WARNING: Groupon teeth whitening

pilot2

Despite contacting both Groupon and Pure Smiles on several occasions, (by email) this week and last week. I am still not in receipt of a despatch date. It is very poor and I think that the next stop is Trading Standards. I paid Groupon on a debit card for the voucher and Paypal for the P/P to Pure Smiles. - Discovered, this week that Paypal do not cover refunds on intagibles such as shipping. Its a disgrace that Groupon are not monitoring these companies and keeping consumers protected.

Aston100

Time to contact WATCHDOG?

Jeff_Bridges_hair

Quite interesting that the GROUPON rep has not come back on here to try and address the problems mentioned on page 1..

pilot2

If approximtely 6000 people paid £4 through Paypal for the Pure-Smiles Post + Packaging alone thats almost £24k that Paypal will not refund as its not a tangible product (should this offer be bogus). Let alone the same 6,000 people who paid their £19 to Groupon,. Worringly the Paypal Pure smiles recipient address seems to be changing.

Kensington addresses mean nothing particularly if the dentist is not listed. Ive passed all details to trading standards today, as, I still have no suitable responses from either Groupon or Pure-Smiles.

Id also e-mailed the Groupon rep that was on this site, but no response since his/her last post

Good idea Watchdog as well.

phone_angel

Sadly I too wanted to be internet savvy and purchase items online. I have never recovered monies due to me for goods not delivered. My personal experience and advice is to do the following:
Google ANY company you intend to shop with and type in scams, ripoffs etc and you will be amazed how much anger there is on the internet about certain companies. Also beware companies that say they will not take any money until the goods are sent as this is also risky. I am also appalled that these types of rip off merchants can place advertisements on reputable websites. You would also think credit card companies would block payments to these companies. They could easily create a stop list and then telephone or email you to check if you really want to trade. Their admin costs must be huge handling all the angry traffic from victims. They are certainly able to stop payments if you card activity looks unusual. Perhaps they hope apathy of victims or if they frustrate you enough is sufficient as they get a take on the transaction. It is so easy to capture the vast majority of these transactions but nothing happens. Forget Trading Standards, BBB (USA), the attorney general Texas etc. None of these bodies have any teeth. They provide lots of hoops to jump through but merely provide false hope.

pilot2

#Phoneangel

Sorry to hear that you have had a similar experience.

Unfortunately, as I had just come across the original Groupon ad with hours to spare, I was unable to conduct any initial research on their past activities, or, for that matter Pure-Smiles.

However in the UK our legal system - in particular the distance selling regulations are there to cover us by law. When I alerted Groupon initially to the problems accessing the Pure-Smiles website they advised patience. When I pointed out the flaws in the Pure-Smiles T&Cs, Groupon indicated it was not a scam. So, if Groupon dont respond and have had these problems with similar companies (both in the UK + US) and are still advertising their products and enjoying a healthy profit themselves, then the only people that can force them to comply with our regulations are people like the UK Trading Standards.

I dont intend to be ripped off financially because US companies dont abide with UK Law. It shouldnt be a matter for credit card companies either. Foreign organisations operating in the UK, are illegally trading if they are blanking our legal system and consumers are being tricked. Im sure a UK company wouldnt last long in the States if they behaved in a similar vein.

Sausage_Roll

Regards the Paypal p+p, I submitted a claim and it was approved within 24 hours for the refund of the P+P, which I paid for next day delivery from hollywood white.

I have contacted both hollywood white, and groupon using the email mse@groupon, but neither have been back in touch. For a company of groupon's size, I am surprised that watchdog are not already on their case, it seems as though they have jumped into bed with a bunch of crooked dentists and crooked "business men" (Sunny, "CEO" of hollywood white apparently still goes to school...), and made a quick buck out of the UK consumer.

tanyad81

Hi everyone...
I actually purchased this deal as I have used products like this before without a problem, I have great oral hygiene but recently had my brace removed and wanted to whiten my teeth so I didnt see a problem with using such a kit. Has anyone actually used this particular one yet? I purchased 2 and paid for "express delivery" when I didnt receive my purchase a week later I began to worry, so I emailed both Groupon and Pure-smiles, to which I got the same response as other customers on this. I appreciate over 6000 people bought this item but then surely at such a good price Pure-smiles should have had stock? Anyway I was pretty angry I paid for express and only received my items yesterday!! I also just got a reply from Groupon offering to credit my account with the delivery charge as an apology. Pure-smiles just emailed me to say my product has been dispatched today??? I have worked in retail 15 years and I can assure you all that this "service" is appalling. I have purchased quite a few deals from Groupon so I never expected such a delay in dealing with my complaints, Pure-smiles kept insisting that it was Groupon that were with-holding my order to prevent fraud??? This totally baffled me, fraud against who exactly?? It seems to me that Groupon are failing to check the reputation of the people they are dealing with and that this is just a glorified ebay system... lets face it anyone could register themselves as a company find a vulnerable market and offer a product at a price most of us wont say no to and before we know it they have sold thousands at a massive profit and we are left with a terrible service, and late arrival of our purchase. I can only assume Pure-smiles is infact a random person making alot of money from us by putting a product up fpr sale, and when all the money is accepted through Paypal they then order these kits from the US or wherever and we eventually receive them in the post. Let me finish by telling you all that these products come in a sterile packet, with no packaging no logo nothing. No info regarding the company in question literally a sterile packet with a piece of paper thrown in as instructions!! Anyone could have sent this, a child could make it appear more professional. I am now extremely suspicious about using the product. I also bought the 2nd one as a birhtday gift for a friend how the hell am i meant to present this it looks like I bought it from a back alley!!!

competitionscafe

tanyad81 wrote: »

Let me finish by telling you all that these products come in a sterile packet, with no packaging no logo nothing. No info regarding the company in question literally a sterile packet with a piece of paper thrown in as instructions!! Anyone could have sent this, a child could make it appear more professional. I am now extremely suspicious about using the product. I also bought the 2nd one as a birhtday gift for a friend how the hell am i meant to present this it looks like I bought it from a back alley!!!

When I was looking into the "free trial" teeth whitening scams I discovered that you can bulk buy white label (plain packet, to brand with your own label) teeth whitening "kits" from China at a wholesale price of as little as $1 (60p) per unit. So perhaps this is what they have done here (and not even bothered to brand it with their own labels or packaging to save money)??

pilot2

#Tanya

"It seems to me that Groupon are failing to check the reputation of the people they are dealing with and that this is just a glorified ebay system".

At least with Ebay there is a resolution process for buyers. I totally agree with everything else you have said. Ive passed over my correspondence to Trading Standards, the more people that do that the better the case, and have requested a full refund from Groupon. I think we have been duped into this purchase. If I had wanted 'drop shipping' its easy to find. The fact that theres no labelling is an even bigger concern and given that Groupon have been caught out previously with these problematic dental kits then they should have not accepted the advertising revenue that they recieve from these deals. In my opinion its pretty negligent. Ive still not recieved anything from Pure Smiles despite emailing them on several occasions and while Groupon indicate they are 'monitoring' the situation, Id just like a full refund promptly.