Groupon.com review: they are just looking for ways to exploit consumers 22

I was one of the people to be ripped off over the Louise Walsh makeup brushes. Not received after a month- groupon won't refund my money! Can't get hold of anyone at Louise Walsh. Service is a joke, the whole thing is a scam... So many customers had the same problem, and in spite of the disgust it has caused to groupon customers- they STILL decided to RE-RUN the makeup brush offer again a couple of days ago in another area... They've already admitted that there is a problem with delivering the brushes (not to mention that they are barely worth using for a Childs painting). How are they getting away with it- it's daylight robbery?!?

I paid for a vendor who never responded for home cleaning, Maid 4 You. Could not get a Groupon response. A waste of $50. Now I have paid a much heftier amount for a Stamina Pilates Reformer and the website never responds. There is no one to contact at Groupon. I will take this to a much higher level if I don't get immediate resolve.

For the most part, groupon is a good concept run by greedy people. What does that mean for the business it advertises? Not so good. For instance, what consumers don't know is that groupon group takes 50% of the price of the groupon and gives 50% back to the advertiser. This means, the advertiser gets 25% of the groupon amount. Groupon gets the same amount for simply posting it on their site. Can someone say, unbalanced and unfair? I would recommend groupon to businesses that don't take too much of a hit to advertise with them as it is a very expensive form of advertising.

It's terrible experience with this site, will never use them again! groupon should choose reliable partner not some rubbish company such like Laser Spa！over 2month now i still not received my order, no body answer the phone and you are not allow to leave message! send a few email to groupon, still not sort out the problem! will tell everyone not to use this web anymore!

I have ordered a product through groupon called the Magic Decanter which is a red wine airator thing to apparently make red wine taste better. I ordered it over a month ago now and I still haven't received it. I've contacted the Magic Decanter company and no response. I've emailed Groupon twice and no response, I've phoned numerous times and NO ONE ANSWERS!

Their customer service is APPALLING.

How do i go about getting my money back and reporting these two outrageous, money grabbing companies that need to be shut down?

If anyone can help or has had a similar experience, please let me know.

GROUPON makes deals with merchants and then leaves them hanging after they have collected their monies from unsuspecting customers. They do a terrible job of explaining to unsuspecting customers the "actual deal" that they (GROUPON) made with the merchant. Most merchants only get 25% of the take and are left to provide extra customer support to answer the myriad of questions generated by the deal... Most businesses can not survive with that small margin. GROUPON refuses to send reminder emails re-stating the terms of the deal and the proper procedure to receive your 50% (or plus) discount. Customers then retaliate against the business unaware of the "actual" deal that was made with the merchant. Expect a class action lawsuit against GROUPON in the near future!

Groupon is horrible. I have had a terrible experience purchasing both getaways and services. It is total bait and switch all the way... hotels aren't available, deal is only good for new customers, etc. If merchants want to offer deals, they should be straight forward so you know what you are getting...waisted more time trying to resolve and get credits than the savings is worth.

I purchased Pure Collagen Instant Face-Lift Serum on 3/6/2017. I still have not received the order. I have contacted their customer service multiple times and my purchase did not get mailed out until a little over a week ago. I was provided with a USPS tracking number that does not work and all I got from Groupon customer service was "call USPS and see where your package is". My package is MONTH and A HALF late.

Groupon operates its business differently from its website concerning guarantee customer satisfaction and no hassle refund. If you are unable to use the coupon for any reasons (bad experience, restaurant does not honor coupon, etc...) and ask for a refund, you will get a CAN response of: "We do not issue refunds unless there is an unresolvable problem, or if you had a bad experience using your Groupon. All requests are evaluated on a case by case basis." Groupon collects your money up front and WILL NOT refund.

Groupon does not willing to offer refund on their misleading deal. Obvious "Hotel Collection" is a brand name, and the Andiamo is not equal to "Hotel Collection". I cannot believe they still want to argue that.

Here is the respond I got from Groupon: I am sorry for the confusion. To clarify, "Hotel Collection" is a marketing term for an upscale brand. Andiamo is the name of this business's Hotel Collection line and is the upscale brand featured in this company's Hotel Collection. Many companies offer an upscale Hotel Collection, and I apologize for the misunderstanding.

