First time experience with Living Social... never again

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LivingSocial Australia

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  cdundee on 16/12/2013 - 16:06

  +2

  Have dealt with a lot of these group deal companies, whenever I've had an issue with merchant, most of the time refund has been denied at first but after several emails later it has been accepted. Sometimes not really worth the effort but just in principle, I'll work the extra mile to succeed with these complaints.

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  MelbBargainChaser77 on 16/12/2013 - 16:11

  My experiences with Living Social and groupon have always been extremely satisfactory, sorry to hear youve had an issue with 1 merchant thats f'ed it up for you.

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  Ughhh on 16/12/2013 - 18:46

  +2

  With services where you need to book- like beauty stuff. Try calling the merchant directly and ask them if theyre willing to offer you the same deal without going through scoopon/Living Social etc, and pay them directly on the day of appointment. That way if it does appear dodgy and/or you cant seem to get a booking on the days that suit you, you havent really lost anything as you haven't paid.
  Ive done this with two different hair salons and both were happy to do it that way. They'll probably treat you a bit better since they dont need to split that money with groupbuy companies.

  • 

    kati on 16/12/2013 - 19:10

    Good tip, and the most important thing is, you haven't parted with any money yet! Will see if I get my money back. I sense a paypal dispute coming up…

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    spacecowboy on 18/12/2013 - 01:10

    Agreed, worth trying asking the merchant directly about the advertised deal. I spoke to one business owner about a year ago about their experience with the group deal company I'd bought a voucher through. They said the gdc took about 35% of the coupon price & they got 65%. As they were selling their service at a big discount already to their normal price the hefty cut the gdc took meant they were in fact losing money on the deal. I guess this explains why hardly any businesses seem to take part in group deals.

    I recently asked another business whose voucher I bought through a different gdc if they paid a third of the money (or more) to the host website. They said same thing. Yes, their gdc took such an amount, & they actually lost money providing the deal. I asked if I offered to pay the same price directly to them as I'd spent on the voucher in future would they take it, they said YES!

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  goosegog on 17/12/2013 - 17:24

  +1

  Have only tried Living Social site once but the goods took 2 months to arrive & that was only after persistently bombarding them with emails threatening further action. Have now deleted them from our contact list.
  Don't leave contacting Paypal too long - as you probably know -there's only 45 days to place a dispute.

  • 

    eatwell365 on 09/01/2014 - 07:16

    same same. bye bye living social, so I have more time for social living.

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  kati on 17/12/2013 - 22:53

  Thanks goosegog, definitely keeping the PayPal time limit in mind here.

  MelbBargainChaser77, I think I have sadly encountered a particularly unscrupulous merchant! He seems happy enough to take the money for >200 deals made through the living social site, then to cut and run. The customer service mentioned that they had done no-shows to others before. Surely this should be a good reason to a) blacklist the merchant b) take customers' complaints seriously??

  What really gets my goat, is after being ignored by the merchant (spoke to them briefly on the phone but they hung up on me, promising to call me back… of course no call back has eventuated), living social are insisting I give the merchant 72 hrs to come good on their deal. So….. apparently it's acceptable to be ignored / hung up on… and I can't start the refund process until I wait another couple of days. The customer service of living social is an absolute joke!

  • 

    spacecowboy on 18/12/2013 - 01:22

    They don't want to give you your money back quickly. You know the merchant cannot get ANY money from Living Social until you visit them, & redeem the voucher. They can then claim your payment (less Living Socials fee) AFTER they have provided the service. They have to send through paperwork demonstrating that you have had the service provided. Last week I had to actually sign a form agreeing that I had the service provided by the merchant so they could lodge the claim with their gdc.

    Until the merchant is able to legitimately claim the money for services already provided, Living Social has your FULL original payment. Probably invested somewhere, & earning nice interest for them? I can understand why they might not be in a rush to provide a refund.

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  kati on 18/12/2013 - 20:44

  Wow… just wow.

  "I will not be issuing you a refund. As previously advised, I stated if you did not hear from the merchant within the time frame I advised you to allow, I would be raising your issue with my Merchant Services team. This will not be to request a refund, but rather to advise the merchant of this issue so that they can rectify it."

  The time frame the customer service rep refers to is 72 hours following the merchant's no-show. Only then is she raising the issue with the Merchant Services team, whatever that means. How hard is it to issue a refund? Do you guys think it is Paypal dispute time???!

