'Bought a spa day from Groupon or others? Did you get it?' blog discussion

grumpybutprettygorgeous

Groupon advertises itself as providing" incredible customer service", but in my experience the opposite is true!. I purchased a voucher on 13th July 2011 for a Brazilian Keratin hair treatment for £49.00 which I have been unable to redeem as the salon more or less refused to do it for me, saying my hair was unsuitable. I looked over the terms & conditions with a fine tooth comb, making sure it didn't mention anything which would hint at not being suitable for certain types of hair, eg, coloured or highlighted. It advertised this treatment as being excellent for curly hair. I arrived at the salon and was told that they would do it if I insisted but that my hair wasn't "thick" enough and I would regret it as I would lose all the volume and it would look terrible for at least 8 weeks until it washed out. The owner of the salon told me had had the treatment on her own hair and it was the worst thing she had ever done, she washed it 4 times a day for 8 weeks to try and get it to look "normal" again. Another of her customers, she told me, had resorted to extensions afterwards, as her hair looked so appalling. My hair, by the way, is of a reasonable thickness, not by any stretch of the imagination could it be called thin, but it IS curly. I was then told that this treatment isn't actually any good for curly hair!!
I have tried repeatedly to contact Groupon, as the salon wouldn't/couldn't give me my money back. I have emailed numerous times and no reply and tried to get through on the phone countless times.My credit card company have said they will look into it for me, but they don't think they will be able to give me a refund as Groupon fulfilled their part of the bargain by providing me with a voucher.A friend is also in the same position, so how many more have been conned? In my opinion,this treatment was mis-sold and was falsely described.Has anybody else experienced this?
Thanks, Jayne

gaily

I have ordered a number of the KGB, Groupon, Living Social Deals, and have generally found them to be very good.

Admittedly, I am still waiting for a set of hair straightners that were ordered over a month ago (but the T&C did say that most orders would be fulfilled in 28 days) and they have emailed me twice to advise when they next batch will be in, and that they are trying to get them out asap. (but with over 5000 sold when the deal closed, i'm hardly suprised!)

I think as other posters have said, caution is the watch word here. Check the actual sites out before buying through the 'deal' sites, to check that you really are getting a good deal. And in the case of the restuarant vouchers, I always try to use them quickly, so that the owners are still enjoying the increased trade, rather than rueing yet another person using a voucher!

sarahbowes55

I purchased a £99 car driving experience worth apparently £625 from Groupon for Supercar Lifestyle. I rang the company before booking through Groupon to clarify exactly what I would be getting for my money and went through the whole deal with their booking assistant.
I then spent weeks trying to get a date.
When I finally did, a week or so later I got a sales call, trying to upsell the track day by another £159 minimum, and also to clarify that the Groupon advert had been quote, 'misleading', and that I had only actually purchased 3 laps of a track, not 6, as described. They also informed me the Day as it was would be 'disappointing' as my husband's birthday surprise as there were so few laps....really I needed to buy at least another 3 to make it special!
I was appalled and voiced this, then wrote a complaint via the Supercar's feedback form, as they were constantly engaged by phone. No reply....emailed them again today but don't know what response I will get.
If I had purely booked through Groupon and not checked this out beforehand, I would write this one off, but the fact I called them before booking to doublecheck, and by their own admittance the advert was misleading, I will not be letting this one drop. Any advice?

fiendishly

I purchased a Groupon that was £20 worth of cosmetics at eyeko.com for £8. When I looked at the website the mascara was £8. I bought the deal as I was going to get a couple of them and perhaps an eye pencil. I got the coupon and went to purchase and the mascara had gone up to £15. Not happy.

One voucher I decided not to purchase after looking into the details was for a fresh meat pack. The groupon was for a special pack that was only purchasable using the groupon voucher, however if you worked out the cash price for the individual items it was considerably less than for the groupon pack. A right rip off. I actually contacted the retailer concerned about this and they told me they charge what the hell they pleased. Fair enough, but I'm not dumb enough to fall for it.

pearl123

I purchased two spa vouchers threw last minute.com for the royal day spa in Tunbridge Wells. It is clear threw the trip advisor that the majority of people had a terrible time booking these vouchers and when it came to their visit there were just too many people present to enjoy the facilities.
Now it seems that Royal Day Apa might have gone bust and I am now trying to get my money back from last minute. To be fair, I only contacted lastminute this week and they many yet swiftly give a refund. I've just got to wait and see.
It really does look like anyone who buys a cheap spa vouchers runs a risk of either a poor standard spa day or their voucher not being fulfilled.
Spas are supposed to be relaxing. Yet what these vouchers deliver ironically is anything but !

katiepoppycat

I bought a £1 cinema ticket from kgb after it was advertised on MSE - never got it, despite emailing a few times. Gave them the benefit of the doubt and paid £12 for a series of exercise classes. After 3 weeks of emailing and getting nowhere I told them I wanted a refund - lo and behold the voucher code arrived. I emailed back to say it was the point and I wanted a refund and, surprise, surprise they ignored me. wOuldn't buy from KGB again as they are nigh on uncontactable.

Bought a fine dining hotel stay with groupon - no trouble through groupon whatsoever. Received a email advising availability was becoming limited and ought to book which was very considerate.

burntfingers_2

I have always looked at the deals but have never taken any of them up but my friend has, she booked a colonic irrigation which on the advert stated it was for 90 minutes and would give advice on diet etc. She turned up and the clinic/salon and was in and out in 40 minutes.When she aenquired about this the woman who had given the service advised that she didn't know that it was stated as this in the advert and would contact Groupon.

Another time she paid for a haircut, style and finish at a top salon. When she went to book it, when she finally managed to get through she couldn't make an appointment for months (literally) and as she didn't know what shifts she would be working at that time - then she couldn't book it that far in advance without taking a day off. Which kinda defeats the object cos your in effect 'paying' for it twice as your using a days holiday.

I said to my friend that it would always be a concern that you wouldn't be able to use the voucher etc and then what would happen? I work too hard to just give my money away like this.....

Rowz

I paid for a spa session recently but a few days later Groupon emailed to say that the company couldn't take any more appointments so my money would be refunded. So why did they sell it in the first place?

I have booked a spa session previously through Groupon which didn't live up to expectation. It was supposed to be a spa day but was only two hours, so after this latest experience I'm not bothering again!

Flibsey

I paid for £30 of rapanui clothing for £9. still not had the delivery from Rapanui, despite being told it's be sent out 2-3 days after ordering. this was nearly 2 weeks ago.

MinxyMoos

I bought a Groupon for a meal in a local restaurant, on the Groupobn site the deal was £8 for £27 worth of food, so I bought two, one for me and one for my partner. When I attempted to book the meal, the restaurant told me that it was one voucher per table and not per meal. I stated that this was not the deal according to Groupon but the restaurant were insistent that I would have to book seperately for each meal, therefore ending up on seperate tables! Booking however, was virtually impossible, in order to get this meal I (and my partner) would have had to take a day off work to fit in to the busy restaurant. We were also advised that there was an expiry date on the voucher which of course passed long before I could secure a booking.

I also purchased a deal for a cut and colour at a local hair salon. Needless to say, I was assigned to the lowest junior who did a terrible job of my hair!

On the other hand though, the karaoke deals are quite good!