There are literally thousands of group buying sites that have sprung up over the past year. South Africa alone has seen the launch of Twangoo, security-lax competitor Wicount, Cape Town based UbuntuDeal, and very busy new kid on the block Dealio. That is not to mention any number of smaller sites all trying to play in the same space. Most recently Twangoo made headlines by being bought out by Groupon and have since been operating as Twangoo/Groupon/MyCityDeal – althought Twangoo is supposed to cease to exist shortly. And this is where it gets interesting.
For those that need a primer: a group buying site strikes a bargain with a merchant, say 50% off a product or service, spreads word of the deal on the Internet, and because a certain minimum number of buyers have purchased the deal it becomes financially or economically viable to a merchant, or is a loss leader that makes good marketing sense. A good group buying site sells coupons to their consumers, and the consumers trust the site to always give them a quality deal.
But what happens when that trust breaks down? Every day there are hundreds of people browsing Twangoo’s site, and they believe what they see. If Twangoo says a product costs R500 and they have it for R200, consumers trust that. Until now.
Enter Spray Tan Cape Town. On a deal that ran until February the 4th on Twangoo (which can be seen here: http://www.twangoo.co.za/cape-town/pay-r160-ageless-tan-treatment-spray-tan-cape-town [1]) Spray Tan Cape Town offered an “ageless tan” for 53% off. According to Twangoo, the original price was R340, but you could get it for R160. A quick hop over to Spray Tan Cape Town’s website confirms here that the anti-aging tan costs R340 (check here: http://spraytancapetown.co.za/tan-product/ [2] as well as here: http://spraytancapetown.co.za/pay/ [3]).
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Dig a little deeper, though, and everything is not as it seems. You see, on the 8th of February, and many times prior to this, Spray Tan Cape Town ran a Gumtree advert marketing her spray tans. You can see an example here: http://capetown.gumtree.co.za/c-Business-Services-health-beauty-well-being-NEW-Anti-ageing-spray-tan-only-R230-W0QQAdIdZ259295353 [4]. In this advert the price of the anti-aging/ageless spray tan is SUDDENLY R230?! Even better – she offers the spray tan at a group rate of R200 for 5 girls, plus the 6th girl is free…so a group of 6 girls would pay R166.66 each. That makes her group rate around the same as the rate she had it on Twangoo, certainly not a mystical special. In fact, Spray Tan Cape Town’s website lists the ageless tan at R230, or R200 per session if you buy a set of 4, just a bit further down the page: http://spraytancapetown.co.za/tan-product/ [5]. What gives?
One of two things has clearly happened, and neither scenario sits well with us. The first scenario is that Twangoo instructed Spray Tan Cape Town to change her website to reflect a heavier price so that the discount could look proportionally large. Spray Tan Cape Town made the change, but slipped up and forgot to fix the bottom of her Tan Product page. Apart from being grossly unethical, the new Consumer Protection Act has specific legislation regarding price discrepancies – and this is certainly a major discrepancy. It goes against the group buying model, and it is an attempt to con consumers into buying a deal that simply isn’t accurate or even vaguely true. The second possibility is that Spray Tan Cape Town lied to Twangoo. She told them the ageless tan cost R340, and adjusted (most of) her website to reflect the changed price. This makes her an unethical business woman, and a liar, but it doesn’t absolve Twangoo of responsibility. Since they have been bought out by Groupon, they should be emulating Groupon’s model. Groupon hire fact checkers, whose job is to check all the facts of a deal before it goes live. The first fact that they check is the price point and percentage. Why did Twangoo do no checking on a deal that is clearly false? Were they complicit in this deception? Or was it their intent to deceive consumers from the word go?
I suppose we have to look at Twangoo’s history to see if they’ve ever over-inflated a deal. So let’s take a look at Spray Tan Cape Town’s previous deal with Twangoo: http://www.twangoo.co.za/cape-town/pay-r125-spray-tan-session-spray-tan-cape-town [6]. Here she’s offering a different spray tan, the “Caribbean Tan” for R125, marked down by 50% from R250. Except didn’t we already see that Spray Tan Cape Town’s website has it listed as R200 for a Caribbean tan? Oh that’s right, we did. Clearly this is not the first collusion in deception between Spray Tan Cape Town and Twangoo, nor has Groupons purchase of a known spam house suddenly made them act ethically (for Twangoo’s admission that they knowingly subscribe people who are “referred” to them without that person’s consent, see http://www.hellopeter.com/twangoo-south-africa-complaint-%5B505189%5D).
