credit card and debit is no good. “So what do I do?” I ask. He say’s “I can’t rent to you.” Now becoming visually angry I asked him why it doesn’t say that on the site! And prod him further asking if there’s nothing I can do. He acted as though he could really care less. I storm out of the office stating that they just wasted my time. Leaving quite angry, I call the corporate headquarters where I am told that I need a Pay stub and a utility bill, and then he can rent to me but has to take a $400 deposit. Aggravated, but willing to accept that being understandable, I have no choice but to wait until Monday because it is now 5:45pm and I’ll never make it back by 6pm when they close. I live quite a distance away so it’ll have to wait.

First thing Monday morning on the 26th of July, I call headquarters again and ask if a Geico bill will do for the utility bill, they say it will. I call the Bohemia branch around 10:30am and explain the situation, telling them what corporate had told me. “That’s fine he say’s, bring it down and we’ll rent you the car.” I head down to the branch; See the same gentleman from Friday, give him the company debit card along with my pay stub and Geico bill in hand, and the rental goes smoothly. I get a $332 weekly rate and he tells me he has a Hyundai Sonata ready, but an impala coming in about an hour if I’d like to wait. I tell him I’ll take the Sonata and we do the paperwork. He even tells me that since I had a problem on Friday he’ll put down that the tank was empty even though it was full so at least I get a free tank of gas. He charges $400 to my card as a deposit and I leave with the car around 12 noon.

I drive the car for the week without incident, and return the following Monday, August 2nd to return the car. Everything goes fine until the guy says that the charge will be $786. What??! I exclaim, I had the weekly rate. He tells me I have had the car for a week and three days so at $149 per day for the extra three days, the total is $786. I explain that I took the car on Monday and am returning it Monday, that’s one week. He tells me (are you ready for this?) that I took the car on Friday!!! I know when I took the car! I calmly explain what happened and that I was there on Friday but had to come back. I told him why I came back Monday (with my business partner as a witness, I might add) and he insists that the paperwork says 7/23 so that’s when the car left. Now, I did sign the rental form. The form does say 7/23/2010 in tiny dot matrix computer printing, but I didn’t notice that the date was wrong, Even if I noticed the date I probably wouldn’t have realized that it was the 26th and Friday was the 23rd.

The salesman say’s he has to take it up with Matt (manager, and the guy I saw both Friday and Monday) when he comes in so, he will hold on to my copy of the receipt and when it is settled he’ll give me a call. I wanted something to show I returned the car but he refused to give me a receipt unless I was willing to pay the $786.

Two hours later, I check my bank account and see that in addition to the $400 deposit they took on 7/26 (MONDAY), they also took $300 out on Sunday and an additional $86.97 about a half hour previous to my checking. Infuriated, I call the branch for an explanation and the guy I speak to says “sir, you took the car on Friday, it’s impossible for you to have not taken it until Monday. Well, I am not accepting that, so he puts me on hold to get Matt, who is also the manager (and the guy who helped me). Matt picks up and say’s, “Sir, you picked up the car on Friday and you are being charged for it!” I am appalled, how on earth can they be charging for three extra days?! How can they think I took it on Friday when I didn’t even decide on a car until Monday? If I had taken the Impala, it would be easy because it didn’t come back until Monday so it would have been easy to prove. Needless to say I have been charged $786.97 for a $332 weekly rental.

I called your corporate headquarters and spoke to someone there named shelly who took my info and told me they would put me on hold, call the branch, and if we got disconnected, she would call me back. After about ten minutes I was disconnected, called back and was told nobody named shelly works there!!!! It’s now 8:00 pm and still no call back.

My only assumption is that Matt was angry that he had to rent to me with a debit card and is purposely lying about it to screw me. How can he not remember the events above only one week later?

I am not going to give up. I’m going to spread the word and file complaints with consumer affairs and the BBB as well as the Enterprise Regional office. First of all it’s a lot of money, second it’s really the principal. I am having my attorney draw up a law suit, I have sworn affidavits from two people who were with me and three others who know When I got the car, and I’m getting my money back from the branch or from the corporation. I will spend $100,000 to get back my $400 so it would be best for someone over there to check the security cameras or whatever it takes to fix this mistake. I have better things to do than try to screw a rental company out of $400!

