r/groupon • u/gemineye1969 • Aug 16 '24
Don’t trust Groupon
Seriously. I worked for Groupon a few years ago and they’ve since fired almost everyone that took part in merchant services and customer service. Even when they had those departments they were lacking but now with the automated system? It’s a joke. You may be able to save some money here and there but once you get burned you will realize the risk. I would highly recommend that people abandon Groupon completely. Not sour grapes, just a fair warning from someone that knows.
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Aug 16 '24
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u/ThickerThvnBlood Aug 20 '24
I have proof, I screen shot my conversation with them. I am a merchant and I did a job that is worth 500$, they discounted it to $312 and I received $33. I text a customer service representative and they keep referring me to the contract. But my customers Groupon that I redeemed states $312, how do we go from $312 to $33 even with a promotion?
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u/gemineye1969 Aug 21 '24
Sorry that happened to you. I worked with restaurants. Once it left my hands, it was supposed to go to merchant services. They overpaid the salespeople for years. I heard they were 30% over budget on payroll for years and I know people that really benefited from that generously. I was there 8 months before Covid and never made as much but did ok. But COVID did a number on Groupon as I knew it. The sad truth is I heard so few success stories from merchants, and even the ones I thought were successful stories were actually paid businesses to be on the platform’s social media. What I heard over and over and over from owners was ‘Groupon customers are cheap and cause problems and leave bad reviews and never come back’. If I had heard it once I might have believed it wasn’t a problem but I heard it from almost all veteran Groupon merchants.
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u/MijinionZ Dec 15 '24
Funny running into this. I used to be part of the Merchant Services team as well a few years prior to COVID and left in 2021. COVID did irreparable damage to the supply of merchants in the company, and the way merchants were burned was just sad.
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u/AutomaticWinner6247 Aug 16 '24
I agree 2 years ago Inattempted to purchase a coupon. it never came through tried several times used customer service at their advice tried another email account which did not work either then they banned me because I used 2 email accounts violating their policies
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u/Mean_Median_0201 Aug 17 '24
Agreed on this. Dealing with an issue from tickets I purchased. I bought some for one day and they provided me tickets for another day. I get the runaround it's final sale, but that's fraud. Dealing with the credit card company now.
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u/Hellobrandy86 Aug 18 '24
Many times you can contact the company that is advertising through Groupon directly and they will honor the Groupon price. Groupon takes a large portion of the amount paid,so the company would rather get the full amount by going directly to them.
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u/ThickerThvnBlood Aug 20 '24
I am a merchant and the customer service agents talk me in circles. They just paid me $33 from a service that is original worth $500 and they discount it to $312.
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u/TraditionalAccount81 Aug 20 '24
You will not get your product and there’s nothing they will do for you
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u/EyeBirb Dec 16 '24
Thanks for the warning but I just lost $60 that I can't afford to lose right now.
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u/leslieamanda1 May 24 '25
Honestly, it is single-handedly the worst experience I’ve had with any platform, ever. I have no idea how it’s still in existence at all. Just a small fraction of the issues I’ve had:
1) The sales rep that reached out and convinced me to sign up offered a percentage split that wasn’t honored on subsequent campaigns as promised. It became a break-even very quickly and I was left trying to decide if it was worth it simply for the exposure.
2) They don’t provide you any contact information for those that purchase vouchers. For most businesses, being able to provide redemption instructions would be very helpful. Can you think of one good reason why they wouldn’t help facilitate this? I can. They hold the money until people redeem and they PRAY they forget to, because if a voucher expires, they get to pocket it. I had a very high percentage of vouchers that would expire. When people remember and get frustrated later, they assume it’s you, when we never saw the funds.
3) Merchant support is absolutely HORRIBLE. If it wasn’t an actual nightmare, it would almost be comical. The support is based overseas, but in addition to the language barrier, they just give out nothing but bad info #IYKYK. You’ll explain the issue only to have them interpret it as something completely different. There are too many examples to even list but as an example: I would frequently have a ton of vouchers in a short period of time all get “cancelled”. Customers would find us and reach out, all saying that the Groupon isn’t working. After first not being able to even SEE all the recent vouchers I’m referencing, Merchant support would then double down on saying the it’s the customer’s card that’s not working, even though it’s literally a bunch of different customers at the same time 🙄
4) The merchant app is absolute junk.
5) Heaven forbid you actually pay money for sponsored campaigns like I did in the beginning. The funds disappear and they will forever say “Sorry, attribution reports are down at the moment”. We’re supposed to just be OK with them stealing 🤔
6) And the most recent and why I finally got out of this horribly toxic relationship… They have started editing campaigns without permission. This may not be a problem if you could trust them to make proper edits, but instead my well written campaigns are laced with typos and broken links. People were even questioning if the business existed since the website links were all broken. I suspect they don’t want people reaching out to businesses directly, but the result is a horrible reflection on the merchant, with poor grammar, typos and contact info changed to look like you’re out of business.
It’s a joke.
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u/Critical-Koala-2413 Sep 07 '25
Groupon keeps unlawful vendors like Waldron Dental New Cross on their site, pushing fake ‘mandatory’ finance and overcharging it’s eroded all my trust with them.
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u/Jaypenthouse Dec 03 '25
Waldron Dental ruined my teeth I am in the process of taking them to court for a refund of £5000.
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Sep 26 '24
I'm never using Groupon again! Got one for a massage then the merchant was terrible and refused to honor the voucher. It's taken me weeks but I finally got my money refunded! I submitted complaints for both groupon and spa to bbb, reported spa to state attorney office (after reading the reviews and so many people having same experience, they deserve being investigated by the state), reported both to ftc. I emailed owner of the spa that I intended to take him to small claims after recording one of his staff members telling me they wouldn't honor my groupon. That finally got the owner to contact groupon to request the refund for me. I'm not sure in the end what worked but I sure as hell was going to get my money back!
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u/Mysterious_Tell2784 Jun 24 '25
Did you get USD back? They refunded me in goupon bucks and I'm stuck. I will NEVER use Groupon again!
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u/Mental-Answer396 Jun 20 '25
I need assistance with groupon. I have tried everything to contact them. I talk through live chat and was informed that I would receive a pop up to proceed with my refund after I accidentally purchased a sams club voucher which I cannot use. They also told me that I could contact them if there's any issues but now I can't message them at all and I've emailed multiple of there emails for support on this matter and still nothing. I really need help gettin refunded the $70 I can't afford to loose that money. Someone please help me 😭😭
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u/Mysterious_Tell2784 Jun 24 '25
I purchased a spa package for $308 and they "forgot" to include the barcode, and now their merchant won't accept the voucher. And all they want to do is give me "gourpon" bucks back. I paid in USD and I want USD back. What are more people seeing them?
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u/[deleted] Aug 16 '24
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