LivingSocialReviews 1,490

This website only serves as a money-laundering resource for business that are corrupt.

I recently bought a coupon for 50% off at the Ocean Village Resort in Tofino, BC.
When the voucher was finalized it offered an email to contact for reservations.
That email address only bounces back. I have created several emails only to have them all bounce back. I have contacted the hotels email directly without response.

I contacted Living Social by email to complain that the emails only bounce back. They then sent an email telling me that the problem was resolved. NOT!

By phone the hotel just rings, rings, rings. Messages are not returned.

Looks as if Living Social is only acting as an enabler for Ocean Village Resort to take in funds without providing a service.

When the coupon was received there were a variety of dates before the coupon expiration date. Now with the blackout dates and room type, there are no dates available. I cannot even submit a reservation through the website as I have no idea if they will further charge me a penalty.

It is a scam.

Ocean Village Resort is a SCAM.
LIVING SOCIAL is a SCAM ENABLER.

I absolutely hate this site. Here is my experience:

-In October, I bought a WeeklyCinema.com package of 4 movie tickets to be used on Fandango for $20.
-WeeklyCinema.com went out of business, rendering all of the discount codes useless.
-No one bothered to contact the customers affected to let us know. I received an unexplained refund to my credit card, but did not figure it out until I tried to buy a movie ticket.
-It turns out, livingsocial only refunded $15 of my $20. When I called to ask why, they told me it was because I used one of the movie tickets. I told them I hadn't, and they said sorry, but the decision was final.
-I know it's only $5, but I was ticked. I called Fandango and they confirmed none of the codes had been used.
-I called LivingSocial.com back and told them that I would be disputing the charge with my credit card company. They refunded the $5 to my credit card and took me off their list.

In my experience, they don't do a lot of research into the deals they promote. I have been very satisfied with Groupon, but none of the companies I've used through LivingSocial have been great experiences. The prices tend to be higher and their services are usually misrepresented. The WeeklyCinema fiasco was the last straw for me.

Living Social obviously doesn't vet their merchants. I saw a coupon for a photographer and being a photographer myself, I checked it out. Lo and behold, her website was full of MY pictures! She also had pictures from Playboy on her website (which is not even a real website but a fly by night "blog"). She was trying to pass these photos off as her own work. Not only is that illegal and Living Social should have figured this out (not necessarily by looking at my pictures but for sure by looking at the pictures lifted from Playboy) but anyone who bought this coupon would be extremely disappointed in their pictures (if it's even a real photographer which I'm starting to doubt). I'm not sure what criteria Living Social uses when it chooses merchants but it should really be more than looking at a hideous blog and deciding that they are a legitimate business. I tried to contact Living Social about it but they didn't return my emails and their phone has been disconnected.

I had a horrible experience with this website. I purchased a 65$ maid service voucher. The maid service made the apt with me. I waited all day and they never came. I alerted living social and the maid service. Both never returned my calls. I had to actually call my credit card company and fight the charge to get a refund. What a joke. DO NOT USE THEM. YOU ARE BETTER OFF dealing with an actual live person. They never return my emails calls or anything. I just cannot believe a service is run this way. You'd think they would care that they are providing a service that is a complete fraud. Nope.

Bought a 3-pack of wine for my parents for Christmas. Wanted to redeem the coupon ASAP (as Christmas is fast-approaching). The vendor's website is crap and refuses to recognize my LivingSocial "promo code." I call the vendor (repeatedly) and no one gets back to me. I call LivingSocial to help fix the problem, and, in so many words they say "it is out of our hands." Why is LivingSocial working with vendors that can't serve customer's needs? Why can't LivingSocial serve customers needs? I insisted that the customer service rep issue me a refund and she said "OK" and promptly hung up on me. I had to call back to get the details on the refund (confirmation email, day of issuance, etc.). Needless to say, I am NEVER using this site again - Groupon/BloomSpot/HomeRun will continue to get my coupon-related business.

My recommendation is to call any of the destinations listed in LivingSocial Escapes before purchasing from LivingSocial. Twice I've found that you'll get way better deals than offered.