STRONGLY AGREE! Same thing happens to me and my friends, We've purchased that same product and we've called their customer service multi times and all they said was, the supplier was short on supplies, there's no record showing if the product has been shipped, there's nothing we can do, call back next week, the product just shipped out yesterday (which was 1 moths later after the purchase was made! ). They stated on website with black words that the product will be shipped after 7-14 days, but the product was not shipped til 1 month later! All of our friends were very upset and they does not provide refunds because it's cosmetic product. They have patient customer representatives that kept saying sorry for their company, but their customer service are TERRIBLE !

Groupon only works when everything goes right and the business company or person selling the vouchers are honest, which is obviously not always the case! In fact, Groupon offers a perfect avenue for bogus offers, since customers pay upfront. And just try to get your money back! Near on impossible, considering they strike you off their system and your emails requesting the refund bounce back. Totally flawed and predatory business model! No customer protection whatsoever. I regret being so naïve as to believe that I was getting good deals. Never mind paying upfront and getting a below standard service for your money (which also happened to me), but the worst is to never get the service and realized that it would have been much cheaper, convenient and hassle free to pay full price for it.

These guys were so good in the beginning, but they've apparently gotten too big and don't care about customer service. Get this: On April 23rd I purchased a set of three tank tops that sounded really good. I started contacting Group on May 5th to let them know I hadn't received them yet. "OH MY!" said Groupon! "Here's $5 because you're not happy, but you'll get it any day now!" So I contacted them again on May 18th and they said, "Lucky you! Your order has shipped!" So when I hadn't received them a week later, I called their 1-800 number and was told, "Gee! We're SO sorry! If you don't get them by this Friday, give us a call and we'll refund your money!" Today is Friday. I called them again this morning, and the guy I talked to said he'd let me talk to his supervisor but he was away from his desk. He never called me so I called them again, talked to a worthless person named Chrisa who said (get this), there's no supervisor, there's no phone number at Groupon Headquarters, and I'm just plain out of luck. They won't refund my money because SUPPOSEDLY the items are "on their way", and she even said if they gave me a refund and the order showed up AND I DIDN'T RETURN IT they'd be out two times their investment. I have ordered probably 30 different items from Groupon, but no more. They have proven to me that they cannot be believed and that they are NOT there to protect the consumer. It's a money thing. I will never, ever order another certificate or item from Groupon.

I had an awful experience using Groupon for my swim school. We normally do private lessons, but ran these for Mommy and Me classes that were new this year.

First my sales rep was helpful. But then they switched me to an account manager that was totally unresponsive. Before they groupon ran I told her to change some thing, including the location of our school and how the scheduling was going to work. Beither was changed when the ad ran. Then after not being able to get through to my account manager the sales rep changed the location for me, but not the other information that needed to be changed. So I had a few people try to go to the Country Club when we are in a private residence.

Next problem, we are a very small school. It is just me doing all the admin stuff and I have 5 other teachers. I was worried about having to schedule all those swim lessons by myself. I was assured that the Groupon scheduler would take care of that for me. Seriously that was the worst program ever! First of all most clients could only book one class (if that). They told me to out a link on my site and the scheduler programmer actually came out and did it for me. But it still didn't work. I ended up booking 500 lessons myself. They told me that I would always be able to use their crappy program, No thanks! I did contact them for support but was never received a response. Oh yeah did I mention that have the worst customer service ever!

Probably the worst part about running a groupon was the customers they brought to me. Don't get me wrong, about 75% were awesome. But that 25% that suck really really sucked.

In the 5 years I have had my swim school I have maybe had 4 complaints and only one that wasn't resolved. With the groupon we got multiple complaints in a week. And even when we tried to resolve it they wouldn't except the resolution. An example. We had two ladies that did not understand how the scheduling worked and showed up for a non-existing class. We told them it wasn't a big deal and we would go ahead and teach the class. They didn't except and stormed off mad. Another lady complained on Yelp about my teacher from her first day and first class ever. Who is good at their first day of any job. I had never received a bad review on yelp before. Most people love us. now I have 2 and hope we don't get more. Which for a small business like us is a big deal.

