Groupon

I've been getting Groupon's Deal of the Day via email for about a couple months now. It's not snapping my bean, I haven't bought anything yet, and here's why: Most of the deals are for girly stuff like teeth whitening, spa treatments, and lotions & potions. I'm a non-girly guy and just can't dig it. The rest of the arriving deals are for food - restaurants and the occasional bakery or butcher.

Anybody with a lick of sense knows that if they spring for the $99 dental exam and Zoom! Whitening, they will be also getting an earful of upsells and doom-and-gloom from the dentist/hygenist/salespeople, things like "OMG! UR teeth are falling out nearly and must be reimplanted stat! For $5,000" and such. If you resist, you will be getting a lot of hairy eyeball attitude.

The spa deals have odd rules like "Spa coupon is for spa services only. Redeemer must purchase spa reservation," and you find out the reservation's $350 - in other words, your coupon is only for add-ons to a spa reservation, not for the reservation itself.

And the food coupons are typically for expensive restaurants. So your "$50 for $25" coupon means you'll only be spending $150 instead of $175 for your dinner for 2. And there are too many complaints online about people being treated poorly when they use the coupon, or of merchants sticking extra unwritten terms onto the deal, like "Groupons not redeemable on weekends."

My favorite was a recent Tempe bakery offering a Valentine's Tiramisu Cake for only $20 with Groupon. This cake was only 6 inches, which is just a tad larger than a cupcake. The bakery claimed this was a $40 cake. I suspect the cake was created specifically for this promotion, and there's no way that a pint-sized tiramisu is worth $40 (tiramisu is an unskilled Italian trifle). This thing wasn't even worth $20.

Then there's the recent FTD fiasco, which has finally convinced me to avoid Groupon altogether. Consumers are weary of fine print, exclusions and manipulative marketing B. S. Groupon is more of the same old, in new garb. Yawn.

I paid $400 for the hotelclub vouchers via Groupon for nothing. I followed the instructions to register for the coupon before the expiry date(This is still WITHIN the validity date). But the voucher code was unable to proceed. So I tried for repeated times and failed.

I looked for Hotelclub, they pushed me to Groupon. When i write in to Groupon, they refered me to Merchant.

It was very patronising and ABSURD cos i did not receive a single call either from GROUPON or HOTELCLUB. They DID NOT call me AT ALL.

So, there was indeed some system technical problems on Hotelclub OR Groupon's part that impede customers from registering their coupons within the validity. So, I wrote in again. This time asking for my refund. Groupon agreed to refund. But to this day (since JUne-nov3) i have not received anything yet!

So, it was both baffling and frustrating getting those coupons. I didnt think it was a good deal at all. I followed the instructions, unable to get register my coupons due to their errors, and ABSURDLY i have to PAY for that! Even they agreed to refund u, they did not honor their promise.

Hotelclub was very indifferent to the situation. They created a flawed system, so that you cannot log in and register your coupons you bought. And consumers were accused not to register within the validity period.
And the BEST part, Hotelclub got consumers to pay without having to serve them!

With such a bad customer service, system and management, I won't use their service again.

I honestly would never recommend Groupon or Hotelclub to anyone. Hotelclub rates are more expensive (compared to Expedia, or priceline), and just plain disappointing customer service. Just go EXPEDIA, don't waste your time.
And Groupon has terrible customer service! They are just looking for ways to exploit consumers!

I tried one day and thought great but after going into it not so good its a experence thats it

I have had good experiences with Groupon until recently. Now I will never use Groupon and I will share my experience with everyone so save them from the same inconvenience.

I ordered a 12-Month Xbox Live Gold Card 2 months ago. I received a tracking # from DHL and waited, expecting that my item was sent as Groupon told me it was. Weeks go by. No update on the DHL tracking info and no update from Groupon. I contacted Groupon's customer service last month and was told:

"We know it's been a while since you've gotten an update on your order, and we don't want you to feel left in the dark. As of right now, it looks like your order is still without tracking information, and it likely won't be arriving within the time frame that we promised in the Fine Print. We're so sorry about this.