It’s sad to see a company that so many trust openly lie to the public. Spray Tan Cape Town’s deception is bad, but naïve entrepreneurs often make mistakes in their desperate attempt to get ahead of the game. Twangoo’s outright lie just to make a deal look good is not only cruel, but quite possibly illegal under the CPA act that will soon come into play. Couple that with Wicount’s recent security breach – and the observation some made that Wicount purchased a lot of coupons themselves to inflate their own sales (if you are purchasing on behalf of a consumer paying by EFT, surely you just create a user account on the site and put the voucher on that account? I know Dealio do that for bulk purchases or for people who are struggling with the payment system) – one is left wondering how many other group buying sites set out to deceive. It seems that, at least to Twangoo/Groupon South Africa and Wicount, honesty and good business ethics are dead.
Please note: This is not a personal attack on any of the above mentioned parties, but merely a deeper look into what could be going on with some of these group buying websites. It is only fair that information like this be published for the benefit of the consumers, as I feel some answers should be provided, because this does sound somewhat fishy.
~ Published by a guest writer
I’m sorry but it just sounds like sour grapes to me… It just proves the point that a better deal can always be found, if you have the time and know-how to look… People must be putting way too much trust into services like Twangoo, if they’ll believe that it is the best price available… I’m not a Twangoo user so can’t comment on their service specifically, but I really think the consumer is ultimately responsible for making their own decisions – and shouldn’t keep relying on the law to protect them! Next thing we turn into America… Possibly the most consumer-biased Market on earth
@Greg Somehow I don’t think Chris purchased the spray tan:-P
I agree with you that the onus is on the consumer to a certain extent – if you get ripped off by buying something at a certain hardware store that you could get cheaper at a different hardware store, that is your own loss. The issue here isn’t that the consumer must shop around, it is that Twangoo have purposely overstated the price – and possibly asked the vendor to publish that overstated price – in order to make the deal palatable. That flies in the face of good business ethic, and is morally wrong.
@Greg – It’s got nothing to do with sour grapes mate, it’s merely about making consumers aware of what’s going on. Yesterday OneDayOnly had an amazing special on a iPod docking system and I was really tempted, it had been marked down from R4999 to R1850 or so, but after doing some research I found out that I could buy the device from a number of places for that price and it actually wasn’t all that impressive. Now, this scenario isn’t a problem and I don’t hold anything against OneDayOnly because they marked down the product from the actual price that it used to cost, whereas in this case, it’s obvious that prices were being inflated to ensure that the deal sounded that much better, it’s not honest mate and as consumers, we need to be aware of this sort of thing. Have you ever been ripped off? If so, remember how that felt?
I’m sure that companies are allowed to run other discounted offers to regular prices other than that offered via the group buying sites. It’s simple… sometimes you need to lower your prices to make it more attractive or make ends meet. I’ve given some clients 50% off my advertised pricing just because I like them ;)
@JC – once again, this is not about someone having a set price, running a deal, and then running some other offer elsewhere. Twangoo has a professional obligation to accurately reflect the price of the item they’re offering. Otherwise maybe every deal site should just put all the prices for items at R100 000 discounted by 99%?? As a consumer I want to know that if I walked in to the store without my voucher I would pay the full price quoted on group buying site. If I can get away with paying a lower price, then the group buying site is trying to pull the wool over my eyes. In this case it looks like something more devious could be going on if Twangoo did indeed ask Spray Tan Cape Town to adjust the prices on their website.
Hi Chris,
so check out this: Twangoo offered a Manicure and Peducure from Sugar Hotel and Spa in Cape Town. The value was R500…at least that is what they said. If you go to Sugar’s website and you download their pricelist, available as a pdf and you combine the price for pedicure and manicure then you only come to R425 !!!
Twangoo = Scammers + Spammers.
