LivingSocial
reviews and complaints

Yes, I've lost out on some deals by not using them in time, but that was my own fault. Yes, I've gotten a product WAY late or that wasn't the best quality, but again- I didn't do my job by researching the company I was ordering from. The only time I've ever had to call customer service was when I bought a spa package for a trip and when I called to book appointments found out they were booked for the entire time I'd be in town. I immediately called Living Social and they immediately refunded it. Ever since then I've learned my lesson; I read the fine print, know the dates, and go to the company's site to make sure they have in stock what I want before I buy the voucher. I'd suggest all of you do the same, and don't be so quick to blame Living Social for allowing a business to utilize their name.

Got upper and lower eyeliner done today by Hiyan Bitar, the owner of DermaCouture Permanent Cosmetics.
I was SO happy with the result that I've decided to get the brows done as well.
As per my wonderful experience, Hiyan is an exceptional professional dedicated to the customer. Precise application - even though my case was anything but easy.
Of course I spent substantially more than $99 that I paid for LivingSocial coupon (as I was not going to settle on a basic liner - upper or lower - with no "extras"), but considering the quality of service and the amount of time dedicated (entire workday for one customer in my case), I would say the pricing is VERY reasonable.
Thinking about the lip liner or perhaps full lips for the next time, and looking forward to my extra 20 minutes of sleep every morning!

I bought a deal on here and was very dissapointed with the quality. I looked at this site to read their customer service reviews before contacting LivingSocial about it, but almost didn't even want to after reading such negative reviews. I emailed them anyway and was told I could get 5 living social bucks as a way to show they were sorry for inconvenience (the deal I bought was $15). I was not satisfied with this so I called them... the lady was super nice, issued me a refund for the whole price back to my credit card AND let me keep the 5 living social bucks. I personally had a great experience with their customer service... maybe I just got lucky by having a nice lady answer the phone with the holiday spirit? Idk but either way, I feel like this company is fair and I have enough confidence in their customer service to continue being a customer.

So far I've used the site twice, once for the Amazon gift card, and today for the Fandango $9 pair of movie tickets deal. I love this site, but then again, I'm only going for the deals on big names without middle-man companies, so I can't attest to the legitimacy of these smaller company deals. With the Amazon card, I got a confirmation email immediately, got the promo code within 48 hours, used the promo within the week, and it went off without a hitch.

Today I've bought the fandango code, I got the confirmation email right away, and now I'm just waiting the 48 hours for the promo code to come. I don't see it having any problems so far. Honestly, I think a lot of the complaints I've seen come from the consumers rather than Living Social.

Hadn't seen any positive reviews on here, so I figured I'd throw in my two cents as I've had a good experience thus far. It's a young company trying to establish itself, it's going to have a few bugs now and again. A few people are falling through the cracks, and they're the ones who are going to make a fuss and make it look like EVERYONE is having a hard time. Just wanted to show that not everyone is getting the short end of the stick.

On March, I bought an Escape deal to the Base Camp of Mount Everest. I have bought 3 escapes before and the trips were well organized with top notch hotels, just awesome. I felt this new merchant was also reliable and my husband and I have always wanted to go there, so we did the purchase for about $5,900. Well, the merchant was a flake and after 7 months, he never gave us any hotel or flights confirmation, he would only say vague stuff such as "all is according to schedule" or "will get back to you in a week/month or so". We requested to depart at the end of March 2017, but up to November we just had nothing to work with as we needed to get travel insurance, flights to LA, reserve a doggy hotel and submit vacation request. I reviewed their refund policy and called to inquire about what should we do about this as this is a lot of money and that I was not going to just give it away. I also mentioned that this merchant was not doing business as he never gave us concrete information. The customer service rep told me that this would be escalated and that they would get back to me in 3 to 5 business days. I did not hear back from them after 5 days, so I called again and asked about if they were able to reach the merchant. The customer service rep apologized for the wait and mentionec they could not reach the merchant, so they refunded my money in less than a week.
A thing to consider is to research the name of the company as this vendor had a deceiving name. We purchased the deal because there is a well known company Himalayan Experience (HIMEX) that has been in documentaries, this merchant used the same name with a hypthen between the two words.
Very pleased with livingsocial.

First, let me say, I am shocked at the negative reviews on here. It's a shame that so many of you had such bad experiences with LS.