Although we don't have a new delivery estimate to share with you yet, please know that we're doing everything we can to ship your order as soon as possible. When we have a tracking number or another update on your order's status, we'll let you know right away. We're confident that your item will ship soon, but we understand that this news may change your plans. If you prefer not to wait any longer, I'd be happy to issue a refund to your Groupon account to be used for future purchases, or to your original form of payment. Please let me know which you prefer. If you wish to wait for the product, you're certainly welcome to do so. Tracking may still become available, and at that time, we'll be able to give you more information regarding a delivery date."

Another month goes by. No updates. No card. I contact Groupon's customer support again asking when I can expect to have an update or expect my item to be shipped. I also specifically said that I do NOT want a refund. I want to wait for my item.

Well, this morning I get a message from the customer support representative named "Sheeba" saying:

"I can't apologize enough for the delay. Of course, this is not the experience we want you to have when using Groupon. At this point, I can no longer provide any further updates on your order's status, so I've 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. Situations like this can sometimes occur due to an unexpected inventory shortage or a complication with the shipment while in transit; but obviously, this is not the outcome we had hoped for."

So... not only did they give me a refund after I specifically said NOT TO, they are still selling the 12-Month Xbox Live Gold Card on Groupon when they obviously are unable to fulfill the orders!

Looks like a scam. Sounds like a scam. Must be a scam.

I will never use Groupon again and I plan to tell everyone I know about my bad experience and post reviews all over the Internet to warn others. Buyer beware!

Groupon in India is making fool of its customers. I had a very bad experience I have bought hotel vouchers and have even made bookings. Even after the booking was accepted by Groupon I have been refused the accommodation. They are cheating the customers. Pls stay away from Groupon at least in India

I don't understand how you they so conveniently say that the booking cannot be confirmed when I have taken care of the entire process for making the reservations. Hotel stay is as per a planned purpose and hence it is not feasible to change the dates. I'm summarising the entire sequence of events and then would like to know where am I at fault and if that's the case why should I suffer because of your and hotel's mismanagement.

1. I checked the hotel availability on Nov 19th for Dec 31st and purchased three vouchers
2. Same day I had sent the vouchers to the hotel so that my booking could be confirmed
3. Same day I received an email for the hotel requesting for the vouchers
4. On Nov 22nd, I shared the vouchers with the hotel
5. On Nov 24th, the hotel responded stating that I have to make a booking on groupon's website
6. Same day I made the bookings on your website and intimated it to the hotel
7. Since there was no response from the hotel, I had sent a reminder on Nov 27th
8. No response from the hotel, I posted a query on groupon's website but no response was received
9. Today I have called up your customer care and have been informed that the booking cannot be confirmed

I'm disappointed and also surprised with the kind of services being rendered by groupon. I have proofs for each of the above events and can share the same with you.

Further, I have checked the hotel's website and there is availability for 31st night and still then I'm being refused for a reservation I had made long time back.

I tried to contact the business and Groupon regarding redeeming my voucher, but their is no answer from the business and NO help from Groupon.

This is the WORST company EVER. They are out to RIP OFF small businesses. If Groupon wonders why their stocks have taken a dive it is most likely because no small business that makes them successful will ever work with them again.
People were coming in and behind my back going to groupon and stating that they did not receive the services OR they received the services and gave some lie as to why they should have a refund, which was in their policy guidelines. For example, "It was no longer accessible?" What? The woman came in did a partial redemption and then sold her car! That is NOT the fault of the business. They called GROUPON and groupon NEVER called me the merchant to verify ANYTHING.
They simply penalized me ECONOMICALLY, for someone elses lies. I was then told that I would BE PAID for everyone. It has been months and I have not been paid! They deliberately LIED to me so that I would not rock the boat. My office gave FREE dental cleanings to so many people the company got screwed by GROUPON.
We have standards to maintain such as sterilization equipment. Your health costs us money we can not go when somethings breaks down or needs repairs and rip that business off!
GROUPON NEEDS TO BE STOPPED THEY ARE ONLY OUT FOR THEMSELVES, LIE TO BUSINESS OWNERS NOT A REPUTABLE COMPANY AT ALL. Look at their position on the stock market. Why has it gone down so much so as compared to other sites? Why as they are robbing the small businesses that make them money!
We decided to take the people who did a partial redemption and then called for a refund to collections. They then threatened to have our license as professionals revoked by lying to regulatory bodies.
It is amazing how this company survives as they are biting the hand that feeds them!
Small Businesses! GROUPON has cost this office more than it was worth.

