Living Social - Whats your experience 'Good or Bad'

[superl123]

Has anyone used 'Living Social' to promote their business?
We have used them on two occassions, after being recommend by another business and while thier merchant usability is much better than Groupon, we have had repeated problems with payment, to the point of having to threaten to not honour any vouchers presented until payment has been received. This does result in payment, but is a real hassle to have to constantly badger them for payment. We will not be using them again!
Has anyone else had problems or have we just had a bad islolated experience?

 

[Belmore]

Hey - we tried to use them but they never got back to us...
We also tried Groupon and had a similar response. I assume our service is not something they think they can 'maximise' revenue on.

I have read mixed reviews although it seems to be worse for the consumers -

http://livingsocial-com-reviews.measuredup.com/9212980

Sam

 

[superl123]

Thanks sam,
I wish I'd seen these before we got involved with Living social.
We have had nothing but trouble with them. We finally only got paid by threatening not to accept any more vouchers. You definately get the impresson they have a cash-flow issue.
My advice - Avoid all of these like the plague!

 

[3 MORE YEARS]

That's a lot of bad reviews for living social. I would like to hear from anyone who has any good experience with them or Groupon.

 

[superl123]

Unfortunatley, these seem to be companies in name only, with no money behind them. They are just taking advantage of the current climate and the publics growing thrend for a deal, but I really think none of them will survive in the long term, but in the meantime, it can reflect badly on merchants that use them, when they don't deliver

 

[3 MORE YEARS]

There is always a price to pay when something is free or too good. However, I would be surprised if these companies are not making money. They probably have very low overheads.

 

[Will]

This model does lend itself to people thinking there's quick money to be made without any real financial backing and then later finding out that there are delays which may effect their cashflow.

I strongly believe that the future of this model lies in charging firms a fee to list their vouchers, and then having customers sign up for a voucher, print it off and then contact the vendor to arrange the transaction, use of the product/service and payment.

Will

 

[InnaK]

If you are interested to find out how the group buying industry is developing in Europe in 2012, join the first European Daily Deal Event called DD Summit Europe. You will find out the latest industry forecasts and will see top executives of the industry on stage.

 

[brewgirl]

I have tried repeatedly to make a reservation at the Beauchamp. If you call the restaurant, they refer you to the reservations number which is only manned during office hours. When it is answered, it is by a woman who simply says 'hello' and sounds about 12. All very odd.:|

 

[RHardy]

I ran a deal with Living Social for my business startup early this year. The first payment was made on time, but the second instalment was a month late (and I had to chase hard to get it). The third instalment is due next month - we shall see!

My biggest problem was not with Living Social though, but with the clients that I got through them. The term 'overly entitled' springs to mind. The real reason for doing the deal was to get some up-selling opportunities, repeat business, and good 'word-of-mouth' referrals. Unfortunately none of that has come about, so I find myself doing a load of work for little more than minimum wage with none of the hoped for, long-term, benefits.

Harrumph!

 

[Deleted member 27344]

Do you really think that people looking for a bargain would ever pay top dollar for a product?
You're chasing the wrong client.

 

[Maxwell83]

I agree, posh restaurants offering a meal for 25% of normal cost won't see those groupon groupies again.

They will simply buy the next similar from the next place offering it.

Daily deals are best for clearing products at a discount, not building repeat custom if your product doesn't normally appeal to the bargain hunter.

 

[Spongebob]

If I see a company offering a deal on Groupon or Living Social, my first reaction is that they must be in dire financial straits. Why else would anyone offer their product or service at a quarter of its normal price - once the fees are taken into account?

It's a sure sign of desperation, and potentially the start of a death spiral for the business concerned, as the perceived value of its services is eroded.

 

[lmitchell]

Hi everyone, I am popping over here from BusinessZone (sister site to UKBF) as I am writing an article about whether daily deals such as Groupon & Living Social are bad for SMEs, or whether there are any gains to be made.

It would be great to get your views (entirely anonymous!) on this from the point of view of a small business owner. What have your experiences with either Groupon or Living Social been - good or bad? What about any others from the daily deals industry? If so, have they been good or bad? Would you recommend to other business owners or would you warn them to stay away? Are there any benefits to be gained at all, from using daily deals services?

Thanks!

 

[ScottyB]

If I see a company offering a deal on Groupon or Living Social, my first reaction is that they must be in dire financial straits. Why else would anyone offer their product or service at a quarter of its normal price - once the fees are taken into account?

It's a sure sign of desperation, and potentially the start of a death spiral for the business concerned, as the perceived value of its services is eroded.

Hey there. I recently launched a 'deals' website for The Scottish Borders called 'BorderDealz' as Groupon, Living Social etc don't approach businesses in this area as, although it has a collective population of 100,000 people these people are situated in little towns and villages all over the place so I feel that they find it pretty difficult to market.

