Groupon Scam?

[Spydaman]

Our Daughter gave us a Groupon voucher for a helicopter sightseeing tour. The voucher is valid until 19th April. We tried to book it with them today and they say they are fully booked until 22nd May so the voucher will have run out. Groupon don't answer their phones and the livechat doesn't work. Where do we go from here?

[Turn7]

Surely you can use the voucher up the expiry date and book a flight for, say, August ?

[Spydaman]

The voucher is only valid until 19th April and they have no availability until 22nd May.

[Turn7]

But if you pay now, USING the voucher for a future booking ?

[Jarcy]

I believe that a part of their business model is to benefit from vouchers that expire or not utilised.
It's happened to me. You think that you have a year, so you sit on the vouchers for 9 months. Then when you come to try and book you find that there's no availability before the expiry date.

[robbieduncan]

When was the voucher sold? Most of these things have at least 6 months on them, normally 12.

If they have sold so many vouchers that they can’t actually deliver the product that does seem like sharp practice.

[bigandclever]

Turn7 said:

But if you pay now, USING the voucher for a future booking ?

That's what I'd assume too. You have to redeem it by a certain date, not actually go on the (in this case) flight.

[Spare tyre]

Sadly, I find any company involved with groupon is a bit shady

My folks gave me and my wife a groupon voucher for a meal

We booked it on phone for 1st March, turned up and they said they were not opening today (we could see it was a failing business and we were the only people in there) so I think they probably told their zero hour staff to go home

Was depressing to see, it shut down shortly afterward

[Spare tyre]

Jarcy said:

I believe that a part of their business model is to benefit from vouchers that expire or not utilised.
It's happened to me. You think that you have a year, so you sit on the vouchers for 9 months. Then when you come to try and book you find that there's no availability before the expiry date.

I think all voucher schemes hope people forget about them, free money minus the admin

[vikingaero]

Get your daughter to do a credit/debit card chargeback.

[Zoon]

I'd agree with the above. Most businesses who use groupon are either on their arse or about to be.
I don't use them now at all.

[stitched]

Turn7 said:

But if you pay now, USING the voucher for a future booking ?

That is the way it should work, many ignore this and try to claim availability means they don't have to honour the voucher.
Attempt to book the furthest day you can before the voucher expires.
Then claim the fee back from groupon, they are used to it.

[Digger]

Your other option is to ask the business whether you can pay the Groupon price direct with them, saving the business from having to pay the fees.

We sometimes allow that for some of our prospective Groupon clients.

[Spydaman]

Turn7 said:

But if you pay now, USING the voucher for a future booking ?

The voucher is only valid for bookings before the expiry date. Hence why it seems like a scam.

[Spydaman]

robbieduncan said:

When was the voucher sold? Most of these things have at least 6 months on them, normally 12.

If they have sold so many vouchers that they can’t actually deliver the product that does seem like sharp practice.

The voucher was purchased 23rd December as a Christmas present. Apparently they only have one Groupon flight per month. Hence why it seems like a scam.

[Hoofy]

You might find that the company is willing to honour it beyond the expiry date. I was looking at treating myself to a supercar day so I could do a proper test drive of a potential future purchase and noticed that they will honour it for 12 months beyond the expiry!

[Spydaman]

bigandclever said:

That's what I'd assume too. You have to redeem it by a certain date, not actually go on the (in this case) flight.

Nope only for flights up to 18th April.

[Spydaman]

Hoofy said:

You might find that the company is willing to honour it beyond the expiry date. I was looking at treating myself to a supercar day so I could do a proper test drive of a potential future purchase and noticed that they will honour it for 12 months beyond the expiry!

Nope they won’t. The only way they will is if we buy another seat at £165 for half an hour. Hence why it seems like a scam.

Edited by Spydaman on Monday 21st February 15:51

[Hoofy]

Spydaman said:

robbieduncan said:

When was the voucher sold? Most of these things have at least 6 months on them, normally 12.

If they have sold so many vouchers that they can’t actually deliver the product that does seem like sharp practice.

The voucher was purchased 23rd December as a Christmas present. Apparently they only have one Groupon flight per month. Hence why it seems like a scam.

If that's true then that's dodgy as fk and should be reported to Groupon unless they had a limit of 4 vouchers for sale in December!

Use Twitter to contact Groupon publicly and mention that you think one of the suppliers is using Groupon to scam customers. You should get a prompt reply.

[Hoofy]

Spydaman said:

Hoofy said:

You might find that the company is willing to honour it beyond the expiry date. I was looking at treating myself to a supercar day so I could do a proper test drive of a potential future purchase and noticed that they will honour it for 12 months beyond the expiry!

Nope they won’t. The only way they will is if we buy another at £165 for half an hour. Hence why it seems like a scam.

Refund via Groupon or threaten to report to Trading Standards.