Groupon: Bakery loses $20 000/Baked 102 000 Cupcakes

[manwiches]

Groupon is great and all, but personally, I will never buy anything that is service related from a 'Dealfind/internet deal' again.

i've had a few bad experiences with vendors not being able to fulfill the voucher that I bought, because they couldn't handle the volume, very similar to this story.

My worst experience, was with Pink Lime Spa. I bought two vouchers for my wife and I last year when it first came out. I tried booking 5 different occasions over the past year, and came away frustrated each time. I was either told
a) Sorry, you'll have to wait 3-4 months to book in advance (i work out of town, so this was not going to work)
b) Sorry, the person who handles the vouchers isn't here today.
c) I can't help you, call back later.

The last one was the last straw for me, and I got a full refund on my vouchers. I've had a couple friends tell me very similar stories about the, and one friend even managed to get in, and they tried to cancel his appointment the day before, and push it back 2 months. He called them out on it, and said the massage was the worst he's ever had.

Anyhow, my two cents on Dealfinds.

[Regular_John]

Originally Posted by rd_aaron

Exactly. There was nothing stopping them from telling Groupon during the negoatiating process to put a limit, say 1000 or 2000 coupons sold.

To their credit this particular bakery seems to be owning up to their own responsibility on this one. But yeah I'm still not sure why businesses arean't as informed on the potential pitfall of overselling.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by manwiches

Groupon is great and all, but personally, I will never buy anything that is service related from a 'Dealfind/internet deal' again.

i've had a few bad experiences with vendors not being able to fulfill the voucher that I bought, because they couldn't handle the volume, very similar to this story.

My worst experience, was with Pink Lime Spa. I bought two vouchers for my wife and I last year when it first came out. I tried booking 5 different occasions over the past year, and came away frustrated each time. I was either told
a) Sorry, you'll have to wait 3-4 months to book in advance (i work out of town, so this was not going to work)
b) Sorry, the person who handles the vouchers isn't here today.
c) I can't help you, call back later.

The last one was the last straw for me, and I got a full refund on my vouchers. I've had a couple friends tell me very similar stories about the, and one friend even managed to get in, and they tried to cancel his appointment the day before, and push it back 2 months. He called them out on it, and said the massage was the worst he's ever had.

Anyhow, my two cents on Dealfinds.

No happy ending?

[MaDMaN_26]

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.

[jtfrogger]

Originally Posted by MaDMaN_26

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)

Yeah, that deal was pretty much a scam. Assuming that you buy $150 on the nose each time, you get $600 of meat for $450 and you have to prepay $50 up front.