Groupon.com
Reviews and Complaints

I didn't realize that business owners got 50% taken off their profit. No wonder they tried to make it up out of me by changing terms, removing previous discounts/internet deal that had nothing to do with groupon. I ended up paying more than what groupon deal promised, got myself locked into a deal where the business owner and I no longer see eye to eye because we fought over terms being changed. At the end, business owners lose in all counts because customers like me (who got harrassed and pushed by business owners who try to recover profit) will not come back after the committment period. All the negativity generated from these initial transactions will come back to haunt business owners. RECOMMENDATION: don't use groupon. Bad deal at the end.

As a business owner, I can tell you that Groupon and other companies like it are laughing all the way to the bank...but that will end pretty soon. Yes, you must discount your product or service by AT LEAST 50% to be featured and they get your deal and company in front of thousands of people. They take 50% of the sales. We have used these companies to generate lots of foot traffic into our locations, but have found that these customers are hard to convert into long term customers and difficult to cross-sell to. They are tire kickers. Good for them, though. The consumer wants their great--practically free--deal. However, Groupon and their competitors are basically killing the geese with the golden eggs. The way it works is like complete exploitation of hardworking business owners who are trying to offer something sustainable. They'll tell you the price they want to offer your deal at. If you balk because selling 700 of them at that price will cause you to lose money, you will see that they run the deal with your competitor--causing a HUGE dent in the demand. This is not good for you or your competitor--who also most likely feels totally held over a barrel if they don't do this deal--because someone else will. It's gotten to feel like price fixing, blackmail, etc. The good news is that I totally believe this situation is not sustainable. While our company (a medical spa) has always treated the clients we service through Groupon and the like with the absolute same respect we treat our other clients, I can see through the bad reviews that this is killing merchants and irritating consumers. I will do a little happy dance when Groupon etc is extinct.

Halunen & Associates is a class action law firm that is investigating Groupon for violating certain laws that make it illegal for a company to sell gift cards that expire after a certain period of time. The goal of the investigation is to determine whether Groupon customers may be entitled to reimbursement for expired gift cards. You can get more information and contact them through their website here: http://www.halunenlaw.com/news/2011/01/07/430/.

On Sept. 18th I purchased a 50% off coupon for the Gap($50.00 coupon for $25.00). When I found I had to wait 3-4 days for the email coupon I immediate requested a refund. I was responded to quickly and the charge hit on the 22nd and a credit was posted on the 23rd.

This was all good, but then on the 24th I received a call from Capital one due to unusual charges to this same card. They started on the 22nd and the Groupon charge appeared again, then there was a Pizza Hut charge, 2 Skype charges (15.00 ea), 2 Netflix charges and more. I do not use Skype phone and I am not a Netflix Memmber and have not been to a Pizza hut in 15 years. Then after the card was canceled on the 24th there was another email for Groupon saying they could not process my order due to the card being declined.

Groupon had a severe security breach or they have an untrustworthy employee in charge of confidential information.