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Groupon

1.8

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Groupon Reviews Summary

Groupon has a rating of 1.8 stars from 5,284 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers dissatisfied with Groupon most frequently mention customer service, credit card and fine print. Groupon ranks 242nd among Daily Deals sites.

service
681
value
624
shipping
459
returns
532
quality
536
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Arizona
1 review
3 helpful votes
Follow Bob W.
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Well, prior to today, I have used the site with good success. Today, in the infinite wisdom of "someone", they decided to offer AMC Theater Coupons.

Well, ALMOST.

See, there was only 1000 coupons available for Phoenix. A little math will tell you that 1000 coupons for a city of 5 million, doesn't go very far. Do the math. ******* divided by 5,000,000 equals I had a. 02 percent of getting one.

That of course if you were only one, but it allowed you to purchase two!

So overall, AMC and Groupon allowed a. 04 percent chance to see a movie for $4.

Beware... Sometimes it's a WAIST of time!

Date of experience: March 3, 2011
Washington
1 review
2 helpful votes
Follow Elizabeth H.
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I really love this site and have bought a number of things (multiple dresses, a shopping coupon, underwear, sunglasses, etc.) Shipping can take a bit but it has told me everytime when I purchased something expected date. The deals can't be beat and all of my co-workers are now shoping on the site as well. They had a delay on some of my items but nothing that wasn't manageable and they gave me a credit for the inconvience. I'm sorry to seee it getting such poor reviews but I love it!

Date of experience: March 3, 2011
DeeDee L. Groupon Rep
over a year old

Hi Elizabeth,

I'm so glad to year that you (and your co-workers) are enjoying your ideeli experience! As you mentioned, we try to make the shopping process as transparent and convenient as possible by listing the estimated shipping window on the item page during the sale, as well as on your order confirmation. This way, you know exactly when to expect your order.

Part of the reason we can offer such competitive prices is because we keep very little inventory, and work directly with manufacturers. In general, they ship to us, and then we ship to you. In the case of an unforeseen delay, we quickly work to make this right for our members. I hope you continue to enjoy the super-privileged prices we offer, and always feel free to reach out to us at [email protected] if you ever have a question or concern. Continued happy shopping!

Best,

Jason Faria,
Customer Service Manager

Oregon
15 reviews
74 helpful votes
Follow H K.
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I'm a sucker for a deal and I'm having a problem turning down these deals. I long for my groupon incoming emails. I have a psychological problem letting what I perceive as a good deal get away.

Jean Chatzky on the Today Show suggested you ask yourself "Would I buy this if it was full price. " I wish I was armed with that advice when I purchased a gym membership at 67% off. I went once (that's a future review) and never went back.

But on the other hand I'm haunted with regret in passing up a newspaper subscription in my struggle with this groupon addiction.

People with limited self control and or will power be warned. Groupon can become addictive but gosh aint it fun!

Date of experience: March 3, 2011
Massachusetts
3 reviews
14 helpful votes
Follow Jessica G.
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I've had amazing discounts on restaurants, facials, and massages. Groupon has also encouraged me to try restaurants that I would not have otherwise tried and at a discounted price.
Pro: great discounts!
Con: must read the fine print.

Date of experience: March 3, 2011
California
1 review
6 helpful votes
Follow Robbie R.
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If you can't trust the groupon facts... you can't trust the groupon specials.
It's simple. Customer service sucks. When I pointed out that the Groupon Facts were incorrect, and referred them to studies done by professors at US Universities to confirm this, Claire Miller, a customer service rep argued with me and told me that they were right and I was wrong. I sent her proof and rather than considering my email or checking the info to verify it or sending it to management, she single handed dismissed me which indicates a complete lack of integrity. I have to believe that they train their reps and therefore she was acting the way the company wanted... to totally dismiss a customer.

Date of experience: March 2, 2011
GB
1 review
6 helpful votes
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PROCEED WITH CAUTION! No response to emails or telephone. A big NIL on customer service. 6 weeks - 4 emails - 20 unanswered telephone calls and STILL waiting for a response to a simple but important query

Date of experience: March 2, 2011
India
1 review
1 helpful vote
Follow Jenny I.
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I had to wait a bit for my city (it has a cathedral) to come on board which upped the anti. In the meantime I bought discounted entry to Plymouth's paintball for my son.
I understand that these are businesses trying to promote their own business and giving away "product" is a cost (marketing) wish hopefully pans out for them. I made sure I read the fine print and I am happy with the terms & conditions.

