I'm mad at Groupon. Should I be?

[aimeedyan]

LONG story short.

I purchased a $49 Groupon to a local furniture store, which gave me $150 to spend there. It expired end of February so we decided to wait and use Christmas money/Groupon towards something for the new house.

Come January 1, the store announces they are going out of business. We go check it out and their inventory is already really low - mostly overstocks or damaged items. Nothing we wanted/needed. So, a couple weeks later we travel to their other location to check things out. They have even less merchandise and there isn't a thing we need. Desperate to spend it quick, we go back to the first location and of course, bare bones. Not even a small $150 item to just cash it in on, just large furniture pieces.

I email Groupon, explain that I purchased it with the assumption I'd be working with a fully stocked store, they are closing and it's slim pickings. Groupon tells me they're sorry, no refunds but "Groupons make great gifts!" and to pass it on to a friend.

I reply, asking to speak to a manager because they don't seem to be understanding the situation. I get a reply, asking for dates/times I visited the stores so they can confirm the store is indeed closing. I reply with the information.

In the meantime, I'm near one of the locations so I go back just to see if there is anything pulled out of the backroom that we'd want. Nada. Bare minimum, and they say they are closing their doors on Feb 28.

(so, now 4 visits total)

Groupon finally gets back to me on February 28 (the Groupon expires THAT DAY) and says that they've contacted the store, they are indeed closing (duh.), but that the store really wants me to come in and use it and that one of the locations will stay open until March 18. I guess maybe they'll still honor it? Course, I'm not sure I want to travel back again to look at the same stuff I've already seen. 

I'm frustrated by the whole mess and feel like given the circumstances of the store closing, and therefore inventory being what it was, Groupon should have refunded the money via credit. Groupon obviously disagrees so I'm out $50 and tempted to just never spend a dime with them again so I don't get caught in this mess again.

What do you think?

[april37]

Groupon should refund you the $49. I would be willing to bet that the store did a Groupon because it knew it was going out of business.

Besides, after a Groupon expires, isn't it always worth face value? Can't redeem it for face value if the store is closed. After March 18th (when all the stores are closed) I'd call and complain again.

[heliocentric]

That sucks and I would think groupon would help out in this circumstance since it's unusual. At the same time, there was no guarantee when you bought the coupon that there'd be someting in the store that you liked within the time frame.

Is there nothing in the $50-$150 range you could get? Not even something you could give as a gift or donation to charity?

Does anyone have success with groupons? It always seems like the participating companies are sketchy since they are the only ones that need the help getting attention. Maybe it's just my area, though.

[ktzmoh]

Groupon has a satisfaction guarantee, no? I'd follow up and say it's unacceptable - you bought it with the assumption that you would have until Feb 18 to shop their usual stock of items.

I had no problem getting a credit when I had trouble using a groupon i bought last fall...

[maddysmum]

I had a very similar issue - the store was moving locations, and the groupon could only be used on full priced items. Well, the whole store was on clearance - there was nothing to buy. It would have cost me money to use the groupon rather than just pay the sale price.

Groupon came back saying they wanted my phone number to have the store contact me and work something out. I explained that I had already gone to both locations, the groupon was worthless because of the sale and so on - so there was nothing to work out. I didn't feel comfortable waiting for the store to call me (I feared I'd get talked into something I didn't want) when I'd already gone out of my way to make it work myself.

I pushed pretty hard and insisted on a refund and got it. Post-expiration date, by the way.

[OG Jo]

Could you file a protest with your credit card company? That's always the card in my back pocket...

[moreace01]

So they are saying they will honor the groupon till March 18? And if you still can't find anything, will they then refund your money?

Weird they are being such a pain about it. I had bought a groupon for a restaurant that closed and was able to get my money back pretty easily.

At the very least, maybe they would give you a credit?

[kaylie]

YES!

Groupon has recently changed their customer service policy for the worse. I bought a RugsUSA groupon because RugsUSA told me that the rug I wanted would be back in stock on a certain date. That date came and went. I reached out to RugsUSA by email and phone multiple times with no response. After two weeks I contacted Groupon. In the past I hadn't had a problem getting a refund or having them reach out to the merchant on my behalf. This time was very different. I ended up emailing/calling Groupon about six times over the course of two weeks. One of the occasions was after they told me the merchant would contact me within three business days. I called the fourth business day because I hadn't heard from the merchant which should have led them to refund the money on the spot, but the supervisor they needed wasn't in that day. In the end it was a huge time suck but I eventually got my money back.

I don't know what started this new policy, but I'm WAY more careful about Groupon now. I really only buy them for establishments I'm familiar with. Google Offers is a much better option that you might want to check out. They have a very easy refunds policy.

[jloww]

Something similar happened to me.  So much for that Groupon guarantee huh?

i ended up calling my CC company to open a dispute and what do you know?  Groupon was able to issue a same day refund over the phone on the spot (my CC company 3 way called them w me on the line).

[emoflamingo]

I just bought a groupon (for nails) so this makes me nervous.

[aimeedyan]

Groupon - in the past - will give you an automatic "credit" if the store closes before your Groupon expires. This happened with a burger joint near us. However, because the store kept their doors open TWO WEEKS past the expiration date, they won't.

I hate that others have had the same or similar experiences... I'm going to keep pursuing it. I'm fine with a credit, but I'm not fine with just losing $49.

Someone asked if there was anything small there, just to use up the credit. When I went a few weeks ago, they only had big scale ($$) furniture pieces left - all art, decor, lamps, etc was gone so nothing in the $50-$100 range.

We bought it with our debit card, not credit... but I do wonder if we can still get some help from the bank.

Thanks for the opinions!!

[Deleted]

We've refunded a groupon that we bought when a business went out of business. It was for a chimney inspection though and the company called and canceled our appointment indefinitely. Groupon tried to tell DH that he could use the money spent towards other "groupon" deals, but they refunded our money after he told them to shove it. We bought the groupon specifically for the chimney company and didn't want to transfer $85 to something else and still pay a chimney company. Stupid.

[emoflamingo]

The squeaky wheel gets the grease. I'd keep bothering them.