I would never recommend groupon to anyone who owns a small business!

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 condescending 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.

Having bought a travel voucher for accommodation in Bali, when I tried to redeem it with 3months notice, there was no availability within this time. On ringing groupon I was told that in the fine print they could not gaurantee availability and there was no refund. I have taken the matter to ACC and department of commerce which I would urge anyone with bad experiences to do. I am currently out of pocket $2285! I also discovered with another voucher that 3 items had been ordered yet I had only booked 2... Again I was informed too bad so sad!

I have been hooked up to this website since day one. Now several years later I can honestly say it is a complete and utter rip off and a waste of time. If any consumer does their homework you will find that most of the deals they offer are no deals at all. You don't save money at all. By the time you jump through all the stupid conditions to using a groupon or figuring out too late there is an upgrade or some other stupid "CATCH" you just give up on using it. I have not purchased a thing in over 1.5 years but still look at their "DEALS" to laugh.

Here is an example...I just got an email about a nice hotel stay in the country, one nite for $79.00. The catch? You can only stay Sunday to Thursday. No other amenities offered. Where is the deal? This would be a deal if it were a weekend but nobody wants to go to the middle of nowhere during the week! Hotels can't give these rooms away for free! The funny thing is I have been to the town where this deal is offered. THE ENTIRE TOWN is closed Monday and Tuesday and most stores on Wednesday too. Seriously! You would be staying in a ghost town.

Consumers, do your homework before you decide to buy. Figure out what you are really getting because very few businesses can stay in business if they were offering too good to be true deals.

I am a small business owner and had the misfortune of advertising with GROUPON. I was scamed/conned by many buyers and the refund policy of GROPON only helps them accomplish it. They actuallyh told me that their refund policy is a LOOP HOLE that helps them to ensure that they are not held liable for any unpleasant user experiences. As a business owner, I would stay away from this site. They admit that I was scammed by two people and then I caught a third attempting to do the same. They do not care. They even screwed me with their refund policy and sided with the person who scammed my business. Now that person is going all over review sites and is falsely reporting what happened to make my business look bad.

Used Groupon for first time to book a vacation. Unfortunately, the business, LostTravel, Inc, is a scam. Groupon did refund the money I paid to them, which I appreciated, but the other fees, taxes, etc that I paid to company, have not and probably will not see again.. I called Groupon to complain about this company but they seemed disinterested at best. My problem with Groupon is that the company is still offering deals on their site..I have heard of other people who booked travel with this company through Groupon and had similiar problems.

I have purchased Groupon Now groupons several times, and usually when I buy for salon services, there are NO appointments available that day. Sometimes they even offer them on Mondays when the salon is closed! This last time, they charged me $80, and of course I couldn't get an appointment, so it expired. It has been one week, and they still haven't refunded my credit card. They say they have, but it isn't showing up. My Visa account NEVER takes a week to process a refund. They're just borrowing money from consumers by offering Groupons for services that are NOT available.

I bought a groupon offer for a specific restaurant and restaurant went out of business. I have been asking for refund since I didn't get a chance to use the offer(it is still valid) but they keep saying can't refund or give me credit.

I went through something similar with them only the restaurant that I had a Groupon for failed a health inspection and was rated number one on my cities "filthy dinning" list. After further research we found out that this place had failed numerous health inspections, Groupon contacted me back and said they would not refund me my 15.00 because they had talked with the business and they had cleaned up their act and it was "safe" to eat there and they encouraged me to go! I emailed them back letting them know how disgusted I was and asked them if they would be responsible for my doctor visit bills if me or my family became sick from food poisoning. I was given a refund in the form of "groupon bucks" and I informed Groupon that those would be the LAST 15.00 they ever get from me and I will not be spending anymore money out of pocket on their services. Especially now that I have found this website and I see how many people are having the same issue. I would keep pressuring them to at least give you a "groupon bucks" refund, its not that you are trying to take money away from them because you don't want to visit this place, its because you CAN'T even visit this place. Keep asking, and don't stop calling/emailing until you reach an end that you are happy with.