Ginger Group (Hair Salon) Groupon deal

KleptisV

Hi,

I just wondered if anybody else went for this and is having difficulties?

I have completed a few Groupon offers, and apart from a couple of teething problems with Streetcar, have not had any real problems until now.

I signed up for the Ginger Group deal, which was £39 instead of £175 for a cut, dry and finish, plus colour and goody bag. The terms and conditions stated Monday - Friday bookings only, excluded most of December and you had to ring the given mobile numbers to book, rather than book with the salon directly (the offer was available at all 9 London salons).

Having spent two days calling the mobile numbers, I eventually got through (obviously a more popular offer than they were expecting!) I was told that I could only book before 4pm for 8 of the salons. If I wanted an evening appointment I would have to travel to Bromley. I did not book, and decided to re-read the terms incase I had missed anything... I had not, so I emailed Groupon, who have re-confirmed these new terms as stated by Ginger.

I am now going through the process of getting a refund, as I do not really wish to take a day off work just for a haircut (however expensive it should have been!)

I am just posting to see if anyone else had found the same problems?

sarahluv

yup, me too and the deal stated that it was valid for 6 months, but the voucher dates are for 3 months. i'll let you know how i get on with trying to get a refund.

KleptisV

Hi Sarahluv, good luck! I'll keep you updated too.

KleptisV

Hi,

Groupon have agreed to refund me (with no strong words exchanged!). The voucher has disappeared off my deals. I have not checked ny credit card yet, but I have no reason to doubt them.

Good luck with your refund.

esp1

I have had complete nightmares with this company generally. With regard to the Ginger Group, they originally said that there were 9 salons in Greater London - the only one that was local for me was Covent Garden, but that would have been great. When my voucher came through, I immediately called on the mobile phone numbers that they left. Most of the phone number said mailbox full (literally 2 minutes after my voucher arrived), but I did manage to leave messages on two mobiles. Nobody called me back, so I emailed them, saying that I had left messages and would like to book an appointment at Covent Garden. No reply. I phoned their main number and was told that it takes at least 3 days to get a reply to an email. I did eventually get an email that they said allowed me to book online...but the salon list only included 8 salons, no Covent Garden. I then emailed to ask for a number for Covent Garden...again. I got an email with another set of mobile numbers which it said was for Covent Garden. It also said there were 'little' changes - spaces were limited and any booking had to be made by 2pm. Neither of these conditions were on their original terms and conditions.

First number I called had a message saying it was not in use. Next no reply. Next spoke to a women who suggested I call back in October as Covent garden weren't taking any booking until then. To be honest, I have no faith in this company and no faith in the Ginger Group. I certainly have no intention of letting them hang on to my money for another 2 months on the off-chance they may be able to offer me something at some inconvenient salon, at an inconvenient times sometime in 2011.

From my experience, this company is really dodgy and I would never use them again. They take your money before they have actually delivered anything. They change their terms and conditions after they have taken money off you (I'm not sure if this is even a legal way of trading) and ultimately they do not deliver what they have on offer. They way they handled this is really amateur - the Ginger Group should have set aside clear times for Groupon bookings and they should have only sold to the limits they could deliver and had separate buttons for each salon to ensure that everybody who buys can get to their chosen place.

I would never use Groupon again and I am making a point of boycotting Ginger Group - which is a shame as they are 5 minutes from where I work and I had thought of trying them before.

esp1

I have had complete nightmares with this company generally. With regard to the Ginger Group, they originally said that there were 9 salons in Greater London - the only one that was local for me was Covent Garden, but that would have been great. When my voucher came through, I immediately called on the mobile phone numbers that they left. Most of the phone number said mailbox full (literally 2 minutes after my voucher arrived), but I did manage to leave messages on two mobiles. Nobody called me back, so I emailed them, saying that I had left messages and would like to book an appointment at Covent Garden. No reply. I phoned their main number and was told that it takes at least 3 days to get a reply to an email. I did eventually get an email that they said allowed me to book online...but the salon list only included 8 salons, no Covent Garden. I then emailed to ask for a number for Covent Garden...again. I got an email with another set of mobile numbers which it said was for Covent Garden. It also said there were 'little' changes - spaces were limited and any booking had to be made by 2pm. Neither of these conditions were on their original terms and conditions.

