Saturday, March 17, 2012
Groupon Expired - Yelp Response
Below is the exact communication between myself (Mike Wystrach) and the customer (Casey Solem).
On Mar 8, 2012, at 10:00 PM, Casey Solem wrote:
On Thu, Mar 8, 2012 at 11:05 PM, Mike Wystrach wrote:Michael,
I find myself exceptionally dissatisfied with my recent experience at your The Steak Out restaurant. I purchased a Groupon for $15, which was for $30 off of my meal. This Groupon expired in December. After having read the fine print on my voucher, I found that although it was expired, my voucher could be redeemed for the original value of the $15 dollars that I had paid for the voucher. I have attached a copy of my voucher, (in the name of my wife, Removed), that you will find clearly, unequivocally states that the voucher is valid for redemption at the value paid for the voucher, in this case, $15.00. Upon presenting this to our server, he stated that he would confirm the details of the voucher with the manager. After multiple discussions, the manager came to my table to tell me that after discussing this with you, you had decided that you were unwilling to honor the voucher.
This is absolutely unacceptable.
As a new resident to the area near your restaurant, I had every intention of becoming a frequent customer of your business, however, I cannot continue to spend money in your establishment if this is the way that you plan to conduct business, and, more importantly, treat your customers. You contracted with Groupon, presumably to increase the number of patrons in your restaurant, convinced me to pay money up-front, then, upon holding up my end of the bargain by visiting your establishment, I was disregarded and told that I had no choice but to forfeit the money that I had already paid for my meal. You manager agreed to comp my dessert, which was a total of $5.95, but left the additional $9.05 unaccounted for. So now I have paid for the entirety of my meal PLUS the $9.05 that you refused to honor for the money that I had pre-paid for my meal. This is not a way to increase your customer base. This is not a way to keep customers. This is unacceptable.
Unless we can work out a way to make this series of events fair, I will be unable and unwilling to visit your restaurant again, and will make sure that others hear how much you value and respect your customers. In no way was I ever asking for something for free, I was simply asking for an even value for the money that I ALREADY PAID. I can be reached by email at REMOVED, or by telephone at Removed . I look forward to finding an outcome that we both find fair and agreeable.
Casey Solem
P.S. The Gift card does start losing $2.50 a month if it is not used in the first 12 months.Dear Mr. Solem,
I fail to understand how we did not hold up our end of the deal. We offered an amazing discount through Groupon for 50% off a $30 value. When we offered that deal we clearly showed that this coupon would expire on 12/24/2011. That was shown to you before you purchased the coupon. That was also very clearly printed in on your coupon, which was attached to your email. Today is 3/8/12 well past the date of our expiration. The system we had set up to monitor our Groupons is no longer in operation because it has expired, therefore our staff had no way to verify if that Groupon had not been used.
The small print says "unless applicable by state law" Arizona law allows for expiration dates on coupons as long as they are clearly stated on the coupon and presented to the purchaser at the time of purchase. Both of these requirements were met.
We value our customers immensely, which is why we offered such an amazing deal. But we can not continue to redeem coupons that are expired especially when we do not have the capability to verify those coupons.
We actually made less than $5 per Groupon so we actually still lost money on this coupon by offering you a free $5.95 dessert.
However, since you are new to the neighborhood I will happily send you a $25 Gift Card as a welcome present. And only as a welcome gift. I still stand behind our policy of not accepting out of date coupons.
Please email me your address and we will get one in the mail to tomorrow.
Welcome to Marana / Oro Valley! Have a great weekend and we look forward to seeing you soon.
Regards,
Michael
On, Mar 15, 2012 at 3:01pm PM, Casey Solem
Michael,
I paid $15 for a $5.95 dessert.
In the same fine print that you quoted me about coupons expiring, it states that the $15 dollars does not disappear after the expiration date.
When you contracted with Groupon and distributed certificates stating this, it became your problem of how to verify that the Groupon has not already been used, not mine.
Casey
Casey,
I attached the exact fine print and this time highlighted in RED the key words regarding applicable law which I think you once again missed. I also highlighted in GREEN what you can do if the merchant (US) will not pay you your $9.05. But again it says Groupon will only pay you if applicable law is on your side, which it is not.
I gave you what I thought was a very reasonable solution to your problem in that you were netting an extra $15.95. Truthfully I thought is was rather big of me to do. It truly amazes me that you are trying to blame us for this. As if we somehow changed the deal on you. That we unfairly enforced an expiration date on just you. What did you think the expiration date meant when you bought the coupon?
It is clear that you do not want to accept a reasonable and over compensating offer, so my initial offer is revoked, or shall I say it has expired. As you clearly need the $9.05 much more than I do, I will be happy to send it to you, if for no other reason to stop these emails. Please provide an address and I will send it out ASAP.