Well what can I say about Groupon, I am speechless... this rarely happens but I actually am struggling to find the right words about this company, how it continues to exist I will never know. I never thought it was possible for a company to stoop so low, they really couldn't care less. Please, for what it's worth, if you are reading this, avoid Groupon at all costs if you want to avoid pulling your hair out! I had the 2 worst hotel experiences of my life through Groupon before I found out about the scam that they are carrying out. Groupon doesn't actually offer good deals in reality, they hike prices up and discount them, making you pay full price. And if you do get anything a small amount below what you get anywhere else, it's because the product or experience is rubbish, not working anywhere else and wanted by no one else so they reduce it a little for you. Why pay for 150 pounds for stress and rubbish when you could pay an extra 30 and have an experience 100 times better! Groupon ruined 2 of my short breaks away before I knew about them so I vowed to never use them again. My partner bought a couple of products which were rubbish and ended up going in the bin after a few days when she didn't listen to me and if you look for any heavily discounted Groupon product anywhere else online, it's the same price or cheaper elsewhere! So, why am I writing this review if I vowed to never use them? Unfortunately a family friend bought me an experience as a birthday present. It was too late to refund by the time it got to me and I should have just binned it right then. Better to throw away the money spent on the voucher than go through the hassle of using it and cause even more of a headache. But I tried it (for the last time) and the voucher that I printed had the wrong address on it. I called Groupon beforehand to check if I have to book and they said "do what it says on the voucher" which literally says "Read through terms (which has useless information that does not help me) and show up and enjoy". No detailed address, no contact number, nothing else. I called and they repeated several times that everything I need to know is on the voucher. So I drive for an hour to the address they provided which is the incorrect one, couldn't find it and by the time I spent half an hour looking around, the place was likely to be closed. Now I had a look online and there are several different addresses for the place and different opening and closing times. Looks like Groupon are a bunch of cowboys who have clowns as partner to provide their useless products and services. Groupon is a disgrace and the sooner people stop using it to make it go out of business, the better!

SO disappointed! I have been with Ideeli for awhile now, but it's only recently that I've had issues with them. This latest problem is what really made me mad, and I will never shop from them again, no matter how tantalizing their prices are. I placed two orders fairly recently. I had used a $25 credit on my first purchase, but then the order was canceled. I spoke to an Ideeli representative who assured me that I still had a $25 credit in my account, even though it did not show up visually in my account. I MADE CERTAIN that I still had the credit - I asked him how I should place my order, if my credit card would be charged $25 less - basically, I had to make sure that nothing would go wrong, especially since I had seen this site before and all the bad reviews. (I just didn't really believe them, since most of my previous orders had gone smoothly.) But then I placed my order, WHILE IN CORRESPONDENCE with the sales representative, and waited for the charge to show up a couple days later. The sales representative did not reply to my last message, which, AS REQUESTED BY THE SALES REPRESENTATIVE, stated that I had placed the order, and could someone refund me the $25 back? I should have expected then that I was charged the full price of the order. I wrote back to Ideeli, using the same thread in which I had been speaking to the representative on the day of my last order, and they asked for my order number. There is no response from them now. I am so, so irritated - and yes, $25 isn't an insanely large sum, but as a college student... I have to make do with a scrappy student income. And I'm just so frustrated with the customer service, which outright lied to me.