First number I called had a message saying it was not in use. Next no reply. Next spoke to a women who suggested I call back in October as Covent garden weren't taking any booking until then. To be honest, I have no faith in this company and no faith in the Ginger Group. I certainly have no intention of letting them hang on to my money for another 2 months on the off-chance they may be able to offer me something at some inconvenient salon, at an inconvenient times sometime in 2011.

From my experience, this company is really dodgy and I would never use them again. They take your money before they have actually delivered anything. They change their terms and conditions after they have taken money off you (I'm not sure if this is even a legal way of trading) and ultimately they do not deliver what they have on offer. They way they handled this is really amateur - the Ginger Group should have set aside clear times for Groupon bookings and they should have only sold to the limits they could deliver and had separate buttons for each salon to ensure that everybody who buys can get to their chosen place.

I would never use Groupon again and I am making a point of boycotting Ginger Group - which is a shame as they are 5 minutes from where I work and I had thought of trying them before.

martusia

I was finally able to book my appointment last week but today I travelled to the Covent Garden branch for my appointment and they told me I did not have one! Spoke to the Groupon on the phone later but they had no info, promised to phone me back but never did. What a waste of time.

*SmallFry*

I have an appointment for the Enfield branch on Wednesday, I think I should give them a call before I go there to make sure I actually have an appointment.

I have to say when I saw they offered this offer for a second day I thought how the heck are they going to cope with that amount of people. I think it was 4 thousand deals they sold and each branch only has 1 director and can only do a certain amount of clients in a day. I'm not holding my breath in getting done but if there's no appointment for me on Wednesday then I'll be looking for a refund.

gregdedman

Think twice and always search this forum for 'Groupon'.
Lots of problems with their deals in general!

KleptisV

KleptisV wrote: »

Hi,

Groupon have agreed to refund me (with no strong words exchanged!). The voucher has disappeared off my deals. I have not checked ny credit card yet, but I have no reason to doubt them.

Good luck with your refund.

So, just to confirm - I have checked and I have been fully refunded with no argument from Groupon. They did not acknowledge that it was a problem that the terms and conditions had changed and just tried to explain the reason for the terms (and not explain why this was not stated in the first place!) but I did not try to force a better explanation out of them.

I have used Groupon before, and have never had any real problems, I have even been surprised that smaller companies seem to be on top of things and all staff are aware of the deal.

I believe that the problems in this case were caused by Ginger - they clearly did not expect their offer to be so popular and had no infrastructure (or even a vague idea) how to cope with the numbers. It would have been more professional of Groupon to investigate the voucher offerer's means, and maybe limit the number of deals which could have been sold to a managable level.

I agree that maybe Groupon have not acted properly in this case, and it seems that they do somewhat wash their hands of the service beyond them providing the voucher itself (even if the terms change!) but I will be using them again as I have no real problem with the customer service I received, the reply and refund were prompt.

I will be avoiding Ginger Hair Salons like the plague; as far as I can see they have acted dishonestly and have been extremely unhelpful. I am happy that I got my refund and did not turn up to the salon to find no appointment. (And I feel very sorry for those that did).

*SmallFry*

Well here I am sat at home when I should be sitting in the hairdressers getting pampered for a couple of hours :mad:

I arrived 5 minutes before my appointment to be met with 'we don't have an appointment for you'. I told them I was called by Ginger Group last week to make the appointment and the guy had the audacity to try and pass the buck to Groupon saying 'it definetly wasn't Ginger Group who called you it was Groupon'.

I left and came home and called Groupon they acted very surprised and said 'sorry we'll call you back with a solution'.

I'm glad somebody posted their experience of not getting an appointment because it prepared me and I wasn't so angry when they said I don't have an appointment. I'm so fed up with the whole thing I just want a refund and never to hear of Groupon or The Ginger Group again!:(