Groupon

A business refused to honor my expired Groupon for price I paid for it (not promotional value, but paid value). I contacted Groupon and they at first refused to give me a refund saying I should try again with the company. No dice. Then they said they would look into it and contact the business. No good. Then they said they would take care of this and they refunded my groupon to a card that was from a bank that didn't exist anymore. They didn't ask me first what I would prefer--credit to use on another Groupon or a refund on my card. Customer service both on email and phone were unsupportive, unresponsive and unhelpful. Theya re policy driven, unsympathetic, unthinking drones who can't answer a question that is not on their script. I may never see this $20 again and they refuse to refund a different groupon I have that I can no longer use due to life-threatening illness and medical problems. They said that's too bad, they won't refund it, I should give it away to someone. Like the loss of $30 is nothing and I should not be concerned about it. Jerks!

After a few good experiences with my groupons for smoothies and a bar I like, I had a really weird experience with my Groupon at a dinky spa and felt really ripped off. They were unprofessional and the place was actually dirty! The floors, the table. The massage was not what the pretty picture not he Groupon made it seem to be. Well, I emailed and got no response. I finally broke down and called them and got a real person who was really nice and refunded me with no hassle. I was still pissed after waiting to hear back through email and she credited me with some extra money in my account "goodwill" and was really nice to talk to. Really friendly and cool. I do think they're struggling to keep up with the volume, but if you can actually make contact they have awesome customer service. Really rare. Verizon is the only other company I feel this way about.

Like I said, they need to have people to get back to those emails! You can't ignore people! And I agree with others that they should check these places to make sure the deal is really a deal and not a ticket to go to a shady place where you feel ripped off even with a discount.

Phone service gets an A and I'm not just saying that because I got some credit from them. It was a nice surprise though. I think they're going through growing pains. The lady I talked to said her computer was running slow because the servers were so overloaded. If they can adjust to keep up and keep the deals legit, I'll keep using them.

BUYERS BEWARE WHEN PURCHASING FROM GROUPON. I recently learned the following shameful things about Groupon's business practices:
1) Their posting process allows very convincing yet fraudulent deals to be posted on the site. In my case it was a laser tag deal for Stratum Laser Tag that Stratum said had been posted without their consent by an unknown source.
2) If you have purchased one of these fraudulent deals, they will remove the posting from their site but will NOT bother to notify you that you purchased a fraudulent deal. Nope. Instead they will quietly allow you, in ignorance, attempt to redeem a fake voucher in person. Not only will they waste your money, they will waste your time and good faith.
3) Groupon will then refuse to refund you because the item was "final sale." How can it be final sale when there was no product "sold" in the first place? Absolutely ludicrous. The money spent on said fraudulent deal can't even be rolled over for face-value credit in store or elsewhere. As far as they're concerned, it's just gone.
I suggest to you, if you see a deal you'd like to snatch up, to call the business directly before purchasing the Groupon to verify the deal is legitimate. Do not use the phone number listed on the Groupon posting. Look it up on the business' official site and call from there. And if something goes wrong do not expect Groupon to have your back :( Very disappointing as I have been a HUGE fan of the site and had referred business to them to purchase this Groupon---which you'd think they would appreciate in a customer, but there's been no customer appreciation shown here.

They promise they will get back to you in 24 hours if you email. A lie. Sent email to be patient. Now I have sent several emails with their ticket number and they have still to reply to my email. I have tried their chat system and they never reply to it either so I am supposed to sit and wait all day for some to come and chat! Once I use the Groupons I have already purchased, I will NEVER PURCHASE ANOTHER GROUPON. Any savings is not worth the aggravation, since they no longer have a telephone for customer service.

My realtor referred me to this site to get a great deal from a local painter. I completed the application and paid the $210.00.

Then I tried to call the vendor but the telephone number was "not in use". The vendor never contacted me. I had to make mulitple complaints to Groupon to get my money back. Here is the rep's consdescending last e-mail:

Hi Eric,

Thank you for providing me with this additional information. I'm able to go ahead and make a one-time exception in this case. I've just issued you a full refund and removed this Groupon from your account. Please allow up to 10 business days for this to be reflected on your statement. In the future, please keep in mind that we are only able to issue refunds if there is an unresolvable problem with the Groupon, or if you feel that the experience using your Groupon has let you down.

Please be aware that we will not be able to issue additional refunds of this nature in the future. Of course, if you ever run into difficulty redeeming your Groupon, we are glad to help so don't hesitate to contact us.

I truly appreciate your patience in this matter. If you have any further questions, please let me know.

Regards,

Mallory N
Groupon Customer Support

After not receiving my order after 3 weeks I contacted customer service. They only offer email and live chat as a way to reach someone. I live chatted with someone only to have him inform me that he could not locate my package and would have to email a supervisor. I told him I wanted to speak with an actual person so he gave me a phone number to do so. I called that number for 2 days only to get a voicemail every time! In the voicemail they state that they will return your call by end of business day. Yea... no one ever called me back. So I emailed for another 2 days. No one ever returned my emails. So then I live chatted with someone yet again. This time the lady told me that my package was lost and there was an investigation. I told her I wanted my money back, only to have her avoid my demand. Only after getting angry did she tell me she would not refund my money until the investigation was complete almost 2 weeks later. Like it was my fault that they lost my package! So bottom line is ideel has the absolute worst customer service I have ever experienced, and I had to dispute the charges with my bank! Buyer beware! If you ever have to contact ideel customer service you're in for a very frustrating experience!

Groupons sound great but the discounts are taken off of inflated pries. Take any business and call them to find out what the original price was for the item or service you are interested in. I have not yet found a place that charges the prices that Groupon claims to be the 'original price' With the Groupon 'discount' the price of that item is either slightly cheaper or the same as what you can get in the store or business.
I have also noticed that many businesses treat you diffidently if you come in with a Groupon. You are automatically labeled about being cheap and the service level drops dramatically. I noticed that sometimes I get smaller portions and tend to wait longer for my food at restaurants. Most service providers don't return calls, don't show up to appointments or give you a half done jobs just to try to up sell you other features to complete the job that was promised.
So, if you want to buy a Groupon for the 'potential' savings, use at your own risk. I stopped buying them for fear that someone might spit in my food knowing that I have used a groupon.