In my entire life I have never left bad reviews. It usually takes a lot to make me mad because I am in customer service as well and typically have a more forgiving nature. That being said, I have never received this type of incompetent customer service in my life than I did with groupon. It started when I ordered an NCAA toolbox for my husband. The shipment arrived promptly but it was the wrong school. I called the last Tuesday and spoke with Chris, per usual the issue would be looked into and be sent to management to try and get it replaced. He noted worse case scenario I get a refund. On Thursday I finally received an email from Chris asking me if I had received his previous email and he was waiting to help me. The last email I received was after we initially spoke confirming he was looking into it. I emailed him back stating this and did not hear from him again until Saturday morning. This is where it gets weird. He emailed me stating he was sorry for the trouble but that my item had not shipped yet and as soon as he had a tracking number he would forward that. I emailed him asking if this meant I was getting my correct order, he emailed me back Sunday stating that he was still waiting to hear back from someone regarding my situation. I replied to him stating that he clearly wasn't paying attention to my issue and that I felt his communication was way off. So I call today to speak to someone else about fixing this simple mistake. I speak to a woman who tells me once again that she has to forward it to upper management. I told her that already should have been done and it's been almost a week since this all first started. I said the longer this takes the less chance there is of me getting my correct order which is what I wanted instead of a refund since I had gotten this as a gift. Getting nowhere with them I decided that since there was only one day left on this deal that I reordered it myself which I told her by me doing that and sending the incorrect one back clearly would have solved my problem faster than by trying to go through customer service cause I've gotten nowhere. I will not be ordering from groupon goods again not because the mistake happened but because of customer service. I was passed around and given the usual I'm sorry but despite telling them how frustrated I was and how I felt no one was dealing with my issue and they still didn't do anything about it shows how much they don't care. It's sad because I really liked them until this ordeal.

Groupon allows companies to oversell available spots so that the groupon is not reedemable than refuses to issue refunds. It is a scam. BUYER BEWARE!

Hi, sorry my Englis writing is not that good but i will try to explain to you what happend.
I order jeans as a christmas present for my husband, I recive them yesterday 12/20 they send me wrong size, I try to call them but you get only answering mashine, and you don't have option to wait on a line? I left 2 massage at@ 6; 30 and 7; 30 and of course nobody did'n call me back, I try this morning too same thing, since I am more comfotable to talk english than write i try to get somebody on a phone. So my other optin was to try to live chat and I got Robert on chat, so i ask him to call me witch he did.He exsplain that chats are priority? And he told me that i need to leave a message to get sombody to call me,? I told him that i left 2, but his answer was that they are close a that time, OK i said but whay u didnt call me this morning, and of course no answer. So on the end it was their mistake to send me wrong size, BUT they can't do anything, just send me return labels and $ 25 gift card. So 3-4 days before chrisymas because their mistake i am without gift and they can't send me overnite new jeans. This was my first and last order with them, this days you have so many diferent sites with big discounts. Very bad exspirience.

I am long-time Ideeli shopper who is about to throw in the towel. This time last year, the monthly red sales were the highlight of my weekend; I looked forward to them during the week and spent a ton of money every time they rolled around. The first few purchases went incredibly smoothly and I was very pleased with the site. The problems started happening about 8 months ago. I purchased a beautiful Calvin Klein suit that was covered in small dirt spots upon receipt; it appeared to have been dropped into mud and not cleaned. I bought another suit at an amazing discount that I was very excited to wear. When I received the suit, it was not anything like what was pictured. I emailed customer service (who always has responded to my inquiries without problem) and was sent a return label and told that I would either be sent the suit I purchased if it was in stock or given a refund. I was disappointed when my money was refunded, but I completely understand some small mishaps (not as many I have now experienced) and limited quantities on sample sale sites. To my chagrin, the exact same suit was then offered on the next red sale after I was told it was no longer in stock.

On top of these, I bought a pair of jeans and received the wrong size, bought two Sue Wong dresses that turned out not to be Sue Wong at all, but the value brand of her line, Studio SW, bought two of the exact same Jessica Simpson dresses and was sent the exact same wrong one with both purchases, and received two dresses with defective zippers.

Though all of these are disappointing, I can expect some disappointment when you can get things like Jessica Simpson dresses for $8-20. But when you add to these disappointments an increasing stock of decreasing clothing quality plus much higher prices, the incentive to shop on Ideeli is diminishing. Ideeli used to have tons of dresses with MSRPs between $130-170 on sale for as cheap as $6. Now, more often than not you see dresses priced between $60-$80 for $25-35 on the red sales and think fast sales. The quality of the clothes on Ideeli is way down, yet the price is up. However, other sites offer better quality clothes at much greater discounts weekly without the need to pay $80 a year.

I really enjoyed shopping on Ideeli and would love to see it return to its former glory. It used to be a wonderful site, but now it just brings along disappointment. Furthermore, if a customer service rep replies to this, instead of just telling me that you are sorry about my disappointment, please do something to fix it because Ideeli used to be my go-to site and I would like it to be again.

