Should Groupon refund in money?

Badger_Lady

I purchased a voucher before Christmas for some foldable wellies. On the day that I paid, I checked the merchant website and saw that they had the size and colour I wanted, however I had to wait for the voucher to be issued.

After the voucher was issued, I returned to the site to find that my size/colour was sold out. I returned to check on a daily basis - the stock levels fluctuated a lot but still my size/colour did not return.

On the last day that the voucher was valid, I emailed Groupon to ask if the voucher could be extended since I still wanted to purchase the boots but they had not been in stock since the voucher was purchased.

Today (3 days later), they have replied to say:

Unfortunately we are unable to extend the validity period of vouchers. Sorry you missed out this time.
Given the circumstances, I am happy to offer you a full refund in Groupon credits. I can request that the credits be added to your account by the end of the day, and they are valid for a whole year for you to use towards any purchase on www.groupon.co.uk. When you come to use the credit, just tick the "Use Your Credit" box at checkout. We often run our more popular deals more than once, so hopefully a similar deal to this one will come up soon.
If you would like me to add the credits to your account, please let me know.

I'm going off travelling for the rest of the year (hence wanting the wellies) - it's very unlikely that I'm going to be taking advantage of many, if any, more Groupon deals.

Should I be asking for the money I paid to be refunded, rather than these valueless 'credits'?

roddydogs

They will always try to get you to take credit, as its money in the bank for them.
You must be firm and insist on a refund....it may take a few weeks.

Badger_Lady

Okay, so I've replied:

Hi Groupon,

Thank you for the offer but I'm afraid I really must insist on a monetary refund of £19 (the deal value minus the £5 Groupon voucher I used to purchase it with).

Since the deal has been unavailable for me to purchase, it has been proven unfit for purpose.

Thank you,
Badger_Lady

lazer

Google groupon promise and quote it to them in an e-mail,

this is what i did when the merchant had closed down and I couldn;t use the voucher, explaining that credits were not acceptable as I was unsure when i could use them etc.

The sold you a voucher that you could not use, therefore they should refund the money.

However, they could argue that you could use the voucher, different colour, different size etc, the voucher i assume was jsut for a pair of wellingtons and didn't specify size etc?

Badger_Lady

lazer wrote: »

However, they could argue that you could use the voucher, different colour, different size etc, the voucher i assume was jsut for a pair of wellingtons and didn't specify size etc?

That's correct. Love to hear anyone say 'you should have bought some size 3s for your size 8 clodhoppers' :rotfl:

Besides, I emailed them while the voucher was still valid, in the hope of being able to wait for a restock. They didn't reply until the voucher had expired, at which point I couldn't even buy the size 3s.

Badger_Lady

Well that was easy:

I have now cancelled your Groupons for XXX and refunded the amount of £19 back to your method of payment. Our partner has already been informed that this Groupon is no longer valid. Please allow up to 5 working days for the payment to clear back to your account.
Let me know if there is anything else I can do to help.
Kind regards,

Groupon