Second, just pray to God, you don't have to get a refund. They'll push you to get Deal Bucks. Getting a refund back to your bank account is an absolute nightmare and customer service is ill equipped to deal with these situations. It seems they're all reading from a bad script and the words 'standard procedure' will be used frequently.

My other big issue with LivingSocial is that unlike Groupon, the deals are not available to use immediately. You have to wait for customer service to email you with a voucher a day or so later.

Bottomline, don't get taken by the glossy website - read in between the lines and take everything with a grain of salt. In this day and age when everyone's looking for a deal, its easy to get taken.

We are a merchant who signed up to provide spa services. After having to discount our service 50% up front and then give Living Social a 30% (it's increased to 50% now) cut of that money our profit margin was very slim but we were encouraged by potentially having some new business come through the doors. We ran the ad in Sept. 2010 and had great success, so we thought.

The problem is the deal expired on the 31st of December and many people waited until the last minute to try and book their voucher. The voucher was sold subject to availability from the get go and people knew it expired at the end of the year. As we became booked solid first week in December though the rest of the year there were about 60 people who still hadn't booked a service and they have begun to call for appointments.

Now we are stuck holding the bag and drawing the line for those who waited until the last minute. As a business owner we don't want to turn away people but at the same time to extend the deal would cost us money to continue to pay staff for a deal that was to end in 2010.

Living Social got their money and now after several attempts to figure out a deal they won't call us back. Either way we are the ones who now look bad.
Our other issue is the fact most people who bought a voucher are looking for the deal and do not tip accordingly. This was $180 in services for $75 and many people tip $5-10 which really irritates the staff. These people for the most part do not book again and are never to be heard of. They are also so demanding they have snuffed out our existing clientele almost altogether. Then we find out that a state law requires us to at a minimum allow a credit for the cost of the voucher for the next 5 years, something we were never told by Living Social.

Bottom line is this was NOT a good deal for anyone but Living Social. If you are a business stay away especially if you are a service based, appointment based company. I could see it work just fine in the restaurant industry but not our industry.

Be very careful of what you buy from livingsocial, especially for services types of deals. They oversell the deals and the merchants are overbooked beyond capacity. I bought one deal to a day spa that sold over 2000 deals and the voucher expires within 6 months or so. Unless the merchant takes in 11 one hour facial/massage appointments a day, it is impossible to redeem your deal! It is a scam! When I called for an appointment, the moment I mentioned my deal, they they did not give me available dates as normal spas do but said they would call me back, which they haven't. Another spa deal I bought on Livingsocial also sold over 2000 deals and expires within 6 months and they told me they are booked past the expiration dates. Even though this merchant is overbooked and can't honor their vouchers, this same spa just put up the same deal with another similar deal site.

Don't throw good money after these Livingsocial deals/scams that won't be fulfilled and to be treated so rudely. You also have no recourse since it is very very difficult to get a refund from Livingsocial so your are out of time and possibly hundreds of dollars if the deals are not honored.

I have purchased deals from Groupon for spas and the merchants I used were extremely professional. In addition, there was a limit of about 600 vouchers for the spa deals I purchased so the merchant wasn't overcommitted. One merchant spent over 2 hours on my facial for a deal that was only $45 dollars! I thought he was extremely knowledgeable and tipped him $70 and bought products from him. I was extremely happy with another merchant I purchased through Groupon as well and plan to go back regularly and buy her products.

Just be careful of these sites since you are putting money upfront for something that is not guaranteed. What sounds like a good deal may end up costing you a lot of time, money and frustration when they are not honored and you have no recourse. Meanwhile Livingsocial and the merchants are making tons of money off you.

I purchased a certificate for half price house cleaning for $69. It was a good deal. However, when i went to use the voucher, i could not contact the company that was to provide the service. After a little digging, i found that there were a lot of complaints about the company. I called livingsocial.com customer service, and they seemed very nice and willing to send me a check for the $69. That was at the end of september. I was told the refund would take 6-8 wks to receive, so i waited patiently. I called nov 12 and was told that i was on the the "spreadsheet" for a refund and that checks were being mailed, so maybe mine would be in that batch. Waited patiently again, nothing. Called today and waited on hold for quite some time only to be told that she could see where i called on nov 12 and that my name is on the "spreadsheet." she said she couldn't tell me when the check will be mailed, but that if i wanted to expedite it, then her manager said he would take my credit card number and refund it that way. Yeah, right... like i'm gonna just give my credit card info over the phone. I am not happy, and doubt i will see anything from them. You will definitely take a risk when dealing with this company and the companies they do business with.