My experience has been great! I have purchased so many deals over the past year and have used 95% of them with great results. I always get my voucher e-mailed to me pretty quickly. The only issue I ever had was with a restaurant (Casablanca in Delaware) that would not honor the voucher that I GIFTED to my parents. I called ahead of time & made reservations and asked specifically if it's okay to have my parents at one table (my GIFT to them) and my hubby & kids & I at another table. We lived 30 minutes away, so we all wanted to go together. I was told "as long as you're at separate tables", it would be no problem. Well, they REFUSED to seat us separately, made us all sit together & would only honor one of my deals. I called LS the next day & they refunded my other voucher amount immediately & apologized for the bad experience.

Every time I've called customer service, whether to have a voucher re-sent or sent to a different e-mail address for a gift or whatever, they've answered in a reasonable amount of time and were extremely friendly! I had a great convo with a polite gent who was from England, who recommended a dee-lish restaurant in Rehoboth, Delaware for some authentic 'fish and chips', as I told him I was headed there that weekend! They were quite good, btw.

Anyways, my experiences have been wonderful and I've been exposed to businesses that I never would have heard about, let alone visited. And I HAVE become a repeat customer to some of them because of my LS deals.

For small business owners, another person made a great point. Do your math, be courteous to your LS customers, and many of us will GLADLY frequent your business. I have no desire to get something for nothing and I make it a point to tip very generously when using my LS vouchers. Depending on how accommodating, friendly and clean the business is, I will definitely return to give you my business!

Good luck to everyone, businesses & customers alike!

I'd like to tell you about my experience with Group Deal companies in general, as well as Living Social, and offer some common sense advice when dealing with any of them. This advice will help you pre-purchase, and post-purchase, especially if you use a credit card to purchase your deal and follow up with a credit card to pay the difference owed.

I set up my account online easily a few months ago and purchased a month's fitness pass at Starters Riverport, Bethlehem, PA fitness club for my boyfriend who loves to spin. Called and checked out the club online through other review sites first (which is what I always do before I pre-purchase a deal through a 3rd-party. Since it is local, I was also familiar with it prior to the offer. As I am a cautious buyer, I would never purchase something like a fitness/spa service prior to fully checking them out, and I would recommend the same to the rest of you. If you don't have time to do so, then I would advise against using any group deal company. It is only common sense.

And please! Don't expect a refund from LS or the spa, if you cancel an appt with a spa AFTER you've missed the appt, even if due to medical emergency. People are having problems with spas charging up the wazoo for cancellations w/o the use of group deals. It is a real problem in today's society, that there is no compassion toward a customer having a true medical emergency, but also realize how many customers lie about such a thing, so just get it into your head, "no refund" if you do this! Or at least, take your medical bill proof to the spa manager the next day and see if they do have a heart to work something out, and if they don't -- think post a complaint on a Yelp! Type site.

While the fitness center, for which the deal was offered, did have some internal issues with poor management of the organization of how they run their spin classes, not to mention the plumbing was out for a week due to major renovation (due to improper installation of the shower room floor a few years ago!), my boyfriend enjoyed THE best spin classes of his life. Some of their spin teachers were great and some poor, and in the end, he could not recommend this gym to others overall, nor would he ever return to purchase a full membership, due to their poor management skills. Unfortunately, this is how it is with many of these so-called deals. The finest restaurants who are not doing well don't need these services to get them customers, so buyer beware. You probably will suffer some setbacks.

Deals like these are often offered for companies who can't market themselves too well in the first place, and want an easy and quick way to get a large number of people to experience their service/product, because newspaper/coupon advertising just doesn't cut it anymore. With anything en masse, additional problems are going to occur just because of the #'s. And remember to CHECK back to see how many people bought your deal on its last day of being sold, and remember that ALL 500 or so have the SAME expiration date on the deal as you do! So, don't wait till the end to use it, cuz too many others may be doing it too. Best advice is don't buy, unless you plan to use within a month or two!

I think everyone needs to do their homework first, as no online deal company can know everything about each spa/restaurant, etc. I also believe that if everyone would follow through and inform the LivingSocial/Groupon deal type companies of which restaurants/spas/etc. Provided bad experiences, they will not want to represent that company again. But the customer must follow up and let them know.

