Groupon....Great deals or scam?

abbecer

I have used them several times and never had a problem. Bought hotel breaks, chocolate making workshop to name a couple.

Rebecca x

**curlywurly**

Used twice for weekend breaks. One was fab, one wasn't, but both were very good value, no problems in buying or redeeming the vouchers!

Tiggerlass

I got Bon Jovi tickets x 2 for £15 each,took mother in law for her birthday.....Fantastic no hiccups at all.....10/10

then me & my friends bought Groupon discount vouchers for £15 each for O Spa London.com ceramic hair straighteners then paid £7.50 postage to O Spa.....now after 27 days read previous threads about company O Spa learning that all locations closed & Groupon refunding.So we ll be phoning Groupon to ask for refunds....doubt we ll get our postage costs refunded from O Spa London.com though!!

kachopra

I recently bought a groupon for a three course buffet at Rafayel on the Left Bank. What an absolute joke this was. The "buffet" consisted of three different choices, two of which were disgusting pasta with a few mussles in it. The other a lasagne that even I could have made better aged 2.

I don't understand how they called it a buffet.

What a total joke and rip off for something like £30.


Are ANY groupon restaurant deals not a total joke?

kittykarate

I had a good restaurant deal from Groupon - it was at Stock in Manchester. Lovely food, great place. However, the thing to bear in mind is that the retailer contacts groupon with the 'deal' and then groupon sells it on, so Groupon has very little control over what is in the deal.

Pointbreak

SCAM
I emailed about the following deal.
Engine oil checked and changed
- Oil and air filter checks
- Spark plugs or fuel filter checked
- Valid for any make or model with an engine of two litres or less
- Pick up and return available for additional charge.
£99 instead of £300.
Its basically an oil change. Supposedly costing £300 but reduced to £99
Their reply..........
Lola O, May-23 00:36 (BST):
Hi,

Thank you for your email.

Please note that this deal was custom designed by xxxxxxxxxx for Groupon customers and combines more than one service in a manner that is not usually reflected in their price list. Their regular advertised pricing already includes promotional tariffs for their full paying customers whereas Groupon deals take the original value of the services - most of our offers differ from the partner's usual services which reflects the exclusive nature of the tailor-made offer.

If you do wish to have further clarification on the value of the deal, you are more than welcome to get in touch with xxxxxxxxxx.

Kind regards,

Lola O
support@groupon.co.uk

scully91

Any ideas what to do about this?
Bought the mrs a beauty management voucher and she just rang up to book in and they told her that they are fully booked until the vouchers expire thereby she cannot use it, any ideas who i contact or what i need to do to get my money back?

h007

scully91 wrote: »

Any ideas what to do about this?
Bought the mrs a beauty management voucher and she just rang up to book in and they told her that they are fully booked until the vouchers expire thereby she cannot use it, any ideas who i contact or what i need to do to get my money back?

contact groupon directly and they should refund you


i have used groupon for deals like the just eat credit and the £1 cinema tickets just fine
however when i booked a couple of spa/salon type deals i had so much trouble trying to book them i got refunded.

from now on i wont bother with ones you have to actually book and depend on getting a service - just the ones where you get a code or voucher to use straight away

angelizz

With all of the daily deal sites obvious patterns are emerging:
1) The 'discount' is rarely what it is purported to be. So, for instance, it might say "RRP £100, 51% discount, get it for £49" but usually you'll find other deals on the net just as good as this
2) Watch the RRP closely. Often it seems to be inflated just days before the promo
3) Watch the postage, this isn't included in the 'discount' and so is used to bump the price up (and hence reduce the discount)
4) How many of the products are actually available?

IMO only buy if it is a product you've considered in the past and are fully aware of its worth, only then will you know if you're getting a genuine deal or not.

zierisaver

A friend of mine started a site in the 'Groupon mould' and to my mind these companies have a limited shelf-life. For those of you that don't know the logistics of it, Groupon will contact company A and offer them half of any money that comes in from the sale of the vouchers. Company A has to offer at least 50% off. The vouchers are sold and the money is then split. Company A, however, can't really afford to give such a big discount, but they are assured by Groupon that only about 60% of people ever actually redeem the voucher that they have paid for anyway, so financially for Company A they are, in reality, only discounting their product by about 25-30%.

This all seems great, but to my mind the reason that these companies won't keep performing is that for those customers that don't redeem (40%) they have lost their money. This is nobody's fault but their own, but how many times will they make the same mistake? Once? Twice? Surely not forever, which is what Groupon are counting on. So long term Groupon are left with a smaller market of people that ALWAYS redeem. This means that Company A can now longer afford to offer such a big discount, and hence refuse to work with Groupon, or artificially inflate their prices (which people will see through). Then the whole thing comes crashing down......