£30 to spend on beauty for £10

dizzyjen

Why did you delete mine and other customer's comments from your Facebook page and block me and others from being able to post on there, thus leaving us completely unable to resolve our issues, given that you were not answering the phone calls or numerous emails I sent...??

I have found your tone the whole way through to be very defensive and quite aggressive- I realise it must be stressful to have to deal with so many orders and complaints etc but the way that you conduct yourselves with customers is down to you and nobody else. Yes the £10 was a good deal but it means nothing if it doesn't actually turn out to be a good deal in the end, does it? And to say that we should be thankful because we were still getting it cheaper than anywhere else is a poor excuse- yes it's true, but it still changes the original circumstances upon which customers purchased the deals.

I'm not going to comment on the issue with KGB as that is between you and them, and not something customers should have to feel responsible for when they have paid money and nothing has been produced in return. But I do believe that the way you have responded to customers in this situation has been completely unacceptable. Like I said, you choose the way you communicate with customers, and this is dictated by nobody but yourselves- to just shut down and ignore complaints and pretend like they don't exist, and then adopt the attitude of becoming very defensive, making excuses and making customers feel like it is their fault for daring to complain is the reason that I am so disappointed and angry with the service I have received.

Things happen in business, it's how you respond to it and deal with it that really counts, and you have responded very poorly IMHO.

maggiemay2582

Well i finally got my refund from KGB today. I agree with dizzyjen. If we were told what was happening then i might have been a bit more understanding. Just an email saying 'sorry - we bodged up and your order might take 4-6 weeks but it is still being processed' then i would have quite happily waited but to hear NOTHING and not be able to contact by phone or email is totally unacceptable.

Did KGB not say that the 500-600 they predicted was an average? Therefore of course there was a chance you would sell loads more (or loads less) you can't blame kgb for you not having the brain power to think this might happen!

Anyway, you live and learn. Good offer for those of you who actually received there orders. Thats KGB for keeping my tenner warm for a month but it's mine again now....:)

Leosmummy

Agree with the posters above! I have sent you 2 emails and you have IGNORED both!! I would be a bit more understanding if you had bothered to tell me what was going on with my order. Last correspondance from you was on the 23rd June telling me my order would be dispatched within a couple of working days - erm what date we on now?!

gentleorange

The group buying sites should really warn small retailers what can happen once their deals get posted up on bargain sites. Or they could introduce 'safety' measures, like stopping the deal at a certain amount of units sold. Good deals go round the net like wildfire and a small business has to be a bit naive not to realise that. I got my refund, so no hard feelings from me:)

Autumn19

Hi,
I do feel for this company as I beleive that they were mislead by KGB. They should have been advised of what could happen and then they could have either decided to go ahead or not but if they went ahead they should then have set a limit of the first 600 will get the deal, with the webpage showing a count down from 600 to nil so that if you were to go ontothe site you would know if the deal was still on or not.

This company stated they have only been going for 2 years and are a family run business they are not some large multi business that can afford to take this kind of loss.

Plus they have not received any money from KGB,I wonder how we would feel in these circumstances if we had sent out orders and after 28 days had stillnot received a pennyfor them? No I dont think we would like it, but then again I would not send out any orders unless I had been paid first.

Lessons to be learnt alround I think.

monkeypuzzle32

well thank goodness I found this thread! I bought this deal and have tried twice now to buy something but nearly everything was OOS so waited until now to see if they had stocked up and theres NOTHING on the site at all so I will be requesting a refund!
Another rubbish deal.:mad:

sugar.lady

i ordered 3 essie nail polish (after finding all perfumes prices raised) but now the nail section in the website is empty!! i think i will never receive my order

song_of_calliope

I feel awful for this company. If you feel bad about not getting a beauty bargain but having to take a refund instead, imagine how they must feel - it sounds like they're at grave risk of going bankrupt and losing their business entirely. It would be extremely difficult for anyone to give perfect customer service when faced with a situation like that. Imagine having to smile in the face of someone who's taking money directly out of your handbag and you're getting nothing in return? Now imagine having to do this thousands of times. I know I wouldn't be able to. And all because of an error in judgment they made, based on false information from KGB.

I do think these groupon-type deal sites tend to take advantage of the naivety of small business holders in order to profit off them disproportionately. They don't care what happens to the business after the deals are done, only that they get their share of the profits. In this case they're like vultures feeding on the remains of what might very well be a dead company.