To me, that is my everyday ethical responsibility in return for the ability to save a good deal of money. But to many, they only complain after they didn't read the rules, didn't follow the rules, waited till the last minute, and didn't think to check out establishments, nor did they think to use a credit card for its addt'l protection, nor use their credit card customer service to dispute the purchase if LivingSocial is actually at fault for not rectifying a situation to the customer's satisfaction. (Don't use debit cards, they do NOT afford you the same benefits and luxuries. If you don't understand this, then stay off these sites!)

Remember, companies HATE to be disputed by credit card co's, so doing this WILL cause the companies to improve their services or face dire consequences to their credit using abilities. They also hate bad reviews, but count on most of you to be lazy and whine you don't have time to complain. If more people started complaining and loudly on review sites, the bad restaurants would go out of business quickly.

I think that if everyone followed up after their deal, by taking 15 minutes to review on Yelp! Or TripAdvisor.com type sites to forewarn others when restaurants/service providers/etc. Don't honor discounts, we wouldn't be seeing so many complaints here. People may complain here, but I'm not seeing these complaint reviews on the vendor sites where most people look. After searching for review companies for a decade, I only found SiteJabber now, and see it is not reflecting a good portion of LivingSocial's positive experiences for people to fairly compare apples with apples. I check review sites each and every time before I buy, and I see few reviews if any like the ones I see here. Google or Dogpile search "business name" and "reviews" and pick the ones who have the most reviews for the place you want to purchase a coupon for.

If people complained on Yelp, etc., those who take the time to research would be afforded the ability to make a better decision. Now, my review here is NOT to dismiss anyone's valid complaint of being ignored and actually ripped off, when they've tried to rectify a deal gone wrong. I despise when someone attempts to "know better" about a miserable experience I've had and pooh poohs it. I've certainly been mistreated by one spa owner (Spa Soleil is the worst, in my opinion), just not mistreated by LivingSocial (yet! And I hope not to be). But I will let you know if I am and LOUDLY if/when it happens!

I thank others who have posted here, as reading through the comments gave me great insight on additional policies to watch out for, such as calling the restaurant in advance to make sure they exist!, finding out any absurd mandatory gratuity % procedures in advance (even though one is ALWAYS to tip based on TOTAL, not the ending discounted amount), and especially to use your Deal coupon within a month or two, so you can utilize your credit card's dispute service.

After hearing so many complaints on SiteJabber that LivingSocial doesn't pick up their phone, I gave them a call at 11 am eastern time today, was told their was a 4 minute wait, and in 4 minutes a very courteous, professional gentleman answered the phone and answered some general questions of mine. I'm sure they get bogged down when 500 people wait till the last week to use their coupon at a spa, no matter how large or small it is. And think of how many deals are going down at how many locations all over the U.S.? Their customers increase exponentially at times, and so problems, again, especially if you, the people, don't take the time to post complaint reviews on the offending vendor sites.

So, back to LivingSocial, I went ahead and purchased a NYC restaurant deal last night with plans to use it next week. Today, I received it in my e-mail inbox as expected. I will return here in a few weeks to let you know how the Grilled Fish Restaurant deal was fulfilled. I see that 543 people have purchased and there is still one more day. I hope this brand new restaurant which has 7 of 7 positive reviews on Yelp! Will be able to keep up with all the customers! Will let you know.

P.S. I am not affiliated with any group deal company, and am simply a cautious shopper looking for good valued deals. I have had my fair share of bad treatment by restaurants and service providers, and have empathy for any and all who feel they've been ripped off one way or another. I just want to help others prevent and learn how to help others prevent rip-offs. I hope people will comment, but if you choose to attack me, your comments will be more descriptive of who you are, than about what I've offered as constructive criticism of the group deal buying system in general.

As a merchant who chose to launch a deal for my company through living social, it is now my turn to write a review on their company.

I am more frustrated with this company than imaginable. I launched a few deals with them. The first time we launched, it was great. We received a lot of repeat business, and as a new company, it definitely left an imprint in our community.

