Have daily deals sites had their day?

A question about : Have daily deals sites had their day?

Poll started 2 Apr 2013

Sites such as Groupon, LivingSocial and KGB Deals appeared like a rash a couple of years ago, with super-hot loss-leading deals. Yet do you now feel they’re just lukewarm?

Vote in this week's poll

Did you vote? Why did you pick that option? Are you surprised at the results so far? Have your say below. To see the results from last time, click this.

Best answers:

• i find groupon dont seem to offer any savings too many businesses offering their services with no discount or for more than what i would cost me to go to them directly also what the point of offering a discount that then show as sold out after just 1 or 2 have sold
• Perhaps more worryingly for Groupon, etc., I've spoken to several companies that have offered deals to Groupon customers, but would never get involved again.
• A sandwich bar that was overwhelmed with customers wanting to use the offer, but not one single customer coming back after they'd redeemed their voucher.
• A falconry company that offered a half day experience, but which produced a rash of complaints once the best days had been snapped up.
• A quality hotel that offered a cheap deal, but only encouraged people who wanted cheap accommodation for pub crawl weekends, thus causing problems with their normal clientele.

Once Groupon and the like run out of companies who are prepared to offer deals they'll be dead in the water. Glad I didn't buy shares in them when they listed on the stock exchange (80% fall in their share price since their floatation).

• I love these sites! Yes I am over-run by emails, but I read everyone every day, you never know what you might miss. I'm forever buying resturant vouchers as gifts for my parents, my sister now travels 22 miles to use a specific hair salon she first found on KGB Deals, I'm due to have a tattoo with a deal I recently purchased and I even got married using a Groupon Voucher! (the same venue that Katie Price has recently used - like her or not, she's still a celeb with a load of money and she chose that venue, so it must have been a good deal!)
• I hate the spam, but some of the deals are good.
  I don't feel sympathetic for the sandwich shop that didn't keep cliental after giving an offer, if the product was genuinely desirable, the new customers would have returned.
• I hate the fact that my email is clogged up with 10-15 emails from these daily deals sites but I do find that I flick through each email to ensure I'm not missing out on anything I would usually buy. I am planning on booking a getaway with one of them at some point this year as I'm open to where in the UK I would go and there are some really good deals to be had at times. They did encourage impulse buys when I first signed up to them but I have learned that a bargain isn't a bargain unless you were going to buy the item anyway before you found the deal!
• for me it used to be a good way of discovering new places to eat but now its all the same thing being offered and often isnt that good really, youll be getting the very basic and not very much of it
• It was the cupcake one that got me.
  "Groupon demand almost finishes cupcake-maker".
• My friends I have have used Groupon deals before, but mostly I haven't found them to be good value. A potable speaker thing I bought that was supposed to be heavily discounted, was actually a model that was being phased out for the new version and so could be found cheaper elsewhere anyway. A friend's Groupon dinner left her hungry because the portions were much smaller than what you'd normally pay for.
  Any hotel deal I have considered has not included breakfast (normally included in a room rate, but if you have to pay separate it's Ј10-Ј20 per person!). I almost bought a Ј69 two-night stay last month but it would have been an extra Ј60 for the breakfasts for us, plus Ј70 supplement if we wanted to bring the children! We probably could have got it much cheaper by making a normal reservation with the hotel!
  I do still check occasionally, in case I see good things that could be gifts, but I think it's really just a way of trying to sell people things they don't really need at prices that aren't that far from the norm.
• Yeah there spammy, however i never buy anything online now unless i have a quick google for a discount for an item. There the best way of keeping us informed of discounts, until facebook complely spam us with deals
• I still find quite a few good deals on these sites, but yeah you'd be a fool not to check whether its actually a deal or not. For goods, I usually find a quick search on Amazon to be a good gauge, and for places/experiences tripadvisor is usually useful.
• I bought one for afternoon tea at a posh hotel and took my mum out, found out it was the same offer that was run very afternoon during the week.
  My sister bought an offer on horse riding lessons but said she would never buy again- the staff were rude and she felt they looked down on her because she was there with the discount. She would rather pay the full amount (at another stable!) than use a discount again.