Groupon Revealed: The Pros and Cons of Daily Deals
By SiteJabber on Oct 3, 2010• 18 Comments
Have you ever wondered how daily deals sites worked? Hailed as a great success this new, niche retail market is helping people to save in creative ways, on a daily basis. But are there any cons? We have taken a close look at what the daily deal market consisted of, in an effort to give consumers a clearer understanding of what is really going on. We have illustrated the most important findings of our study in the graphic below including comparisons of Groupon, Living Social, Woot, and BuyWithMe.
(click image to enlarge)
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This doesn’t mention Groupon services being over-sold..
There have been many times when I buy a service and the experience is totally changed due to the company overselling it’s services beyond capacity. For example, you buy a Groupon for a house cleaning service.. but when you call the company to use it, there’s literally a 6-month waiting list.
Not every daily deal site works this way. Sites like DealOn and HomeRun have falling price models so the deal is always “on”. The cool thing with them is that as more people buy the cheaper the deal is. So as a consumer there is more incentive to share.
I am getting so sick of these daily deals that developed in the face of our recession. Most offer lousy value like the massages at third rate spas by horrible cmts. Now that I see this info graphic I understand why grouon makes so much money and why 90 percent of their deals suck. I did get a good deal at a local Mexican place that I go to anyways though.
I have just advertised a Groupon offer and now I regrete it. I think my husband wants to divorce me! The whole thing is cra*p. Our offer is really good because our Pub/Restaurant has got a very good reputation, from 12 yrs of hard work. Our restuarant sold 956 Groupons in 24 hrs and is valid for 3 months. We cannot accommodate that number of custom. We take £5.45 per person for a meal that could cost £26.75 pp. Groupon take 40% of the sales and I’d imagine the very keen Rep gets a hefty commission. She wanted the offer to carry for 3 more days at least, which I stopped! It is greatly oversold on the basis of pure greed. Avoid at all costs businesses!
The initial Groupon link pertains to the subject or product searched on the Internet.. But follow through and one is offered something completely different as a money saving offer.
And then there are limitations.
If people want to spend their time pursuing these pyramid selling sites that is their choice, but should not complain if the offer ends up not being favourable. One would not normally welcome a doorstep seller offering similar, so…
SA
Do people have safety/privacy issues with groupon or other coupon sites?
CB – I did read a couple of reviews that mentioned Groupon keeping credit card information…not sure about Living Social. You could check out the reviews?
http://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.groupon.com
http://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.livingsocial.com
We have never had a problem with groupon. Last deal was 1/2 price stay Marriott Victoria on Concierge floor with access to concierge lounge. We had a great room, view of Harbor and had a great time. We will definitely use groupon again.
I purchased a king sized bed yesterday from Groupon via crazypricebeds and double checked that it was the bed and mattress I was buying.
There was nowhere in the smallprint that is was bed frame only and so I pressed BUY and gave them my card details.
I then later went onto the crazypricebeds website and saw it said in brackets that you have to buy the mattress seperately.
It did not say that on the groupon deal! It said features:sprung slats for extra support, a mattress that slots into the base……..
Since then I have emailed both grouon and crzy price beds and have received an email back saying they will deal with my query within the next week due to phones being extremely busy.
Since then they have now removed the wording about the mattress and added on the crazy beds site that the groupon voucher does NOT include mattress.
They get you to purchase the item under false advertising, my order states with mattress so therefore I feel that is what they should be sending me seeing as they have already taken my money!
Will not be using them again……..
Groupon take the money, not the poor bed company that they have taken advantage of!
I used Groupon to buy a nikon camera from AJelectronics ,the camera was not fit for purpose ……although boasting 14 mgp it could not focus no quality .Now AJelectronics are marketing a Sony laptop using Groupon as a selling vehicle …..I would not touch it with the proverbial.
Now I cannot get in touch with either AJelectronics or Groupon after returning the camera in agreement with them both.No answer to phonecalls or emails.
Never again..go to Currys or similar and pay a few quid more for service.
Groupon is going downhill fast. The CEO should have sold it when he was offered a huge amount of money but he thought he was the next Mark Zuckerberg. I purchases a Swedish massage at PA Mobile at Optimal Sports Health Clubin Philadelphia on October 15 that could only be used the next day. I called the phone number all day to make a appointment and it only said that the voice mail box was full. I complained to Groupon and they said they would give me credit to my account. That was a week ago – still no credit – no apology.
Hi everyone. Re the GROUPON / CRAZYPRICEBEDS deal in September this year.
I bought two separate vouchers and redeemed both on line. I received two separate emails from CRAZY saying thank you for my purchase and was I enjoying my new bed!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No delivery. No joy from GROUPON who have passed the buck to CRAZY. Now CRAZY say they have no record of any orders in my name and to redeem the vouchers, i would have had to login to their website as a new user! How then did their website / order system know who i was, to send me two separate emails of ‘….hope you are enjoying your new bed….’????
Just passing the buck. I have credit card statement but have been advised to go back to GROUPON to get them to refund me………!!
a lot of scammers……
ANYONE OUT THERE GET THEIR BED OR REFUND? TELL ME HOW YOU DID IT PLEASE…………!! ALSO, WHAT IS THE UPDATED STORY RE TRADING STANDARDS,…..ANYONE KNOW???? Been working in Europe for the past couple of months so kind of lost track a bit….
Thank you………….
I have used GROUPON a number of times. But when I paid for a recent Rembrandt teeth whitening system, they refused to send me my merchandise. I have waited more than 2 weeks, and it still has yet to arrive. When I wrote them, to resolve the issue, they failed to even respond.
I will be very reluctant to use them in the future
I ordered something from Groupon on November 28th 2011. It was a “deal” for an electric car…a Christmas gift for my nephew who would be on my side of the country for only a week during the holiday….and never got it on time… now janurary 24th 2012…still waiting for it. actually..i’m not waiting for it anymore. They also made me pay fees that wasn’t mention in the deal. I tried calling Groupon they would say they would try to contact the partner company and call me back in 2 to 3 days, they never do. I HAVE TO CALL Back weeks after week and re-explain the whole situation. And STILL they don’t do anything about it. I e-mailed a bunch of times… no answers. Never an answer. So cleary they don’t give a S$%t about their customers satisfaction. So really Groupon is a Scam. Also when they say they give you 10$ credit if you refer a new customer… they don’t. I reffered 2 new ones and had to call them so claim it and they would say…”oh sorry mam, you will see your credit in your account in the next few days” …and never got it. I gave up. Over a month of fighting with them to have my money back. I guess they won. But they lost a customer and i tell EVERYONE i can about how Groupon is a scam.