I just got a call from a friend asking for advice. His wife was trying to use a “mani-pedi” deal (purchased from LivingSocial). The deal expires at the end of the month and she attempted to schedule an appointment with the “spa.”
No Room at the Spa
The business told her there were no available appointments before the expiration date and effectively refused to honor the deal. The wife was apparently also told she could get a face-value credit toward an appointment when one became available. Over 1,000 of these deals were sold.
I can imagine the business suffered a big headache fulfilling all these — and may not have made money.
Not Technically Illegal . . .
While the refusal may technically not be illegal (because they’re booked until expiration) it’s about the worst customer service imaginable. It puts the business at risk for being flamed in a review. Since they have only one review currently on Google Places that’s a major vulnerability. Of course they’re not thinking in these terms.
Similarly, a few months ago I tried to book a room for an “Escape” I bought on LivingSocial. The hotel told my wife that the room category we purchased was not available for what amounted to the foreseeable future. I couldn’t help thinking this was bad faith and that they were hoping we’d go away and forget about it.
SMBs Seeking Breakage?
I wonder how many businesses are actively trying to increase “breakage” or are simply resentful of deal buyers and want to find ways to wiggle out of fulfilling them?
Ambivalence or resentment by business owners because they didn’t realize what they were getting into can create a customer service nightmare and result in negative word-of-mouth if they don’t handle things correctly. And most are probably not going to be skillful in dealing with disappointed or disgruntled customers.
Deal Rage
Beyond this, it only takes one or two of these bad experiences to cause people to stop buying deals. Instead of “deal fatigue,” let’s call it “deal rage.” It’s in every deal provider’s interest to adequately prepare and educate SMBs on the front end, and even help resolve problems like this on the back end, to maximize the chances of success for all involved.
Update: My friend spoke the manager or owner of the spa and the individual agreed to honor the deal, luckily for everyone.
July 23rd, 2011 at 5:31 am
Greg, very similar experiences here. Ive had a number of conversation’s with folks recently around mistrust in Deal sites.
Just yesterday talking with a friend, almost identical to what you describe. Her last two deal purchases have gone south. One a Groupon for a massage, the spa informed her “we only book one Groupon appointment per day, first available is in three weeks on a Tuesday morning” (during her work hours).
The second was also for a one hour massage, Living Social, different spa. Massage only lasted 40 mins, when she complained, the masseuse got aggravated and said “The spa owner keeps running these coupons and expects me to take less, you will get what you paid for” and walked out. In the second case the owner did give a refund but only for her out of pocket, not the value that had been purchased.
It certainly seems the silver has rubbed off the deals space and and the tin is showing thru.
July 23rd, 2011 at 3:13 pm
“Deal Rage.” Love it.
July 23rd, 2011 at 4:12 pm
Very interesting Brad. Thanks
July 23rd, 2011 at 4:47 pm
Malcolm: that term could be used for both merchants and consumers perhaps. I think this scenario is a problem that may grow and I didn’t hear addressed at the Kelsey conference.
SMBs who do deals need to make deal buyers feel welcome and not like second-class citizens. Otherwise the net net of the experience may be lots of bad reviews and negative word of mouth.
I think it’s a sales training and education issue. And right now almost none of the sales reps are paying any attention to customer service/fulfillment issues.
July 24th, 2011 at 5:04 pm
Greg, as I was reading these stories (spa & hotel) my immediate thought was that the customer was working with a lower level employee that was just following the simplest, least path of resistance way to handle the situation. Virtually every time I hear one of these stories after management /owner steps in it gets resolved. I’m sure it is a problem at some level and deal companies like Groupon need to do a better job at education. Of course sales needs to be part of the education process but if it’s going to be consistent then someone else within the deal company needs to reach out to each business (like a provisioning / customer service role) after a contract has been generated. It may not be wise to put it all on the backs of the sales rep who pays his bills thru commissions
. My larger concern is that if (or when) articles like this get into the main street media they make the issues appear much larger than they honestly are. I’ve purchased a lot of deals and have had zero problems. Again as I was reading these stories I was thinking “they’re just dealing with a low level employee who doesn’t know or worse doesn’t care in providing a better answer”
July 24th, 2011 at 7:36 pm
[...] rests with the provider (and Sales Rep). The latest example of this NOT happening is detailed here. The goals and objectives of the advertiser must be understood before a proper deal can be [...]
July 24th, 2011 at 9:43 pm
Bob:
Not trying to exaggerate what probably was an encounter with a low-level employee — as you say. A discussion with a higher level person rectified the situation.
I’ve also bought and redeemed numerous deals without incident. Yet I do think the mood is changing and these anecodotes may be reflective of some shift going on in the minds of business owners.
August 1st, 2011 at 8:05 pm
Having ran the most successful offer (in terms of volume with the exception of The Gap and American Apparel) on Groupon/SF in 2010 my experience tells me that Daily Deal buyers will find any way to complain about anything. The offer we ran specifically said, that availability was limited during weekends, it outlined that advanced reservations where necessary, we constantly retrained our customer service staff in order to maximize the positive experience of our customers, voluntarily extended expiration dates, ran at maximum capacity and offered customers more options then the offer and despite the fact more people found a way to complain vs. thanks us. I also want to say that I found Groupon to be very helpful during this process. We learned that a compulsive shopper is also a compulsive complainer. That said if merchants/business owners do not have a proactive strategy in place to handle customers then they will resort to reactive tactics and ultimately the experience will be negative.
August 1st, 2011 at 8:06 pm
hahaha – have to laugh at Bob Joney – Is it just me or does that read like a salesperson or representative of the company – I mean why would main street America give a hoot if this made the national press, fact, I’m sure they’d appreciate knowing that indeed, all that glitters is not gold. . The poor vendors of companies like Groupon and Living Social realize AFTER the fact that they give away all of their profit, and these deals make NO money for anyone but the sales people that convince the vendors that it makes sense, which it doesn’t. I like to call it R O LIE. I can see why it would cause resentment by the people doing all the work, and getting paid nothing for it.
August 2nd, 2011 at 12:20 pm
Greg, great post as normal – here in the UK, I’ve heard many horror stories where people are buying these types of deals and then when they get there the companies aren’t honouring what was advertised, which is leaving many people disgruntled. I was talking to one business owner who had a deal on a certain website and it was received so well that he has actually lost money because of bad planning and lower expectations on uptake.
August 2nd, 2011 at 12:48 pm
Dave:
The story above is anecdotal and it all worked out in the end but I think it does reflect a number of problems that you point to. I think it takes about two bad consumer experiences or a bad experience and a couple of deals not used to sour people or greatly diminish their purchase frequency.
August 8th, 2011 at 1:05 am
[...] rests with the provider (and Sales Rep). The latest example of this NOT happening is detailed here. The goals and objectives of the advertiser must be understood before a proper deal can be [...]