Moonlanding: Groupon sucks balls

[Dan Druff]

I was never a fan of Groupon. Even in their heyday, I found that they tended to offer either shit merchandise or shit services, to where your "discount" wasn't actually a discount, you were just getting inferior stuff.

However, if I found a Groupon deal for something I was going to do anyway, I would use them. For example, my family wanted to see a small show in Vegas (a particular one), and Groupon had a 50% off deal for that. Same seats, same everything, just 50% cheaper. Obviously I used Groupon for that because it was easy and saved money. Worked out, great success, etc.

Anyway, that's how I've used Groupon for the past several years. I've used them about once a year on average, so I'm by no means a frequent customer.

Yesterday I was in Miami with my family and I used Groupon for a boat ride. The boat ride itself was great, but I was pissed off when the company shook me down for extra money for "gratuity" for the Groupon-bought tickets. Keep in mind that I bought 2 off Groupon and one normally, and conveniently the "gratuity" was only required to be paid on the Groupon ones. The "gratuity" was also mandatory, or I could not get on the boat.

This was a huge violation of Groupon rules, and it pissed me off.

Obviously I wasn't going to turn around and leave at that point, having brought the family there, paid for parking, and being in a city across the country, so I just coughed up this "gratuity" on my credit card, and figured I would report this matter later.

So today I looked for a Groupon phone #, and of course they have done away with phone support, and you are stuck chatting with third world monkeys.

I reported this, and they said they would send it to their "escalations team" to deal with the shady business.

Check.

Then came the matter of refunding the "gratuity" I paid to the company. These idiots had the nerve to tell me that I could only have that back as "Groupon Bucks" to spend on their service.

When I objected, the monkey pretended not to understand and just kept repeating, "Sorry for your inconvenience, you can use these Groupon bucks for next time."

When I asked to be transferred to a supervisor, I was promised one was coming, and then radio silence.

Standard.

I am thinking of just charging the whole fucking thing back on my credit card as a scam, but I don't want my CC company to just eat it. I want the charge to either come out of Groupon's pockets or this boat company's pockets. I'm afraid the amounts aren't large enough and the CC company will just give me a "courtesy" refund, which I don't want.

Is there any way to reach a human by phone at Groupon? I would love to derail this little scam they have going at the boat company. I watched them charge tons of people this "gratuity" who bought through Groupon (not just me), so this probably adds up to a lot of money.

Interestingly enough, we very much enjoyed the boat ride itself, but the scam they pulled with the mandatory upcharge pissed me off.

[hongkonger]

Don't know how to make groupon pay, but I'd report to state AG's office, BBB, etc.

[Dan Druff]

Don't know how to make groupon pay, but I'd report to state AG's office, BBB, etc.

I'm not going to take it that far.

Groupon can probably hide behind their claim that the merchant was the one who screwed me, not them, and that I chose to use the Groupon (as opposed to just walking away and then demanding a refund for the Groupon).

But when you're traveling and do things like this, it's not practical to walk away, for obvious reasons.

[sonatine]

BBB is one of the absolute nut low consumer advocate groups in existence right now, btw.

[hongkonger]

Don't know how to make groupon pay, but I'd report to state AG's office, BBB, etc.

I'm not going to take it that far.

Groupon can probably hide behind their claim that the merchant was the one who screwed me, not them, and that I chose to use the Groupon (as opposed to just walking away and then demanding a refund for the Groupon).

But when you're traveling and do things like this, it's not practical to walk away, for obvious reasons.

Another thing is if a CC company gets enough complaints (esp charge backs) about one company they sometimes lean on that company to clean it up.

[duped_samaritan]

Does groupon have any social media presence?

[Kilgore Trout]

GETHUMAN.com

[The_Lurker]

Sounds more like the boat ride company sucks.

I understand that you never factor in your time when you get into these customer service nightmares. My guess is that we are talking about $20, I try to limit my $20 pissing contests to no more than 2 times a year. LOL jewaments

[OSA]

I had a similar situation. I bought a Groupon for a boat trip my first time in Miami. I called them three times within the span of 2 hours to schedule a trip for today because I was leaving the following day. No one picked up nor did they return my calls. I got my money back as a refund not a credit. I decided to hop on a Grindr and found a young skinny blond German tourist who needed some dick and I fucked him. Instead of paying to ride a plastic and metal motor craft, I rode ass for free. So it all worked out in the end.



Best thing to do to hurt them reputation wise is to write negative reviews on every review site to make sure that they are listed on. If they care enough, they might even contact you to refund the gratuity because it will be worth removing the bad word of mouth online. Since this is mostly tourist activity, you will be costing them money in the future for sure if your review isn't removed.

[PLOL]

Groupon+ is the nuts in my area, and flat out free money. You don't have to purchase them, you just get cash BACK. I just snap click accept on everything and then randomly get cash back when I'm dining out (you can use a program to do this if you're savvy). But this is very area specific.

And I get good regular Groupon deals occasionally on there. But buying "goods" on there is often a bad idea as the stuff is usually low quality crap. As a general rule of thumb you should never pay "face value" (the groupon face value) for anything. The name of the game is stacking. For instance, with Chase I think I get 2x points if I click on Groupon through their portal link. In addition to 1.5x points I normally get. This is an additional ~6% off. Then they throw coupons around very liberally. Something like 20% off or $5 off $20 is very common. You can stack coupons and portals. Occasionally I can find a Jew triple stack. So if there's a $40 value groupon value at some restaurant for $25, the most you should ever be paying is $19.


