

My First (and last) Groupon Experience - klochner
http://kevinlochner.com/my-brief-stint-as-a-groupon-user-learning-aga

======
city41
My girlfriend has bought several groupons. We've had pleasant experiences with
all of them. Admittedly, we never would have gone to these venues without the
groupon and admittedly none of them made us feel like becoming return (non
groupon bearing) customers. The whole scheme seems to prey on small businesses
and it does seem valid that it will collapse eventually.

------
jaxn
Minor nit-pick. Groupon doesn't make money on the float. They give the money
to the retailer pretty quick.

My understanding is the the retailer gets paid even when the groupon isn't
redeemed. One would think the retailer would make up some money on the non-
redeemed groupons, but groupon claims a higher than 90% redemption rate.

Other than that I completely agree about service businesses. I saw a local
bike shop sell over 1000 tuneups for $7 each. Meaning the bike shop received
$3.50 for a tuneup, and their techs would be booked solid for a long time
preventing them from being able to perform as many higher profit services.

~~~
klochner
Thanks - I put in an edit on the blog post.

------
Goosey
I use groupon and similar services (LivingSocial, some more local sites)
constantly. It is a GREAT way to both save money and to discover new things. I
feel like the author is being a little overly harsh on Groupon when: A) He
admit's he should have done the back-of-envelope math to determine it could be
difficult to get the dentist appointment. B) He had no issue getting a refund.

I know we are a society of convenience, but are we really at the point of
boycotting and writing rants to influence other's to follow simply for being
slightly inconvenienced with no direct financial loss?

~~~
klochner
I tried to be fair in pointing out that Groupon issued a no-hassle refund. It
was one of the easier refunds I've ever received.

With respect to my own calculations, it's asking a lot (or at least asking
something new) of the user to vet the likelihood of actually receiving the
service. Again, I tried to be fair in saying that it will take time for both
vendors and consumers to flesh out the best way to interact with Groupon.

------
marknutter
Uh, is there some kind of calculated Groupon smear campaign going on right
now? This is the third Groupon negative story to hit the frontpage of HN in
the last 4 hours...

~~~
cdr
It's trivial to figure out where the stories are coming from if you actually
look - no conspiracy needed.

~~~
marknutter
Oh, you can tell who voted up the stories? Didn't know that..

------
WillyF
I can't believe that the author wouldn't try Groupon again if his favorite
restaurant offered one. The value is just too great.

And if the Groupon doesn't live up to your expectations:

From the Groupon Blog:

"If Groupon ever lets you down, we’ll return your purchase—simple as that.
Why? Because when we do a bad job, we want it to be easy for you to punish us.
We believe that when a customer has a bad experience, companies pay for it
sooner or later—so we’d rather pay fast so we can make things right before
it’s too late."

And from their About page:

Unbelievable customer service. Like you, we've suffered through hour-long
"transfer-athons" with customer service departments, or waited days for an
email reply to to a simple question. If you contact us, we'll do what it takes
to make things right - and we'll do it fast. Email us, or speak with a human
(during normal business hours): (877) 788-7858"

I can understand why a business might have a gripe with Groupon (even if its
their own ignorance that caused the gripe), but I can't imagine why a customer
could be disappointed by Groupon with that kind of policy.

~~~
klochner
That's the wrong question to ask:

    
    
       Would I want a deal from my favorite restaurant?  Yes.
    
       Do I want to evaluate the deal every day to figure out if it's worth buying?  No

~~~
WillyF
All you need to do is read the subject line of one e-mail a day, and maybe
look at a few e-mails that catch your eye. I've saved hundreds of dollars on
stuff that I would have already bought. That's probably not good for the
businesses, but it's good for me.

~~~
klochner
I'm not saying it has no value, just that personally I've decided the daily
deal isn't valuable enough to distract my attention every day.

------
pssdbt
It sounds like Groupon isn't the problem in your case, it's the service making
a deal like that with no limit. Groupon's can/do have limited quantities, and
the dental place should have probably used that. They cooperated and gave you
a refund (I've received a refund as well before, the customer service has been
amazing), I don't see how you would point the finger at them before the
business on the other end of the deal.

Anyways, that would definitely piss me off a bit as well, crappy deal. I'll
keep using Groupon, I can't pass up half off concert tickets and delicious
foods :D.

Edit: Oh, this guy says it much better: <http://hackerne.ws/item?id=1698788>

------
jlees
I've had mixed experiences. Generally a positive feeling from saving money,
but one of the Groupons I bought (a champagne cruise in SF) still has yet to
come in sight of being redeemed. The Groupon itself didn't specify that the
cruise was only available at weekends, and the company insisted on doing
everything by email with a 24-48 hour turnaround, so booking became a
nightmare. After reading in this thread how easy refunds are, I may well do
that instead.

I've also had trouble scheduling a discount spa treatment, and the one I did
redeem came with a very heavily upsold expensive beauty purchase - sure, I
could have stood firm and hassled my way out of it, but she was _very_
persistent and I value my time and sanity more than the price of a bottle of
facial cream.

The Groupons for "$5 for $10 of $ethnic food" I just don't bother with. To be
honest, I only go for these group buy discounts if it's a really good looking
deal right now, as I know what I'm getting into booking-wise.

And it does work for some; I just got my hair cut at a salon that had been
Grouponed, leading to a handful of new positive Yelp reviews, leading to me
finding them in the first place. Happily paid full price, but all the smug
Yelpers boasting about their Groupon left a slightly acidic taste in my mouth.

------
dennisgorelik
Looking for discounted dentist (or any doctor for that sake) without any
recommendations is not a good idea in the first place. Your health is not
something to joke with.

------
gkoberger
Groupon has recently started serving different coupons to different people (in
the same location) based on variables and preferences- so, in theory, this
should cut down on future issues like this.

~~~
mkramlich
that could help a lot. that was my own personal beef with them as a potential
user. i don't want to get a totally random "deal" each day, solely based on my
location, that has nothing to do with what I'm actually interested in in
buying/using. hair salons? no. tires? no. now something related to games or
books or a restaurant, sure.

~~~
enjo
It's interesting how difficult "location" is as well. Most groupon offers here
are spread out all over metro Denver. I live in Central Denver, and rarely
visit the rest of the metro. That disqualifies a lot of offers for me.

~~~
mkramlich
same issue here, and i'm also a Denver area resident. that plus the absence of
any preferences-targeting makes it useless for me. i just unsubscribed from
Groupon a few hours ago because of it. was wasting my time.

------
timcederman
Minor nitpick - how is Groupon at all similar to Woot?

~~~
klochner
The business model is to offer one deal per day, getting eyeballs on the deal
via a massive opt-in mailing list.

They're only really different in that Woot is for tangible goods and Groupon
is for local services.

~~~
timcederman
They're only really different in that Woot sells a physical product (they
don't promote a business), they ship it themselves, and make a profit on it
like a regular store.

The only way that they're at all similar is one possible thing to purchase per
day. Otherwise they're completely different.

~~~
klochner
We're saying the same thing, just disagreeing on whether it constitutes
similarity.

