I operate a horseback trail ride company on a small resort and spa in Bodega, Ca. The Resort and I teamed up to run a Groupon add because my horses eat rain or shine and winter is slow money flow in the winter. Anyway I have had a HORRIBLE experience with this company! When the Groupon was posted online whoever designed the coupon put in that our customers could upgrade to " outlaw mode" and get a wild west shoot out and a bubble bath. This is something we do not offer ever! That makes if false advertisement, and last time I checked that is illegal! When we contacted Groupon about this problem they simply told us it was a joke, NOT FUNNY! Being a separate business I decided to try to run a separate Groupon ad for my business, well that did not work out. They sent me a rejection letter saying they were to busy and to try again later. No thank you, after hearing more and more people that are having these problems and more I will NEVER use or recommend Groupon to anyone!

As a business owner, I can tell you that Groupon and other companies like it are laughing all the way to the bank...but that will end pretty soon. Yes, you must discount your product or service by AT LEAST 50% to be featured and they get your deal and company in front of thousands of people. They take 50% of the sales. We have used these companies to generate lots of foot traffic into our locations, but have found that these customers are hard to convert into long term customers and difficult to cross-sell to. They are tire kickers. Good for them, though. The consumer wants their great--practically free--deal. However, Groupon and their competitors are basically killing the geese with the golden eggs. The way it works is like complete exploitation of hardworking business owners who are trying to offer something sustainable. They'll tell you the price they want to offer your deal at. If you balk because selling 700 of them at that price will cause you to lose money, you will see that they run the deal with your competitor--causing a HUGE dent in the demand. This is not good for you or your competitor--who also most likely feels totally held over a barrel if they don't do this deal--because someone else will. It's gotten to feel like price fixing, blackmail, etc. The good news is that I totally believe this situation is not sustainable. While our company (a medical spa) has always treated the clients we service through Groupon and the like with the absolute same respect we treat our other clients, I can see through the bad reviews that this is killing merchants and irritating consumers. I will do a little happy dance when Groupon etc is extinct.