Bought 3 deals. One worked fine, one they cancelled and issued a credit. They threw in a $10. Inconvenience credit to my account. So far not bad but not good.
This last one when I called to make an appointment 2 months before the class was going to start no anser from the company. Living Social help line said I had the right number. Made them call and the line is disconnected. They offered a refund.
My problem is in 2 out of three tries they did not vet the company. The service they recommended either reneged on the deal or did not really exist.

Cannot trust their recommendations

BUYER BEWARE! Extremely poor customer service-- In less than 6 months, I have requested 3 refunds due to merchants being promoted on this site that either go out of business before you can use your 'deal' or merchants who refuse to honor your purchased 'deal'. The first refund was for a deal with a deli in Knoxville, TN called 'Webster's Deli'. This deli went out of business within 2 weeks of me purchasing my Social Living deal with them. In this instance, I contacted Social Living and was issued a refund right away via my original credit card transaction. The second and third refund was for 2 house cleaning deals with 'Worldwide Domestic Services'. I purchased the deals in August, 2010 and tried no fewer than 10 times over a 3-month period to contact the merchant to set up an appointment to have my home cleaned. I finally gave up after Thanksgiving and contacted Social Living for a refund. I was told by a robotic customer care manager that, because I had waited more than 90 days to request a refund, then I would have to wait up to 3 WEEKS for my refund via a paper check! He also told me that they are not required to disclose this delay in refunds after 90 days to their consumers. The manager ended up hanging up on me and when I called back I was told that it was a 'phone glitch'. Really...

I purchased a livingsocial voucher for 52 weeks of the Sunday LA Times. I followed their directions on the voucher for activating the subscription. I didn't receive my first Sunday paper. I called the LA Times customer support, they had no record of my subscription. After wasted time with two reps, I was finally referred to a supervisor. The supervisor informed me that it takes up to two weeks to be entered in the system from the latimes.com/livingsocial voucher site. I called livingsocial to inquire as to why this two week wait was not indicated on the voucher, their rep said they can not control the LA times. I did not ask him to control the LA Times, I asked him why the information was not on the livingsocial voucher. I told him to take me off their list, I do not want any more of their misleading deals. Their are many more reputable companies, like Groupon, that I deal with. Warning to other consumers, do not put up with any kind of internet scams. Avoid livingsoical!

I purchased tickets for the Holiday Cruise of Lights in Newport Beach nearly one month ago. They asked me if any of them were for gifts. I responded that 4 of the 6 tickets were going to be a gift. I was e-mailed the 2 that were for my use, but NEVER RECEIVED. For these tickets you have to call and reserve once you receive them, in order to secure your place on the boat for the parade of lights. Otherwise, you get a worthless 2 hour harbor cruise... not what you are trying to buy. Obviously, time is of the essence. Although I STILL have not received these tickets, all of the reservations are now. Their nonsensical answers to my e-mail have been completely non-responsive to my questions; they don't send the vouchers; they state in their e-mail that the vouchers are attached BUT THEY ARE NOT. They don't answer their phone, nor respond to your e-mail after the first time. It appears I will have to sue them to get my money back.

I bought a ticket to watch the musical Stomp. I called today, 24/11/2010 too book my seats, the lady doing the bookings at the theatre told me that Stomp finished in October they are no longer showing it, and alot of people has been calling regarding this but they were not offering any deals. I called the call centre no. Of which I got routed to American, and the customer services representative in American was not too bothered about what I was talking about, asked me for my e-mail address but I don't think she could hear it as I could not hear her properly. SO ALL IN ALL I THINK I GOT SCAMMED WITH ONE OF THOSE FLY MY NIGHT COMPANIES TRYING TO GET RICH QUICK. Anyway have sent them an e-mail so will await their response :(