And it seems that Groupon just took a ton of flack from a similar complaint just a few days ago:
http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/11/pf/groupon_ftd_deal_backlash/index.htm
Good Detective work!
Hi guys,
Chris. Thank you for bringing this to light. We have since been in touch with Lisa Telo and are meeting her tomorrow AM to discuss the issue. I promise to report back on this forum as soon as we have got to the bottom of this.
It is not our intention to hoodwink our members or artificially inflate prices to create the illusion of a larger discount. We don’t expect our members to have to double check the value of our deals and we always strive for maximum transparency.
Kind regards
Wayne
Groupon/Twangoo
I have seen the same thing on UbuntuDeal, the 60-minute Intonga stick massage at
http://ubuntudeal.co.za/cape-town/deals/pepper-club-stick-massage-group-buying/
is listed as a 75 minute massage on the spa’s treatment price list:
http://www.cayennespa.co.za/menu.pdf
Didn’t phase me too much though, still a good saving.
@Wayne – thank you for popping in and handling things so diplomatically; I look forward to hearing from you tomorrow and hope that we can clear things up and all get on the same page!
@Chris – can you answer the question we’ve all been wondering… did you get the spray tan done?
No, after your experience I decided not to.
I’m coloured, I don’t need 1 ;)
Ooooooooh, I thought the spray tan made you go blue! Bad avatar ;)
I have to ask who’s the “guest writer”. With previous articles on your site about Dealio, I wonder about bias in this article.
Regardless, with all the heavy competition in the group buying sector, the good will eventually rise above the fluff. I’ve had a few bad experiences with Twangoo and dont like the way they operate but it’s a new market in South Africa and, as long as it’s a good deal, people will buy.
@anib – Got absolutely nothing to do with bias, it’s purely a view point on things that is backed up with a lot of reference points. This isn’t a means to removing competition or anything like that, it’s about consumer awareness around group buying. Let’s stay on track here :)
Yes, I completely agree, it’s a new market, teething problems are going to happen, but the part that gets me is that Groupon should be running things a great deal better, they bought Twangoo and now they need to live up to their name, although, overseas their name got nailed on CNN as a comment further up states.
We’ll see what happens :)
Hi
I happen to know for a fact that Twangoo asked Spray Tan Cape Town to inflate their prices so how Twangoo is going to “investigate” this and report back to you is complete rubbish. They know what they did and they are not admitting it, just evading it.
I also don’t think you would be raise these issues if it was merely sour grapes as it casts suspicion on ALL group buying websites. As the consumer, we should be able to trust that the price stated on a group buying website is truthful. It’s as simple as that. It’s not about finding a better deal anywhere else.
@alyssa – Interesting, how do you know that this happened? I merely ask as it would be useful to qualify your statement :)
Hi Guys,
We have met with the salon this morning and have feedback which will be published within the next 24 hours.
@alyssa we hereby request you provide us with actual evidence regarding your claims. We take this matter seriously and are dealing with the matter at a senior level within the business.
We look forward to your response.
Kind Regards
Wayne
Twangoo / Groupon
Thanks for the update, Wayne. Yes, I would also like @alyssa to qualify her statement with some information. Just so I understand, are you denying the request for price inflation?
Because they did the same thing to me
Oh my word.
@Alysssa – I presume you’re a bit anxious to publically say who you are and what company you run/represent? I can appreciate that if it’s the case.
Is that a Dealio ad on the top right of your site?
Seems like bias even though you are calling Twangoo out on something that is clearly questionable and unethical.
Mudslinging at the competition is cheap, unprofessional and only highlights a weak marketing strategy that feels it is necessary to resort to such tactics.
Twangoo is a bunch of lowlife scamsters based on your evidence.
I know for a fact that 1 of the Twangoo guys (Daniel something or the other) left a dinner once without paying for his meal, saddling others with his bill. So it does not surprise me in the least that this kind of behaviour is endorsed by them.
Sies on all of you!
