Marked for 'dealetion'

Remember what Mamma Gump said ? "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’ll get." And when you get it, you don’t know what’s it’s like until you take a bite. Deal sites are no different. I think I am an astute shopper but I’ve picked some bad apples on deal sites.

My deal-reveal blog this weekend is about 2 failed deals we landed up with in the past 6 months. I should lay down a disclaimer here that if you like one of these places, sue me. Or actually, don’t sue me. This is just coming from personal experience.

Although we did not “redeem” our deal at either of these places, I think our “near-redemption” stories are somewhat amusing and might be worth telling. Truth is, hubby has been pushing me to write about them this week, “instead of just bragging about the good ones”, and he won’t stop nagging me until I do.
So, here goes nothing.

Failed Deal Reveal # 1: Groupon deal for Mi Casa restaurant, Walnut Creek, CA

Why we bagged it: This was the first deal “we” ever bought. I think S naively bought this just for the location advantage. Walnut Creek is a happening town about 15 miles from our place. Fantastic zipcode. It has a vibrant downtown, a fashion-forward crowd, a very hip restaurant scene, a great free-standing Apple store (instead of the mall variety, which is inundated with over-excited teenagers), abundant parking and our favoritest French café / coffee shop that stays open until 2am even on weekends. S is a beer lover and loves hanging out at a brewery there called Pyramid's Alehouse. On Saturday nights they have live music in their patio area, which is beautiful. Ok, if I haven’t given you a good enough visual image, this town has a Crate and Barrel and a Tiffany’s store, on the same cross-street. And they are next door to the Apple store. Nuff said. So there’s something there for everyone. We have never been let down by a restaurant in this town.

Why I loved it Why it sucked:

1. Location, location, location: The restaurant is located in a deserted part of town. There is a Toyota service center, a USPS office, a couple of cheap tire stores and car repair shops across the road. I suspect that this restaurant mainly survives on daytime customers who drop off their vehicles for servicing or tire replacements and come here for a quick lunch.

2. Sight to be missed: We parked in the parking area that faces the backdoor of the restaurant. I wish we had parked on the street. Once you look at what goes on in the restaurant kitchen, your appetite will promptly leave the scene. Old, badly lit, cracked tiles everywhere, messy floors, exposed trashcans, just filthy and ewww in general. We wanted to get in our cars and just drive back, but we decided to give the restaurant a chance, maybe get a couple of drinks. Sometimes I cook up a storm at home and my kitchen gets really messy too, so we didn’t want to be judgmental rightaway.

3. We’d barely taken a few steps into the restaurant and we knew we’re headed for a disappointment. Not too many customers at 8pm. Restaurant was run down, messy with more bad lighting. Everything around us smelled stale. Like the walls hadn’t been painted in years and the food smells had permeated the walls and the carpet. Sometimes good experiences can come out of unusual places, but we didn’t really want to take that chance with food. We just couldn’t get past the mess and the smells. So we made a 180 and walked back to our car.

We really aren’t food-snobs and have eaten at very humble places, and enjoyed ourselves, but in the case of food, being snobbish might just be a good thing.

Date of purchase: 12/27/2010
Date of attempted redemption: 1/15/2011
Groupon Deal link: http://www.groupon.com/deals/mi-casa

Damages: $15 for the Groupon purchase. Called the Groupon customer service the next day and demanded a refund. My credit card was refunded within 2 business days. Feels good to be a Groupon customer.

Consumed: nada

My pick Lessons learnt:

1. Sucky deals can be avoided when you research the establishment before ‘diving’ into a deal. Location is a deceptive criterion.

2. Sucky deals suck less when S buys them. Gives me a chance to nag him about his bad judgment. :)

3. Sucky deals suck less when your deal is from Groupon rather than LivingSocial. Groupon’s customer service is far better and much more responsive than LivingSocial’s. Living Social has a 5 day refund window on deals. Wut ??? Who redeems every deal within 5 days ? C’mon, be realistic LivingSocial.

Failed Deal Reveal # 2: LivingSocial deal for Magoo’s Grill, Pleasant Hill, CA

Why I bagged it: I bought 2 vouchers of this deal, so it was that much more painful when it didn’t turn out well.