The second time around- they changed the way they ran things, and our company ended up suffering.
For 45 days- a month and a half- they held on to our payments- thousands of dollars. When we were negotiating the initial contract, I noticed some discrepancies, and immediately brought it to their attention. I got a bunch of thank yous, and "we will run this by our accounting team" and an entire run around- that made me feel extremely uneasy. I followed up daily. Weekly. Then monthly. Hours I spent on the phone, talking to this person, talking to that person. Emailing "supervisors", asking for a return phone call. I always got promised that I would be contacted with a follow up and that as soon as they fixed the mistake, we would be taken care of. I was promised several dates in which we would receive our payments, and those dates would come and pass, and still nothing was direct deposited into our account. I tried my best to take care of it before it became in issue- and it didn't matter. They didn't pay us!
Mutual customers, would call and schedule an appointment. I would drive to the appointment to complete the service myself, or send an employee. And no one would let us in, or answer our phone calls. When I would redeem their voucher and call living social to let them know the client didn't honor our 48 hour cancellation requirement, they would say "no problem, we will take care of it on our end". Come to find out- I was being charged the clients credit processing fee! This wasn't just on one occasion- this was on several!
We had negotiated the terms and conditions. We service a 20 mile radius of the town in which we do business. People that lived 30, 40, 50 and even 70 MILES FROM US were calling to schedule appointments. I would apologize and let them know they could call living social and receive a refund, and let them know they were out of radius. Not only did I get poor online reviews and told that I was an awful customer service rep (I am the owner by the way) but I also lost money because I was paying their credit card processing fees. Unbelievable! I would call living social, multiple, multiple, MULTIPLE times, and ask for a way they could resolve the issue of clients mistakenly buying our voucher out of zone- and although I was told they fixed the issue, it continuously happened. CONTINUOUSLY.
Our only negative reviews on yelp and google are from living social consumers, that I now believe are completely misguided from living social. I closed my account with living social and told them they can invoice me, but that I refuse any future business with them. Not that I want to add stress to the people who have unfortunately purchased vouchers, but because I cannot wait for the day I no longer have to deal with this stress. So many times clients have called and said, "I can only get a credit toward something else, but I don't want something else", or that "living social won't refund me because it's past the 90 days". I think that's ridiculous. It's not fair. Some of these vouchers are gifts that consumers have bought, and maybe it took a few months for these consumers to receive the voucher. Now that I am no longer doing business with you, you're going to hold onto their money? Unbelievable!
I had a woman who had bought the voucher and left the country for a couple months. She came back this week and tried to book with me. I informed her that I had closed my account and we no longer accept living social vouchers. I asked her to please contact living social for a refund, and if she wished to hear of my promotions and rates, I would be pleased to send them to her. I apologized for any inconvenience and let her know I would be excited to extend my services. She misunderstood and thought I was asking her for more money! Living social is making MY COMPANY look like a scam! It's not fair! This is not what I signed up for. In all honesty, living social has made my life a living hell. And my company means everything to me. The worst part about my review, is this is only a SCIMMING inkling of every amount of stress I've gone through. I could complain for days!

Below details the horrible experience I have endured with this company! PLEASE DO NOT EVER PURCHASE THROUGH THEM.

Hi,

I purchased two of the Progredi sports cameras on the 20th November as a gift for my brother and his girlfriend for Christmas as they are going on a holiday on the 30th December.

Before placing my order I checked the fine print and all terms and conditions on the offer and NOWHERE did it stipulate that the items would be delayed. Furthermore, a week after ordering I emailed you asking when these would be dispatched and to provide an ETA. Your response was that the order would be delivered within 5-10 business days and you confirmed I should expect it by no later than the 3rd December.

When this did not arrive on the 3rd I sent another email asking for this to be addressed and for you to email me with a tracking number for my item. Surely, if you had guaranteed me delivery by the 3rd you would have known it was dispatched so this should not have been an issue. Your response from Andrew was "We will need to look into this a little further with the merchant or supplier directly. Do you give LivingSocial permission to pass your details on to the merchant if necessary?". I agreed for my details to be passed on and advised that I needed this looked into urgently as the delivery address this was being sent to was closing from the 20th December and these were Christmas gifts.

On the 9th December Andrew advised "I have raised a case with our products team to look into this with the supplier and our logistics department. This typically takes 3-5 working days, depending on the supplier and the number of issues raised regarding this item."

After 8 days I still had not received a response from you or the suppliers so I once again had to email you to ask for an update. I also phoned you company and spoke with Wes who put me on hold for 10 mins and when get got back on the phone told me the order would arrive on the 17th December. I spoke with Kylie this week who could only tell me that you were still awaiting a response.