Hi Eeerrhh, Deon from Dealio here. I just want to clarify our relationship with Chris: we are a paying advertiser that has a banner ad up on iMod. We are still in our relative infancy, and fully expect Chris to call us out if we have problems (not to be confused with calling us up:) We have obviously been following this article internally, and none of the senior managers, nor the business owners, would expect any leniency were we to act in a manner that is unethical or illegal. In fact, if you look back for the article on iMod reviewing our site, there was a comment by someone that had received a deal notification from us without having subscribed. He wasn’t the only one, and we were honest about our failure in using a list from a merchant that had told us was all opt-in when it wasn’t. We acted quickly to take those addresses off our list and to resolve the problem, but Chris never deleted the guy’s comment or tried to cover up for us. Chris owns no part of Dealio, nor does he work for us in any way, shape or form. If you have any additional concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact me via email – deon at dealio dot co dot za – and I can put you in touch with someone here to address your concerns.
Interesting, I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on this…
I think that this has really been blown out of the water here guys! May I presume that a lot of the negative responses are probably from the competitors who has developed a proffessional hate for the best buying club platform in South Africa? Very easy to post alot of hogwash on here isnt it?
Fact that there could possibly of been a slip up where communications were concerned? We don’t even know if that was the case here really.
@ Alyssa, could it be that you were a vendor on Twangoo and that your deal did not do well for whatever reasons?
@ Eeeerh, how can you make these allegations without sound proof… seems to be not much validation going on here… just stones been thrown from all directions.
Twangoo unlocks great exclusive deals in our city, if they slipped up… bloody heck don’t we all!!!! Why is this such an issue after all? We still got a great valued deal! Very confused… will get back to my day job which is saving the planet rather! Yawn!!!
Dont know if you remember the Pigalle special. The menu on the Pigalle website says that the platter is R480 and on Twangoo it was listed a R510. Not a bi difference, but just confirms your suspicion. http://www.pigallerestaurants.co.za/Pigalle_Cpt/pages/alacarte.html
@Lulu Shill much? The “best buying club platform in South Africa”??! Seriously, desk jockey, best get back to “saving the planet” rather than post comments in a forum rife with people that actually know how to spell “professional” and “a lot”. I’m willing to bet that Chris moderates the comments based on the sessionID/cookie and the IP address of the poster. I’d further hazard that most group buying sites in South Africa welcome the competition and are happy to compete – nobody wins in a free market economy where is hatred. Competition encourages Wicount/Dealio/UbuntuDeal to get their act together and organise better deals which, as you so succinctly state, get us “a great valued deal” (sic).
I very much doubt Alyssa has done a deal with Twangoo if she didn’t bow to their request to raise her prices (assuming, of course, that she is telling the truth and can validate her statement). The Eeeeeeeerh person actually raises a VERY interesting point about the big flashing advert on the side, but I’m not complaining as long as Chris does maintain his commitment to honest journalism (bloggerism?) and doesn’t go easy on his advertisers. Less shilling, more spell check.
@Eeerrhh, for lack of having the courage to put your name here, I’m offended that you would question my integrity and assume that I’d so quickly be steered or controlled by various parties; you clearly aren’t a regular here as you’d know me better if you were. That said, if you’re simply here to stir and cause problems, rather take it elsewhere, please.
@Deon – Thank you for clarifying our relationship.
So yet more details of details where the price has been adjusted to show a bigger discount.
If it had been one or two sites, one could believe it was the retailer doing the adjusting, but the more this comes up, the more it’s looking like it’s the other way round.
Hi guys,
ok so I am working for one of the above mentioned deals websites who are competitots to Twangoo. From experience I can tell you that it is not easy to get a great deal with 60 or 70 or even more % off….it is in fact easier to get deals you can offer for maybe 40 or 50% off. So please do not tell me that Twangoo can do it so much different to the rest of us…something smells fishy about that if you are an insider and you know how group buying deals are organized.
Furthermore it is to note that Twangoo has about a year head start of the other sites, which does not make them “the best”. We will speak again in another year and see.
Thanks!
@alyssa: I don’t follow your comment. Initially you state: ” happen to know for a fact that Twangoo asked Spray Tan Cape Town to inflate their prices so how Twangoo is going to “investigate” this and report back to you is complete rubbish. ” If you are another merchant of ours please make contact but how are you aware of our discussions with Spray Tan specifically? Please make direct contact with us on either 021 8122645 or support@mycitydeal.co.za ASAP so we can deal with your issue.