I love Groupon because I am able to acquire goods and services at greatly reduced prices.

Amazing phone app and great sight bargains to be had and offers well recommend A+++++++ site

Lots of great new experiences with Groupon that we would never have had otherwise. Great going.

If you want to save money on your online purchases, this is the place to go!

Purchase all the time, never a problem, especially if there is a return, credit! Very satisfied!

Site looks like a bargain basement junk sale! Ideeli used to be great, what a shame!

Received wrong item. Sent multiple emails. Never a response from anyone ever. Will never use again.

In-$#*!ing-credible. Not just terrible service, but DEFECTIVE PRODUCTS.

So, i purchase a bag from ideeli, and it arrives with the purse strap attached backwards. I like the bag overall, but i don't want a defective bag, so i contact them asking if they will send me a new, non-defective bag if i send back the defective one. They tell me that in order for me to get a non-defective replacement bag, i have to buy a new bag with my credit card - they claimed that once I sent them back the defective bag, they would issue me a refund to my card. I'm not too thrilled about putting another $65 on my credit card, but at this point i naively trust that they will do what they say, so i go ahead and buy a second bag. I mail the first defective bag back to them, and after a few days, they issue STORE CREDIT to my card. For a defective bag. I email them about it, and after a mess of emails (completely incompetent customer service that doesn't seem to understand regular english) they inform me that because i initially bought the bag with store credit, they could only give me store credit back. NEVER MIND THAT I ALREADY PAID AN EXTRA $65 ON MY CREDIT CARD TO OBTAIN A REPLACEMENT BAG. I bring their attention to this fact, and they FINALLY agree to issue me a refund, but claim that it is a ~one time special deal~ because i am a ~valuable customer~ NOT BECAUSE THEY MESSED UP THE FIRST TIME. Today, i received the new bag that i purchased with my credit card. IT HAS A DEFECTIVE STRAP ON IT.

1. i haven't gotten the refund that they promised
2. I've emailed them about the SECOND defective bag and they haven't even had the decency to generate an automatic reply acknowledging that they received my email.

Like i said, IN-$#*!ING-CREDIBLE. I am definitely never shopping there again, and am very sad about the hundreds of dollars i've pumped into their scam. AVOID AT ALL COSTS.

Been a customer of Ideeli now Ideel since 2008 and had few issues with returns or quality of merchandise until recently. On Oct 6 I placed a small order less than $30.00 to be billed to my paypal account. I had $50.00 cash available in that account and my bank account and 2 credit cards for backup. On Oct 7 at 2:14 am I got an email that they were unable to process my payment and that I had 48 hours to update my info and if questions contact customer support. At 5:22 am I emailed customer service questioning the problem, and did update with an additional credit card. Monique from customer service responded at 1:13 pm and in less than 48 hours the item that should have been on hold for me is gone. The order still shows as pending on my account and paypal is still holding my cash with my order set to expire Jan 4,2015. I have emailed Ideel 3 more times now because I would like my cash released and a $10.00 credit returned to my account and my emails are ignored. No response in 24 hours as they promote on their website. Recommend this site? - NO, and it's a shame because they do get some great merchandise. But what good is that if you can't even get customer service to do their job when problems arise.

UPDATE: I was contacted by a supervisor in Ideel's customer service department in regards to my order/payment issue. Jessica, who is a supervisor in the customer service department, explained that there were technical issues involving paypal authorizations and she was able to my satisfaction clear the hold on my money. Ideel has just started using paypal as an option for payment so as with any new procedures I should have expected there to be bumps in the road. Unfortunately, I hit the bump. On the positive side, Jessica will bring this issue to the attention of the appropriate department so future purchases for customers hopefully won't have this problem.

I have upgraded my rating to 5 stars, which is what I would have given it had I not been so frustrated in trying to get this resolved. I will continue to shop at this site and have done so even while this issue was ongoing. I have been a customer for so long, always satisfied with the quality and quick shipping of merchandise, ease of return, that I just couldn't believe this was happening to me.

Thank you Jessica for handling this for me and promising to address the issues I experienced with the appropriate departments.

I ordered a few times and after complaing so often about faulty products or bad service I cancelled