The story is, sometime during the month of May, I had to get some work-related stuff (employment verification) from the HR department at one of my previous jobs. They graciously helped me out and instead of just sending out a plain “thank you” note or email, I thought it would be nice to also send them a LivingSocial lunch voucher to express my gratitude. The location of this restaurant was in the 2 mile radius of my previous job and I read a couple of yelp reviews to get a warm and fuzzy about this place.

Well, warm and fuzzy it was not.

About 4 days later, I got an email from both my HR contacts saying that while they are glad to help and were pleased to read my thank you note, it is against company policy to accept any gifts/rewards. At this point, I called LivingSocial explaining them the anti-gift situation, hoping for a refund. First, it was impossible to get a customer service person on the phone. They probably send off their customer service people to overtime as sales agents to hunt down even more deals at other businesses. Or maybe they hire struggling software developers or fresh graduates to man their customer service lines part time. The website looks young and vibrant and but the customer service leaves a lot to be desired.

Once I got someone on the phone, she informed me that “a whole week” had passed since I bought the deal and it was no longer possible for them to refund me for it. She offered to email the vouchers to me so we could use it ourselves. I agreed to that option. Better than wasting $30, innit ?

So a couple of weekends later, we decided to go there for dinner. The place is described as a “laid-back, upscale sports bar”. So not true. We’d just walked in and hadn’t sat down yet, when S gasped: “Dive bar! You’re crazy. We’re leaving.” I didn’t know what a “dive bar” means until this point. So hubby informed me: it’s a place truckers and single people stop by to get drinks and pick up ladies, with a no-strings-attached agenda. Here’s the non-euphemistic UrbanDictionary definition

There was nobody in the main restaurant area and 3-4 people at the bar. There were dudes with scary tattoos sitting at the bar, dressed in wife-beaters (no that’s not a guy who beats his wife, a “beater” is a thin, ribbed tank worn by men as underwear and when wore by itself as a shirt it projects a low-class look, hence the "wife-beater" moniker). It looked like the waitress was also the server(and probably the cook, cleaner and laundry lady as well). She greeted us lazily and before she could finish, we greeted her politely and head back out.

Why I loved it Why it sucked:

This deal proves one thing – while a lot of respectable establishments may be on deal sites to give their business a boost of good advertisement and new clientele; deal sites are cluttered with drowning, dead-beat, failing businesses that are on the verge of extinction and desperately need the foot traffic to stay afloat. Live and learn, eh ?

I am embarrassed to admit that I inadvertently bought this deal for people who helped me out with something. People who are professional contacts. Ouch. I can only hope that my previous company actually has a no-gift policy and that these 2 contacts didn’t actually walk into this place and walk right out, just like we did. I will never know. And that is a relief.

Date of purchase: 06/20/2011
Date of attempted redemption: 07/16/2011
LivingSocial Deal link: http://livingsocial.com/deals/56691-30-to-spend-on-food-and-drink

Damages:
$15 each for 2 LivingSocial coupons. If dealing with the LivingSocial customer service wasn’t so tiresome, I’d call them by now, explain to them that this deal did not meet “LivingSocial’s high standards” and request a refund.

It’s on my to-do list, people.

Consumed: humble pie (we actually ate nothing, “eat humble pie” = to admit one's faults in humiliating circumstances) :)

Should have bought instead: Pyramid’s Alehouse deal that I missed. Came out around St. Patrick’s day. http://livingsocial.com/deals/30950-food-and-beer-for-two-and-beer-to-take-home

Very respectable, 3* brewery/restaurant. We have been to this place several times and this would have made an ideal gift.

My pick Lessons learnt:

1. Read more than the first 3 yelp reviews before purchasing a deal. Deals run for 24-72 hours, depending on the site, so don’t let the adrenaline rush from an impulse buy cloud your judgment. Research well, then buy.

2. Do not gift a deal to a friend or colleague unless you’ve tried the place first hand. People remember bad gifts a lot longer than they remember good ones.

Verdict: Double Dealete.

So am I “Twice burnt, third time shy” in buying deals ? Heck no. Cautious - yes, hesitant - never. Spontaneous - always. :)