My experience using a Groupon My City Deals voucher
Written by Karen Bryan
I recently decided to try one of the Groupon’s My City Deals to check out how it works. I bought a voucher for Kilau Cafe in Aberdeen, as I knew I’d be visiting Aberdeen during my Summer 2010 Scotland Blog Tour. I paid £8 for a voucher which could be exchanged for lunch for two people up to value of £23, representing a saving of around 65%.
I received my Groupon My City Deals e-voucher the day after making my purchase online. The voucher isn’t personalised for your use by the purchaser, so you could buy vouchers as gifts for someone else. There is a security code on the voucher. You need to check the terms and conditions on the voucher e.g. times during which the offer if available, if any items on menu are excluded from the offer and if you need to book in advance. The voucher didn’t specify lunch only, although it was lunch which was specified on the Groupon daily offer page. I asked Kilau Cafe for clarification on Twitter and they told me that the voucher was valid any day, any time.
Kilau Cafe
I arrived at Kilau Cafe on a Saturday evening around 6pm. I handed over the voucher before ordering. I was hungry having only eaten fruit and yoghurt for lunch so I reckoned I could probably chomp my way through quite a bit of food. I initially ordered fruit smoothie, spicy spinach and mushroom soup and a goat’s cheese and apple salad. After I’d eaten that, I went back up to the counter to ask how much of my voucher I’d left to spend and wasn’t given a straight answer. Now this was probably because this was a different employee to the one I’d spoken to earlier. I was tempted to have a chocolate brownie with a hot drink. However as it wasn’t clear how much credit was left and I did feel that I’d already gotten excellent value for my £8 spend on the voucher, I just ordered a mocha. The food was very good, my only niggle being that the mocha was lukewarm. The cafe also had excellent free wifi, a big bonus for a blogger on the road, as mobile internet isn’t great for uploading videos.
So I can say that my experience of using a Groupon’s My City Deals voucher went very smoothly and it was good value for money for the my £8 purchase. I really didn’t press the point about how much credit I had left on my voucher but it’d probably be better to keep your own tally of how much you’ve spent as you order, to avoid any confusion.
There a good FAQ section on the Groupon site that covers most queries.
Beware of Groupon. We may just have been unlucky but it seems like a bit of a coincidence. We bought 4 voucher for local Indian Restaurant and took 3 guests. Went in and said table for 4 with GROUPON VOUCHERS and were shown to our table. They took order + brought starters then came back and asked to see our vouchers. Then said they would not accept Groupon vouchers + we must pay cash. Very embarassing as we had guests and not enough cash on us also halfway through our meal with a dilemma as to whether or not to stay or not? Hubby had to go and find a cash machine. Restaurant said that they had not been paid by groupon so could not accept vouchers. We are trying to get refund from groupon for the 4x£12 vouchers but no reply to emails.
SECONDLY- voucher for meal for 2 at The Castle Arms tried to book a table on numerous occasions was asked if we were groupon + they always said they were full. Them Groupon emailed to say the voucher was extended. Tried again to book and pub said they were not taking groupon vouchers. Tried to claim a refund but groupon say they are still ‘ in negotiation ‘ with the pub and to try again in a week or so. I WANT A REFUND + CANT SEEM TO GET ONE-
Kawacathy – I’m sorry to hear about your negative experiences using Groupon. I recently gave our son the Groupon voucher I purchased for the Castle Arms in Edinburgh, so I will be very interested to hear about his experience trying to use it.
Yes I got the email from Groupon re Castle Arms extension which I’ve copied below:
“Thank you for your purchase of the Castle Arms deal, on the 17th of July 2010. As the Edinburgh festival is currently on in the city, the restaurant is experiencing an exceptionally high number of visitors. As a result of this, some of you may have experienced difficulty making a booking at the restaurant.
In view of the situation your voucher will now be valid from the 9th of September to the 9th of December 2010. This is to ensure you have a full 3 month period within which you can redeem this voucher. However if this period is not convenient for you, please reply to this email and we would be happy to refund you in full for this deal.
We appreciate your patience and understanding and for those of you still looking forward to a meal at the Castle Arms.”
I am going to ask on Twitter now if anyone has successfully used the Castle Arms Groupon voucher.