Hi. Just wanted to share a major flaw with the Scoopon deals (and probably most "clones" of the Groupon idea).
I purchased some gift vouchers for a massage/facial at a beauty place Natural Beauty Toorak in Melbourne. Felt quite clever of course, and the recipients were very happy!
As human nature works, they called the beauty place about a month before the offer expires. After being quizzed about whether they were using a "voucher", they were given almost no available times for the whole month. When one of them finally managed to attend an appointment, she advised that there were several phone calls during the treatment and while waiting, when the beauty therapist kept aggressively telling callers that there were "no sessions left" and to not have waited until the last minute!
Buyer beware! This may not qualify as a complete scam, but clearly these bulk sites are not doing their homework re. ability to satisfy customer demand. A one or two person shop will not be able to satisfy demand for 1000 scoopons (and they receive no revenue in the final month or two!). There will be the usual "what do you expect for big discounts" but I do believe it is unreasonable to have expiry dates but not be able to offer the service within reasonable parameters. Forget Gerry Harvey and his "tax-the-internet" billionaire brigade, even online, Ripoff Oz finds one more way to rip off customers…
as per usual
http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/37802
http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/37436
http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/33674
not suprising at all
demand for stock is greater than availability of stock hence resulting in profit but unhappy customers
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QUOTES
FROM …http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/37436
mick123
"yea this is the problem with these restaurant ones, which is why i stopped buying them. the website (zoupon, ouffer, scoopn etc) do not do enough to enforce the rules and really, the restaurant should not be asking if you have a voucher.
Myer or Coles do not ask you before if you have a gift card.
I say make the booking and don’t tell them you have the voucher.
Give the voucher once seated at the table. If they say you didnt mention it at time of booking, say you were not asked. the person seating you is unlikely to be the one that took the booking (if it is a fairly busy restaurant).
I know this is not the best way to do it, but if they want to play that game, we have to as well."
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llama
"Why do these restaurants promote themselves using the likes of Zoupon, and then create a poor experience for the people they are paying to promote to?"
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moooooooo
Don’t some vouchers require you to (1) make a booking and (2) mention the voucher at the time of booking? If you don’t tell them at the time of booking, it could be seen as a breach of the T&C’s so they could potentially make you pay full price?
Of course, you would argue that yes, you did mention it. Absolutely. And if they didn’t write it down, that’s their problem. It depends on how much of a stink you’re prepared to make, I guess.
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hussey
I recently booked a Sydney place (1 chef hatted Omerta) through spreets, asked could I book for a friday with a spreets voucher the reply was “Absolutely sir” was a very friendly staff member, so I guess it’s down to the restaurant, as someone pointed out if they treat someone well they’ll get return business, bad and well you can just look up on the internet and see the shocking treatment!
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gstfree
I’m more affirmative not to involve in “group buy”
I’ve been using Entertainment Book for 5 years, never have any drama.
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many more if you read around, i prefer to stay away from these