Groupon - deal not honoured

LMojorisin2016 on 12/03/2012 - 12:36

Hi all,

I wonder if the experience outlined below is a common occurrence, by Groupon users out there?

I purchased a deal for a Remote Controlled Helicopter on the 9th of Jan this year.
Within a couple of days, I received a coupon for the deal, which I redeemed right away.

The redeeming process required logging onto a UK site (www,pineappz.co.uk) to pay about 10 pounds for delivery to Australia, which I did.

Since then, I have neither received the goods, nor a response to three emails sent to customer service at pineappz.co.uk. Everytime, I have received an automated response to say that I will receive a response (which I haven't for the last 8 weeks)!

Groupon service has been similar. Their automated response indicates that my email IS important, and that I will receive a response within 72 hours. My math says 72 hours = 3 days. I've been waiting for 14 days! Can someone confirm if my math is correct:)
I've tried calling once, but did not wait for a very long time to speak to someone.

As a matter of principle, I have never directly bought goods from unreputed/dodgy looking sites. On this occassion, I dealt with Groupon, as I thought they were a reputed site (and not dodgy). Looks like they may be (knowingly or unknowingly, used as a shopfront by dodgy sites to fleece money off unsuspecting Groupon sites?

Or not?

Disappointed!
M.

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closed Comments

  • furythree on 12/03/2012 - 13:55

    groupon deals with thousands of emails/calls a day. Usually they respond within a week via email. I dont bother will calling because it always says 3 hours wait lol

    if you cant contact the merchant, groupon will contact them for you. Just demand a refund. You shud be buying remote copters from DX or ebay anyway

    • Mojorisin2016 on 12/03/2012 - 15:51

      Thanks Furythree,

      I will lookup remote choppers from DX!

      cheers,
      M.

  • parque on 13/03/2012 - 11:39

    I also purchased the rc chopper in January and have not received it.
    Pineappz have not replied to the 3 emails I have sent them.
    Groupon will not answer their phones.
    I have sent an email but I'm not holding my breath.
    Apparently their office is near Carla Zampatti on Kent st in Sydney.
    I'll be going in there shortly to demand my money back.
    Crooks.

    Al.

  • Mojorisin2016 on 13/03/2012 - 11:57

    Groupon have finally replied (only a couple of minutes ago)!

    They have offered to refund via groupon credits. This means that I will still lose the 10 pounds I paid to pineappz for delivery, though.

    I'm in Melbourne, so I don't have the option to barge into their offices, like you do:)
    /M.

  • tonka on 01/05/2012 - 17:45

    Just adding my cred to this thread.

    Bought a dodgy deal from Groupon that wasn't honoured. After much, much wasted time trying to contact the supplier I contacted Groupon. No joy. Now I am wasting time on them.

    I suspect Groupon (as well as the rest of these sites) are out of control.

    I made 5 different purchases 1 from Groupon and 4 at different sites around the same time. Got a bad meal, a bad haircut and 3 deals not honored.

    The other 2 not honoured were a waste of time but were refunded.

    Groupon is the worst, not contactable no refund adds up to a con not just a bad deal.

  • marieviv on 11/06/2012 - 15:38

    I purchased Hoyts 2 for 1 vouchers on Groupon which were not honoured, even when my vouchers were clearly indicated as such, downloaded from the Groupon website under my account.

    And another deal for house painting from Danell was withdrawn, months after the deal was finalised on the website. Paypal stated that the business refused the payment so the deal fell through. So, if a customer changes his mind months after the deal goes live, he can still get a refund? What is good for the goose should be ok then for the gander.

    Where do I sign up to lodge formal complaints vs dodgy group deal sites?

    • GPT4 on 26/06/2012 - 20:45

      These guys are notorious for happily ignoring emails and it is just impossible to contact them on the phone. I had hard time getting refund for one of my purchases. Had to lodge a case with fair trading as well as paypal dispute before they refunded my money.

  • Geewhizz on 15/06/2012 - 08:05

    They have offered to refund via groupon credits. This means that I will still lose the 10 pounds I paid to pineappz for delivery, though.

    Tell them to forget it. Assuming that you paid via credit card(?) push for a refund, and if they don't oblige, talk to your cc provider instead. Likewise, do a chargeback on the 10 pounds shipping if you used CC or paypal. If you didn't then there's probably a lesson to be learned in there somewhere.

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