I cannot understand why you cannot call your suppliers and find out what is happening and arrange for this to be express posted. I had provide you with ample notification that this order was required by a specific date that exceeded your quoted delivery time frame. Furthermore, no explanation has been provided to me as to WHY there is such a delay.

This is the second time this has happened to me when ordering from your company. I placed an order for a onesie in late May/early June and it was not delivered until the end of August after, once again, me having to contact you several times to chase it up.

Now there is one day left until the address this being shipped to is closed and Christmas is 3 business days away so the likely hood of me receiving these in time is none. I am left with out Christmas presents for two of my family members along with being down $160.

What will be the point in having these delivered sometime in 2014 when they are not required then. Christmas will be well and truly over along with their holiday in which they were to take these items.

I have emailed and called you so many times now that this is becoming ridiculous! I cannot get one bit of information out of you as how this situation can be rectified. The fact that I work in the customer service and logistical side of a company shows me how poor your company's customer service really is. Not once has anyone I have spoken to been helpful or provided me with answers. It is your duty to go above and beyond with your customers when there is an issue such as mine to ensure you retain their business and so that their bad experience does not taint others perception of your company.

I have also asked for a manager to call me to which no one will. I have now also via email requested for this order to be cancelled and refunded so that I can make other Christmas gift arrangements and your staff ignore both of these requests.

This issue has now been raised to the Fair Trade Ombudsmen and all emails have been forwarded on to this government department. You cannot advertise offers as "Great Christmas gifts for him", promise delivery within 5-10 business days of ordering and then fail to adhere to this.

The logistical side of your business is appalling but what is more disappointing is the terrible customer service you and your staff provide.

I will not ever be ordering through your site again and I will strongly encourage others to avoid doing any kind of business with you.

We bought 5 concert tickets for a show scheduled on April 19, 2020. However, the concert was rescheduled to June 26, 2020, which was later postponed again. On May 4th, LivingSocial sent an email saying they would inform us about the new date. By July 3, 2020, I hadn't received any updates from LivingSocial, but when I checked the venue's website, I saw that the show was rescheduled for May 7, 2021. Since this was more than a year after the original date and most of our group couldn't attend the new date, I checked the refund policies. LivingSocial's concert tickets are non-refundable, but they have an Extraordinary Event Policy that applies to purchases made directly on their website. According to this policy, if an event is rescheduled, they will refund the amount paid upon request. Therefore, on July 3, 2020, I contacted LivingSocial to request a refund to my credit card. However, they claimed that the event hadn't been rescheduled, despite the clear information on the venue's website. I reached out to them again on July 4, 2020, via Twitter to inquire about the situation. They didn't respond until July 5, 2020, stating that the show had already been refunded in the form of Groupon Bucks. Firstly, my Groupon Bucks account showed a balance of $0, so their statement was false. Secondly, I never requested a refund in Groupon Bucks, and their website didn't mention this as a form of repayment. I contacted them again on July 6 and 7, insisting on a proper refund to my credit card. However, they refused, claiming that their policy only allowed refunds in Groupon Bucks. Despite my requests to see where this policy was stated, they failed to provide any evidence. I pointed out several places on their website where they discussed refunds, and Groupon Bucks were never mentioned. I also mentioned that the word "Bucks" appeared only a few times in their terms and policies, and none of those instances were related to refunds. I repeatedly asked for a refund to my credit card or to leave the tickets as they were so I could pursue other options (such as disputing the charge with my bank or filing a complaint on ComplaintsBoard.com). However, on July 7, 2020, they decided to refund the amount in Groupon Bucks without my consent. I can divide the Groupon Bucks among 5 people, but since this form of refund is not stated in their policy, I refuse to accept it as a proper refund. I hope you can assist us in getting our money back.

My account was locked down 2/14/2023 because it was hacked and the criminal spent down all my groupon bucks. I filed a police report, they went TO the hotel the criminal was at with MY groupon bucks and couldn't do anything because there is a third party that sells hacked groupon bucks. My attached debit card was also charged. Groupon refuses to do anything to restore my account OR refund my money OR give me back over 100 unused groupons I PAID FOR that are in my account

On 18th Dec I browsed your site page re Crystal Crackers. An automatic payment was immediately dispatched. This had never been happened before.

