Groupon issue

lesnol

Hi,

I purchased a groupon in December for a restaurant in December. I printed out my coupon which had an expiry date of 31.03.2016. I went online and booked the restaurant through their website for Mothers Day as there were no black out dates listed and got a reservation confirmation. I went onto groupon to check everything was ok a couple of days ago and they have now changed the expiry to 28.02.2016 and added new terms to the bottom. I contacted their customer service team and they have said their partners management team say I have to use the voucher by 28th Feb and offer no alternatives. Has anyone else experienced this?

I know a lot of people use the groupon mobile app or don't print their vouchers until they intend to use them and if I had done this i would have been questioning whether I had remembered incorrectly, but it is clearly shown on the voucher I printed. Any ideas on how to proceed.

shrapnel222

i'm assuming 31/02/16 is a typo and you meant 31/03/16?

The voucher is for a restaurant, so call the restaurant. if you've already made your booking then i can't see why they would cancel it?

lesnol

The booking was originally made through the groupon website and is now showing a message of manage my booking and they want me to change it to a date inside the new t&c's which is no good to me. Don't want a lot of hassle on Mothers day if the restaurant now don't want to honor original terms and don't think the vendor can redeem from groupon if they expire the voucher on their site, it was €82 so don't want to loose it.

shrapnel222

lesnol wrote: »

The booking was originally made through the groupon website and is now showing a message of manage my booking and they want me to change it to a date inside the new t&c's which is no good to me. Don't want a lot of hassle on Mothers day if the restaurant now don't want to honor original terms and don't think the vendor can redeem from groupon if they expire the voucher on their site, it was €82 so don't want to loose it.

Fair enough, but if i were you i'd call the restaurant and explain. if they won't honour it, then either complain to groupon and get a refund or book for another date.

Melendez

This post has been deleted.

lesnol

Restaurant won't honour it in March as they say its groupons fault, groupon not being helpful at all, after 8 emails they are now advise me to give it to a friend as a gift if i cant use it by the end of this month!

5rtytry56

lesnol wrote: »

...... after 8 emails they are now advise me to give it to a friend as a gift if i cant use it by the end of this month!

Their true colours.

shrapnel222

5rtytry56 wrote: »

Their true colours.

they really are horrible to deal with. tbh, if they changed the T&Cs of the coupon, i'm pretty sure you are entitled to a refund.

lesnol

Have finally got them to agree to a refund after 16 emails and 2 phone calls!! Had to use my email from the restaurant which indicated there had been an error with the dates before they admitted to having "received an update from our relevant department that the expiration date has been amended". Mad amount of effort required considering what should have been done is to notify customers of the change as it was being made and give them the option.

plawlor71

Can I just ask op is the restaurant voucher you were having an issue using for a restaurant in Ranelagh by any chance. I notice you haven't named the restaurant and am new to this and don't want to put my foot in it so won't name mine either but I seem to be in a similar position except I don't have a print of my original voucher (I have always printed them the day I'm going to use them, never had an issue before) I did book a date when i bought it though as my sister is home when kids are on Easter hols and I wanted us to go somewhere nice and different, but when i follow link on my account the voucher has Sunday as expiry, I know I would not have bought or booked it for March if it said Feb as I was looking for a reason, but other than that don't have any proof!! I sent them an email but have only had auto response so far. Hoping it may be same place and your case may help mine?

lesnol

Yes, the restaurant was in Ranelagh, like you I didn't know whether to use the name as I didn't think it was really their fault. I will pm you the details and if its the same will forward you the emails as it should help your claim.

Neamhshuntasach

plawlor71 wrote: »

Can I just ask op is the restaurant voucher you were having an issue using for a restaurant in Ranelagh by any chance. I notice you haven't named the restaurant and am new to this and don't want to put my foot in it so won't name mine either but I seem to be in a similar position except I don't have a print of my original voucher (I have always printed them the day I'm going to use them, never had an issue before) I did book a date when i bought it though as my sister is home when kids are on Easter hols and I wanted us to go somewhere nice and different, but when i follow link on my account the voucher has Sunday as expiry, I know I would not have bought or booked it for March if it said Feb as I was looking for a reason, but other than that don't have any proof!! I sent them an email but have only had auto response so far. Hoping it may be same place and your case may help mine?

I have a similar problem with what i'm assuming is the same restaurant. It's a style of restaurant found in South America.

I had bought 2 vouchers. One of which i gifted to my girlfriend. We made a booking in January with one of them and went no problem. Everything ok. I printed out the second one which has March 31st 2016 as expiry date. But now the website says February 28th 2016. Also further to that, both vouchers say redeemed. I tried to book on February 6th which is when i noticed both vouchers said redeemed. So i contacted chat and they told me i booked both for the same night and both were redeemed on the same night. Minutes apart. Which is ridiculous. I called up restaurant and they remembered the 2 of us. And said that Groupon messed up. So i call them up. Take details and said they would respond.

I was away and still no response. Today i email and i get a reply that first says the voucher was only for 1 person. And that since 2 of us went both vouchers were used. Which is obviously not true.

Then he says that the expiry date is in the past and that he can't refund. Despite me showing an image of the print out saying March 31st 2016.

No chance they are getting away with this. Has anyone had any luck getting a refund in a situation like this from Groupon? I see the other chap managed after loads of emails and calls. Always this difficult?

lesnol

I had to request that they escalate the complaint to a supervisor and that was when they actually looked at it properly. The first " customer service agent" just seemed to keep throwing stock answers out as if they thought that they might make me go away, they never seemed to properly read my reply, just try another auto response, only when it was upgraded did they actually look at it in any way properly or you can ring them on 01-9036337 and see if you can do better directly.

If it helps the supervisor who handled my case was Mylene D. so you can tell them that this person is aware that the date was changed by groupon, and might speed up the process.