Hacker News Reader

Comment by samstave | Hacker News Reader

There are many of us who have always known groupon was a bad idea. My information comes from all my friends in SF who own businesses that Groupon attempted to solicit.

My friends cupcake shop in union square was asked to sell their cupcakes for 25% of retail and at a loss in a very pushy way by groupon.

I have been on groupon for pretty much since they launched. I have bought in total (1) groupon. And I forgot about it and it expired.

I am not interested in the things they have, which are typically things I would never frequently buy anyway (skydiving, spas etc). Thus, I have never seen it being a place I would spend much money. I haven't logged into it for nearly a year. I stopped all emails way back as well.

View on HN

I completely agree, I have been a "subscriber" for months and I am borderline considering it just another piece of spam. But the real point here is how bad it is for so many businesses. I am not saying it is not great for some as well, I just have heard too many stories of groupon trying to hard sell small companies that don't fully realize the impact these "deals" can have. That is just a business model that scares me!

You might want to look into any class actions against groupon for expiring. California has very favorable gift card laws and I think the court would agree this is a gift card.

I believe Groupon's policy is that purchases don't ever expire, just the deal does.

If you pay $x for some deal, and expires, you still have a credit of $x with that business.

I think state law pre-empts groupon's policy (Ca's law states it cannot expire unless the card is to multiple retailers and then it must clearly list the expiration date on it).

Groupon's policy is in accordance with CA state law. I don't see how it's pre-empted.

> There are many of us who have always known groupon was a bad idea.

Weasel words.

> My friends cupcake shop in union square was asked to sell their cupcakes for 25% of retail and at a loss in a very pushy way by groupon.

While pushy sales people are annoying, they are hardly unique to GroupOn. I'm sure your friend turned them down. No harm done.

> I have bought in total (1) groupon. And I forgot about it and it expired. (...) things I would never frequently buy anyway (...) I haven't logged into it for nearly a year.

Good for you. But you communicate your argument that GroupOn is a bad idea in an incredibly weak fashion.

Its called a personal anecdote. There is plenty of mounting empirical evidence of how bad groupon is, thus I dont feel I need to make a strong case on my personal opinion.

While I appreciate articles and analysis of their filings, revenue etc... I did not require it to make a gut feel for what was really going on.

Groupon has done an amazing job at what they do - even though history will tell how far they really go, I am free to express my opinion in whatever form that may take, however, and I have never felt they were seriously viable in the same way other tech giants of this era are. They are simply a coupon site which, based on direct information from business owners I know, requires said businesses to sell at a loss in the name of brand recognition/volume that groupon claims to bring - but has thus far fallen short of delivering the marketed value of their service.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com