I've just had my 3rd, and worst, negative experience with something I purchased from one of the many Coupon websites (Groupon, Wowcher, GoGroopie etc.) that seem to be gaining in popularity.
This represents almost 50% of my total purchases from Coupon sites and I'm now of the mind that the savings just aren't worth risk / hassle that comes with a bad experience.
The root problem is that the merchant is often a small one-man-band affair and so getting in touch with them if something is wrong can be difficult (assuming they actually want to help resolve the issue).
My first bad experience involved a so called 'fake' USB memory stick (8Gb presented as 32Gb) the merchant sent a replacement (Also fake) and eventually refunded me - I don't know if the merchant was knowingly selling fakes or not.
The second bad experience was with a portable phone charging battery pack. The pack was fine but supplied with the wrong type of USB cable to charge it. The merchant informed me a replacement would be sent but none ever arrived and they stopped responding to my emails - I let that one go.
I'm sure the incorrect cable wasn't the fault of the merchant, who is just moving boxes, but it does show they were ill prepared for any post-sales issues that might crop up.
My final bad experience was with a child's Android tablet where the power button failed less than a week in. The merchant (Locogadgets.co.uk/.com) initially replied to my email by requesting the order details but has ignored all emails/phone calls since in addition to deleting Facebook posts and blocking my Facebook messages - Pretty obvious they have no intention of resolving the issue!
Which brings us back to the coupon websites. In the first instance where I tried to advise Wowcher that the USB sticks being sold were fakes they had no interest whatsoever in protecting their customers or investigating a potential rogue merchant and GoGroopie have ignored all of my communications regarding Locogadgets.
I appreciate their margins must be small and as a result their customer service teams will be secondary to the sales teams but ultimately their business will live or die based on if the merchants promoted through their sites are reputable or not.
I'm not sure what the solution is but a good first step would be an eBay-esque feedback system where customer feedback on a deal is visible against all that merchants other deals
Until then let the buyer beware and don't pay more than you are prepared to lose!