I have to disagree with this above statement as, I don't know exactly how Groupon and Living Social Work but we charge businesses nothing for promoting a deal on our site. We then only charge a MAX of 30% commission per deal as the only charges we have to pay out is paypal fees, hosting and indemnity insurance so as somebody said before the overheads are pretty low. The alternative to advertising your business results in hundreds of pounds being paid in printed word and not being able to track what has come to your business as a result of this. With our deals site we offer customers a 'pay as you go' advertising method which is 100% trackable! You know exactly how this method works for you. Because we're new and local promoting local businesses to local consumers we sometimes have put a deal up where 0 deals have been sold. But the business has still had brand recognition via a website, mailing list and social networking so surely this is a win win situation.

We have also had excellent results where a car valeting company promoted a £25 mini valet for £12. They managed to sell 5 half price deals to Scottish Borders Enterprise who now use him monthly at full price. (We sold him 12 in total)

We also had a driving instructor who promoted a first lesson with him for just £8. We sold him 2 which you may not think is a lot but I know through regular contact that these customers now have lessons weekly with him at £23 per lesson. This are surely proof of how deals sites can benefit businesses.

As I said, I don't know how The big deals sites operate fully but because I am local and I see approx 10-20 empty retail units in all of the Borders towns I strive to offer an alternative to traditional, untrackable advertising methods at a very low cost.

You may ask how I can survive with only charging 30% max but as I said the overheads are very low and I am building towards something bigger... Aps, Directory and deals site. It's gona be huge and local businesses will prosper too!

Sorry for the rant but I just wanted to share a success story for deals sites!

 

[KateCB]

I think that the borders may be better placed to ensure that both consumer and seller are happy; smaller perhaps than Living Social Etc and that may be the key.
That said, I took a living social deal for a two night stay at Storrs Hall in the Lake district - it was absolutely superb. On the other hand, my daughter bought a spa dya for me and her at a little place in Dewsbury.....my goodness, our cat gives better massages when kneading, and my grandaughter could give better manicures/pedicures and facials and she is only 7...it was a total disaster and made me understand why this little place was offering such a good dela - no-one in their right minds would pay for what we suffered, sorry were treated to..... Luckily we were able to laugh AT the time and afterwards, but are now very wary......

From a business point of view, I don't have experienece, our niche market is not open to this sort of promotion, however I would urge businesses who DO use it to be VERY clear about what is included/offered and dpn't make the purchaser feel like a second class citizen; saying to someone who has a voucher 'oh, you are a VOUCHER person are you' with a little sneer (yes, it has been done to me!) doesn't instill a desire to return at full price!

 

[Camden]

Hi just a quick heads up we used living social to promote a soap school course, at first we were impressed we had a good response although it was a heavily discounted price, however they take payment from the customers cards giving the impression to the customer that they have paid us, we then had to wait 14 days for the first part payment, customers were contacting us and wanting to get a place on a course within days, we then had to fight living social for the payment and threaten to cancel the vouchers in order to receive payment, Having seen posts from other merchants regarding this we asked living social to pay us before we accepted further placements, they took payment from customers in November and want to pay us the other part payment in March, we asked to be paid at the end of December or early January, they have refused to do this and we are now at the point of emailing the customers and cancelling the bookings, as you can imagine we are preparing for a customer storm but feel it is the only option left open to us as we genuinely believe it will take months to be paid and all the vouchers will have been used leaving us with no leverage at all.

 

[drdes]

These are all very interesting points. We are currently working on a website (localex.co.uk) which will go live soon where we will transfer the power back to the small businesses. We will allow companies to post their own coupons/vouchers on our site which we will email to customers. Here is how we will be different to daily deals:

- We will not get involved with the transaction itself - the retailer will not pay us any money (apart from an annual fee or a very low amount per coupon - most likely in pennies rather than pounds) - we will take no money from the customers, so no question of retailer having to wait for payments.
- We will not suggest ("force?") the amount of discount (apart from maybe saying that it has to be at least say 15%) - its not our business to tell you how to run yours.
- You can run offers as and when you please - no pressure from us.
- SInce you are not being forced to give silly discounts, you are not attracting the bottom feeders (I use that term in the nicest possible way) and istead can attract new customers or to use up space capacity in quiet times (Friday evening looking quiet? Send a quick 20% discount off for that Friday nights - done!)

We have a couple of other things which will be quite attractive which I won't reveal for now but if anyone is interested in this pls feel free to PM or look at this thread where I have a survey which you can fill out:

http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=282136

The link to the survey is

http://dotsurvey.me/361lbr64-76b5227

I hope this doesn't count as hijacking teh thread - I just thought it was very relevant to this discussion. Mods feel free to remove this if you feel its inappropriate.

If anyone has any comments that would great.

Nilesh

 

[rakeshgulati]

Dont go anywhere near them. A member of staff lied to me and his director supported him on the lie. They will not exist for much longer.