To warn you about these Groupon deals?

[Oshbosh]

Name changed as a bit identifyng...I purchased an offer on Groupon a couple of months ago, it was Thomasland tickets and a stay in the Royal Angus hotel in Birmingham for 5 of us, and booked for July. Had to book flights as well as we aren't on the Mainland.

I contacted the hotel with a query early April to he informed they were closing in May!! They advised me to contact Groupon regarding our deal which I did and requested a refund as I needed to book new accommodation ASAP considering flights were booked. They advised it would take 10 working days before there would be a resolution and couldn't confirm if I would get a refund. The 10 days have passed with no contact so I tried again this week and its still no closer to being resolved, they've told me my request is now urgent but I'm no holding my breath.

Anyway, I now see on their website the bloody deal is still for sale!!! Plus another one for a stay in the hotel and tickets to cardbury world advising the stay must be booked by september . The bloody hotel is closing this month.

Just wanted to let any unsuspecting parents who may be thinking of booking. You'll get nothing but a whole load of hassle for your bother.

I've never had an issue with Groupon, granted I have only ever bought a kettle and a washing machine through them - granted they both turned out to be faulty , but no issues getting a refund.

Come to think, 2 purchases, both faulty - yeah don't use them.

Hope you get it sorted OP.

Google 'Reaolver' its a way to make an official complaint. I've used it twice and have had my issue resolved quickly and received vouchers in addition to refunds. Highly recommend it.

Sailor yeah Groupon said they had no idea about the hotel closing, I naively assumed when I told them it would be checked out and taken down! I hadn't thought it would have been Drayton Manor's problem but I might let them know actually in case they decide to sell through groupon again.

Yes I've had a few rubbish experiences and one financial issue with Groupon. I booked for a guy to come and clean my carpets and my oven. He made appts, cancelled, repeat and then he just went AWOL and wouldn't reply to my contacts. I contacted Groupon and said you've got a rogue here who's taken my money but I've not received the service and they told me it was between me and him and nothing to do with them!

Whilst it might be some companies who are newly starting up and want to build a customer base, I think there's a pocket of suppliers who are rubbish businesses and that's why they're on there. They clearly don't get customers from the normal sources.

The quality of some of the places is questionable and mostly that's been around beauty or hair type stuff and it was a good thing that they were on special offer through Groupon because you'd have been well cheesed off it you'd paid the full price!

Also, when dealing with companies like Groupon (or Asda, or iTailor..) who have rubbish customer service, I find posting on their Twitter or Facebook pages usually gets a response...! That's the only reason I've got Twitter actually .

We booked princess photo shoots for my nieces and it was awful.

It was supposed to include a 30 minute princess makeover and a 60 minute photoshoot with a choice of four costume changes from their selection of princess dresses and four background changed. Then afterwards either four prints of the best photos or all of the photos on a USB drive.

We booked two sessions back to back for both of the girls.

We arrived five minutes early at 2.55 in the afternoon for our 3pm appointment and the place looked closed. It was in the middle of what seemed like a bit of an industrial estate.
The 'studio' was awful, it was freezing cold, it had bare stone walls, a corrugated metal ceiling and concrete floors, there was nothing there other that a photography back drop, a lamp without a shade, a few chairs and a desk with a laptop and a printer on it.

There was no heating (we asked) as as the photographer (a young woman) had no makeup/hair products she struggled to give them a makeover at all.
The selection of princess dresses was three knock off tatty old Disney princess style dresses.
The photoshoot itself was even worse.
The girls were excited and being a little hyper, the photographer couldn't handle that at all and lost her temper with them several times.
She also gave them no direction at all, she just seemed to expect them to know how to stand and to pose and when to move.

After a while it was clear it was going to be completely crap so I stepped in and started suggesting to the girls how they should pose, this was ok and seemed to work well for a while and then suddenly the photographer turned around thrust the camera at me and said "you might as well take the photos if you want to be so controlling" she then started a rant about how she was "so sick of fucking helicopter parents taking over and ruining my shoots I am the fucking professional photographer"
I stupidly appologised and sat down.
She then went back to just taking photos of the girls while they stood there awkwardly.

After 10 minutes I had enough, we were all freezing and I could tell the girls were getting bored so I told the photographer we'd like to end the session.
All in all we were there for less than an hour.

She told me she'd call me about the photos and practically pushed us out of the door.

Months later and I've only managed to get three photos emailed to me by her, apparently due to the girls awful behaviour all of the other photos are crap

I complained to groupon, they didn't give two hoots and told me to make any complaints to the photographer.

This thread has reminded me about my experiences with groupon. I have bought two different hotel stays through groupon, which both fell through, with the hotels not giving any booking confirmation, then appearing to have no record of our booking when we tried to confirm and the time running out on the deal for re-booking. Also I booked a carpet cleaning service who let me down at short notice, failed to turn up for the new appointment and then didn't respond when I tried to chase it. I haven't bothered with groupon or wowcher since.

I've never had a problem with Groupon but I haven't used them recently so maybe it isn't as good as it used to be.

groupon vouchers a big con - booked for a facial
and still waiting for an appointment - they never ring and their attitude is bad - personally i do not want to go to a saloon who treats potential customers like this.

made a hairdressers appointment for a full set of highlights and paid. when it came to getting an appointment she was busy when i wanted to go several times and then when i wanted to get them done was told she could only do half a head as she was short of time. in the end of got a refund.

waste of my time on both occasions.

would never bother again with groupon

lh