I do believe in fighting for the rights of consumers, including the right to get the best deals possible from the large corporations that are constantly trying to get one over on their customers and have done so for years (Tescos for example). But when this affects a small family business like this one, it's different, it's not right and I think we should all have some compassion.

sugar.lady

song_of_calliope wrote: »

I feel awful for this company. If you feel bad about not getting a beauty bargain but having to take a refund instead, imagine how they must feel - it sounds like they're at grave risk of going bankrupt and losing their business entirely. It would be extremely difficult for anyone to give perfect customer service when faced with a situation like that. Imagine having to smile in the face of someone who's taking money directly out of your handbag and you're getting nothing in return? Now imagine having to do this thousands of times. I know I wouldn't be able to. And all because of an error in judgment they made, based on false information from KGB.

I do think these groupon-type deal sites tend to take advantage of the naivety of small business holders in order to profit off them disproportionately. They don't care what happens to the business after the deals are done, only that they get their share of the profits. In this case they're like vultures feeding on the remains of what might very well be a dead company.

I do believe in fighting for the rights of consumers, including the right to get the best deals possible from the large corporations that are constantly trying to get one over on their customers and have done so for years (Tescos for example). But when this affects a small family business like this one, it's different, it's not right and I think we should all have some compassion.

if i am the beautystop i will refuse to process any order and will ask kgb to cancel the deal and refund customers, then the problem will be to kgb deal who gave false information from the beginning

[Deleted User]

Gosh , this is a shocking example of when group buying goes wrong it goes WRONG big time , and it is not the first time it has happened to a small company

Who is doing well out of this deal? Not the retailer obviously but KGB are not making an actual loss and as they are so big now are of course raking it in across the board

I used to be a big fan of the LARGE group buying sites but I have seen some unscrupulous behaviour go on and they never seem to take the blame even though all of this could have been AVOIDED by simply capping the deal!!!!!

( eg ASK the small or new company how many extra customers they can cope with / fulfil orders for and cap the deal accordingly??? )

I actually work for a small group buying company now who have had 100% customer satisfaction since they launched last year and they have had to issue NO refunds at all so far!

Good going eh?

I WOULD offer Beauty Stop a better deal than KGB but of course presume they have been put off group buying sites forever now!! lol

I think the bigger companies are getting a tad too greedy now eg the Crowdity 32,000 customers signing up for the Ocado deal ... why not cap it at 2,000 with individual codes , but no , the deal was ended by Ocado due to unprecidented amounts of sign ups but Crowdity still got tens of thousands of new e-mail sign ups from the deal

I am beginning to think that ''small is good'' now , you get a more personal service , less greed and more transparancy

REPUTATION is more important than 'numbers' and not every group buying site seems to realise this unfortunately as its NOT a good deal for the customers if they let an offer get over subscribed so the small company can't cope AND not PAYING the retailer within the time slot indicated is very unprofessional and its not as if they haven't got the funds!!!

( BTW if this beauty deal was capped there would have been way more happy customers 100% even , Beauty Stop WOULD have been able to cope with the orders and have enough stock levels and it actually would have been win / win / win all round for everyone! ... Plus those who missed out because it was capped and didn't get a voucher in time they could simply do the offer AGAIN once they had been paid and restocked and the company and customer base would have grown! As well as no complaints to KGB and a good working relationship & even future relationship between KGB & Beauty Stop! )

I ( personally ) don't want extra e-mail sign ups ( or an over subscribed deal for a very small company which results in lots of unhappy customers ) ..... I want VERY HAPPY customers!! :T:T:T

The sad thing for the retailer is they want to ''get the word out'' about their business and attract new customers with an amazing deal but then of course it BACKFIRES if it isn't handled correctly and it actually PUTS OFF new and potential customers and then the DAMAGE IS DONE!!!

I saw on TV a small high street spa who were INUNDATED after a large group buying company got loads of sign ups and the spa simply couldn't cope! ... So they had to let alot of customers down who had to ask for a refund and instead of ''spreading the word'' it ends up ''spreading the bad / terrible reviews / press'' when it wasn't even their fault as they were UNAWARE and weren't told that it would attract the large amount of sign ups which they would never be able to cope with within the 3 months the offer was on for!

( simple maths really , small spa , maybe 3 staff with max 6 extra appts per day over 3 months = say 1,600 vouchers but why not simply ASK how many new appts the salon can cope with??? )

I myself have lost out on 2 spa deals as the salons could not cope with the amount of customers before the deadline and I didn't even ask for a refund as felt it was MY fault for leaving it till late / right at the end of the deal expiry date!

That reminds me , I have to contact a co. I bought a deal from who had to EXTEND their deadline...

To the group buying sites I'd say ASK first / do the maths as HONESTLY did Crowdity REALLY think that Ocado would honour 32,000 codes PLUS the other tens of thousands who got it via leaked sources since it was the same code for everyone!!!