When Exeter did come on board one of the offers was a popular tea room claiming to offer a big discount. I looked at the menu did the maths and the discount didn't add up. I would still save money (that I wouldn't of spent in the first place but I am grown up now and understand this) however I chose not to use the Groupon because I didn't like it that they appear to be overclaiming/promising the savings. And I don't want to be dissappointed when I get there. I could ring them and demand clarification but in this instance I have just said "pass". I hope Groupon takes off and I get to save money on not only luxuries and treats but essentials as well.

Date of experience: March 1, 2011
Pennsylvania
1 review
2 helpful votes
Follow Tina W.
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I ordered a dress and received it within a weeks time. I tried it on it was a little big, I, m not sending it back, i'll have it altered. However, the bead work is a little off center, but i can live with that. Maybe thats why the price was so good. But over all my first time ordering from ideeli was pretty good. I'll definitely order again.

Date of experience: February 27, 2011
DeeDee L. Groupon Rep
over a year old

Hi Tina,

Thanks for sharing your ideeli experience, and I'm so glad to hear that you'll order again! We do stand behind the quality of all of our featured items, however, our goal is for members to be completely happy with their purchases, and we're very willing to work with you if you're not. If you believe you received a possibly damaged dress, please reach out to [email protected] so that a member specialist can take care of your specific concern. We're happy to help!

Best,

Jason Faria
Customer Service Manager

North Dakota
1 review
4 helpful votes
Follow Nicole K.
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I joined this website last week and when i tried to purchase something was told my address did not match the address on my credit card which is not true. I figured it was just a glitch in the system and never bought anything. Imagine my surprise when I had 20 $1 transactions to my card for no reason. I tried calling their "customer service" line which told me due to the "Holidays" (It is almost March - they must have a huge St. Patricks Day crowd) they have a high call volume and I got transefered to a voicemail telling me to try their live chat. This is the live chat I already tried and when I brought up my issue was disconnected and no can not re-connect using my name and e-mail. So I made up a name and e-mail shcockinly got through but was kept waiting for over oh wait I am still waiting 20 minutes later. So considering I have never used this site and I have still been charged I don't plan on ever using this site.

Date of experience: February 26, 2011
DeeDee L. Groupon Rep
over a year old

HI Nicole,

I reached out via your private message and I apologize for any confusion regarding the check out. Each time a member checkout a temporary test transaction of $1 which is removed within a day is pinged on the account to check and see if the address provided matches the one that the bank has on file. Unfortunately repeatedly trying over and over again causes additional temporary $1 transactions. As I previously mentioned I will be happy to look into any chat transaction that you may have had trouble with all I will need is your e-mail address. Additionally if you could let me know which menu prompts you went through to get to the holiday message I can make an adjustment there.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention and let me know if there is anything else I can do to help.

Best,

Jason

Hong Kong
1 review
2 helpful votes
Follow Jolene L.
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I've actually had several good experience with this site. They delivered within the expected time frame as listed on the site. The only iffy part about this store is the return policy. Anything that is returned is given store credit, which prompts you to spend on the site again. But not a problem for me. I like shopping here =)

Date of experience: February 25, 2011
DeeDee L. Groupon Rep
over a year old

Hi Jolene,

Thanks for your post on Sitejabber. I'm so glad to hear that you're pleased with your ideeli experience. As you mentioned, returns are accepted for store credit only and qualify for free return shipping. Please feel free to reach out to us at [email protected] if we can ever be of help.

Best,

Jason Faria
Customer Service Manager

New Jersey
1 review
0 helpful votes
Follow Ben L.
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I like group buyng sites in general and I feel that Groupon continues to be the best of the best. Whenever a Groupon business has disappointed me, tried to upsell me, or has not been responsive, Groupon quickly (most of the time under 5 minutes) refunded my money and appologized for the mistake. Most of the deals are great although some businesses are starting to catch on to the model and inflating prices in order to be able to offer a 50% or more discount to buyers. I've had issues with Living Social, Tippr, Kudzu, and other sites and Groupon's service is definitely the best of any of the sites I use.

Date of experience: February 25, 2011
New York
1 review
2 helpful votes
Follow Arijana P.
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It take for ever to get something shipped. It has been one month that I am waiting for a dress. Now I can't even wear the dress because the event already happened.