Regards
Wayne
Groupon / Twangoo
@petri The offer as stated is correctly priced. You comparing apples with oranges as the platter offered to mycitydeal customers is not the same as the one listed on their menu.
Feel free to contact Pigalle’s or our customer service department on 021 812 2645 or support@mycitydeal.co.za so we can address any concerns you might have.
@sandy that is the power of the largest Group buying brand in the world and indeed our very credible sales team. Like every industry there is plenty of space for more than just the leader. While competitors – we all in the same space and together we can build and grow this industry.
@Wayne Gossling, co-owner of Twangoo. I cant believe what a freaking arrogant idiot (excuse my language) you are! YOU HAVE BEEN EXPOSED FOR LYING AND SCAMMING and yet you rip off your competitors BUT especially US buyers?????
How about showing some HUMILITY and taking RESPONSIBILITY and APOLOGIZING to everyone for your poor business ethics!
@Jolene – I want to step in here for a second and just ask that we deal with all of this diplomatically please. I really don’t want to find myself in a position where I have to close down comments. Everyone is free to express their feelings, but let’s keep it above board, ya dig? :)
MyCityDeal has looked into complaints we got about a deal that some customers felt was fishy.
We posted an airbrush tanning deal from Spray Tan Cape Town, where you could get a 53% discount on a R340 “Ageless Tan” application (i.e. you’d get it for R160). Some customers noted on the spraytancapetown.co.za site and a products listing site displayed a different promotional rate of R230 (or even less for multiple applications).
This makes it appear that the MyCityDeal promotion was rigged. This has annoyed customers, for which we apologize sincerely.
The current going rate for the product is R340 as indicated on http://www.MyCityDeal.co.za, and confirmed with spraytancapetown. A quick search online will reveal that this is a fairly standard pricing for this service in Cape Town. The other, lower prices mentioned was from another unrelated promotional offer, which is still online, and mention of this on the company site had not been updated. All vendors are entitled to run promotions from time to time outside of any group buying offer.
We’ve met with Spray Tan Cape Town who are a honest and credible vendor to address the pricing concerns. They have accepted responsibility and apologised for not updating their online rate card and making normal pricing and promotional pricing clearer.
We further agree that we are also at fault: we check deals to make sure that the published discount is correct, but were not thorough enough on this one.
As a make-good (and because we are very serious about our reputation for taking care of our customers), we are refunding the people that signed up for the Spray On Tan deal with the difference between the published deal rate of R340 and the other promotional price of R230. So that’s R110 they’ll be credited with. We will make contact with all customers directly to arrange the refund.
We are tightening up how we vet deals, and it won’t happen again. Sorry, everyone.
Just for the record, we bring great deals as we find them and negotiate discounts with companies. That does not mean companies can’t do their own promotions independently. We do try set things up so that things don’t get confusing.
Sincerely,
Wayne
@wayne I apologize, thought it was the same one.
Ok, firstly, I did not do a deal with Twangoo as they suggested that I inflate my prices and I have regular customers who would have queried it as well as potentially returning customers who would have not been charged the same price. I was not morally outraged or offended, I did not run to expose them, it wasn’t a big deal, more like, “This is going to work for me, move on.” I would not have commented on this blog had Twangoo not commented and tried to shift the blame on to the vendor.
I am more engaged now as they say that the vendor “accepted responsibility and apologised” So, either they did not tell her to inflate the prices as they did with me and other deals that have been exposed and as they say, it’s all her fault, in which case fine, let’s move on. Or, this is just a massive cover up. I am very interested that the vendor has not commented at all..perhaps they are at fault and it’s all just a big ‘mistake’ as Twangoo claims? Seems fairly reasonable to assume.