  • 

    Ughhh on 18/12/2013 - 21:00

    What was the merchant/deal?
    Give the merchant the stated time-frame to respond, spamming LS isnt going to help. They have a refund policy of merchants who do not provide services as advertised. Requesting a refund before there's any 'evidence' that the merchant isnt responding is probably more like a change of mind.

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  kati on 18/12/2013 - 21:19

  The deal was a house-cleaning deal. Duly noted re: not spamming LS, but the rep asked me to keep her updated, so I did… and I thought it was important to have a record of events from my point of view. I guess I'll sit back and see what happens now. People on this thread have said it was hard to get a refund from LS so I guess I was a tad anxious at seeing my money again!

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  voteoften on 18/12/2013 - 23:25

  I would never buy a personal service of that nature from group buy. It always ends in tears.

  Forget PayPal, go straight to adma, it just tell living social that is what you are doing. You will get a refund so quick it'll make your head spin.

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  kati on 08/01/2014 - 17:37

  Buyer beware, seriously difficult to get a refund from Living Social.

  They wrote to me and offered me a credit:

  "LivingSocial have been made aware of the issues with this <merchant>. We do our best to investigate all merchants before we run deals with them, though sometimes this sort of thing can't be prevented. I hope I can assure you it's not a common experience for LivingSocial members to have with their vouchers.

  As per our refund policy, we are happy to cancel the voucher and reimburse you for this.

  I can place this as a credit on your LivingSocial account to use towards any Escapes, Family and Daily deals. The credit will stay valid for 5 years, and you do not need to do anything to redeem it (will automatically be deducted)."

  I asked for a refund to my credit card and they came back with this:

  "Generally we would not be able to offer a refund outside our five day refund policy. The only time we would ever refund a consumer is, if the deal was cancelled, or the merchant is refusing to honour the voucher. This has not happened, therefore we would not be able to offer a credit card refund. Because we do value you as a consumer, we are willing to issue you a Deal Bucks credit as a one time courtesy."

  Currently waiting on ADMA to deal with the complaint… sigh…

  • 

    Ughhh on 08/01/2014 - 21:49

    Sounds like you need to prove that the merchant is refusing to honor the voucher. Wanting a refund based on gut feelings isn't good enough.

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  kati on 09/01/2014 - 06:49

  I get where you're coming from, but:
  Merchant doesn't show up
  Merchant is uncontactable
  Even LivingSocial can't get merchant to call me to fulfill deal

  Surely that constitutes not honouring the voucher?

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  goosegog on 09/01/2014 - 14:16

  Kati - contact Paypal before your 45 days is up & your credit card company. Forget trying Living Social again -they've had their chance to do the right thing. Now let the "big guns" take over with all documentation you have on the original purchase along with copies of mail sent to & fro.

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  kati on 09/01/2014 - 14:27

  thanks all, complained on social media and got a result in 2 hrs. Pity 1 month of calls and emails couldnt achieve the desired result. They offered me store credit even when I said that the ACCC says a consumer can have a refund to their original payment source and it's misleading to offer store credit!! Can't believe they are willing to flout ACCC standards which are there to protect the consumer for a reason.. they kept saying "their policies" this and that but they have to comply with ACCC in addition to their policies! ADMA would have probably worked out too but they just never got back to me after i filed the ADMA complaint. Wouldnt surprise me if they were flat out with dealing with group buy complaints! Can't believe how much time I wasted going around in circles with the customer service rep… I swear their kpi's are set based on how many legitimate refunds are successfully denied. Even refunds that meet refund poilcy… They have the nerve to say the merchant didn't "not honour the voucher" when they obviously did!

  I'm done with them no. Thanks everyone!

  • 

    eatwell365 on 09/01/2014 - 23:29

    Shonky merchants care about ACC more than ACCC. ACC - Australian Current Affairs.

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  kabigon on 11/04/2014 - 12:16

  I bought a pair of shoes from Living Social on April Fools Day. In-stock. 9 days later, wondered what was happening as I hadn't received any shoes or emails beyond the initial confirmation. The order was marked as "Not Shipped Yet".

  You'd think if an in-stock item hadn't shipped a week+ later, there'd be grounds for a refund? Nope. Bashing my head against the wall dealing with support who keep inferring that I'm complaining about the delivery time, to which I respond, I'm only referring to the product having not yet left the warehouse. This goes in circles a few times, now my case has been "closed". Holy cow. Never done a chargeback but it's getting mighty close.