My suggestion is in the future don't buy anything with an expiration date including but not limited to Milk, Eggs, Coupons, Gift Cards, a Drivers Lic, or Credit Cards as it will inevitably let you down when it expires and you will once again feel cheated and wronged by people who are out to screw you. I know it must feel like the the world is out to get you with all these expiration dates. Maybe someday you will live in a world where everything exist in perpetuity. Until than I guess all you can do is blame someone else when you let something expire.
Best of Luck,
Michael
Attached fine print:
General terms applicable to all Vouchers (unless otherwise set forth below, in Groupon's Terms of Sale, or in the Fine Print): Unless prohibited by applicable law the following restrictions also apply. See below for further details. Discount Voucher Expires On: Dec 24, 2011. However, even if the promotional offer stated on your Groupon has expired, applicable law may require the merchant to allow you to redeem your Voucher beyond its expiration date for goods/services equal to the amount you paid for it. If you have gone to the merchant and the merchant has refused to redeem the cash value of your expired Voucher, and if applicable law entitles you to such redemption, Groupon will refund the purchase price of the Voucher per its Terms of Sale. Partial Redemptions: If you redeem the Voucher for less than its face value, you only will be entitled to a credit or cash equal to the difference between the face value and the amount you redeemed from the merchant if applicable law requires it.If you redeem this Groupon Voucher for less than the total face value, you will not be entitled to receive any credit or cash for the difference between the face value and the amount you redeemed, (unless otherwise required by applicable law). You will only be entitled to a redemption value equal to the amount you paid for the Groupon less the amount actually redeemed. Redemption Value: If not redeemed by the discount voucher expiration date, this Groupon will continue to have a redemption value equal to the amount you paid ($15) at the named merchant for the period specified by applicable law. The redemption value will be reduced by the amount of purchases made. This Groupon expiration date above, the merchant will, in its discretion: (1) allow you to redeem this Voucher for the product or service specified on the Voucher or (2) allow you to redeem the Voucher to purchase other goods or services from the merchant for up to the amount you paid ($15) for the Voucher. This Voucher can only be used for making purchases of goods/services at the named merchant. Merchant is solely responsible for Voucher redemption. Vouchers cannot be redeemed for cash or applied as payment to any account unless required by applicable law. Neither Groupon, Inc. nor the named merchant shall be responsible for Groupons Vouchers that are lost or damaged. Voucher is for promotional purposes. Use of Vouchers are subject to Groupon's Terms of Sale found at http://www.groupon.com/terms
Monday, November 8, 2010
How & Why to Follow Us
First the why follow us or “Like” us:
It is the the ONLY way to get information on give-a-ways and amazing deals that we are offering. These deals will only be for those who are following us on Twitter or Facebook. A lot of the time these deals will be very time sensitive so you will need will want to know about them right away. For example, we may send a Tweet saying “Next 50 people who come in and tell the bartender they love the Steak Out will get a free burger”
We will also give information on bands that are playing, events that are happening around us or cool discounts our partners are offering.
The deals will not always be the same so if you want to make sure you don’t miss out on great deals you will want to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
What is Foursquare?
Foursquare is a service that lets you “check in” to a place with your cell phone either through an phone app or a text. We are in the process of working with Foursquare so that our customers who "check in” often, get great deals. If you are interested in FourSquare go to www.foursquare.com to read more about them. They have over 4 million users and you can “check in” all around town to get great deals.
How to follow us on Facebook?
- You need a Facebook account. It is easy and over 500 million people are doing it!
- Click on the Facebook link to the right of this text. A new screen will appear with The Steak Out Facebook Page. Click the “like” button on that page and you are now following us.
- Any time we post an update it will appear on your “News Feed” If you see a Post you like don’t be afraid to hit the like button on that as well.
How to Follow us on Twitter?
- You need a Twitter account. It is easy and over 200 million people are doing it!
- Click on the little bird that says “Follow Us” to the right. This will take you the Twitter page and should add us to your “Following” list. If it doesn’t add us you can add us by “add more” then write thesteakout all one word.
- Then add us and you will get all of our post.
Both Twitter and Facebook have mobile applications so you may want download those so you don't miss out on any deals. Deals may last for a couple days or couple hours and usually the better the deal the shorter it will last.
If you still have questions please email me. mike@azsteakout.com
To all of our social network fans we will be doing special offers just for you. These offers will range from free food, to penny drinks, to half off gift certificates. And these deals will be just for our Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare fans.
Sign Up Today. Offers will start soon
Thursday, September 3, 2009
The Steak Out is the only place in town to check out the big game!
7 TVs & a Private Dining room with 105" HD Projection TV
And Check out these Specials
$5 Burgers and Sandwiches
$4 Wings
$3 Appetizers
$2 Miller Lite and Bud Lite Pints
$1 Sides
Sat. & Sunday 11am - 4pm and Monday Night
Bar and Patio Only
Saturday, August 29, 2009
After overwhelming demand we are keeping $3 Burger/ $6 Steak night for 1 more month. The Last $3 Burger night will be Sept. 24th.
Remember this is from 4-7pm in the bar & patio only. No reservations and seating is first come, first serve. At the Dove Mountain Location only!
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