IKEA Says Goodbye to Incandescent Light Bulbs

Groupon fix ends in bad trip

The Washington Post October 19, 2010 | PETULA DVORAK I seriously doubt the acanthus leaf carvings or the turned, bun feet of the $2,400 cherry sleigh bed fit for a French king (or a nouveau riche Desperate Housewife) was what the Grouponers had in mind.

But all weekend long, they stood there in the parking lot of a Prince George’s County strip mall, holding their Groupons, dazed by a $45 furniture deal that had gone sour. go to web site groupon houston

“This just isn’t in the spirit of Groupon,” one outraged 26-year- old bargain hunter told me.

I nodded in agreement, flipping my bouncy, $32 Groupon haircut.

Groupon, in case you haven’t heard of it yet, is an online social network that uses the buying power of its members to negotiate dramatically deep discounts for all kinds of goods and services.

For example, if enough people who belong to Groupon agree to pay $12 for a deal at a new eatery, they’ll get $25 worth of food at the restaurant offering the bargain. It almost always works, because the tipping point is usually something like 30 people, and by the end of the day, up to 6,000 might buy in.

For a coupon addict like me, Groupon is like discount heroin. There’s a deadline to purchase the Groupon – the site lists exactly how many minutes are left before the offer expires and how many people have already bought into this incredible deal- that leads to Vegas-like bad decisions. Unlike regular coupons, you have to put the money up first, so a crumpled, expired Groupon in your purse is the same as throwing cash away. And of course, there’s the point at which the exercise in frugality turns into a wallet full of coupons for balloon rides, wine tastings and massages, which is typical Groupon fare.

Discipline. Restraint. Rational thinking is essential.

So naturally, as the person in charge of the family finances, I haven’t paid the power bill this month but bought a meal at a vegetarian restaurant and a family membership to an Appalachian hiking club.

Sometimes, the places that offer really useful Groupons are a little obscure. My Groupon hair salon was hidden deep inside a slightly worn, retirement-feeling apartment building. It was next to the barber shop and the grocery store with a lunch counter that smelled of fried bacon.

Even so, my haircut was expertly done, more precise and skillful than the great splurge in Miami Beach years ago that cost almost as much as two weeks of childcare. A mix of customers came and went, and I felt like I was in on something. site groupon houston

Because we need a new bookshelf for the kids’ room more than the hiking club (but not more than electricity), I considered going back to the Groupon well once more: the Cozi Furniture store offering of $250 worth of furniture for $45. It seemed like a no-brainer. Their Web site showed lots of cool office furniture, including really nice bookshelves for about $200.

The fine print on the deal said it was for regularly priced items only and excluded lamps and electronics. That seemed fine.

But I ended up not buying the deal because the online comments were already ablaze with complaints from customers who’d tried to use their Groupons and found everything in the store on sale but the most expensive furniture.

“Yeah – everything I had bookmarked yesterday went up about 40% in price today. This is the shadiest thing I’ve ever seen on Groupon, by far,” groused Jacob G., one of more than 400 people who’d purchased the deal.

I drove out to the New Carrollton store to see if there was confusion, and, sure enough, I found folks who felt like they had been burned.

“I hope Groupon gives me the money back on this one,” one disgruntled Grouponer told me.

The backlash against Groupon – two years old and 18 million people strong – has begun. But the stories usually come from small local businesses stampeded by Groupon bargain hunters, not the consumers.

When I asked about the complaints at the furniture store, a salesman showed me a thick folder of sales receipts.

“See, all these were Groupons,” he told me. “We had happy customers. And some were not. Not everyone will be happy.” On Monday, the owners of Cozi referred me to Drew Miller, a furniture manufacturer’s representative who helped the store organize the Groupon deal. “Everything fell apart,” Miller said, because Groupon posted the deal before the store was ready. The owners have lost money, Miller said, and have been overwhelmed by the number of people complaining.

“It’s been a terrible experience,” he said.

Groupon doesn’t want to get into a debate about what went wrong, company spokeswoman Julie Mossler told me.

The company goes through several layers of research before a business is allowed to offer a deal through Groupon. “For every seven that apply, we take just one,” Mossler said.

Still, they can’t control what a merchant does once the Groupon is offered. That’s why they’ll refund any unused Groupon, no questions asked.

“On this one, yes, we had a handful of refunds,” she said. “And that’s really uncommon.” In the shell game of recession-era bargain hunting, I’d venture to guess this wasn’t a bargain for anyone.

And I’m going to ease off the Groupons for a little while. Unless, of course, Pepco comes up with a deal.

PETULA DVORAK