Date of experience: February 24, 2011
New York
1 review
4 helpful votes
Follow Priscila W.
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This is actually a MESSAGE FOR MR. JASON F.
Mr. F, I want to communicate you that I ordered yesterday a dress, but I just realized that I asked a wrong size. I need the size number 2, which is still available in the web site. I sent an e-mail yesterday night to Ideeli asking for you guys to change the size before to send it to me.

But now, that I already read all these bad reviews about Ideeli I am afraid that I will have a bad experience as well. So, here is my message for you Mr. F: If you really sorry for all the mistakes Ideeli did to all these costumers, here you have the opportunity to fix a problem before it comes. I am sending you this message in a public web because I want make sure that YOU will take care of what I already asked. If Ideeli do not give an answer immediately, I will come to this web again and let people know the continuation of my story.

If something goes wrong, I do not want to see a message from you here saying the same thing you said to all these people: "I apologize, I apologize..." If it happen, then it will be more than clear that you just apologize but you do not really move a finger to help anyone.

That is my order number: *******
This is my incidence number: **************

Appreciate any help. Priscila

Date of experience: February 23, 2011
Texas
2 reviews
7 helpful votes
Follow Elizabeth M.
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This is the worst merchant on the internet today. I have received from ideeli in the past month, one previously worn (and damaged) bracelet and two necklaces that I did not order and do not even remotely resemble what I did order.

The fine folks at ideeli customer service (there are rocks in my front yard with higher intelligence) promised me a full refund - purchase price plus shipping - back to my debit card. I have this agreement in writing.

Today, I get an email from customer service that my purchase price - less shipping - is now available to use as STORE CREDIT.

Hey ideeli, no offense, but I don't want to shop on your website ever again. So I'm going to need you to go ahead and refund the entire amount back to my debit card as you originally promised...

I will post again once I have resolution. Until then, caveat emptor! Or shop with someone else.

Date of experience: February 22, 2011
DeeDee L. Groupon Rep
over a year old

Hi Elizabeth,

Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback on Sitejabber. I'm sincerely sorry to hear of the experiences you've noted, and would like to personally look into what occurred, and make this right for you. Though I'm truly sorry that you were disappointed with your order(s), we do stand behind the quality of all of our featured products. I can assure you that all of our items are new, authentic, and come directly from the manufacturer or a licensed third party. Please know that in the unforeseen event of a defective or damaged item, we will certainly provide a refund in the manner you choose (either directly to your credit card or in store credit). That said, would you be so kind as to share your order number(s), or reach out to us at [email protected] so I can further assist? Thank you, again, for your feedback as we continually strive to enhance the ideeli experience.

Best,

Jason Faria,
Customer Service Manager

Texas
2 reviews
4 helpful votes
Follow Debs G.
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I have been shopping at Ideeli for over a month now and have bought quite a few items.
They have shipped all the items (very carefully packaged to make sure nothing broke) in the timeframe they specified.
Customer service has been excellent - all questions I emailed were answered within a day. Also, one non-returnable item I bought was defective and I emailed them. They promptly emailed me a return label.
I am a fan.

Date of experience: February 22, 2011
DeeDee L. Groupon Rep
over a year old

Hi Debs,

Thank you so much for your message. It's great to hear that you've enjoyed your shopping and customer service experiences with us. Please don't hesitate to reach out to us with any questions you may have in the future, and thanks for being an ideeli member!

Best,

Jason Faria
Customer Service Manager

GB
1 review
5 helpful votes
Follow Richard C.
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AWFULL company, I paid for the deal then could not get through to make a booking as the phone ALWAYS went to VM at the spa i booked and they never returned the calls or the email. TRIED to ring Groupon but was NEVER able to get through. Sent and email demanding my money back and got a response three days later. In a very Rude email they refunded the money not even an apology fro the trouble RUBBISH company DO NOT USE

Date of experience: February 22, 2011
Arizona
1 review
3 helpful votes
Follow Chuck R.
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I've been getting Groupon's Deal of the Day via email for about a couple months now. It's not snapping my bean, I haven't bought anything yet, and here's why: Most of the deals are for girly stuff like teeth whitening, spa treatments, and lotions & potions. I'm a non-girly guy and just can't dig it. The rest of the arriving deals are for food - restaurants and the occasional bakery or butcher.

Anybody with a lick of sense knows that if they spring for the $99 dental exam and Zoom! Whitening, they will be also getting an earful of upsells and doom-and-gloom from the dentist/hygenist/salespeople, things like "OMG! UR teeth are falling out nearly and must be reimplanted stat! For $5,000" and such. If you resist, you will be getting a lot of hairy eyeball attitude.

