I find Living Deal to be the shadiest... read the fine print with them, there is almost always a catch
1 example...
$200 dollars worth of meat for $50!!
($200 will be delivered in 4 $50 coupons. Must be used on purchases of at least $150.00 and cannot be used on the same visit)
I have used/bought quite a few coupons, my mom is a bit of a junky too. They tend to fit into 4 categories.
1 - Works fine
2 - Failing restaurant due to standards of food/service falling through the floor trying to regain some business, but often they do not increase standards or fix the problem that lost them the business in the first place. This seems especially true if they used to be popular/busy and suddenly have a groupon. Something happened where they needed to go that route. Popular places that are still high quality stay busy.
3 - Small business that can't handle volume... e.g. cleaning company that wanted to book 4 months in advance and then didn't show up, even though I emailed them to confirm 3 days before. I avoid appointment based coupons now as this scenario has happened more than once.
4 - A restaurant trying to increase their dinner or lunch time volumes... e.g a downtown restaurant trying increase their evening dinner traffic. These can be hit or miss as its downtown being dead in Calgary that causes their problem not necessarily the food or service.
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