'Livingsocial' online discount site: refund - what chance?

[suzywong]

Hi,
I bought a beauty voucher as a gift for someone from the 'Livingsocial' online discount site. The gift recipient phoned up to book an appointment and were told that the salon was fully booked until June 6th (which is when the voucher expires). I emailed livingsocialuk and asked for a refund, but have had no reply. I presume that that is not the end of it, and that I have some claim on the 50 euro I originally paid?

Anyone else experience this?

Thanks for listening!

 

[elcato]

2 things I guess. Your friend should ask them to honour the voucher after 6th June or if the website does not return then cancel the CC transaction.

 

[Eithneangela]

I've had bad experience with Living Social (paid €59 for a winter car service and all I got was an assessment of what the car needed and no work carried out). Was back and forth to Living Social to no avail - they just totally walked away from any responsibility saying my problem was with the garage! So, I wouldn't hold my breath trying to get a refund if I were you. On the other hand, you could give Joe Duffy a call - I'm sure the nation would love to be brought up to date on these voucher deals!

 

[Boyd]

I know its not the same company but its the same area.......I got a refund from Groupon before following a terrible meal out on one of their vouchers. I would pursue LivingSocial again if I were you.

 

[elcato]

Ask your friend to ring again and don't mention any voucher just to see if they are acting the maggot. They surely get cancellations.

 

[Newbie!]

Not the same thing exactly but I bought a voucher for Next on Living Social however the item that i bought using the voucher wasnt right and I returned it to the store. Next refunded the cash part of the gift but no mention of the rest. I emailed living social three times and they didnt respond. Eventually found a phone number for them on the web and called and they were very nice and apologetic and gave me €10 voucher credit as well as my refund as a goodwill gesture.

 

[DrMoriarty]

I'm not very impressed with Livingsocial's (lack of) email responses, either...

On 11 May 2012 10:01, <DrMoriarty> wrote:
OK, another fortnight has passed and still no response, and no refund. I'm now contacting my credit card provider to report a fraudulent transaction and initiate a chargeback.
Yours sincerely,
DrMoriarty

On 30 April 2012 10:11, <DrMoriarty> wrote:
Dear Livingsocial,
I've now written twice to ask for a cancellation and refund of this purchase, but have received no reply from you to date. I can see however that my card was charged €128.00 on 23rd April, and if I don't get some sort of response from you within a few more days I'll have no option but to ask my credit card provider to initiate a chargeback.
Yours sincerely,
DrMoriarty

On 27 April 2012 01:50, <DrMoriarty> wrote:
Hi again,
Could you please confirm receipt of this, as it's nearly 7 days since I purchased the deal?
Many thanks,
DrMoriarty

From: DrMoriarty
Sent: 24 April 2012 12:20
To: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
Subject: Re: Your LivingSocial Deal is Ready!

Dear Sir/Madam,
I recently purchased two vouchers from you that I'm not going to be able to use and would like to return them for a refund in accordance with your terms and conditions. Attached please find vouchers #<snip> and #<snip>, purchased on 20 Apr 2012 for a total of €128.
Many thanks,
DrMoriarty

 

[suzywong]

Thanks all,
Dr Moriarty - I may try your route - (i.e., cancel the cc transaction) thanks.

Newbie, I tried phoning but gave up after an eternity on hold.

Elcato, they said it had to be used before the 6th June, but that they had no appointments available before then.

I am tempted to phone the salon myself and see if I can make an appointment to see if they can fit in any appointment - I don't believe they can be completely full for the next three weeks. It's just a place that does nails, tanning, massages etc. Surely someone there has a free hour? (Maybe only if you are a livingsocial voucher holder)

 

[flattea2]

Thanks all,

I am tempted to phone the salon myself and see if I can make an appointment to see if they can fit in any appointment - I don't believe they can be completely full for the next three weeks. It's just a place that does nails, tanning, massages etc. Surely someone there has a free hour? (Maybe only if you are a livingsocial voucher holder)

Quite a lot of relatively free advertising (in terms of ad impressions etc).

I'm sure some places wish the vouchers werent purchased at all and just got the 'bounce' from increased name recognition through the advertising.

The business model for this will need to be changed if its to become a recurring thing as I hear a lot of people making a similar complaint to yours when they actually try to book on these vouchers.

Poor form though.

 

[horusd]

This voucher expiring business is a joke. The money used to purchase the voucher doesn't expire, so how the hell does the voucher?

 

[gipimann]

As far as I know, the companies don't get paid until the voucher is actually used, so they probably put a short validity date to get the funds quickly.

 

[suzywong]

Update! Just today I got an email from them (livingsocial) saying they were refunding the money. Will see if and when that happens!

Thanks all.

 

[suzywong]

Further update. Received refund. Took ages so they must have a backlog. But at least they did refund the money, so fair play.

 

[Troy McClure]

I know its not the same company but its the same area.......I got a refund from Groupon before following a terrible meal out on one of their vouchers. I would pursue LivingSocial again if I were you.

In our experience Groupon are alot more customer friendly than Livingsocial. We also had a poor experience with them. They fed us a load of bull but no refund. We, and those close to us, stopped using them.
We have had only good expereince's with the other discount websites when we ran into a problem, even when they could have told us to shag off, they refunded us. Obviously they would rather keep establisted customers buying than annoy them, and lose them.