Warning: O Spa from Lastminute.com

angel1976

Hi all,

Purchased an O Spa voucher via lastminute.com in October last year as a birthday treat to myself. Took ages to get through to them but got an appointment for May 11 (yes, it's a bit nuts but hey, it's a bargain). Got an email today (May 9) that the appointment has been cancelled and I am fuming mad as have had to ask my husband to take day off to look after kids etc and was really looking forward to it!

On calling lastminute.com, it seems that they have had tons of complaints about O Spa and they themselves have not been able to get in touch with O Spa. And apparently, as of very recently, they have decided to terminate their agreement with O Spa and offering a lastminute.com credit voucher (to the amount of what you have paid) to those who still have an O Spa voucher. Apparently they are hoping to get a refund from O Spa for the bookings but aren't sure yet so the credit voucher is a goodwill gesture and at 'their loss'.

I have accepted that as I read in lastminute.com T&Cs that they act as a third party supplier and therefore not liable if things go wrong? Also, I have a very strange suspicion that O Spa might be in trouble as their website 'contact' page is showing a strange message saying their call centre is closed till today and I'm unable to get through? So I don't think I will be getting my money back from there either... Any thoughts or advice? I paid with my visa debit card btw... I would like the money back but I don't see how that's going to happen and thank goodness it wasn't a big amount of money! :mad:

Thanks all! And please let this be a warning...

Ax

angel1976

Hmmm... Just got through to their call centre only to be told to look at their website, send an email and then the final message saying 'This mailbox is full.' Doesn't bode well does it?

efr

Same problem but with Groupon voucher - unbelievably bad customer service from start to finsish and they cancelled on Friday evening by e-mail (even though they had my phone no.) for my Saturday morning appointment. I've been ringing and e-mailing O Spa as well as Groupon for the last 4 days with nothing back from either. I too had made plans around this appointment and am annoyed that I cant even get an explanation, or to speak to anyone. In the unlikely event that O Spa do survive this, I would advise anyone not to touch them with a barge pole.

angel1976

Ah, !!!!!!! I suppose I was lucky they even bothered to send an email to cancel my appointment! At least my hubby won't have to take the day off now but I was so looking forward to having the day off for myself for some pampering... Thanks efr for the info. I suspected something similar, which was why I took the £25 credit voucher offered by lastminute as I am not sure they (or I) would be able to recover the money from O Spa... Thank goodness it was only £25 and I guess I could put it towards something similar...

jillski_2

My sister and I both bought treatments totalling just under £400.
Please, please, if anyone finds out how to contact Groupon let me know we are desperate to get our money back.

angel1976

*jillski* When are your appointments? Have you tried contacting Groupon through the normal channels? Have you read Groupon's T&Cs? My neighbour also had a voucher through them and she was booked to use a few weeks ago, she actually cancelled the appointment due to a sick child and was re-scheduled for September. If you go on O Spa website, it's still operating as normal. :mad: If you paid on credit card, you are probably get your money back, just call your bank and ask for the necessary paperwork. Sorry to hear you are going through this as well.

jillski_2

After calling O Spa at Canary Wharf as I needed to cancel my third appt and rearrange was told that they were in the process of phoning all their clients booked for Laser Lipo to cancel as the girl doing the treatments had left and no-one else was trained to do the treatment. So now, after 2 treatments, no further ones on the horizon, and told at beginning at least 3 needed, and I booked six.:(

I'm not going to let them get away with it............not sure what to do so any suggestions welcome.

By Googling I've found loads of complaints/problems with Groupon and O Spa. If I could somehow get everyone together..........:(

jillski_2

Unbelievable.
When I read some of the complaints they go back over a couple of years. There must be hundreds of people who have lost money. I feel a fool for parting with my money but I researched it at the time and all looked ok.
I have contacted BBC Watchdog (at the beginning of the week) but no response yet.

angel1976

Did you manage to contact Groupon? What did they say?

jillski_2

We both keep phoning Groupon but no reply.
I then tried phoning the number they give for new business to contact them and they answered in two rings.
When I said what I was calling about they said you've got the wrong number. I asked them to transfer me to the right number. I was asked to hold on and then then cut off.

jillski_2

I did say I'd contact BBC Watchdog and/or Office of Fair Trading and he just said "well that's your perogative".