For the record I think that group buying sites are really great and the more the merrier! I also think investigative journalism is pretty cool as we live in a country that has a free press (apparently)
i am glad that the Chris/Dealio connection has been clarified as that would have jeopordised the ‘expose’
I commented on this blog as I trust that my privacy will be protected and my business not involved. I have not commented on Chris’s blogs before, nor do I work for any other group buying site. Like all of us, I simply want to know as a consumer that ethical business practice exists and that success is not built on encouraging vendors to manipulate the prices to appear to us all we are getting a good deal. The deals are all good, they are obviously all discounted so then just be truthful and say its a 10 or 20 or 30 or 40% discount and allow the public to choose. Hey a discounts a discount! I worry that with more sites blossoming the temptation to offer increasingly ‘dramatic’ discounts like 70% or 80% are going to force both the sites and vendors to inflate prices.
Thanks Chris for raising a very worthwhile, topical debate and affording us the security and privacy to comment.
The Spraytan Cape Town site has been updated to make sure there is no confusion about what is a standard rate, and promotional rates. We want to be very clear to customers that it was never either of our intentions to mislead them, and between us and Spraytan Cape Town we believe we have found the best resolution that makes sure our customers are treated fairly.
Sincerely
Wayne
Well, this has taken an interesting turn. I’d like to applaud Wayne for the action that they’re taking in refunding people the difference, I do think that’s the correct course of action, regardless of whether it is a big cover up or a huge mistake. However…I am left with an extremely strong sense of discomfort with this situation. Here are some points that have occurred to me that Wayne or whoever can respond to if they want:
1. I still find it extremely odd that Lisa’s “Tan Product” page has the price at R340 and then R230 further down the page. If it was a promotional special or whatever, surely that would be called out? Maybe it would say it’s an “introductory special” or something? The page quite clearly lists it under “How Much Does It Cost” without making any such mention. The Gumtree advert also lists it as the set price and not as a special offer. All special offers she has (eg. buy a pack of 4, or buy for 6 girls) are SPECIFICALLY called out by her.
2. Surely if Lisa was running virtually the same deal on Gumtree (or, in fact, a heavily discounted price of her own) that would completely negate the deal? It wouldn’t be special, it wouldn’t be a good deal, it would just be average. Actually, if she was running that special simultaneously, you should have called that out on the site. That way nobody is confused.
3. Groupon’s public style guide that was mentioned on a news site I frequent has this section called “How is Groupon Transparent?” has this paragraph under Retail Value: “Say we feature a year-long gym membership for $150, and the gym tells us it’s worth $300, but we discover that most new customers can walk in and sign up for with new customer discount at just $200. We’ll always say it’s worth $200 because that’s what the average customer would normally pay. It doesn’t matter to us that the perceived value and savings percentage goes down when we do this. All that matters to us is giving our customers the straight story.” Had you actually followed your own corporate documentation, then, you would have listed the tan as 30% off, I would imagine.
4. You fail to address the problem with the Caribbean Tan – was that also a special she was running for R200 instead of R250? Are you going to refund all of those buyers their R50?
5. Just on petri’s point, I know the Pigalle menu lists a “seafood platter for two” and you guys called it a “grand seafood platter for two”, but the contents look exactly the same. Every line item is the same, except that you specify queen prawns and the Pigalle menu just specifies prawns. Somehow I imagine that if I phone up Pigalle and ask them what prawns are in their seafood platter for two, they’re not going to tell me baby prawns. As Douglas Adams once said: “If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family Anatidae on our hands.”
6. I know that you may have missed this, but a commenter further up pointed out that the Sugar Hotel mani+pedi was overinflated by R75. It’s a mani+pedi. There is NO WAY you guys were offering a SPECIAL mani+pedi that is worth R75 more than the normal one. VERY dodgy, boet. Are you planning on refunding all of those buyers as well?
The Spraytan Cape Town site has been updated to make sure there is no confusion about what is a standard rate, and promotional rates. We want to be very clear to customers that it was never either of our intentions to mislead them, and between us and Spraytan Cape Town we believe we have found the best resolution that makes sure our customers are treated fairly.
Sincerely
Wayne
Groupon/Twangoo
seems to me that Twangoo is the common denominator and spray tan cape town has been hushed. Its evident their ‘collaborated’ statement and twangoo’s defense of stct is obviously their ploy to keep her quiet. Why are they refunding and not stct? and why has she remained silent?
Comments have been closed.
Thank you to everyone who left comments and thank you to Wayne who took the time to carefully help us all understand.