I’m posting this everywhere so that Buyers BEWARE, and check the dates on any rental agreements they sign and most importantly STAY FAR AWAY FROM ENTERPRISE!!

They are franchises so they can screw you and the corporate office cannot do a thing. Beware!

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

Imagine leaving your Toronto (any city) office for a luncheon, or a late-night soiree at a local hotspot, and instead of seeing hundreds of varying makes, models, sizes of individually owned cars, you see similarly marked, small, quiet, AC powered taxis. AND, not just sitting idle wasting time at the curb waiting for the next fare. They are all over. In fact, there are more of them than regular privately owned cars on the road. There are in fact so many, that as soon as you raise your hand, one quietly and seamlessly slides up to the sidewalk and wisks you off to a destination 5 kms away for a modest $10.00.

The city has thousands of these. Most owned by one of several different modernized privately owned taxi fleets. The fare prices are modest because the city has reduced the licensing fees (taxes) that used to run taxi companies hundreds of thousands, to a modest level to help ensure a return on investment to the taxi company owners. Sure, City loses some tax revenue but saves not having to spend another billion on TTC.

The cars typically cost $15,000 and with insurance, maintenance and a driver, can easily run $40,000 per year to operate. However, with a min start fee of $5 and $40 per hour thereafter, drivers are kept on the road all of the time making more fare money + tips. Instead of a typical taxi with 10 fares a day grossing $250, these cars are constantly on the go – 20 hours per day @ an average of $30-$40 per hour. Even if these are higher than expected, it’s over $200,000 per year per vehicle.

Keeping taxi costs lower, providing a more efficient, pleasant ride would result in this becoming a widely accepted method of economical public transportation. Not to compete with TTC but to provide an option, especially for late nighters.

Oh yes, it would also help boost the entertainment/restaurant business, most of whom are barely hanging in there with the scourge on drinking these days. Ever had to take a taxi from downtown to a 905 destination at 1:00 am. Trip takes about 30 minutes and puts a $100 hole in your pocket.

Anyway, could it work? Are there holes in it? Would I be willing to invest in it? (yes). I’m certainly not a transportation expert but I think the idea deserves merit and thought I would share it with you.

Thanks for listening.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

We have a problem with a booking at Hyatt Place Albuquerque Uptown that was made through Hotels.com. The booking was mistakenly made for Aug 26 and 27, 2010, but was intended to be booked ONLY for Aug 25, 2010.

The mistake occurred because the online form provided by Hotels.com used an auto fill for the date of the stay, and we did not realize the website had chosen the date of the stay for us.

We immediately called the customer service number listed for Hotels.com to correct the problem. After being on hold for about 13 minutes we talked to a man with a foreign accent that was very difficult to understand. He said he would refund one day and correct the date for the other night. He put us on hold for a few more minutes. We were very happy that he said he would take care of the changes.

The man came back on the phone and said he was going to transfer us to customer service to make the revisions. We were put on hold again but were relieved that hotels.com was going to make the right decision and help correct the innocent mistake.

After another lengthy wait a person who sounded very much like the first person we spoke with spoke to us. We once again explained what had happened and how we immediately called to correct the mistake. We told him that we were just transferred to him. He said no, that he was the only person to talk to us about this call.

After explaining the situation yet again, he said he would not modify the reservation. He said he would cancel it but we would have to pay the full amount regardless. He said that hotel charges them and he would not refund any money or change the date to the correct night.

We called the hotel – Hyatt Place Albuquerque Uptown and the hotel general manager named Shenaz Mehta said that Hyatt could not make the reservation change or refund any money because hotels.com pays them.

We would like to continue staying at the Hyatt chain in the future if they resolve this situation. We will never use hotels.com ever again. We travel often and feel that not caring enough to correct an honest mistake will cost them thousands instead of one or two hundred dollars.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.