Todd, if you need me to I can pop into their offices at 600 W Chicago

[Kuntmissioner]

Why not name the boat company, Todd?

[GambleBotsChafedPenis]

is it just me or should PLOP and druff write a book on couponing...

[WillieMcFML]

is it just me or should PLOP and druff write a book on couponing...

With a forward written by OSA explaining how to get into festivals for free and selling your own poweraids for $4 a p(l)op, as well as a section on stolen valor

[Dan Druff]

Groupon+ is the nuts in my area, and flat out free money. You don't have to purchase them, you just get cash BACK. I just snap click accept on everything and then randomly get cash back when I'm dining out (you can use a program to do this if you're savvy). But this is very area specific.

And I get good regular Groupon deals occasionally on there. But buying "goods" on there is often a bad idea as the stuff is usually low quality crap. As a general rule of thumb you should never pay "face value" (the groupon face value) for anything. The name of the game is stacking. For instance, with Chase I think I get 2x points if I click on Groupon through their portal link. In addition to 1.5x points I normally get. This is an additional ~6% off. Then they throw coupons around very liberally. Something like 20% off or $5 off $20 is very common. You can stack coupons and portals. Occasionally I can find a Jew triple stack. So if there's a $40 value groupon value at some restaurant for $25, the most you should ever be paying is $19.


Todd, if you need me to I can pop into their offices at 600 W Chicago

Interesting. I use Groupon so infrequently that I didn't bother looking into doing stuff like this.

I fully agree that goods on Groupon are crap.

I considered tracking down corporate, but this isn't a big enough deal for that. I'm just going to charge it back and be done.

If I do choose to use them again, how do I find these coupons? Are they posted online, or are they e-mailed?

[Dan Druff]

Sounds more like the boat ride company sucks.

I understand that you never factor in your time when you get into these customer service nightmares. My guess is that we are talking about $20, I try to limit my $20 pissing contests to no more than 2 times a year. LOL jewaments

I got mad about the scam part of the whole thing, and it pissed me off. Wasn't at all about the money. If it was, I would just have called the CC company, gotten a refund, and have been done with it within minutes.

The boat company and Groupon are both at fault.

The boat company is at fault for demanding additional money after a Groupon purchase.

Groupon is at fault because they are refusing to enforce their own rules. If a customer gets fucked like this, instead of making things right and punishing the seller in some way (like deducting from their upcoming payment), they just let the customer get scammed, and offer him LOL "Groupon bucks" to supposedly make it right.

Groupon is not standing by the whole concept of their product, which is supposed to allow customers to buy cheaper goods and services through their service, under supposedly very strict rules.

The problem here is that Groupon has a way to deal with shady businesses when people DON'T redeem the item (such as if I had just walked out without taking the boat ride), and that's by giving a full refund and not paying the partner. In cases like this, where I had to go through considerable trouble to get there, and wasn't about to walk away at that point, they don't have an effective way of dealing with it. But they should, because they've been around many years.

[simpdog]

I wonder if this would be a different situation a few years ago when Groupon had a ton of cash/positive outlook.

I agree with Druff both the boat company + Groupon are at fault. He tried to resolve it with the boat company at the time, so now Groupon should be on the hook.

[Dan Druff]

I wonder if this would be a different situation a few years ago when Groupon had a ton of cash/positive outlook.

I agree with Druff both the boat company + Groupon are at fault. He tried to resolve it with the boat company at the time, so now Groupon should be on the hook.

Yeah, when they killed their phone support and outsourced it to chat support in third world countries (LOL), that's pretty much indicative of a company which is just trying to stay alive and isn't too concerned with reputation at this point.

[Crowe Diddly]

enough about the complaints, groupon sucks /thread

Tell us more about the boat ride. was it a few hour tour of the miami waterfront? something thru the everglades? Whale watching?

[Dan Druff]

enough about the complaints, groupon sucks /thread

Tell us more about the boat ride. was it a few hour tour of the miami waterfront? something thru the everglades? Whale watching?

It was the Miami waterfront. I will explain more later. There's a reason I am holding that info back at the moment.

I did the everglades in 2015 (and before, but that was most recent, so I didn't see the need to do it again so soon.)

[PLOL]

Groupon+ is the nuts in my area, and flat out free money. You don't have to purchase them, you just get cash BACK. I just snap click accept on everything and then randomly get cash back when I'm dining out (you can use a program to do this if you're savvy). But this is very area specific.

And I get good regular Groupon deals occasionally on there. But buying "goods" on there is often a bad idea as the stuff is usually low quality crap. As a general rule of thumb you should never pay "face value" (the groupon face value) for anything. The name of the game is stacking. For instance, with Chase I think I get 2x points if I click on Groupon through their portal link. In addition to 1.5x points I normally get. This is an additional ~6% off. Then they throw coupons around very liberally. Something like 20% off or $5 off $20 is very common. You can stack coupons and portals. Occasionally I can find a Jew triple stack. So if there's a $40 value groupon value at some restaurant for $25, the most you should ever be paying is $19.


Todd, if you need me to I can pop into their offices at 600 W Chicago

Interesting. I use Groupon so infrequently that I didn't bother looking into doing stuff like this.

I fully agree that goods on Groupon are crap.

I considered tracking down corporate, but this isn't a big enough deal for that. I'm just going to charge it back and be done.

If I do choose to use them again, how do I find these coupons? Are they posted online, or are they e-mailed?

I think they get emailed. I get them pushed to my phone through the app. They do kinda spam you tho.

And you don’t run into these issues with Groupon+ because you just link your credit card and then pay the merchant like normal. It’s just for restaurants tho.