The spa deals have odd rules like "Spa coupon is for spa services only. Redeemer must purchase spa reservation," and you find out the reservation's $350 - in other words, your coupon is only for add-ons to a spa reservation, not for the reservation itself.

And the food coupons are typically for expensive restaurants. So your "$50 for $25" coupon means you'll only be spending $150 instead of $175 for your dinner for 2. And there are too many complaints online about people being treated poorly when they use the coupon, or of merchants sticking extra unwritten terms onto the deal, like "Groupons not redeemable on weekends."

My favorite was a recent Tempe bakery offering a Valentine's Tiramisu Cake for only $20 with Groupon. This cake was only 6 inches, which is just a tad larger than a cupcake. The bakery claimed this was a $40 cake. I suspect the cake was created specifically for this promotion, and there's no way that a pint-sized tiramisu is worth $40 (tiramisu is an unskilled Italian trifle). This thing wasn't even worth $20.

Then there's the recent FTD fiasco, which has finally convinced me to avoid Groupon altogether. Consumers are weary of fine print, exclusions and manipulative marketing B. S. Groupon is more of the same old, in new garb. Yawn.

Date of experience: February 18, 2011
Virginia
2 reviews
3 helpful votes
Follow Pamela T.
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I've placed approximately 5 items (handbag, shoes, dresses) from Ideeli. I haven't had any problems. Each item arrived in the timeframe posted on the website and was the correct size/item. The only issue I've had is that some items (1 pair of shoes and handbag) were below the level of quality I expected. However, I have not yet dealt with customer service, so I can't offer an opinion.

Date of experience: February 18, 2011
DeeDee L. Groupon Rep
over a year old

Hi Pamela,

Thanks so much for sharing your feedback here on Sitejabber. I'm happy to hear that you're enjoying your ideeli experience. Though I'm truly sorry to hear that you were unhappy with your shoe and handbag orders, we do stand behind the quality of all of our featured items. That said, our goal is for you to always be happy with your purchases, and we're very willing to help if you're not. If you believe you received a possibly defective or damaged item, can you please e-mail your order details to [email protected]? We'd be glad to further assist. Thanks!

Best,

Jason Faria
Customer Service Manager

New York
1 review
4 helpful votes
Follow jerome k.
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Like a lot of you, I had a terrible Groupon experience and I will NOT be using them again. My story, in short, is similar to another posted here. They sold over 4000 Groupons, only took appointments til early afternoon, mon-fri and they were booked solid til April.

Since there are so many of us who have had a bad experience (users and business owners alike) and they are all listed on a number of different sites across the internet, i decided to create a facebook page to compile all these Horror Stories in 1 place. The group is called Groupon Horror Stories. Check it out!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Groupon-Horror-Stories/**************

Date of experience: February 18, 2011
Germany
1 review
5 helpful votes
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Hi,
February 14, 2011

Hi,

Having read the other reviews, it sounds like GroupOn doesn't really work for the Business or the Customer. The Business loses as it has to offer a significantly reduced price and then loses 50% of any profit. Meanwhile the customer is burnt as they are unable to use their voucher i. E. too many vouchers sold for the appointments available

As a customer of GroupOn this has recently happened to me. I purchased a Brazilian Blow Dry from Ginger Group for £75 (a snip compared to the £200 retail price). However, it is impossible to get an appointment before the voucher date expires. In addition, the voucher was sold on the basis of Mon - Fri, but now the salon tells me the last appt is by 4pm (they close at 8/9pm, depending on salon). My only resort is now to be a 'standby'... I'd say I may as well have just burnt my £75.

The result is that I am extremely disillusioned by GroupOn and extremely annoyed at GingerGroup for having planned this so badly. I certainly won't be giving either my business again in the future.

I would recommend that people treat the GroupOn offers with great care

Laura

Date of experience: February 14, 2011

From the business

Groupon is the largest "daily deal" site, selling vouchers for discounted local experiences and services such as restaurants and spas, as well as travel packages, shopping, and a number of other items. Vouchers are purchased upfront and typically must be redeemed by a certain date, after which time Groupons expire. To businesses Groupon markets itself as a way to drive new customers. Groupon is a public company (NASDAQ: GRPN) and is based in Chicago, IL.


groupon.com
Chicago, IL, United States
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