* GROUPON complaints thread*

A question about : * GROUPON complaints thread*

Something has to be done about GROUPON the service is just so shockingly bad that it must be made to shape up or ship out!
I would like to start a thread so that everyone can merge their grief and who knows,maybe change the world!!
Now i understand,like many of you have pointed out,Groupon mearly sell you the voucher and thats where they would like their responsability to end but as we can see from here,the rest of the web,radio and tv ect........so many un happy customers,so little time!! This is simply not good enough,ok maybe you bought a haircut and they couldnt give you a date ect and at worst you lost Ј12 and 3 weeks out of your life chasing up groupon,the salon,threads like these where you discover 399 other people who bought the same deal and were also left out of pocket and with bad hair but the other more sinister side is companys targeting groupon knowing full well they will get their money and be gone as quickly as you can say 'dodgy basic website'!!!
Some people like a bargain and groupon started with im sure good intentions,but some people need a bargain and become very vunerable to scams that claim to give them huge discounts...especially this time of year,and thats why i feel a group of like minded disgruntled people can make a difference and perhaps make groupon take a look at what they are actually doing
Come on MSE'rs...........lets take GROUP-ON!!!!!
I will hand the thread over to yous and perhaps we can keep everything under this thread,it will hopefully become so popular that when badly treated customers google 'groupon problem' this page will pop up and we can grow numbers and approach groupon together!

Best answers:

• So glad you started this. If anyone looks on Groupon UK facebook page - under the everyone tab - you can see how many different people have complained about different deals. I have used Groupon lots of times before and have had no issue yet until the last deal I purchased was totally misleading. Then trying to contact Groupon for a refund was nearly impossible. What a terrible way to run a company with such poor CS. My advice to anyone looking into buying anything on Groupon would be to look carefully at the website offering the deal. Can you contact them via phone? Email? Are they based in this Country? I agree that Groupon needs to be looked into further and they need to sort themselves out.
• Been great so far until I ordered bean bag sofa from infurn. Contacted them and groupon as I ordered 8th nov. No response from either. Unimpressed.
• Ordered fairy lights from LEDlightszone, couldn't get hold of them or Groupon after the delivery date passed and no sign of the lights.
  Finally Groupon emailed 2 weeks after I contacted them asking for an order number so they could investigate, so I replied and after 5 days I had enough so I filed a claim with Paypal which I won.
  Got a reply from Groupon today to say they will be refunding....erm hello Paypal already did that for you.
  So they don't check their Paypal disputes so if you don't receive an item open a Paypal claim and let them refund you on behalf of Groupon, much quicker.
  First and only time I used them, have unsubscribed to their newsletters now too.
• Paypal seem to be saviours im many groupon deals....not good enough groupon,another company cleaning up your mess,paypal wont stick that for too long!
  Companys must be getting seriously hurt you know,damage by association id say-how long before it all falls down???
  Such a good concept and if done properly ie if they offer 200 discount chairs then groupon should investigate the business to insure they have physical stock before they are allowed to set a deal..simples!
  it appears to go like this:
  1)local deal for food/beauty treatment/spa day/meal-customer left dissappointed with difficulties booking days or completley unavailable and need to fight for refund
  2)larger national deal buying something like super sunglasses/memory pillows/teeth whitning kits-customers left dissappointed because items dont arrive and customer looses weeks chasing it up then at times only able to get goodwill token off groupon that expires too soon and tbh isnt good enough anyway!
  3)deals for large price items ie cane furniture/suites/large deluxe xmas trees-customers left dissappointed when delivery dates are constantly put back and in the end not turning up or actually turning up and being of appauling quality-customer left dissappointed and substantially out of pocket for these big ticket items!
  of course people are quick to complain when things go wrong but this has to be the biggest case of mass consumer dissapointment since..since....woolworths closed down!!??
  I am without doubt that if a thread was started titled *groupon praise thread* it would be signifigantly shorter than this already is
• Thanks happymummy for the invite.
  I bought Groupon vouchers for the mattress from Matching Bedrooms and the ride-on car from Gadget Wizard, advertised as an ideal Christmas gift. On 06 December, Groupon switched partners from Gadget Wizard to Bodini and promised delivery by Christmas.
  I'm following the advice given on MSE. I sent "time is the essence letters" to all three companies on 08 December giving them until today to confirm the goods would be delivered by 22 December. They haven't replied. So, I've bought similar products and I'm claiming the cost of the replacement products, the delivery charges I paid and my time and expenses trying to get a response from them.
  I've given them until 03 January to pay up. If they don't, I'll add a sum for breach of contract and given them another 10 days to pay. If they don't, I'll issue summons through the small claims.
  I suggest others do the same.
• Nightmare company to deal with.
  They sent me a voucher for Ј5 off so I used this.
  It showed on my screen but the email said I had been charged full price. I tried again and same thing happened.
  Took me ages to get them to cancel both as they couldnt understand the words 'I bought 2'.
  I then decided to cancel another deal for a gas boiler service simply because I didnt want to have any more dealings with them anymore.
  Despite emailing them well within 7 working days, quoting their terms and conditions (and the law) it only got fixed when I put in a chargeback through the credit card.
  95% of the so called deals are cheap and nasty tat.
• Had an absolute nightmare with Groupon....Will never use them again......More fool me for keeping on giving them the benefit of the doubt.....A haircut that made me look like Kagagoogoo, teeth whitening for a gift and they only bleached the top 4 teeth (no difference at all) And to top it all off, I ordered a beanbag through Groupon from a company called Infurn........A xmas gift for my daughter was due to arrive week 50, then I noted they changed it to week 04...No good to me as it was a xmas present...since then I have made daily phone calls but they are not answering and the mailbox is full.....sent emails which have been ignored......emailed Groupon and have been ignored I'm absolutely livid..............Google Infurn and see how many people have been left disppointed this xmas with ordered gifts........20,000 beanbags sold between here and Ireland......And it seems there were issues last year when the offer ran with Groupon then!!!
  God i'm mad.....made worse by being totally ignored by all concerned.
  Apologies for spelling mistakes, typing with a temper is never good for grammer!!
• I agree that groupon has given some very poor service.... and i would like to add a perspective that alot of it is down to the Groupon and not the retailer, and how underhand their behaviour is. I only know this, as i was an "original" customer of a business that decided to do business with Groupon, and happened to be around when they have been fielding calls from angry customers. They say agreeing to deal with Groupon is their biggest regret for the year and it has nearly bankrupted them! They agreed a maximum amount of vouchers that could be sold- 200, and Groupon sold 800!!!! This meant basically that in order to fulfill all the vouchers in the time, they couldnt have any full paying customers for 6 months, which when the groupon deal was not profit making, would have killed the business, and driven away all the regular customers who would not be able to get their usual appointments Unfortunately, as a result, they had to set a maximum number of groupons per week they could accept, which meant some voucher holders went unsatisfied. Groupon just pointed at some obscure small print that they sent out AFTER the contract had been signed, that allowed them to sell as many as they liked if they thought the demand was there! Shocking behaviour IMHO...
• I have had exactly the same experience! Today I visited the address they quote on all their correspondence. It is just a shabby office that only has their bemused accountants. She said they pop in every month to collect their post but they have had a lot of people asking for them. This company is either fraudulent or certainly has a lot of people after them to be using these secretive tactics. I am in the process of referring thiS to the Advertising Standards Authority, Trading Standards and the Office of Fair Trading. Perhaps MSE can do anything about this company?
  STEER WELL CLEAR OF THIS 'COMPANY'
• UPDATE ON INFURN BEANBAG VIA GROUPON OFFER:
  My beanbag arrived today but from what I have seen of it so far, (not actually taken it out of the box yet), I am not impressed. It's for my daughter so will see what she thinks.
  At least it came.
• I've used Groupon once and will NEVER use them again.
  I have extremely poor service when something went wrong - not hearing from them despite emails being sent - this is still ongoing from something I ordered in AUGUST!
  I appreciate that the seller of the actual product is involved too and they have been just as bad. Terrible.