Groupon deal spam slapped by Australian regulator Groupon's troubles just got a little deeper and more widespread, after Australia's Communications and Media Authority (which likes to be called 'the ACMA') issued a “formal warning” that the floundering group buying outfit needs to get its email house in order. The ACMA issues formal warnings as a prelude to unholstering its …
"This is an urgent appeal on behalf of the Groupon fund for starving fish.
As a loyal customer, we urge you to consider the fate of the many hundreds of little Japanese fish that live locally to you in beauty salons, who are desperately hungry and in dire need of human foot flesh on which to feed upon. For just 50% of the normal cost, you could do your bit for fish kind and feed these desperate fishies while at the same time removing dead foot skin and revitalising your lowest of extremities."
I can't understand that anyone could be confused with the concept that Groupon customers are just bargain hunters and nothing more. They just move from deal to deal and any thought of a long term relationship is just pie in the sky.
Why are so many businesses fooled by this? They must be so good at sales that they make common sense evaporate.
I had a quick look when all the hoopla started. Dear glod, what a collection of vacuous, hedonistic, WAGgish, TOWIE--inspired overpriced tat. I'd not pay 10% of the groupon price to have some witless girl cut me toenails or some hooray chinless drive me round snetterton. The idea that people pay the alleged full price for any of these foolish pursuits leaves me with my jaw on the ground.
Anyone attracted to that sort of selfish twodge deserves all the spam they get, I reckon.
I did give them an email address. It was someone I don't like.
Because they were fooled by outstanding salesmentm.
Outstanding salesmentm are those individuals that can sell you a piece of gold plated shit, make you feel so happy and special that you bought that piece of gold plated shit; that you would merrily go out and buy another piece of gold plated shit, and then tell all of your friends to go out and buy a piece of gold plated shit.
IOW, you were fucked from the very beginning!
As a customer most of the time, the moment these businesses try to actually give the customers something to make them WANT to be long term customers then they woudlnt need to go to people like groupon to get visablility.
The average feeling I get from talking to any company is that they are offereing crap in return for high prices.
Or worse, they are just plain lying to me 90% of the time. unlimited bandwith? The engineer will be there between 8 and 2pm. No weekend calls. Small print, 3 year phone packages (how the hell did I get signed up to a 3 year phone package? no offense, but either I was totally drunk of the was some slight of hand here) bank charges, PPI. Total lies and garbage on both product ingreadient labels and the products themself. Any Apple product ever. Price fixing on E-Books. (cost more for an ebook that the hardback, depening on the fame of the Author)
Add your own to that list, industry does not treat people like customers, they treat them like resources to be pissed on at will.
I'm not sure it is fair to tarnish every possible business that can sell you something with the same brush... often companies that use Groupon are trying to get more business and so are often smaller outfits.
The problem in my view is that most of these people cannot add up. There have been countless tv shows with people like Alan Sugar telling us the basics of business and the first rule is "always make money" ...
If you have a groupon offer you may reduce the price, but you ensure that you still have a profit so that even if those customers are 1 time visits, they made a difference to the bottom line.
The problem of these companies selling stuff i dont want at any price, that is a different matter.
This sentence needs a correction, additions are shown like this, deletions, like this.
There have been countless tv shows with people like Alan Sugar telling us the basics of big global business and the first rule is "always make money fuck the customer, any way you can" ...
According to http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21680884
the online clothes retailer American Giant got a huge boost in orders when they were featured in the Slate web site, which they have had some trouble coping with. A good business (which this may be) can have trouble reaching out to potential customers, and cheap trials are one way to do that. There's a catch with Groupon in that you may be reaching an audience that likes cheap trials and novel experiences but isn't going to use your services regularly. It seems to me that you should use Groupon to sell services at a loss when you can hope to have customers come back and let you earn a profit, and also for seasonal special offers, and stock clearance. And don't have people feel sore when they miss out on the deal. And sell your service at a fair price the rest of the time.
What you are describing is a 'loss leader' and is highly effective if you have more stuff to sell the customer (like Xbox - consoles lose money but they are recovered with the purchase of games & accessories) but the strategy doesn't work if the customer isn't locked in to your product.
Discounting commodity goods is generally a race to the bottom and reasturants are generally low/no margin with low value returning customers. Most Groupon deals are either commodities or food so the vendor (generally smaller shops) are just screwing themselves by luring in bottom feeding customers only interested in the cheapest price & who are generally the whingingest pain in the ass sort if customer out there.
To summarize: Groupon is a waste of a merchants resources in most cases.
...Its a silent micro-level protest because of the liberties Groupon and other internet businesses take with your personal details. What do I mean? Buy with cash on the high-street and its anonymous, buy online and you're rewarded with having your privacy raped.
I'm getting tied of my details being sold to a growing list of valued partners who know where I live and everything I buy. I want the right to buy once, and then be forgotten or anonymous and not have past purchases profiled & stored forever...
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