I’ve opened up comments again.
I came across another complaint on HelloPeter (http://www.hellopeter.com/groupon-sa-complaint-%5B564086%5D), which reads as follows:
“I have been interested in buying 2 groupons in the last week. 1 for a spa (R400 for R1000) and 1 for a play, Dreamgirls (R175 for R350). When I went on to the suppliers site, the spa deal is actually R700 (not R1000) and all tickets for dreamgirls are R200 (not R350). I like a good deal as much as the next person, but it seems like Groupon is inflating the retail price of their deals so that they seem to be offfering better discounts than they actually are. When I emailed them, I didnt even get the courtesy of a response.”
Groupon has responded however, with this:
“in response to your queries, we have viewed the following: Woodlands – the value of R1000 included full use of their Hydro Facilities, as well as a muffin & juice from their café, bringing the total value of the package up. On Woodland’s site the Africology Tapas is advertised at R750. Which is not the agreement we have with the vendor, they are advertising their own promotion.
In response to the Dream girls promo: – Tickets sold as per Groupon offer (Premium tickets which were initially charged at R350, now selling at R175?) – 100%. When we ran the deal Premium tickets had a face value of R350. The Management from Dream Girls decided to also offer these tickets at a cheaper rate =R200. So we are offering R350 premium tickets at R175, the theatre is also offering a special on these same tickets for R200, these tickets allow our customers to have a better view i the theater, which we have secured on our initial onset signing up the deal. ”
Just felt it worth keeping all of this in one place, so people can see things relative to time when deciding what to do.
Hi – I had kind of a wierd experience today. I saw my friend’s restaurant on Groupon / Mycitydeal today, so I popped in and asked how the promotion was going (I was going to buy the deal, but, thought it would be strange as I’m her friend and eat there a lot). She said “what promotion”? When I mentioned the Groupon promotion she was completely caught off guard. I navigated to the promotion on my phone for her and showed it to her. She said she remembered a woman pestering about this when she was busy and she said the woman kept bugging her and she signed a deal (completely different from what was on the site) when the woman confronted her getting into her car about 2 months previous. She remembered agreeing to her receiving R60 for a R120 promotion. The deal flighted was R40 for R120 and she was receiving R20. She immediately phoned Groupon and asked them to pull the deal as not only did she not agree to those terms but they didn’t even have the courtesy to give her proper notice. So, they pulled the deal at least but I do feel bad for her and for all those people that bought the deal. Maybe they should give some proper training to their sales staff?
Jenny: that is the strangest story I’ve heard in ages, but I’m not surprised. Those sort of high pressure sales tactics are the sort of scummy thing we’ve all grown to expect from Groupon.
MyCityDeal in court with the ASA.
http://www.marketingmix.co.za/pebble.asp?relid=20864
http://www.asasa.org.za/ResultDetail.aspx?Ruling=5534
Hi Chris,
check here: http://groupbuying101.iblog.co.za/2011/10/03/sexpo-gets-groupon-into-trouble/
It’s another example of group buying gone bad!
Can anyone tell me where to find Deon van Tonder of Dealio. A excellent example of what can go wrong. I WANT MY REFUND!
@zee ummmmmm they don’t exist anymore, so I’m pretty sure all their staff lost their jobs. Harassing some guy who’s been fired is petty, don’t you think? Suck it up, let it go, move on with your life.
Hey Zee and Andrew. I also lost my money :( not just to Dealio, but also to Zappon. Zappon was part of Avusa, but even complaining to them doesn’t help. It’s not like I’m exactly going to go sue over R650.
I think Andrew is right, we must just suck it up.
@Zee – They closed down. They owe me money from advertising on iMod and I’ve had to write it off.
@ Andrew & Mohamed – Its definately not worth sueing for R357, but please do not belittle someone efforts, especially since the deal was bought with literally there last cent to empower themselves so they could make a honest living. Then a R357 becomes much more in lost income.
@zee I bought a PortaJump just before Dealio shut down and I received it no problem? On the other hand, I got screwed over by Dealify, and Groupon have “lost” an EFT I made to them. This whole thing is a bunch of perpetual scams.