I requested a rebate. I was asked if I would accept a credit. I did oniginally agree.

I have been informed by email credit has to be used in 4 days. This is not acceptable and very poor practice for your company.

I have been advised by Paypal to contact you. I have stated a need a full refund of £31.98. cost of article and posting. I have not received the item I did not access the voucher. The transaction was unknown to me.

I await your reply. I am informed by Paypal to contact you and inform them of my outcome.

B. Taylor

I placed my order on 20th October 2022.

At the time I didnt realise this was a voucher system and tried to redeedm them on 27th October and I couldnt.

I emailed their CS asking if they could advise how to do it of refund the full amount of £179.94

After several emails I was advised how to redeem them only to find I was being charged another £4.99 for delivery of EACH item so another £28.94 as far as I was concerned this was one order.

Again I asked for a refund and was told that I would get 50% off delivery on my next order

AGAIN I asked for a refund and reminded them I would nt have used them had I known they were part of WOWCHER, today I have been advised my account has been credited so when I place my next order they have MY MONEY in their account.

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY

I have bought a lot of items about six weeks ago amounting to over two hundred euros worth ,and have not received any of my items.

I have tried calling the irish office in Barrow St. [protected] but to no avail.

Please can you get in touch with me ASAP.

I really don't want to take this any further then I have too.

bbc watchdog .co.uk comes to mind.

YOURS TRULY

ELSIE MURPHY.

I thought it was coming from Ireland as the price was in euros, but it turned out it was coming from the UK. I was given a delivery date of 14 October. I got rid of my mattress and bed on that date but the order didn't arrive - next delivery date was on or before 19 October. no arrival. then delivery date of 21 October via DHL from UK.

MATTRESS HAS STILL NOT ARRIVED. NO ANSWER TO MY COMPLAINTS FROM LIVING SOCIAL.

I CONTACTED THE VENDOR DREAMTOUCH ASKING FOR THE DIMENSIONS OF THE MATTRESS SO I COULD BUY A BED FRAME THAT WOULD FIT IT. NO RESPONSE.

I HAVE BEEN SLEEPING ON THE FLOOR SINCE 14 OCTOBER AS DELIVERY DATE PROMISES WERE NOT KEPT.

I paid for a gift card for my mom to use at a restaurant. They would not accept it. The said LivingSocial would not pay them. I tried to cal, email them or even chat. No response

On 06 Jun 2022, I ordered/tried to order a device for removing earwax from Wowcher Ltd (t/a Living Social), Northcliffe House, Meadow Road, Derby DE12BH. It stated a suction device for removing earwax was available for either £4.99 or £5.99, which was a saving of the price approx £20, but there was a postage which meant the bargain price was now £10.98. As a 79 year old pensioner, if something can go wrong, it will go wrong and today, my bank statement shows I have been charged TWICE. I found that the telephone number [protected] is not recognised, and to try again, but again not recognised. Is this WRONG number INTENTIONAL so that people cannot contact by telephone, because this should not be allowed. But the email address for Wowcher, which is [protected]@email. livingsocial.co.uk is also unavailable when I tried to contact. Wowcher has given a wrong misleading price for a device. They have failed to provide CORRECT contact information, making it IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO DO SO. What can I do to remedy this situation?

Hello,

This is Maria Cristina Longo. On January 14 I purchased a Voucher for an hair cut at a local Salon in Fort Lauderdale. When calling for scheduling the appointment the Salon owner said that she does not accept those coupons any more, that she offered the same coupon in the past years through Groupon but was not even aware that the promotion is currently offered by Living Social. She mentioned that other clients reported the same issue and she tried to have this promotion deleted from Living Social with no success. It sounded like Living Social is scamming people: I reached out multiple times to the customer care service and they never responded either via email (sent two emails) or phone. I request a refund of my Voucher Order # [protected] | Purchased on Jan 14, 2022, total $42.30.

Thanks for your attention!

I have tried to redeem this but could not without paying about half price for each magazine. Following the on line instructions was no help.
No customer service available except chat. The web site gave a number to call but when I called it they said they were not open but to call between 8am and 8pm, I was calling mid afternoon. No help. I have been trying this for two days not .. Feed up!