Groupon....Great deals or scam?

bestyman

Hotel Noir York - Groupon very poor service.

Is this the thread where there is a groupon rep? Whare has he gone?

I recently bought a groupn voucher for the Noir hotel York for £54. The deal is valid on Fridays.

I phoned the hotel, mention groupon, and they claim that the hotel is booked up for every Friday for the next 3 months ( when the groupon voucher expires ). I go to the Hotel Noir York website and look at online booking and see that many Fridays are available.

When I email Groupon the email bounces back with this messsage
These recipients of your message have been processed by the mail server:
[EMAIL="support@groupon.co.uk"]support@groupon.co.uk[/EMAIL]; Failed; 5.1.1 (bad destination mailbox address)

When I phone groupon they dont answer the phone.

Any ideas?

EDIT: Voucher has a value of £142 but room can be booked much less than £100.
Getting a bit worried about emails bouncing back. Might be time to ring the bank and try for a refund that way, it was a nationwide debit card.

Simone26

I have purchased several "deals" from Groupon, all have been beauty/hairdressing orientated and have had complaints about all of them.

The worst was O Spa which Groupon are still selling deals from, it was impossible to get an appointment at this Spa and after 3 months of trying, no one picking up the phone and Groupon also ignoring me, I finally got a refund. Groupon recieved so many complaints about this spa that they later sold a deal with them under a different name to try and trick customers into buying.

The deal sold for beauty treatments at Glow Beauty Bar was also particulary bad and the therapists seemed completely untrained and caused damage to my eyes for which I had to see a doctor. Groupon later refunded my money for this deal after much communication with them.

More times than not the salons featured in deals do not give you the full service advertised as you have paid a lower price for the product and it does not end up being a relaxing treat as planned!

If you look at the Groupon facebook page it is full of complaints and I for one will not be buying anything from them in the future.

treads100

Purchased a voucher for a night's stay & dinner in a Cumbria Hotel
Phoned hotel: No rooms available TO GROUPON CUSTOMERS until November! (although someone has had my £99 since buying the voucher a few weeks ago). Rooms were available to NORMAL customers.
Hotel assistant manager informed me that they only let so many rooms out to GROUPON customers as 'they don't make much money on these deals" (over 1000 deals were sold according to the website the day the deal closed). So why do it??
Have e-mailed Groupon to complain but don't hold out much hope of a reply, having read other posts.
Will definitely not use GROUPON again and will push hard for a refund.

treads100

Update: To be fair, I have in fact just received an e-mail from Groupon customer service. The tone was 'diplomatic' and polite and a CREDIT was offered for alternative purchases from GROUPON. However, I have requested a full refund, with equal politeness, given that the hotel deals are those that interest me, but of course from now on, I would be very wary of such purchases.

bestyman

bestyman wrote: »

Hotel Noir York - Groupon very poor service.

Is this the thread where there is a groupon rep? Whare has he gone?

I recently bought a groupn voucher for the Noir hotel York for £54. The deal is valid on Fridays.

I phoned the hotel, mention groupon, and they claim that the hotel is booked up for every Friday for the next 3 months ( when the groupon voucher expires ). I go to the Hotel Noir York website and look at online booking and see that many Fridays are available.

When I email Groupon the email bounces back with this messsage
These recipients of your message have been processed by the mail server:
[EMAIL="support@groupon.co.uk"]support@groupon.co.uk[/EMAIL]; Failed; 5.1.1 (bad destination mailbox address)

When I phone groupon they dont answer the phone.

Any ideas?

EDIT: Voucher has a value of £142 but room can be booked much less than £100.
Getting a bit worried about emails bouncing back. Might be time to ring the bank and try for a refund that way, it was a nationwide debit card.

Update: I eventually got through to groupon and they offered a refund and were unaware that the email was down.

zaphod10

Had two bad experiences in the last couple of days. I'm based in Belfast and so far myself and my colleagues (there's four of us)
We all purchased a hairdressing voucher for £39 (told it was worth £120 - actual worth £68)
Tried to book and was told it would be May before we could use it.
Then we purchased a beauty voucher - Holywood Lashes and manicure, again tried to book and was told it would be 2-3months before we could use it.
We have used Groupon twice, and won't be using the site again!!

There's some serious complaints on Facebook - Groupon could very soon be Groupout!

competitionscafe

There have been a lot of complaints about Groupon in the US as well (and not just about the extremely poor taste superbowl ads).


NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- A day after Groupon offered $20 off of $40 worth of flowers and gifts from FTD, users are calling the deal a scam.

The coupon, which nearly 3,300 people bought, directed buyers to a special FTD website -- FTD.com/groupon -- to take advantage of the offer. The problem, users said, was that prices were higher than on the regular website, effectively diminishing the value of the deal.
http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/11/pf/groupon_ftd_deal_backlash/index.htm

treads100

Update: To be fair, I have in fact just received an e-mail from Groupon customer service. The tone was 'diplomatic' and polite and a CREDIT was offered for alternative purchases from GROUPON. However, I have requested a full refund, with equal politeness, given that the hotel deals are those that interest me, but of course from now on, I would be very wary of such purchases.

After asking for a refund instead of a credit, I was today refunded the full amount. So, no complaints with their customer service at all - but, as a result of hassle and disappointment - particularly with the attitude of the hotel when I tried to book, I have now hit the 'unsubscribe' button.

tolgahan

I have read many disappointed comments regarding various coupon sites...but so far there is no overview given which comapnies exist, which are the newest ones...what are the underdogs? thus i wud like to share a site that i just joined on facebook too... this site is called COUPOBOX.CO.UK even though there might be some sites missing on this overview, but this site helps to categorize the deals...and is adding more and more companies weekly... what do you think ? is this helpful ?

Gigglepig

Update regarding my experience with the groupon customer service:

I have still not heard from them regarding two customer issues I raised using the ticket system on their website over a month ago. I have sent many reminders by email and have not received a response. The MSE groupon rep does not respond either (I tried emailing them several times over more than 2 weeks)

Although I have enjoyed some of their deals, the customer service has been disappointing!